Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 120838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 604(@200wpm)___ 483(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 604(@200wpm)___ 483(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
Davi made an unintelligible grumble, and just a quick note that, since our reunion, Dair had shared that he’d told Davi everything.
“But I still hold anger,” Dair continued. “That said, I want this friendly family thing too. For Mum, for Davi and me, and so Blake doesn’t have to put up with our shite. She’s had enough family shite for two lifetimes.”
Aw.
He was so sweet!
Dair reclaimed his glass, sucked back some Scotch, and finished.
“So, we’re giving this a go, and I’ll do my bit to make it successful.”
Bally’s shoulders slumped in relief.
“Ugh, I’m going to have to get over it,” Davi announced. “I can’t have Dair being more adjusted than me.”
There was laughter, and even Bally risked a small smile.
Dair relaxed back into the sofa, tucking me to his side again. “What’s for dinner, Mum?”
“Fish pie,” Kenna said.
“Of course, your favorite.” Davi aimed this remark to Dair.
“Starting with Cullen skink with crusty bread.” Kenna aimed this at Davi.
“Your favorite,” Dair drawled toward Davi.
“I hope ye dinnae mind doubling up on the seafood, Blake,” Kenna said to me. “I was in a fish mood.”
She was in the mood to spoil her children.
So obviously, I replied, “I don’t mind. I love fish.”
Dair gave me a squeeze.
And then he broke the ice.
“Did ye see Signe has taken down all the videos about me?” he asked his dad.
Bally sat back in the sofa. “Didnae see, but I was told she was getting hit with some backlash.”
“Aye,” Dair confirmed. “Though ‘some’ is an understatement.”
“I’m disappointed she took them down,” Davi said. “It was my new favorite pastime to see all the people on social media telling her to go stuff herself.”
I laughed.
Kenna sipped her wine through a smile.
And then Davi did her bit.
“I’m obsessed with the TV show Ludwig. Anyone seen it?”
Conversation flowed from there, through dinner and dessert (Kenna hadn’t mentioned the raspberry cranachan, which was the perfect addition), with the only continuation of the early awkwardness happening when Bally was the first to leave.
As for me, I waited until after Dair, Sorcha and I were home, Dair had given me an orgasm, so, more importantly, I could give him one too, and we were under the skylight in his dark bedroom, cuddling before sleep.
“That went okay,” I said quietly.
“Aye,” he agreed.
I gave him a squeeze. “Are you okay?”
He was silent a moment.
Then he released such a huge breath, even I felt the relief of it.
“Aye, my love,” he said. “This isn’t a perfect world, as much as we want it to be. That’s as good as it’s going to get, so I’ll take it.”
“Your mum is amazing.”
“Aye,” he agreed more readily to that.
“I love you, Alasdair Wallace.”
He knew it, of course.
But it was the first time I said it out loud.
He was again silent, and this moment lasted longer.
I was disappointed.
Until he turned into me shoving my legs open so his hips could fall between them when he got me on my back.
“Dair, I’m still so full of your mum’s amazing cooking, you were lucky to wring one orgasm from me,” I lied.
“We’ll get ye into shape,” he said against my lips. “In the meantime, I’ll do all the work.”
And then…
He did.
Epilogue
A Hundred Million Words
Blake
* * *
I was in my new Le Chameau Chasseur boots, Sorcha was wearing her normal fur, and we were tramping through the first frost that was covering the turned-over-for-the-winter beds of the back garden behind Treverton when Sorcha loped away from me.
I looked to where she was heading and saw Dair shrugging on a navy down jacket with horizontal stitching.
He was heading my way.
Man and dog made it to me but only the man part of that was smirking at my boots.
He’d given me so much shit since I’d bought them, I should be over shoveling it back.
But I was me, Dair was Dair, and we were us.
I had a feeling I’d never get over shoveling it back.
“I’m an English aristocrat,” I pointed out not for the first time, and not only on this topic. “I need a good pair of wellies.”
“Hunters wear those boots,” he pointed out, also not for the first time.
I wrinkled my nose at him before I sniffed, “I need them when I’m mucking about in the stables or tramping around my vast estate. You know, all the healthy, outdoorsy pursuits of the good English aristocrat I am.”
“Your version of ‘mucking about in the stables’ is entering it to mount a horse and then exiting it after you get off that horse.”
“A marchioness doesn’t saddle her own horse, Dair,” I educated him.
“I ken, since I saddle it for her.”
“Yes, that’s your job. To be handsome. Give me many orgasms. And saddle my horse.”
He busted out laughing.
I couldn’t hold the haughty watching him do it, so I was smiling at him before he stopped.
“Are we going on a wander?” I asked after him coming out.