Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 99700 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 499(@200wpm)___ 399(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99700 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 499(@200wpm)___ 399(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
To that, the raven let out a long-suffering sigh.
“Elizabeth.”
“What happened? Last I checked, you were feeding her almond slivers and dancing for her.”
“That’s private,” Vlad said, puffing up. “She was watching the crow from the window today. Saying things like, ‘Love you, pretty bird.’”
“Vlad, that’s all she can say,” Pandora said. “She’s not like you. She has a very limited vocabulary.” And because she was such a sweet, snuggly bird to her owner, Dudley, all he said to her were sweet words. “That’s literally all she can say.”
“Well, it hurt,” Vlad said, flicking his inky head and refusing to talk about it any further.
Pandora figured that, before the end of the night, he would be treating the whole family to a recital of the saddest, most heartbreaking poetry ever written.
“If you two haven’t worked it out by the time I get back, we will talk about it, OK?” Pandora stroked his soft feathers for a second before making her way downstairs and out, doing so quickly, before anyone could drag her into conversation.
She made it to the little private airstrip just moments before Victor’s car pulled up.
“Wow,” he said as he moved up beside her, shifting a beat-up tan weekender bag further up on his shoulder. “That’s what we’re taking?” He stared at the sleek jet.
“Seems like it,” Pandora said, still unable to shake her anxiety, even if Victor’s excitement was becoming clearer by the moment.
“Alone?” he asked, still unable to wrap his head around that.
“Yes. This is Elias’s private jet,” she said, figuring the windows featured the same tint as those she had in her bedroom, so they could travel at all hours without him having to worry about getting scorched or bursting into flame.
“Never really understood the appeal of aspiring to certain levels of wealth …”
“But you’re starting to reconsider that stance?”
“Something like that,” he said as they both made their way toward the jet, going through the motions of speaking to the one gentleman who served as the cabin crew, the captain, and the co-captain.
“Can you tell us where we’re going?” Pandora asked, figuring she would have hours on the plane to come to terms with whatever she might be dealing with when they landed.
“I’m afraid I can’t until we are in the air,” Mikhail, the one-man cabin crew, told them as they made their way into the cabin.
“Oh, wow,” Pandora said, turning in a circle.
Sure, she’d been in a private jet once or twice. It was impossible for her family to travel commercially. So when there was necessary travel ahead of them, they used a family jet, or rented one.
That said, this jet was incredibly customized. Gone were all the typical champagne colours and cherry wooden accents Pandora had come to expect of private jets. In its place were deep grey walls, velvet-covered seating, and black lace sheers covering the windows. Despite the fact that they were covered in the film Pandora had been expecting.
“There’s so little seating,” Victor said, looking around.
He wasn’t wrong about that. Replacing the typical club chairs was one oversized lounge.
Then, toward the back, half hidden by some thick drapes, was a single seat for the cabin crew.
“Seems roomy enough,” Pandora said, making her way over and sitting down, excited at the prospect of sitting close to Victor for, she assumed, several hours of travel time. Both of them reading.
They were getting dangerously close to her fantasies coming true as they got comfortable, listened to the spiel from Mikhail, then each reached for their books and settled in.
“What has you so engrossed?” Victor asked, pulling her out of her story to find him watching her. There was a soft look in his eyes that made her heart feel all gooey.
“What? Oh,” she said, slipping her bookmark into place. “This is a highlander romance.”
“Got a thing for kilts, do you?” Victor said teasingly.
“I always like the dichotomy of the fiery-tempered highlander and the very prim Englishwoman falling for each other. It allows for a lot of personal growth for the two of them.”
“Want to read it to me?” he asked.
“What? Really?” she asked, surprised he would be interested.
“Yeah. My book is a bore. Yours sounds better.”
With that, Pandora moved back to the beginning of the book and started reading. All the while reminding herself that they were surely going to be on the ground before she got to the spicy bits that would be too difficult for her to read aloud to anyone, least of all Victor.
At some point, her own voice getting hoarse, Victor took over, his voice moving smoothly over the words, making her feel warm all over as she pulled her legs up onto the seat and maybe leaned a little closer to her fiancé.
Slowly but surely, she felt her eyelids getting heavy, lulled toward sleep by his soothing voice and close, warm body.