Total pages in book: 192
Estimated words: 192810 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 964(@200wpm)___ 771(@250wpm)___ 643(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 192810 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 964(@200wpm)___ 771(@250wpm)___ 643(@300wpm)
He was lapping, and I had my cheek to his hip and was stroking when he repositioned me again, this time, throwing the covers over us while we were face to face, tangled together.
I nuzzled his throat and made purring noises.
“I think we’ll be happy here,” he said into my hair.
“I think we’d be happy anywhere,” I said into his skin.
Suddenly, I had no breath because his arms locked around me so tight, I couldn’t force any in so it could come back out. He also buried his face in the side of my neck.
“Aleksei,” I wheezed.
His hold loosened (but not that much), and he took his face out of my neck to catch my gaze.
“I want to spend the whole day with you here, just us, we’ll order in food,” he stated. “Can you do that?”
I loved that he wanted that. But I would find a way to do anything for him.
Definitely that.
“Yes, baby,” I whispered.
An expression moved over his beautiful face I did not like.
He didn’t make me wait to explain it. “I have to share you with everybody. I hate it, Laura.”
Oh gods.
I lifted a hand and stroked his jaw. “I’m just yours.”
“I wish that was the case,” he muttered.
“It is,” I asserted.
He shook that off and said, “I was proud of what you did yesterday. You were remarkably honest, but self-possessed.”
Ah.
Understanding was dawning.
“You didn’t like me sharing that part of my life,” I took a wild stab at guessing what his recent reaction was about.
“Your pain that I can’t assuage, giving it to the entire world?” he asked.
My gods, this beautiful male.
“You have things I can’t fix either,” I reminded him.
“Does it burn in you, threaten to consume every thought, control every action?”
Holy Hecate.
“It bothers me, a whole lot,” I told him, beginning to feel a gnawing sense of worry. “But it doesn’t do that. Is that how you feel?”
“At the audience, it took everything I had not to shake them until their necks snapped. Even so, I had to find more, so my creature wouldn’t release, clench them in his jaw, fly over the sea and drop them in the middle of it.”
Whoa.
He was talking about my parents.
“It’s primal,” he grunted.
I froze.
“It troubles me,” he admitted.
I stared at him.
So I saw him wince and felt his hands move soothingly on me as he said, “I shouldn’t have shared that. It’s not something I should burden you with.”
“You love me,” I stated impassively, and it was impassive because, if I let just a hint of what I was feeling loose, I would explode with it.
His hands stopped moving, but he didn’t say anything.
“You love me, and your creature loves her,” I said.
“Laura, we’re mates,” he pointed out. “But I don’t wish to alarm you. It’s too soon.”
It wasn’t too soon.
It just was.
“I love you, and she loves him,” I declared. “Effortlessly. Limitlessly. I don’t love the True Heir. I love Aleksei. I love the male who lets my cat lay on his stomach while he strokes her and brings me coffee and breakfast in bed so I can work. I love the cute Aleksei who hovered through a flyby to bring me Captain Jacques’s and I love the fierce Aleksei who wants to shake my parents until their necks snap.”
“That last isn’t my finest urge, love,” he said quietly.
I shook my head vehemently. “I don’t care. It’s a part of you. They all are what makes you. You’ve given me a family. Sure, they’re a king and queen, a princess and a couple of emotionally stunted princes, but it isn’t about that either. It’s about them, who they really are. You’ve given me a sense of belonging. You’ve given me a home.” I pressed into his chest. “You gave me all of that, Aleksei.”
“You had all of that, Laura, with the Truelocks, the Vinestrongs.”
“I love them to my soul, but it’s not the same. You have a family, and you all have issues, that’s true, but you still have a family and there’s love and care there. You can’t know how it feels to live your life not having that. It’s about belonging to someone. It’s about how I know I belong to you. Who we are, the strength of what we feel, it isn’t about the True Heir and his True Bride, it isn’t about being mates. It’s because I’m Laura. And you’re Aleksei.”
He rolled so he was on top of me.
“You love me,” he said, like he was just processing my words.
“I knew I was falling. I just realized I landed. And when I did, I did it hard.” I rested my hand on the side of his face. “You’ve given me the sky and stars, baby, in so many ways. And I treasure it.”
A sound rumbled from his chest that was so predacious, I wasn’t sure if it came from Aleksei or his creature, before he took my mouth and kissed me, then we made love again.