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)
Right, well, it was too energetic and desperate and communicative to be considered making love, but you get the gist.
When we were done, and I was recovering (okay, sweating and panting), he rolled from me to reach his suit jacket on the floor and pull out his Palm.
He made an audio-only comm, commanding, “I need you to contact Muriel and clear my schedule for today. And Laura and I need almond croissants and fruit bowls from Lesendre’s.”
At the mention of Lesendre’s, the best patisserie in the city, I suddenly found the strength to roll toward him. “Oo, and four religieuse and a dozen madeleines for later. And pain au chocolat for tomorrow morning. Oh, and some of those swirly, vanilla frosted things, just because.”
“Did you get that?” Aleksei asked. He paused and then, “And two large café au laits. We’ll want Benninden’s for lunch.”
Yes!
The sandwiches at Benninden’s were to kill for.
Aleksei looked at me.
“The turkey and salami melt. And their toffee cookie,” I ordered.
“Add beef and Emmental to that, and a cashew chocolate cookie,” he said into his Palm. “I’ll comm later about dinner.” Pause then, “Great. My appreciation.”
He tossed his Palm casually to the irreplaceable silver-gilded black nightstand and turned back to me.
“Okay, Lesendre’s and Benninden’s, maybe I love you just a little bit because you’re super farging rich and titled so you can order your aide to bring us the city’s finest food we’ll be eating in a castle while we have a sex-fest,” I admitted.
Aleksei snatched me to him as he burst out laughing.
The sound rang out in the cavernous room.
Honestly?
As much as I loved it here, I hadn’t been sure about Spikeback.
The penthouse was totally our place.
But hearing his laughter echo in that room, I realized I was wrong.
Every place was our place.
But this was where I learned he loved me, and I told him I loved him.
So this would be our new place.
And whatever life brought us, we’d find the same thing there.
Always, with my Aleksei.
Chapter 33
Hero
“Well?”
Antheme looked to Gayle, then to Cat, then to Monique.
Once she did that, she put her finger to her chest and inquired, “You’re asking me?”
“Yes, I’m asking you,” I replied.
“I haven’t worn a dress in my life,” she told me something that did not surprise me.
“It’s not a dress, petal, it’s a gown,” Lancet huffed.
We were at my final fitting.
The Masque was only a few days away. And although I was a little anxious to put all of Madam Garwah’s training to use on such a big stage, and a little more anxious, because tons of people around me, almost all of them strangers, definitely all of them curious about me, wasn’t my thing.
But I had to admit, I was also a little excited.
This magnificent gown would make any female excited.
Except Antheme.
On that thought, along with riding the crest of the Aleksei wave that had become my life, I smiled.
Not much but normal stuff (or, my new normal) had happened since Aleksei and my love fest at Spikeback Castle over two weeks earlier.
And that was good.
The fittings I had scheduled for the vid were done, the adjustments made, and I was ready to roll when we were ready to shoot (except getting Mardel outfitted, he wasn’t available to me, but his costumes were constructed).
I’d scheduled my first royal appearances, these to happen after the Masque.
Thankfully, Aleksei was going with me to these appearances.
The first was at a school’s theater department in the city, the second to the Royal Vulnerable Person’s Bureau to meet their overworked staff and bring attention on the vital work they did.
We hadn’t moved to Spikeback yet.
It was even more historical than the Palace, so any modernization that could be done (like electricity and plumbing) had been done.
But it required a full staff, and Allain and Nata were going to take offices there. This meant they were busy hiring, and settling in themselves, then, again after the Masque, Aleksei and I were moving.
The plans for the engagement party were in full swing, a much smaller affair (seven hundred and fifty people attended the Masque, Queen Calisa was thinking two-fifty for the party, but I’d been warned the wedding would be a thousand, so obviously, I wasn’t thinking about that now, I’d fret about it later), and we’d even made inroads into planning the wedding.
If that wasn’t enough (and it was, but the idea was so good, we just couldn’t sit on it), Nata and I were also working on a project we wanted to present to the king and queen.
This included offering the history of royal wedding garments to the Musée de Vêtements for a limited-time exhibition and working with the other museums around the realm to display items of historical significance from the Catalogues.
This was Nata’s idea, and I loved it.
So much was going on, but she was on top of it all at the same time taking the initiative.