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)
But now that the time was nigh, I realized, like with Aleece, I didn’t know how to say, Your son is being a jerk. Can you explain?
I tried, “I think Aleksei is struggling.”
She nodded. “I suspected.” She then sighed. “It is often not easy with a dragon shifter.”
“It’s been pretty smooth sailing so far.”
She laughed softly, and listening to it, I wasn’t sure I’d ever heard her laugh.
It was very pretty.
She also stopped us again, a good two doors down from Aleksei’s suite.
“I cannot tell you how much it’s delighted me to see my son so settled with you. So content.” She took her hand from my elbow and wrapped it around my upper arm. “But these are troubled times, dear. We will all need a good amount of patience to deal with each other through them.” Her fingers tightened, almost painfully, before she said, “He loves you.”
“I love him too,” I whispered.
She released the pressure on my arm by releasing me.
“I know. This delights me as well. Just remember, at your beginning, not even thinking, the love had not yet blossomed, but even so, you put yourself in front of a stream for him. However, my son was not there when you were in danger. As I said, after a life where I sought as much attention as I could find led me to a life where I had more attention than anyone could need, and I thrive in that life, I don’t understand your aversion to it, but I know it’s there. You might not understand how his struggles manifest, but you must give him room to best the struggles.”
I nodded, but asked, “Is there some way I can help him?”
She took my elbow again and started us walking. “My son, he was always one to retreat and lick his wounds. They healed, and he moved on. I can’t know, but my suggestion would be, make sure he knows he can count on you, but let him sort his own head out.”
Another vote for space, it would seem.
“Thanks…um, Maman.”
She smiled at the hall instead of me and stopped us at Aleksei’s door. It was a small smile, but I adored it.
That was when she looked at me. “Sleep well, ma fille.”
Jeez.
She was killing me.
She patted me on the arm and continued down the hall.
I turned to the room, opened the door, walked through the vestibule and stopped dead when I saw two of the staff carrying my clothes across the sitting room toward the princess’s bedroom.
Uh…
My heart thudded painfully, my senses clicked in that Aleksei was in his study, and my voice sounded strangled when I said, “Good evening.”
“Good evening, mistress,” she replied.
Her face flushing, her eyes averting, she scurried away and disappeared into the bedroom.
Now my pulse was hammering as I walked on unsteady legs to the study.
The door was open.
And Aleksei was indeed in there.
He was sitting behind the desk, had stylus to a display and didn’t look up at me even as my beast reached to his, his surged in return, and I knew he knew I was there.
My throat closed and I knocked on the doorjamb.
His head came up.
“Hey,” I pushed out my greeting.
“Please come in. Close the door,” he said perfunctorily.
Space, patience, space, patience, let him sort his own head out.
I walked in, closed the door behind me, then moved to stand between the two chairs in front of his baronial desk.
“Did you get dinner?” I asked.
“We had food brought in,” he answered.
“Good,” I murmured. Then louder, I noted, “I heard Bainon and Cormac are here.”
“They are.”
“Um…” My attention drifted to the wall beyond, which was the princess’s bedroom. I looked back at him. “There are staff moving my clothes.”
“I’ll be busy with a number of things,” he stated. “Very busy. This will mean I’ll get to bed late, wake early. And my sleep will be fitful when I have time for it. I’d like to save you from having to deal with that.”
This was a weak excuse.
I didn’t call him on it, and that wasn’t entirely about giving him room to sort his head out. It was also about me being in so much pain at this decision, I couldn’t address how weak his excuse for it was.
Instead, I inquired, “Has something happened?”
“Take a seat,” he invited, like I was an employee standing before my boss.
I didn’t want to sit. I wanted to stand. The easier to run if I needed to.
But considering this was far, far worse than his fractiousness had been, and I didn’t want to irritate him to see how much more fractious he could be, I took a seat.
He rested back in his own, studied me a moment, his expression bland, and that was yet another cut, because I didn’t think he’d ever looked at me without open interest, warmth, amusement, desire, or, more recently, love, since we met.