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)
And again, like I was an invalid, he took his feet and lifted me out of the bed and put me on mine.
The cashmere throw felt good against my skin, and I had to admit, I was a little bit shivery with all that was going on, so I held it closed tightly at my front, not realizing at first that Aleksei wasn’t moving, and further, he was barring my path to the door.
I tipped my head back.
And my heart squeezed with the expression on his face.
He was in agony, and I felt that for him. I felt it for him and for me.
I felt it blaze deep.
It wasn’t as if I didn’t know how it felt when people cared about me.
I’d known Cat since I was eight, we’d been bestest gals since practically the minute we set eyes on each other. We both met Gayle when we were nine, and same. And with them came the Truelocks and Vinestrongs, who, it did not escape me, did everything in their power to be the parents they noticed I didn’t have. Especially the Truelocks.
Monique came later, but I was in no doubt how deep a place I had in her heart, and I hoped she felt the same.
But this was different.
This was magic. Destiny. History. Future.
Forever.
This was a male who wouldn’t even let me sit up straight without helping me after an ano-scan when I was perfectly healthy.
This was something I should have had from birth in the undying depths of parental love.
But I had it now, in the undying depths of feeling between fated mates.
And it was everything.
“One more question,” he said gently. “How old were you?”
“Please, later?” I pushed out, coming to terms with so many things (so many!), I couldn’t take more. “When you learn about all of it, I need time to see to you.”
“How old, bissi tressa?”
Oh heck.
Bissi was bad enough.
Bissi tressa meant my beloved little treasured one.
In other words, he’d pulled out the big guns.
“Maybe six, my wrist. I think nine, my ribs.”
His chest expanded with the huge breath he took.
He took his time letting it out.
“Okay,” he whispered, nabbed my hand and guided us out of the room.
We were halfway down the stairs when two matte-steel bots of the same model as the shiny black one that manned the tech check at the Pink and Black Club entered at the bottom, wrangling before them my three-piece set of hover luggage, and five other pieces I’d never seen.
“The female closet is empty, unpack her there,” Aleksei ordered as we passed them.
“As you wish, your highness,” both bots mechanical voices answered in unison.
“Erm…how much of my stuff are they bringing over?” I asked.
Aleksei didn’t look down at me, which was a strategically brilliant move I should have read to its fullest (but alas, I didn’t), when he said, “Enough to suffice.”
Eight suitcases surely had to be more than enough to suffice.
We made the foot of the stairs, and there stood Allain with a lovely, curvy blonde human female who had decided middle age with mild enhancements worked great for her, and she was right.
The kitty hover-carriers floated off to their side.
Comet got one look at me and howled.
“For fuck’s sake, let them out,” Aleksei commanded.
The woman clicked a control in her hand, the cages drifted to the ground, and then she clicked the control again, and the doors opened.
All of this in the time I said, “No…wait.”
Jupiter darted out like a shot and disappeared.
As expected.
I wouldn’t see him until I put wet food out in the morning.
Comet came out, sat on his fat, furry behind and howled again.
Nova trotted our way, bypassed me entirely and meowed up at Aleksei.
He bent instantly and lifted her to cradle her in his arms.
She marked his T-shirt with her ear and started purring.
Brazen little flirt.
“Are you all right?” the woman asked Aleksei, not hiding her worry as she examined him so thoroughly, it was a surprise scan rays didn’t shoot from her eyes.
“I’m fine, Muriel,” he replied affectionately. Then he (with Nova) guided me to the woman. “And I’m delighted to introduce you to Laura.”
Her warm brown eyes turned to me, and she smiled. That smile was shaky, but she gave it her all.
“So very lovely to meet you,” she greeted.
“Same to you, though I wish we didn’t have to mess up your night with all of this.”
She nodded but didn’t reply to that.
“I’ll go see that the bots are taking care of everything,” Muriel announced to no one. “Excuse me.”
With that, she rushed to the stairs.
I started to go after her, because after all, it was my stuff, but Aleksei waylaid me.
“She needs some space.”
I was a hint confused as to why she’d need space with my stuff, but replied, “All right.”
“She’s been with me for seven years,” he explained. “About a year into her tenure, she lost her son in a craft collision. Some drunk asshole overrode course approval and hit Paul going two-hundred-and-seventy-five knots.”