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)
I focused on him. “Sorry?”
“Whatever’s on your mind that you seem hesitant to share, say it.”
I gave him the side-eye, because I wasn’t real certain how I felt about how quickly he was learning how to read me.
“Laura, we must be able to talk to each other.”
“Okay then, you hurt my feelings, a lot, when you shouted at me after we got back from the gallery.”
It reminded me of my parents, was the part I left out.
He nodded, not seeming offended in the slightest. “I can’t say I’m always completely in control of my temper, but that was out of line.”
It felt like every muscle in my body relaxed, and I hadn’t realized how much tension I’d held about it since it happened.
Aleksei carried on, “My greatest hope is that we will never be in that situation again, and therefore, me losing my temper like that won’t happen again. But I can’t say I’ll never get angry, or very angry. The difference is, you put yourself in the way of danger—”
He touched his fingers to my lips and kept them there when I opened my mouth to speak.
“No, darling, let me finish.”
I closed my mouth, and he took his fingers away.
“In retrospect, I could see it was instinct, and I can just imagine how seeing the male who attacked you played with your head. You were panicked and shouting about a weapon before one was even produced. What you did was understandable. And maybe, when your creature fully awakens and bonds with mine, you’ll understand where I was in those moments, because my response was instinctual too, and I was feeling it double. I saw my mate in danger, and my creature saw his. So my emotions were high. That doesn’t forgive me losing my temper in that manner, but I hope it explains it.”
I couldn’t stop staring even as I asked, “How do you do it?”
“Do what?”
“Get more wonderful with every word that comes from your mouth.”
Purple flame flickered in the backs of his sky-blue eyes.
“Germaine told me I had to act like each one formed a drop of nectar,” I went on. “I haven’t looked at the social tapes, but I figure I bested that and then some.”
He rolled me to my back with him on top, at the same time his hands started roaming.
“I have seen the tapes,” he murmured, dipping his head and scraping his teeth along my neck.
I shivered.
He moved his mouth to my ear. “Beings are rather enamored with that broach you were wearing.”
“Mm,” I said, making it my mission to memorize the swells and valleys of his back.
“Your ass in that dress though,” he growled at the same time his fingers found a different target and curled around my breast.
“You looked fantastic in your suit too,” I told him. “But then, you always do.”
He ran his lips along my jaw and his thumb over my nipple.
I shoved my hands into his sleep pants and dug my nails into his behind.
That did it.
In the end, Aleksei had to comm Muriel to tell the beings he was meeting that he’d be half an hour late.
But I allowed myself time to laze and doze before I got myself together, commed Antheme, and headed to my studio.
Chapter 23
Blobs
That evening, before I made my way to Madam Garwah’s, I got a text comm from Aleksei sharing he had a late meeting he couldn’t avoid, and as such, I should have dinner without him.
Although I was bummed he wasn’t going to be home when I got there, I liked getting an everyday text from him about everyday stuff, like late meetings and dinner.
When I arrived back from class, I, with a tour guide of Comet, who seemed rather keen to show me the fullness of it (and he had a lot to say during the tour, but I was sensing his approval, many more places to find trouble) finally took a tour of the penthouse.
The back hall led to the freight elevator, along with a full complement of laundry units, and the two bots who’d unpacked me. They were shut down and plugged into their chargers.
And now I was seeing how the bed got made, the clothes were picked up from the floor, and Aleksei’s mess when he was cooking was cleaned up, because he nor I did any of that. But apparently, they were programed to slip out and take care of business when we weren’t around.
Pretty cool.
The upstairs, as noted, was his bedroom, but most of that level was taken up with his landing bay.
The rest was a cornucopia of awesomeness.
Yes, there were four fully kitted bedrooms with ensuites. And the wine room, which was large, stocked to the gills and had a sink, a small refrigerator and a full bar with all the complementary needs, like an array of sparkling clean glasses, and a drawer that opened that contained only ice.