Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 92941 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92941 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
“You do?”
“Is that so surprising?” I griped, my cheeks heating.
“A little,” he replied, catching me as I tried to escape. “You can have your dress, baby. You can have whatever you want.”
“Forget it,” I grumbled.
“Fuck that.” He immediately dropped to his knees.
“What are you doing?”
“I was going to propose like a human,” he replied, leaning forward a little, his hands on my hips. “But when I got down here, you smell so good.” My entire body broke out in goose bumps as his hot breath drifted over my sensitive skin. “And I don’t know what to say.”
“Yes, I’ll marry you,” I answered anyway, holding back a grin.
“You want my last name?” he asked, resting his chin on my belly.
“It’s better than Matthews.” I shrugged. “Reese Boucher sounds pretty good. It’s French, right?”
Beau laughed.
“What? Wait, your dad’s not French.”
“No, he’s not.”
“Then why does he have a French last name?”
“He thought it sounded best,” Beau said with a shrug as he led me out of the bathroom. The amusement in his voice made me even more curious.
“Explain,” I demanded, stopping by the bed so I could pull my dress on.
“He didn’t have a last name,” Beau replied, grabbing his shirt.
“Oh.” I paused to watch him dress.
Beau’s eyes met mine. “But for a time, he was known as Erik the Butcher.”
It took a moment for his words to sink in.
“Erik Boucher,” he continued with a flourish.
“Holy shit.”
Beau nodded.
“Your dad is really fucking old.”
He grinned.
“How is this my life?” I breathed, walking back into the bathroom to grab my underwear.
“Leave them off,” Beau ordered.
I ignored him and pulled them up my legs. “Our kids are going to ace their history tests,” I informed him as I walked back into the bedroom. “You know that, right?”
“We’re having kids?”
“At some point,” I replied distractedly. If Erik was old enough to have no surname how old was Mordecai? Or Sven?
“You knew he was old,” Beau said consolingly, laughter still lacing his words.
“Yeah, yeah.”
I searched the dresser for a pair of socks and went searching for some boots to wear in my plethora of boxes. The entire process was a nightmare. We couldn’t live out of boxes but there was nowhere to store any of my stuff.
“This isn’t going to work,” I announced, pulling the top half of my body out of a box that I’d only found one boot in. “We need to build some shelves or a closet or something. I’m going to lose it.”
“What are you missing?” Beau asked, walking out of the bedroom fully dressed. “I’ll help you look.”
“My boot.”
“Which box did you find it in? The other one is probably in the same—” His words trailed to a stop as I glared.
“It’s not just the boot. I can’t find anything in this mess, and I don’t have anywhere to put anything.” Frustration made my eyes sting as I stood up and looked around the room. “This isn’t working.”
“Do you want to move?” he asked quietly.
“I know this is a thing,” I replied, waving my arms at the room. “Vampire families live together, and I get that. I understand it. It’s nice. But we don’t fit here. What if we have kids? Where are we going to put them? I don’t even have anywhere to put my shoes.”
“Hey,” he soothed, stepping over boxes to reach me. “I hear you.”
“I can’t find anything,” I huffed, relaxing against him. “This sucks.”
“Why don’t we build our own house?” he asked after a moment. “Would that be better?”
“Are you serious?” I asked dubiously, jerking my head back to look at him.
“We’ve got plenty of land,” he replied. “My parents have always said that if we wanted to build once we had mates that—”
“Yes,” I answered.
“It’ll take a while,” he warned. “We won’t be able to get started until we’re back from Europe.”
“Yes,” I repeated. If we built on the Boucher family land, we’d still be close, and I wouldn’t feel like I was tearing Beau away from his family—but we’d have space and privacy. I would’ve thought of it myself, except I’d never been in the position to just nonchalantly decide to build a freaking house.
“It doesn’t help the situation now,” he said, looking around at the boxes.
“Shelves,” I said, giving him a squeeze. “That will work for now. Plus, once we leave, I won’t have to look at it anymore.”
“True,” he said, reaching into a random box. When he pulled back, he was holding my other boot.
“How the hell did you just do that?” Dropping onto the couch, I pulled them on.
“I saw it when you were looking in that box earlier.”
“Figures.”
“Hey, did you ever talk to Rena again?” he asked as he grabbed his phone off the table.
“About the baby thing?”
“Yeah.”
“She’s determined,” I said with a shrug as I pushed myself to my feet. “She said she’s tired of waiting for a relationship. She’d rather pick some sperm from a catalog.”