Total pages in book: 162
Estimated words: 165618 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 828(@200wpm)___ 662(@250wpm)___ 552(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 165618 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 828(@200wpm)___ 662(@250wpm)___ 552(@300wpm)
I made a face. “I haven’t asked. She’s busy at work. And dealing with Mac circling her like a lion protecting his meal. Though, I figure she’d tell me if she had.”
And about that Mac and Gayle thing?
It was easy to see something else had been triggered in that male.
The fact that Gayle was immune to him was driving him crazy.
It was mega.
“Mm,” he hummed, and suddenly, I clicked into his mood.
Sex was great.
Sex with Tanyn was so far beyond great, it was indescribable.
But he was busy, and most of the day, even if we were in the same building, I didn’t see him.
And even though I’d given up most of my duties at Tempera to Lua, I was busy.
The citadel was back on track for renos, that was one thing I had to turn my mind to.
So Zyra and I were getting serious about the final stages of that, to the point I’d taken some floor plans that one of the contractors had drafted and we were furnishing and decorating the rooms with a purpose.
Topping that, with Laura’s help, I was pulling strings with some designers in the Edge to outfit not only Manny and Zyra for the engagement party, but since Aleksei and Laura had invited Uly and Estra to come (Nayden was already going to go, due to his captaining my security detail), and they’d accepted, I was also doing the same for Estra (Nayden and Uly were going to wear their dress uniforms), even if I hadn’t met her properly yet (only spoke to her over comms).
Barret, Camaryn and I had met, gone over their reports, and it was true. Berg Castle was overstaffed. They admitted it. They also admitted the reason for it was that Tatra had ordered it so, because she liked plenty of beings around to fawn all over her.
But we agreed to titration rather than elimination.
If someone quit and their role could be taken over by someone else, they would not be replaced.
In the meantime, I got approval from the castle finance department, as well as Tanyn, for raises and a certain amount of backpay, which didn’t cover it, but it was still hefty.
To say the staff had more spring in their steps and were a lot more friendly was an understatement.
In the meantime, Barret reminded me that Berg Castle hosted a big New Year’s Ball. It was a tradition, much like the Midnight Masque in the Fall.
Tatra had, of course, started planning for it, but those plans had stagnated after she left.
Necessarily, we resurrected them.
And this did not suck. I loved planning parties. One of my favorite parts of my job was the showings.
What sucked even less was watching Barret’s trepidation melt away the longer we talked about it.
She was learning, and what she learned was good things.
In other words, I might not be working to get paid, but I still was working, I was busy, the day flew by before I knew it.
Even doing all of this in the same building, Tanyn had his life and his responsibilities, and I had mine. We weren’t in each other’s laps. We weren’t always up in each other’s space.
But he woke me to say good morning every morning, and we were together at the end of the day.
And that worked for me.
Along with our evenings of drinks and dinner with friends, chitchat, which moved to card games or beings wandering to their rooms, or last night, all of us going to the castle’s home theater and watching a vid.
It felt homey.
It felt like family.
Of course, Manny was showing signs of getting antsy to go home. But Tanyn wasn’t allowing that until the Red Wing barracks and launch pad were completed, something that would take weeks.
And Zyra was in her element, being with Tanyn, me and having company.
But it was nice to have a few days where nothing dramatic happened.
Life was life.
And I could hang out at the very end of the day with my male in our bed and natter.
Which was what I’d tuned into with Tanyn.
He was enjoying the calm.
He was enjoying the normal.
He was enjoying just being with me.
So I fell to my side, head in hand, elbow in the bed, body curled into an S, and told him, “There’s something I want to talk to you about.”
He raised his brows, his startling blue eyes alert and fixed on me.
Gods, how was this, all of it, not destiny?
“I’m thinking of putting my flat on the market,” I told him.
His brows shot to knitted. “Pardon?”
“I’m not using it, and it’s a waste that it’s empty. I could rent it, but that feels skeevy, someone else in my space. And I don’t need it. I have all sorts of choices of where to stay if I’m visiting the Fall. Mom and Dad’s. Spikeback. Gayle’s. Even the embassy, I’m guessing.”