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 can unpack.”
Something shifted on her face. Something that was lovely to see because it made me feel warm and content.
Then she said, “Luv, I live on a remote island. For fun, I dock the bots and clean this place myself.” Her gaze shifted to my outfit before returning to my eyes. “And I suspect, in those bags, you have beautiful clothes. Please, let me unpack you.”
I laughed quietly and nodded. “Okay. If that’s what you want to do.”
She nodded in return, stole a quick glance at the digi-frame before coming back to me and saying, with weight, “We’re really happy you’re here.”
I hadn’t exactly been invited.
Still, I thought it important to say, “Thanks for having me.”
She dipped her head and ducked out.
I looked back down at the digi-frame.
I’d taken my finger from it, so now there was a pic of Tanyn, maybe in his late teens, very early twenties, holding up a tablet still in its box, a taped tear of Dead Winter wrapping still stuck to it, and he was smiling lovingly at whoever took his picture.
More than likely, his mom.
I had not once seen his smile, and now I’d seen it four times in these snaps.
Five, because now there was a pic of him doing it while wrestling on the floor in front of the fire in that very room with two dogs that looked like Hurley.
I went to my bag, pulled out my Palm, and engaged the group text comm with my besties.
I think I’m in trouble.
What? Why? Gayle commed back immediately.
Because he has a digi-frame. I commed in return.
Then concluded, And I’ve seen him smile.
I stood in my nightgown in the bathroom, more than mildly chilly in the long slip of black silk I was wearing.
This had been one of my major conundrums because this was exactly what I would normally wear to bed.
I might shake things up with a pair of silk pajamas.
But mostly, yes…
This was it.
Now, I could have purchased ugly or unflattering nightwear for this weekend, but I felt that ploy was too obvious.
But in that moment, I was thinking that wasn’t the right decision.
I was also weirded out.
Tanyn had gotten off his comm about five minutes before Zyra told us dinner was served.
We ate in a small dining room that had a heavily carved oval table that seated six, and another blazing fire in the fireplace. This room, too, was homely and pleasant, charming, but with no airs or graces.
Tanyn had been practically silent during dinner, pensive and aloof. So much so, I gave up attempting conversation and decided to concentrate on the thick, juicy steak, buttered haricots verts, spiced small potatoes and light, fluffy roll (clearly, his Cook-Companion supplier was high end). This was followed by the most delicious apple bread pudding covered in custard, I needed to ask who his purveyor was.
Sure, I didn’t usually eat this heavily.
Then again, I wasn’t usually in sub-zero weather in an abode whose temperature control wasn’t up to snuff, and therefore I would require anything available to retain body heat, including making it digest a huge-ass meal.
After dinner, Tanyn and I shared an awkward drink before he said it was late, and we should go to bed.
The nerves came back because we were going to sleep together in his room, it was part of the compatibility trial.
Everything went wonky when we got up there, though, when he said, “Since you’ll probably need longer, I’ll take the bathroom first.”
He didn’t kiss me. He didn’t attempt to seduce me.
He went into the bathroom and closed the door behind him.
This left me in a room that was much like the rest of the citadel. Small. Heat from the fire assisting whatever clearly rickety temperature control apparatus they had installed. Dark, heavy, careworn furnishings, including a four-poster curtained bed that was very tall but not very large. It’d fit us both with a little room to move, but not much.
That thought gave me a different kind of shiver.
Everywhere in the citadel, the color scheme included dark reds, blues, greens, browns and oranges.
In here, it was mostly blues, browns and oranges.
It was attractive. It made me want to cuddle up in that bed with all those pillows under that heavy duvet and thick-knitted throw with the fire burning and read a book, laze…
Or make love.
Color me stunned that even if everything had once been obviously expensive and now was used and worn and lived-in, probably because it was culled from somewhere else and not brought here new, if Tanyn wasn’t acting so strange, I knew I would like it here.
Sure, being alone on a remote isle that, in the unlikely event every other being dropped dead and the tech went out, unless Dad sent a rescue, I’d have to fashion a spear and learn how to gut a fish, felt a little wild.