Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 124077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 620(@200wpm)___ 496(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 124077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 620(@200wpm)___ 496(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
His penthouse might be worth more Earth currency than this entire street, but as he looked at the little bungalow, Taurex realized that Terra’s home contained something his residence didn’t–life.
The thought had barely formed when the front door opened and Terra stepped onto the porch.
Taurex’s heart immediately began beating harder.
She wasn’t dressed for the office today. Instead, she wore a pair of dark trousers made from a soft fabric and a pale blue blouse that hugged her curves without being overly formal. Her brown hair fell loose around her shoulders, freshly styled in the way she had begun wearing it since she started earning more money, and the sunlight brought out warm reddish highlights he had never noticed inside the penthouse.
She looked beautiful, but then, she always looked beautiful to Taurex. But seeing her here, standing in front of the small house where she raised her children, made something inside him tighten in a way that had nothing to do with lust.
This was her real world, and she was allowing him into it. He felt blessed and hoped again he wouldn’t say anything wrong.
Taurex maneuvered the shuttle into the driveway and disengaged the engine. The golden vehicle settled completely to the pavement with a soft hum, and he had just opened the driver’s side door when Terra came down the porch steps.
“Wow,” she said, looking at the shuttle with wide eyes. “You weren’t kidding when you said you were coming to pick me up in something that could fly.”
Taurex stepped out and closed the door behind him.
“Actually, this is one of my smaller shuttles,” he told her.
Terra stared at him.
“This is small?”
“For Monstrum transport, yes. The long-range shuttles are much larger.”
She laughed.
“Of course they are.”
Taurex smiled, but before he could say anything else, another woman appeared in the doorway behind Terra.
She was older than Terra, of course, but there was no mistaking the resemblance between them. The shape of the eyes was nearly identical and so was the slight tilt of the head as she studied him. Her hair was gray-brown and cut shorter than Terra’s, and she wore loose black trousers with a flowered blouse. One hand rested briefly on the doorframe as though she needed the support, and Taurex remembered that Terra’s mother suffered from a heart condition.
The realization made him instantly more careful.
“Hello,” he said, stepping forward.
“This is my mom,” Terra said, turning toward the older woman. “Mom, this is Taurex.”
Before the introductions could continue, however, there was a sudden commotion from inside the house.
“Is he here?”
“Move!”
“Lisa, wait!”
Two small figures came racing through the doorway, nearly knocking each other over in their haste to get outside.
Terra turned at once.
“Hey, you two! I told you two to stay inside until I called you!”
The little girl completely ignored her. She came barreling onto the porch, stopped so abruptly she nearly collided with one of the flowerpots, and stared up at Taurex with enormous eyes.
“I want to see the Bull-man!” she exclaimed.
Terra’s face turned bright red.
“Lisa!”
Taurex couldn’t help it–he began to laugh.
The sound came out as a deep rumble and the little girl’s eyes widened further, but she didn’t look frightened. If anything, she looked delighted.
“Terra,” Taurex said, still amused. “It is all right. I know I look like your Earth animal called a bull.”
“It is not all right,” Terra muttered. “Lisa, that is incredibly rude.”
“I wasn’t being rude,” Lisa protested. “He looks like a bull.”
“That doesn’t mean you call him Bull-man!”
Taurex smiled and lowered himself carefully onto one knee so he wouldn’t tower quite so dramatically over the child. Even kneeling, he was much taller than her.
“Hello,” he said, holding out one hand. “My name is Taurex. And you are?”
The little girl looked at his enormous palm for a moment, then put her much smaller hand into it with complete confidence.
“I’m Lisa.”
“A pleasure to meet you, Lisa.”
She studied him solemnly for perhaps three seconds. Then she announced,
“I had a dream about you.”
Taurex went very still. So the dreams had gone both ways. That happened sometimes, when a fated mate was found, but he hadn’t been sure it would happen with Terra’s family.
Terra seemed taken aback.
“You what, honey?” she asked her daughter.
“I dreamed about him.” Lisa pointed at Taurex with her free hand. “He was sitting in our yard, and I was climbing on him.”
A strange warmth spread through Taurex’s chest. He’d dreamed the same thing, and it had filled him with longing–longing not only for a mate but for a family. A little brood he could protect and provide for.
“Did you now?” he asked softly.
Lisa nodded vigorously.
“I was holding your horns.”
Before Taurex could respond, Cody stepped forward from behind his mother.
“I did too,” he said. “I dreamed about the Bull-man too.”
Terra looked from one child to the other.
“You both dreamed about Taurex?”
Cody nodded.
“Mine was different, though. We were outside somewhere, and he was showing me stars. Telling me which ones he’d been to.”