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)
Just as he doubted Mammon would make anything but an excellent match for his daughter.
Even so, this was extreme, and Aleksei didn’t condone it.
But she wasn’t his daughter.
“Oh my gods!” Laura exclaimed. “To who?”
“To who? To who?” Cat shouted, sending Nova scurrying right to Aleksei.
He picked her up again as Laura said, “Yes, honey. To who?”
“To King Tanyn, that’s who!” Cat yelled.
Well…
Shit.
Laura’s gaze darted to him, and he knew why.
She looked pleased and she didn’t want to Cat to see.
Aleksei agreed.
So he smiled.
Slowly.
They sat on the buttoned velvet bench at the foot of their bed, Laura in his lap.
“It’s embarrassing.”
“It is not.”
“I wish he’d just sent you the one you liked.”
“I don’t want the one I liked. I want the one I love. That one.”
Saying this, Aleksei gave her a squeeze and tipped his head across the room to the painting resting there.
It was the one Cat brought.
After the drama of her announcement (and Tim had added Cat’s selections to their Shape’s order, and Aleksei had made Cat a martini), they’d unwrapped it and read the note from Terrinton.
With no salutation and no sign off, it said:
I’m keeping Marie.
But you’ll always have Laura.
That was all it said.
The painting was of Laura in a swirl of purple butterflies, mist, dragon fire and bright white stars, done in Terrinton’s indelible style, which married realism and stark fantasy with hints of illusory, all of this chaotic, but fascinating.
It was remarkable.
“I want it mounted in here,” he declared.
“Ugh,” she grunted, rolling her eyes.
He grinned at her.
“Right there, above the bureau, across from the bed,” he said, teasing, because he knew she’d hate it there, so it would not be mounted there. “That way, when I’m taking you on all fours with you facing the end of the bed, I can fuck you and look at your face at the same time.”
“Gah!” she cried and attacked him.
He pretended to defend.
And as such, eventually accepted his defeat graciously.
“Gardening?” she whispered to him in the dark.
Fuck.
“Yes,” he replied.
She was silent.
Aleksei was on his back. Laura was resting down his side.
It took long moments, but her whisper came back.
“And you intervened about him serving time?”
Fuck.
“Yes,” he replied.
She pressed into him, pushing her face into his throat, and doing it hard, before she kissed him there, settled and finished, still whispering, “Gods, I love you.”
Aleksei exhaled.
Then he turned into his mate, tangled their limbs—and wound up in each other in their bed in their gothic castle—the True Heir and his True Bride fell asleep.
In the end, they compromised about the painting.
Her portrait was mounted in the solar where Aleksei could gaze at it every day over breakfast.
Which he did.
When he wasn’t gazing at his Laura.
Tatra
Sky’s Edge
Snowy Ridge
Hectic Royal Chateau
The female stood at the window, watching the flurries drift down, peaceful and soft.
She heard him come in but didn’t take her eyes from the view.
“Is all at the ready?” she asked.
“Yes, your majesty.”
She was still called that, by the leave of the new king.
And she would be that again, in her own power.
Yes, she would be.
“Tell them to commence,” she ordered.
“Consider it done,” the male replied and exited the room.
Tatra stared at the window, but she didn’t see the peaceful fall of snow.
She saw the reflection of herself, her eyes glowing red.
And her lips forming a smile.
The End