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)
“Yes. Why?”
“Because you’re mine.”
“You’ve said that before, but not counting Captain Jacques’s, which maybe I should,” I shot a tentative smile to his attentive (Lilith save me from a male who was genuinely attentive when I spoke), handsome face, “we’ve only had one date, and it isn’t even over yet.”
His brows drew down.
Heavily.
It showed severe confusion.
But still, it was ominous.
“I could understand your hesitance to move forward with this because of all the baggage I carry, but I have to confess, your apparent confusion about what we have is…odd.”
Uh-oh.
Maybe we were going to talk about what this was on the first date.
He assumed a suspicious expression. “Did you not feel the connection at the club?”
“You’d marked me.”
“I felt you before you even entered the room. Did that not happen to you?”
I thought about the hot flashes. My phantom beast. The fact I looked right his way the minute I exited the scanning tube.
“You’re my mate, Laura,” he declared.
Ummmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!
Holy Hecate!
Shock jolted through me physically, I let his wrist go and tried to step away.
Alas, his hand was still in my hair and it tensed, keeping me where I was, and if that didn’t do it (which it would have), he curled an arm around my waist so my breasts brushed his chest.
Uh-oh!
“Did that not happen to you?” he pressed.
“It…was that…is that how…?” My voice pitched higher. “We’re mates?”
“You’re very lovely to look at. And you have a definitive style and bearing that’s insanely attractive. I’ve also never had anyone be so honest with me within seconds of being in my presence as you were with openly showing how pissed you were at having to curtsy to me, and then going into your Captain Jacques’s diatribe.”
I felt heat hit my cheeks and mumbled, “It was hardly a diatribe.”
He smiled. “You’re right. It wasn’t. What it was, was hilarious. Instantly, I couldn’t believe my luck. At once, I had a mate who was shy and strong, knew herself but could be adorably awkward, spoke her mind, didn’t hide her reactions, had a sense of humor, good taste, and bonus, she had gorgeous legs, fantastic hair, a beautiful face, and pardon my vulgarity, but also a tremendous ass and a great pair of tits.”
“So…this is…” I couldn’t bring myself to say it.
“This is us getting to know one another before we let the world know we’ve found each other, something that will throw you into a unique form of hell before I can sort it out for you, which will mean me mostly helping you get used to it. And then we’ll do what mates do. Get married. And have babies.”
By Lilith!
My breath came so fast, I was pretty sure I was hyperventilating.
“You didn’t know what you were experiencing,” he noted softly.
“No!” I cried.
“Didn’t your mother—?”
He cut himself off as I jerked my gaze to his broad shoulder.
“Look at me, bissi,” he whispered gently.
I forced my eyes to his.
“We’ll have to discuss them,” he remarked.
I nodded stiltedly.
Then I shook my head vehemently.
“We will,” he asserted.
Drat!
“Right,” I forced out.
“I thought you knew.”
Royal protocol lessons. Getting my own detail. The strength of my feelings, the connection between us being so intense, my psyche formed a phantom beast to accompany me through its first moments. One of his close friends greeting me like I was his long-lost sister.
It is their due.
Because you’re mine.
I should have known.
“I didn’t know. And no, I’m not an idiot. I just didn’t…put it all together.”
“I don’t think you’re an idiot.”
“Are we going to have a midnight mass wedding?” I asked.
He drew me closer so my breasts were in full contact with his chest.
Gods!
“That is the tradition, though I’d like to strategize it with you. Guard our time together as we come to know one another. It’ll give me the opportunity to do what I can to help you understand what’s to come, and ease you into a public life, so the onslaught of the media won’t make you run very far away from me.”
He’d kissed my fingertips after I shushed him with them.
It was our first date (or, arguably, second), but I wasn’t sure anything could make me run far away from him, even if he wasn’t my mate.
But he was.
Prince Aleksei was my mate!
How in any level of hells did this happen?
“So that mass will be some time from now,” he concluded.
“That’s…um, good. No offense,” I said the last quickly.
Another smile and, “None taken. I can imagine this is a lot to digest.”
“Mm-hmm,” I mumbled my understatement.
His smile turned into one of his devastating grins and he said, “You’ll have to design your own wedding gown.”
Oh my gods.
That devastating grin turned roguish. “But I’ll state my preference now for what’s under it being akin to what you have pinned in that frame on your wall.”
He wanted sexy, vintage-style, lacy, practically see-through, corseted, be-ribboned underwear.