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)
And I was very much enjoying this view…
This made me totally rethink my earlier decision.
Then he said, “I’ll feed the cats.”
I sat straight up and called, “Aleksei, wait.”
He turned to me.
Oh yeah.
The front was better.
“They have custom daily food parcels. They’re in the Chill-Cabinet,” I informed him.
“I don’t have Chill-Cabinet, Laura. It’s called a refrigerator.”
He was so totally old school.
And it was so totally mega.
“Okay, in the refrigerator,” I amended. “Their names are on them. Jupiter gets his on the counter or Comet will bully him out of the way and eat it. Nova can defend her own meal, but I still feed them as far away from each other as possible. I know it doesn’t make sense, but the food is designed for all their specific tastes, so he’ll make a play for the others, but he’s willing to wait for his, and as such, Jupiter goes first, then Nova, so they can get a head start, and Comet last. That said, he’ll follow you through the whole process and complain about it.”
He stared at me.
I stared at him.
He stared at me.
I heaved a sigh.
He spoke. “Custom-made cat food?”
“Yes.”
“To their taste?”
“I had them profiled.”
“You had your cats profiled?”
“Yes.”
“To ascertain their favorite flavors so you can have food created specifically to satisfy their individual palates.”
“I’m not certain why you need this deep of an explanation on this subject.”
“Because you’re to be the mother of our children.”
Oh.
Right.
Erm.
“Are you as fond of children as you are of cats?” he asked.
I stretched out my lips and lifted my shoulders to my ears but decided against a verbal answer.
Even so, he didn’t miss my answer.
“While we continue, in a far faster, deeper and more intense way, to get to know each other, I’ll share about how I feel about spoiled children.”
This sounded vaguely like a threat.
It wasn’t fair, but we were here, and I had to stick with him here, because he also sounded really serious.
“And I’ll share mine about how a child feels when their mother snaps her wrist.”
His eyes grew dark as night, his jaw bulged, veins in his arms, neck, and rising up his flat stomach from his groin came out in stark relief.
Okay then.
As insanely sexy as all that was, perhaps I should have tempered what I’d said.
“That was dirty, darling,” he warned low.
“We’ll find a compromise, Aleksei,” I promised.
He sauntered back to me, his powerful hips swaying almost hypnotically, and I’d be hypnotized if the vibe he was giving off wasn’t so concerning.
He dropped to his fists in the bed on either side of my hips so his face was in mine.
“I want to know. I need to know. I also know I’m going to hate knowing. But what I already know, you had it far worse than I did, Laura. That said, shitty parents can come in all forms. Abuse. Neglect. And just being pompous, enabling morons.”
I blinked, because for some reason, his words felt like a punch in the throat, not delivered by him, one I experienced with him.
Sadly, he continued speaking.
“And how a pompous, enabling moron can create two far worse, those who are even more spoiled than he is, and as such, they become unrelenting fuckwits. Not as bad as what befell you, I know it without knowing it all. But it’s still bloody fucked up.”
On that, before I could utter that first word, he pushed up and strode out.
I was sensing I understood there were more reasons than the obvious why he wanted to delay attending our families, seeing as what he just said was about his father and brothers.
And now I wished with my whole heart I’d let him.
“Well…dang,” I said to the empty room.
Chapter 17
Circus
On my ever-lengthening mental Discuss with Aleksei as We Get to Know One Another list, I added sharing how I felt about him changing me from my satin gown into one of his T-shirts while I was dead out of it.
Of course, it was far more comfortable than sleeping in a halter-neck gown.
But still.
I really wanted to take a bath in his tub, or a shower. I hadn’t had either since I stayed in that old hotel during the filming of Sheets, and they were both way better than any bath pod.
But a bath pod could have you clean and dry in five minutes, top to toe.
And we had exalted company.
So I needed to get my rear in gear.
After I lay for those five minutes, letting the light diodes cleanse my skin and hair, I pulled myself out of the pod.
I slapped the cosme-mask on for a natural day look that took two minutes. The mane-mate I programed for casual at home, and that took another three. And I had to block out huge portions of the “female closet” (door four off his bedroom) as I programmed in the outfit I wanted to wear, because the closet was just that awesome, and if I paid too much attention to it, I could be lost in it for hours.