Total pages in book: 159
Estimated words: 149301 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 747(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 498(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149301 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 747(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 498(@300wpm)
“Uhhhh! Shit!”
When he was completely emptied, he tumbled on to her. Her body was cool now. He wrapped his legs and arms around her. She stroked his hair, her pussy squeezing his dick as it softened inside of her. Hozier’s, ‘Like Real People Do’ serenaded them while they basked in the afterglow. She stroked his chest hair with her soft fingers, and he closed his eyes, trying to catch his breath.
He heard a noise, and she sat up slightly—she’d heard it, too. He stayed calm, knowing exactly what it was. She reached over to the side where the nightstand was, and peeked out the window.
“Oh my God, there’s a big ass moose in your backyard.” She sounded so excited.
Kage yawned and turned over onto his back. “That’s Orvil.” Even though his eyes were still closed, he could feel her looking at him. And then, she burst out laughing.
“You’re the National Geographic in the flesh. I should’ve known you knew the moose personally, and named him, of course. I need to start callin’ you the male Snow White.”
He chuckled at that.
“I can’t complain. I’m a fortunate man… And now that I have you, that makes me even luckier. I make a good income, but love is what makes a man rich. Not money.”
They were both quiet for a long while.
“Kage…”
“Yeah, baby?” He rested his arm against his forehead, eyes still closed.
“Sometimes I wish I could stay here forever. But I love my farmhouse, too, don’t get me wrong, and you made that gorgeous greenhouse for me. Also, I’d want Huni to come, too.” He slowly opened his eyes and looked at her. She was smiling at him, sadness in her eyes as she lay back down beside him and drew circles against his chest. “We feel like a family, almost. It’s like a magical land here.”
He slowly sat up, resting against a pillow. After a few deep breaths, he reached for a bottle of water that sat on the nightstand, and drank it.
“I love it here, too… My grandfather is tryna take it from me.”
“What? Why?”
“Because he knows it was my tomb and my salvation. I hid from everyone here because I just wanted to be left the fuck alone, but at the same time… at the same time I didn’t want to be alone at all. He saw that in me… that frailty I guess you could say. Anyway, he wants it because it would hurt me. He’s had a few guys out here tryna intimidate me about it. Folks from the county. Then a surveyor was out here the other day, too, and then I got this.” He reached into the nightstand drawer, pulled out some papers, and handed them to her.
She snatched them, looking more upset than he was. He waited as she speed read page after page.
“I can’t believe this! They are usin’ an old, outdated law so they can try to tax you out the ass, and if you don’t pay this in the allotted amount of days, the city is going to petition to take your land. When did you get this?” She flipped back to the first page.
“A couple of days ago.” He sighed. “Now I’m waitin’ to talk to my cousin who’s in the know about shit like this, and looking for an attorney, but it’ll be hard because most of the lawyers ’round here are bought by my grandfather, or too fuckin’ chicken shit to go against him in a court of law. If I don’t figure out something, or prove them wrong, things are going to get bad. I’ve been gatherin’ my paperwork.”
She held up a finger as she re-read the second page. “Would you be okay with me asking my personal accountant about this?”
“Yeah.” He shrugged. “Go ahead. In the meantime, I’ll be lookin’ for a lawyer.” He pushed the sheets off of himself to get up.
“I must say, you seem awfully calm about this. I’m proud of you.” She offered a faint smile.
“I’m not calm, so don’t be proud of me. I already had my outburst; it just wasn’t in front of you… I keep that part of me away from you. I want you to feel safe around me. I meant that when I said it.”
He stood and stretched.
“But baby, that’s not fair. You can show me when you’re upset, sad, whatever. Life isn’t always peaches and cream. We both know that from first-hand experience.”
“My little forest fairy, I ain’t got a problem letting you see me upset. You’ve seen me upset before—a little down, too. That’s not it at all. What I refuse to let you see though is the monster in me…” The silence stretched between them, and he saw her swallow as she traced her collarbone. “There’s levels to my anger. There’s the, ‘I’m mad, but composed’ anger. There’s the, ‘I’m gonna cuss ya out, but not touch you’ anger. There’s the, ‘I’m gonna beat your ass, but you let you walk away afterwards’ anger, and then there’s… well, the thing that I’m talking about right now…” Her eyes widened. “It’s dangerous for you to be a witness when I get that angry. It doesn’t happen often, so be at ease, but it does happen from time to time, so please believe me when I tell you that I’m not keeping anything in—it comes out just fine, just not around you. Not my little slice of heaven.”