Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 132437 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 662(@200wpm)___ 530(@250wpm)___ 441(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132437 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 662(@200wpm)___ 530(@250wpm)___ 441(@300wpm)
“What the hell are you talking about—”
t’On put his hand up, and seemed to make a concerted effort to gather his self-control. “Let us not argue. None of this matters anyway.”
“Yeah, sure. I’m all for that. You stop trying to fit me into a hole, and we’ll get along just fine. Keep talking shit like this, and I’ll make your life a living hell.”
There was a long silence. “I shall not let that happen.”
“Attaboy.”
Except then she told herself she had to chill, too. They were going to be stuck together for a very long time, so there would need to be some meeting in the middle ground. But what that was not going to include was her being plugged into the tradwife socket just because he wanted to live in the nineteen hundreds.
“Look, t’On, I don’t want to argue with you, I really don’t.” Denne let her head fall back. “We are going to get along, and we’re going to keep things together.”
She was actually talking to herself here: He could back out, too, after all. There were limits to duty, even for a male like him, and although she wasn’t about to sacrifice herself on the altar of good-little-girls, she didn’t want to offend him so much that he fucked her off.
Besides, eventually she would be Queen and have all the power anyway.
“Tell me about the ceremony preparation.”
t’On closed his eyes like he was willing to try as well. “I shall see to everything, and ensure that it happens as soon as possible.”
“So like a month or two?”
“Oh, no. A couple of nights is all I shall need.”
“Great.” Fuck. “That’s just… really great.”
There was an awkward moment, then he bowed to her, turned, and left.
After the door was shut again, she realized that he had not backed out, as was the tradition. Courtiers and servants were never supposed to present their heels to the Queen or the heir. For a male who was supposedly into tradition, he was clearly capable of tossing some things out.
Then again, she’d been kind of a bitch.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
As Allhan stretched out on his bed in the dark, he was back where he’d started earlier, but he felt like a different male. Again. He was really getting tired of transitions.
Too many of them. Way too fucking many.
Down in the living area, he heard Vishous and Jane talking in low voices. And then the door out into the promenade opened and closed. After that… silence. The kind that resonated into the center of his chest.
Or maybe that was his fucking guilt.
With the quiet pressing into him, he brought up his hand. His cell phone was attached to his palm, to the point where he wondered if he was going to have to have Doc Jane surgically remove it.
Hell, she could take his whole arm if she wanted to.
Seemed like not even a quarter of the penance that should be required of him. After that little pep talk from them? He felt even worse.
With a curse, he turned the phone over and checked the time.
“Don’t do it,” he told himself.
He was not in the right headspace at the moment. Certainly not living the right kind of life. Never the sort of person to do anything romantic—
The next thing he knew, the phone was up against his ear and ringing. And in the back of his mind, he wondered if maybe Denne had deliberately put in the wrong number. Like was a Meineke muffler shop going to answer? The Caldwell Public Library?
Dentist’s office.
Okay, that was stupid. All those human places would be closed now so the only thing he’d get would be voicemail—
“Hello.”
The sound of the female’s voice was like an instant reset, and he blinked stupidly in the darkness.
Then he released his breath in a rush. “Ah, hi. Hi. It’s me. Allhan? We met down by the river last night. And tonight, too. I was—”
Her chuckle was low, and, at least to his ears, sensual. Then again, she could have sneezed and he would still have thought it sounded better than any OnlyFans.
“Do you honestly think I don’t remember you?” she murmured.
“I…” He felt like it had been decades since he’d seen her. “I didn’t want to take for granted that you wouldn’t forget me.”
There was a long pause. So long that he had to worry she was rethinking the whole answer thing. Or giving her number to him in the first place.
“Oh, I don’t know, Al. Those kisses we shared were pretty unforgettable. And as I said, it was the first time I was somebody else’s maiden voyage, so to speak.”
He frowned. “You sound different.”
“Do I.”
“Yes. Are you home?”
As he waited for her to answer, his eyes roamed around the darkness of the bedroom. Though the space was finite, the fact that his eyes couldn’t translate its corners and confines into anything visual made him feel like he was floating in the night sky.