Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 55099 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 275(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55099 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 275(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
“Morning, Mistress Penelope!” Kit yelled from the pool.
“Good morning, Ma’am!” Noa waved happily. “Kit and I set your breakfast order on the upper corner of the table so no one would steal it, ’cause we’re always good boys!”
Crap. Those little shits always made me crack a smile.
“That’s sweet of you, boys,” I answered.
Lucian lowered his paper and nodded hello. Like Greer, Lucian had requests about the TPE event. I was sure Dean did too. Eager bastards.
Reese crammed half a croissant into his mouth and jerked his chin for me to come over to his lounger.
“How do you maintain those abs with freaking croissants?” I had to ask. Because if I looked at white bread, I gained three pounds.
He brushed some croissant flakes off his chest. “Hon, you maintain your brain with croissants. The abs get broccoli.”
I snorted softly and sat down on the edge of his lounger.
He nodded toward the deck. “You missed the funniest thing earlier. So King and Anthony showed up with their Little, right? And Camden brought a whole fuckin’ Michaels with him.” As he spoke, I glanced across the pool to where Lane, Shay, and Nora were busy. “First half hour, it was Noa, Kit, Gael, and Camden messin’ around to make Easter presents for their Owners. And those three—Shay, Lane, and Nora…? They were all, uh, craftin’s for kids and Littles. But look at ’em now.”
I grinned. That was precious. The Littles were nowhere to be seen around the crafts table.
I glanced back at Reese. “You and River were cute before, but you’ve leveled up since Shay claimed your asses.”
“I know, right?” He leaned back and folded an arm behind his head. “I’m so fucking cute I don’t know what to do with myself sometimes.”
I chuckled and rolled my eyes. Reese was full of charming lines that I was going to send directly to a certain account on our forum. It’d opened up the other day, and I had a feeling it was going to be the next big buzz in terms of who was behind it.
“You got a little cute yourself last night,” Reese noted. “Hard to resist the new girl, huh? Been a while since I saw you flirt.”
Fuck. “Don’t get me started.” I rose to my feet again, needing that coffee. ASAP.
Besides, flirt was a strong word. I’d just…soaked up Nora’s attention like some deprived bitch, and then I’d thrown myself at her.
I looked over at her, and Lane and Shay glanced our way at the same time.
“Are you talking about us?” Shay hollered.
“Never you fuckin’ mind!” Reese hollered back.
“They’re talking about us,” Lane concluded.
Shay furrowed his brow. “For the record, everyone can do this.” He held up whatever he was working on.
“Yeah,” Lane agreed. “We’re primal and badass—”
“Scary,” Shay added.
“Downright twisted,” Nora supplied. “But also, we make cute things.”
“Cute in a terrifying way,” Lane finished.
Reese and I weren’t the only ones who cracked up at that. Oh, those sweet little brats. Colt and KC were quick to push their buttons, and Lucian assured the scary, twisted, badass primals that he was already petrified by their mere presence.
Camden seemed inspired. “Daddy, I wanna do crafts again!”
“You’ve been in the water two minutes,” Anthony chuckled.
I was looking forward to getting to know them better. Starting with August—he was helping us plan the next Game in a few minutes. So I rounded the pool and grabbed my bagel order, and Cam hurriedly joined me to pour me a cup of coffee from the thermos.
“Thank you, sugar. How are you today?” I accepted the cup.
“Great, thank you, Ma’am. Master told me to make sure you were well tended to, so please let me know if there’s anything I can do for you.”
Oh Christ. I offered Cam a smile and squeezed his hand briefly, then sought out Lucian, only to find him watching us already.
“Will you stop fussing?” I asked. “I’m fine.”
“When I’m damn good and ready, my dear.” He flipped the pages of his paper and then brought his own mug to his lips. “By the way, someone will be here on Monday to assemble your furniture for you.”
For the love of—!
He behaved as if I was dying! So I’d gone through a breakup—four fucking months ago—and…sure, maybe I was struggling to find myself, but he was taking this too far.
I knew Lucian wouldn’t be reasoned with, though. He was still recovering from years of stress and burning himself out, so now he’d gotten the weird idea that if he had to rest, so did everybody else. Except his slave, I supposed. Although, that wasn’t entirely fair. Cam had been vocal about Lucian’s unwillingness to crank up their TPE structure. They were getting there, slowly, but Lucian was still in fussing mode.
I suppressed a sigh and turned back to Cam.
“I propose a compromise,” I told him. “I’ll let you wait on me so Lucian can calm his tits, and I’ll come by your house next week with baked goods and my famous chili. Even Colt approves of it.”