Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 57268 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57268 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
“If by ‘sucking up’ you mean he does the things I ask without complaining or just flat out refusing, the way you refuse to put your dirty socks in the hamper instead of leaving them lying all around the house, then yes, I guess he’s ‘sucking up,’” Kara had finally exploded.
How could she explain that it wasn’t the way J’orn looked, but the way he acted that attracted her? Not that she was attracted to her much younger assistant, of course. Because she wasn’t, Kara told herself. She really wasn’t. But Kevin thought she wanted the big Kindred because of how he looked. He was sure he couldn’t compare with her assistant because he was only five foot nine and on the skinny side. He didn’t seem to understand that his refusal to help around the house in any way or to take even a little of the burden of cooking and cleaning off her shoulders was the main thing that was driving her away from him.
But Kara had to admit, J’orn certainly was easy on the eyes. He was mostly Beast Kindred but he had some R’drager DNA which gave him dark purple skin and intense, pale lavender eyes ringed in black. He also had two curving horns growing from either side of his forehead that made him look wild and animalistic.
But it was the way he acted—the way he treated her—that she wished her husband would emulate. The way he looked at her, as though she hung the Moon, as her Granny used to say. The way he was always so protective and eager to do what she asked without dragging his feet or complaining or resenting her for being a woman who just happened to be in charge…
Stop thinking like that, she scolded herself as she moved slowly towards the shuttle that would take her to Paradise Prime, “The Ultimate Vacation Planet” as it was billed in all the brochures. Thanks to buying her ticket last minute, she was at the very end of the line. This trip was supposed to be all about forgetting both her divorce and her assistant.
Ex-assistant now. She’d gotten J’orn reassigned in a last-ditch effort to save her marriage—which had already been on life-support. But shortly after J’orn had gone to work in the Kindred Elite Espionage Corps, Kevin had served her with divorce papers anyway.
It had been a big mess—Kara couldn’t quite block it out of her mind. Her husband had demanded that she quit her job aboard the Kindred Mother Ship and work exclusively on Earth.
“What are you talking about? Work where?” she’d demanded. “The Kindred pay twice as much as any Earth-based PR firm and we get free healthcare from them—including vision and dental! What other place can I go that can offer us that?”
“None of that matters.” Kevin shook his head stubbornly. “You need to leave those big bastards alone and come back to work on Earth, Kara.”
“Look, I let J’orn go and asked for a female assistant,” she reminded him. “What else do you want me to do?”
“I told you—come back to work on Earth. It doesn’t matter that you let him go—you’re still surrounded by those…those aliens.” He made the word into a slur. “They’re all trying to seduce you, all the time!”
“That’s ridiculous!” Kara exclaimed. “Most of the Kindred I work with are already mated and married. They’re not like human men, Kevin—they’re completely monogamous. None of them is ever going to cheat on their wives to come after me!”
“J’orn wasn’t married or mated!” he spat. “He was all about pleasing you—all the damn time! And I don’t just mean in the office—I saw the way he looked at you, Kara! He was constantly undressing you with his eyes!”
“Well, maybe if you tried to please me—even a little—we wouldn’t be in this position!” Kara had exclaimed, losing her temper completely. “You know I haven’t had an orgasm with you in the past five years, right?”
The minute the words were out of her mouth, she knew she’d gone too far. But damn it, it was true! Kevin didn’t even try in the bedroom anymore. He never wanted to go down on her—he didn’t seem to want to do any foreplay at all. He just rolled on top of her, pushed himself inside, and gave half a dozen weak thrusts she could barely feel before rolling off again and going directly to sleep. How was she supposed to get off when their whole sex life could be boiled down to five minutes every other week?
“Look, I didn’t mean—” she began.
Kevin pulled out a sheaf of paperwork and waved it in her face.
“Leave the Mother Ship and the Kindred now or sign these,” he’d demanded.
Kara had had enough at that point. Their marriage was dead—perhaps it had been dead for a long time. And she knew at that minute that there was absolutely no saving it.