Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
He huffed and shook his head. “No.”
Smiling at my dramatic cutie, I kissed his head. “Yes. Look at Daddy.”
I got a few more sighs and wiggles, but eventually he sucked in a breath and eased back just enough to be able to say he’d obeyed. When I could see his eyes, I gave him a big smile. “Good boy. Thank you.”
He must’ve realized things weren’t as bad as he’d feared because curiosity and something lighter came through the bond. “I…”
That was it but it was enough.
“You’re my good boy. That’s right.” Kissing his nose, I opened the bond as wide as I could and there was almost an audible pop in my head.
“Hey, little bug. Can you hear me?”
The answer to that was clearly yes because his eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open.
“Picture the mate bond in your head and make it brighter.”
I’d never had to explain it to anyone so I wasn’t sure that would be enough until Paxton seemed to fill my mind.
“Daddy?”
Bingo.
“There we go.”
Kissing his nose again, I leaned my forehead against his and looked deep into his eyes.
“I love you, little bug, and I’m not going anywhere.”
Paxton threw his arms around me as happiness and pleasure flooded through me.
“You’re my mate. My boy. There isn’t an adventure big enough or a world interesting enough to take me away from you. You’re my world, little bug, and that will never change.”
No matter what was in store for us.
Epilogue
Paxton
One Month Later
“Okay, we’re going to act surprised. Big eyes. Shocked expression. Awe. Then confusion.” Fraser looked a bit like we were planning a military campaign and I couldn’t help marvel at the shift.
On the boat he’d been relaxed and teasing…and had spent the entire time trying to get me tipsy because I giggled and said naughty stuff when I had fruity drinks.
But it wasn’t my fault they were so good.
Once I’d realized that I could have the fun drinks and not just have to pretend to appreciate the subtleties of beer and dry wine, a whole new world had opened up.
So I’d needed to try all of them…there was no way around it.
“Kenzie’s been doing very well keeping the secret.” Mostly. “He’s been trying to just talk about the other councils coming to visit and the portal stuff, but he keeps asking me odd questions like if it would be polite to invite strangers who were coming into town to a party I was throwing.”
That made Daddy groan and his head fell back as he looked up at the sky. “They invited the visiting council members to our wedding reception?”
“Yes.” Hopefully, they were nice and open-minded. “We might…we might have to pull them aside and explain why the reception is so…interesting.”
Daddy laughed as he looked back at where he was going. “Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.”
Leaning over, he kissed my head and swung my hand as we wandered slowly down the suspiciously vacant main street. Even in the early evening, I’d never seen the town so quiet. “Hopefully they’re not mad any longer. That might be hard to explain too.”
Did Daddy not know how mad they still were?
“Um, Kenzie said they understood but we were still going to get nothing but soup for the next month…and Mr. Kennedy sent me an email that said he was very disappointed in our behavior because they’d already started planning my collaring ceremony and had to cancel their plans.” I’d needed to look up what that meant and couldn’t get the images that had come up out of my head.
“He what?” Daddy paused before we turned the corner to the VFW Hall, actually looking stunned. “When did this happen?”
“Oh, um. Early in the trip. You were talking to those other teachers and I checked my email when I went over to get a drink.” That’d turned out to be a wonderful way to get Daddy’s attention no matter what was going on around us.
Kenzie and Lorne were going to be very proud of me for figuring that out on my own.
Daddy moaned, pulling me into his arms and leaning down to nibble on my neck. “That was when you got the bright pink drink.”
I went the same color as the pink drink just remembering what had happened later, but I giggled too. “You can’t do that here.”
He huffed and started working his way up my neck. “But you’re the one who talked about the pink drink. I have very good memories of that one.”
Because the bartender had clearly made that one too strong.
But Daddy had liked the results of the pink drink.
“I…” Sucking in a breath, I had to close my eyes to focus as his teeth nibbled on my ear. “I have a present for you, Daddy. For our wedding.”
“Hmm…” Daddy made a curious sound before his tongue decided to explore my ear. “You have me very curious.”