Total pages in book: 28
Estimated words: 26170 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 131(@200wpm)___ 105(@250wpm)___ 87(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26170 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 131(@200wpm)___ 105(@250wpm)___ 87(@300wpm)
I squeeze Leah’s hand because my girlfriend has always been an optimist. She wasn’t afraid when we told her father about our relationship, whereas I was nervous as all get-out. But Leah stayed calm and soothed me.
“My dad just wants me to be happy, no matter what. You’ll see,” she said. “It’ll all blow over.”
And indeed, it did. My college buddy was surprised, to say the least. In fact, Jimmy could barely even speak for a few minutes. But after a short while, his faculties returned and Jimmy was able to choke out an acceptance. It was just acceptance at that point because he could hardly get over the shock of his oldest friend dating his teenage daughter, but there you have it. Leah is an adult, and can choose whom she wants to be with.
Unfortunately, our town hasn’t been so accepting. Allentown is a hamlet located in the middle of New Jersey, and the folks here are staid and conservative. Sure, they watch Netflix docu-series where crazy things happen, but when it comes to real-life, they’re NIMBY types. NIMBY as in “not in my backyard,” meaning that Leah and I haven’t exactly been embraced with open arms by our friends and neighbors because of our relationship.
Not that I blame them. Everyone knows Jimmy Hughes and his daughter, and everyone knows me too, which means that everyone knows there’s a two-decade age gap between me and Leah, and everyone knows that I’m best buds with her dad. This set of facts was too much for some of our fellow citizens to swallow, and Leah was ejected from the Junior League unceremoniously, although my landscaping business hasn’t suffered at all. In fact, after the news got out, quite a few of the guys I work for nodded with approval. They know how beautiful the curvy girl is, and could see why I had her on her hands and her knees as soon as she was of legal age.
But it hasn’t been easy socially for my girlfriend, and as a result, when King Fjall extended us an invitation to visit Lysenia, she jumped at the opportunity.
“It’ll be fun!” Leah said. “And you’ll get to meet the rest of your family. Besides, Haakon’s not the only one who’s specially endowed,” she added in a conspiratorial tone. “I heard that his younger brother, Ragnar, also has two appendages, and not only that, but that Ragnar’s in a relationship with a beautiful young woman where he and two of his bodyguards ravish her night after night.”
I squinted at her.
“Are you serious? So a royal prince of Lysenia is gang-banging a young girl on the reg?”
Leah shrugs.
“Yeah, that’s what I heard.”
I fix her with a look.
“Okay, who told you this? Matilda?”
“Yes, of course!” Leah squealed. “You know that Matilda and I talk quite a lot now. The Crown Princess of Lysenia and I are good friends, and she’s really excited for us to come visit.”
“We did have a foursome in their hotel suite,” I acknowledge in a dry tone. “So I’d say we’ve broken barriers already.”
“We did,” Leah nods. “But Matilda was into it. Heck, she’s the one who instigated it!”
It’s true because that’s one thing Haakon and I have in common. We’re both in love with fiery, sassy young things who like to be double penetrated all the time, and beneath her demure veneer, Matilda’s a wildcat. If I had to guess, she has Haakon on his knees more often than not, and I mean that literally, not just figuratively.
But as we depart her father’s home, Leah turns to me with a serious look.
“Thank you for taking time off work to go to Lysenia, Killian,” she says in a serious tone. “I know it’s going to be a huge shock to meet your biological family for the first time.”
“It’s fine,” I say in a gravelly tone as we get into the car. “I was more worried about Jennie, to be honest. She’s my mother after all, and made the decision never to contact Fjall. So I wasn’t sure how she was going to handle the news.”
“But Jennie’s fine,” Leah replies with a comforting squeeze to my hand. “Your mother is an old woman now, and everything that happened is water under the bridge. She doesn’t regret her one-night stand with King Fjall because she got you. You are her pride and joy, Killian, and always will be. Just like you are the center of my life, Mr. Jerome, and I adore you so much.”
I lean forward to take Leah’s lips in a deep kiss, worshipping her with my lips and tongue. We break apart, only to lean our foreheads against each other as I stare into her chocolate gaze.
“And you are my everything, sweetheart. We don’t know where the next part of our journey will take us, but I know it’s going to be fine. After all, it’s all worked out, and one thing that I know now is that no matter where I am in the world, I’ll always be happy so long as you’re at my side.”