Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 77127 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77127 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
There wasn’t even anywhere to hide.
I ended up groaning and covering my face. “I’m going to do something stupid if you keep saying stuff like that to me.”
Or worse…I’d confess something.
Grady chuckled. “That’s not much of a reason to make me stop. I think whatever you described as stupid is probably going to be sexy as fuck.”
How had my mate gone from sweet and tender to evil and sexy so quickly?
Ugh.
If mates were always compatible, somehow I’d done this to myself.
“But I’ll be polite for a few minutes as long as you promise to hold my hand on our tour and tell me one scene you’d like us to have together.” He was sweet and ignored my whine until I worked up the nerve to nod. “Wonderful. I like having a plan.”
While I was dramatic and told myself it was actually a pretty good bargain, he kissed the side of my head and nearly bounced out of the truck. He was such a Daddy I knew what he was going to do and just stayed in the truck.
Yep, I was right.
As he opened the door, I managed to stop hiding and pretend that I was feeling confident. He smirked, but he didn’t call me out on it. He just unbuckled me and helped me out like a gentleman, keeping my hand in his once he had it. “Perfect.”
He was sneaky and stubborn…but he was really cute and it didn’t seem like he would be that hard to please. Daddy seemed to like being called Daddy and he was definitely a touch kind of mate. Holding hands just had him radiating happiness. There was no other word for how he shined and smiled as he looked around at me and then the yard. “Beautiful.”
Then he did it again.
He tugged me closer and kissed my head, flashing me another one of his grins. “You and the yard.”
I had no idea what to say, so I pointed to the driveway. “I think it frames the bushes really well.”
Grady just laughed and started leading me through the yard. He had no idea where he was going but I loved watching him explore and find new paths through the garden. He’d marvel and stop to study something, then turn to me with clear expectation on his face.
He might’ve been leading the way but I was the expert.
He was cute.
He also didn’t seem to have any visualization skills because he led us into a dead end that I thought should’ve been obvious. “You’ve done so much work. It’s amazing but I think I’m stuck.”
I wasn’t sure if laughing was nice but I did it anyway. “Come on. Let me show you my favorite parts.”
The house itself might’ve been small but I spent more time outside than I did inside. I had a nice screened-in porch that led out to a large deck and I’d created winding paths throughout the property where I could wander around whenever I got restless.
“It’s right at the point of feeling overgrown and wild but there’s something that’s keeping it tame.” Grady seemed like he was talking to himself, not me, so I let him mumble to himself as I just wandered until I got to the far end of the property and showed him the area I hadn’t quite finished.
“This is where my land backs up against the state forest, but I haven’t figured out what to do with it yet.” Gesturing toward the empty clearing, I shrugged. “Spells keep regular humans from wandering this way because of the gate. But the locals come by here once in a while.”
Grady finally tuned back in but he was frowning, so I kept rambling. “I was just pointing out that I wouldn’t have random strangers coming through, but I guess I shouldn’t do anything weird because I do have neighbors.”
He still looked off, so I tried to guess what the problem was. “They’re not really nosy. Honest. Most of my neighbors are descendants of the original human settlers or just mages. They’re quiet as long as you don’t piss them off. The mages, not the humans. Humans don’t ever seem to be quiet. Personally, I think we’re all part dragon because they’re loud too.”
He blinked. “Gate?”
Huh?
“I’m not sure what the question is but I can explain what kind of seating I was thinking of putting out here if you want me to ramble.” That got a smile out of him but I still didn’t know what to say next.
“I think you mentioned that before. What did you mean by the gate?” He cocked his head and studied me as I just blinked for a second.
“Um, the gate you guys came through. Sixteen hundreds. Big thing. It’s a circle. Um, looks like the Syfy channel and Stonehenge had a baby?” I paused, trying to decide another way to describe it when he surprised me.