Total pages in book: 161
Estimated words: 162269 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 811(@200wpm)___ 649(@250wpm)___ 541(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 162269 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 811(@200wpm)___ 649(@250wpm)___ 541(@300wpm)
“I understand,” Reginald said, and he did.
However, as it was his duty, he was forced to continue.
“I don’t suppose you’ll share with me who assisted you in gaining entry to the Bailey and access to the man who once was king.”
“You are right,” she replied. “I will not share that with you.”
“This will mean a full inquiry of all my guards and all others who are employed here,” he informed her.
“Yes,” she said, and the next she spoke with all sincerity. “And please accept my apologies for the time it will take you to do that. However, I feel safe in the knowledge they will not be discovered, but if they are, I request that you deal with them with a kind heart. They wished nothing but to right a wrong, and I’m afraid I was rather clever in disguising how a wrong would be committed in order to do that.”
She then spoke no more.
So be it.
He nodded and said, “I will petition the king to do his best to make you comfortable again in your stay with us, as I suspect it will be rather long.”
She nodded in return, took up her tea, and sipped a dainty sip.
However, her hand was slightly shaking.
“It is good to know,” he started gently as she set her cup back in its saucer and her gaze came to his, “that love does not die.”
Her nostrils flared before she looked away.
Reginald stood and turned his attention to the guard in the room.
“Find her a clean, warm gown, bag the one she wears, and then escort her to her previous quarters,” he commanded.
“Yes, sir,” the guard said.
“Milady,” he murmured to her.
“Master Reginald,” she murmured back.
With that, Reginald exited the room.
King True
Guest Bedchamber, Sky Citadel, Sky Bay
AIREN
“Darling, look at me,” True demanded.
Farah, concerning herself greatly with the clasp of his mantle at the base of his throat, lifted her gaze and looked into his eyes.
“It is soon to be done,” he said.
“What if there’s some trick?” she asked.
“Then it would be a foolhardy trick,” he answered.
“Yes, but that doesn’t mean more lives won’t be lost.”
He took her chin against the crook of his finger and his thumb.
“This will be done,” he stated firmly. “And then we will seek and dispatch the Beast. After that, we will return home, be coronated, and then set about the arduous work of making a family.”
Her lips quirked.
He fully grinned and asked, “Can I take that as indication you are at one with my plan?”
“Can I request a single amendment? That we go about the practicing of the making of a family for, oh, say, six or seven months before we actually get busy with the work of doing it?”
His grin widened. “I can grant that amendment.”
She smiled up at him.
He bent his head and kissed it on her lips.
When he lifted away, he said, “Today will be a New Airen.”
“Praise the gods.”
He touched his mouth to hers again, took his fingers from her chin only to stroke her cheek, and then he left her in their chamber.
Teddy
Sheep’s Head Inn, Gulliver, A Town Seventy-Five Miles from the Firenz Border
WODELL
Teddy was interrupted in what he was doing when the noises came through the wall.
He was certain to close his lips tight at the tip and keep his hold about the base strong as he released his mouth from Faunus’s cock and looked up to his warrior.
Faunus had his fingers wrapped tenderly around the back of Teddy’s neck, and even though he had been watching Teddy’s work, his head was now turned to the side, his gaze to the wall.
Feeling Teddy’s eyes, he looked down.
And smiled.
A knock sounded at the door.
Both men shifted their attention to it.
“Stay where you are,” Faunus ordered on a growl, before he threw one of his long legs over Teddy’s head in order to leave the bed.
Teddy rolled to his side and watched his warrior walk to the door, snatching up a sheet of toweling as he went and casually wrapping it about his hips.
Although it wasn’t yet dawn, and Teddy did not like a pre-dawn knock at the door, he could not stop his smile as he watched Faunus open the door, fully erect, hidden by nothing but some toweling.
It was so very…
Firenz.
They should be home in a little over a week.
And he couldn’t wait.
“Yes?” Faunus asked.
“A bird for you, sir,” the innkeeper’s voice could be heard.
Then something else could be heard that was unmistakable, and while he watched Faunus take the missive, he also saw Faunus’s head turn to the wall.
His love then returned his attention to the innkeeper, muttered, “My gratitude,” stepped back, closed and locked the door.
He let the toweling fall to the ground and Teddy enjoyed the view as he walked back to the bed.
He then did not protest, indeed he adjusted his position to accommodate it, when Faunus entered the bed and rested his considerable weight atop Teddy.