Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 134725 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 539(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134725 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 539(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
“Lovely to meet you. Are we having a party tonight or what? Got any of that good Fjord’s Edge wine?” Zorald asked. “And I choose not to put in a pool because it’ll take away from the aesthetic of my landscaping.”
“You should see his garden, Tanya. So many flowers,” Ollie exclaimed. “She likes flowers.”
“I get a hug, too,” Marko rushed over and put his arms around me and lifted me up a few inches before smelling my neck and setting me back down. He was at least six feet tall. Eesh.
Zane moved to the nearby tablet and called out, “We’re having milkshakes, actually. A milk and iced milk with sugar concoction from Earth. The Blackstar wine is in short supply. My bride devoured a large bottle last night. It was rather entertaining, in fact.”
I gave him a snotty look and pointed at him. “Be a gentleman, Zane Zenith.”
He gave me a salacious grin and winked at me. “I’ll try, Tanya Zenith.”
My belly went to Jell-O. The room was all smiles. Ollie’s smile was the biggest as he filled them in on my words, winking at his father.
He understood by that statement that Zane didn’t want Zorald or his boys to know my earring wasn’t true about my relationship status.
My smile was painful, though. Time was running out. If I didn’t become Tanya Zenith, for real, I was in big trouble.
***
Everyone was in the pool, even Zane, who had gone upstairs to change into a skin-tight pair of dark blue shorts that made me drool. They were like booty shorts and on him? Holy crap. His thigh muscles? I’d lay down money he could crack walnuts with them. He should be an underwear model.
He caught me looking, gave me a grin, then dove into the pool at the opposite end, swam under water the entire length of the nearly Olympic-sized pool and came up between my legs, lifting me up on his shoulders, making me squeal. I’d been innocently sitting in front of the stairs in the shallow end.
He reached up to put his hands to my waist, then tossed me ahead of him into the water.
When I came up, sputtering, he was laughing. I swam over to him and poked him in the chest.
“Hi,” he said.
I smiled. “Hi yourself.”
His eyes were on my cleavage.
I watched water droplets create rivulets in multiple places, rolling down his face, down his chest, down those beautiful biceps.
The boys were taking turns going down the ginormous spiral slide while the grandfathers were side by side in the middle of the pool talking while floating on their backs, and I had been sitting on the steps, enjoying the warmth and effervescence of the water. It was a mineral pool, according to Ollie, and I didn’t know what that meant, but it felt great. Invigorating.
Ollie was amazing on the diving board. He even did backwards flips in the air. At first, I was worried, seeing him jump from a high plank, but he seemed adept at it.
The older guys were wearing longer board short styled shorts like the boys. And their physiques weren’t really all that much different than Zane’s. Maybe not quite as buff but clearly Phallyxian men took care of their bodies. Marko had a swimsuit on that was similar to Zane’s and though he was young he would be a looker in a few years. He was also in great physical shape and swam across that pool like he was in training for the Olympics.
The kids were taking turns on the diving board and the three-storey slide that had come out from the wall and attached to near the top of the dome with robotic arms. Now it made sense why the pool room had such a high domed ceiling with one corner being wall rather than glass. Ollie told me the lid retracted, too, so that it could be an indoor or outdoor pool, and that they had three other slides in that corner that they often switched out. This one was his favorite.
“I ordered a rush delivery of the ingredients to make enough milkshakes for everyone,” Zane said, slicking his hair back with his fingers. “It should be here in twenty minutes. I’m ready for another. It was delicious.”
“It was delicious,” I agreed, ringing water out of my hair. “This pool is fantastic. The water… it’s fizzy, almost but not quite like the whirling affect upstairs in your bathtub.”
“It’s excellent for muscle training,” Zane told me. “I do laps daily if I can.”
“Oh. So, how was everything over at the police station?”
His expression dropped. “There’s some concerns, but I don’t want to bring it up right now. Let’s just enjoy today and see if anything comes of it.”
“Danger?”
“It’s a family thing.”
“None of my business,” I raised my hands.
He gave me a serious look. “That’s not what I meant. I just don’t want my son to overhear. I’ll happily tell you when he’s not in earshot. Later. Have you tried the slide yet?”