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)
Zane stared at his father in shock.
Joran was alive. Joran was now a wanted criminal. A criminal armed with a massive cache of deadly weapons.
CHAPTER 25
TANYA
I had twenty hours left to get my vaccination.
All afternoon, since Zane got back, I was doing my best … my worst. To make him want me. And I could see that he seemed like he did. As much as I flirted, he flirted back twice as hard. And I was enjoying the fun of this little game.
But the problem was that the man seemed to have an iron will of self-control. How did I make him let go? Let go and drag me off to his bed and take me.
Everyone was gone home. Chili and Ollie were in the lounge on the same floor as the bedrooms and Ollie had just given me a tour of his bedroom, shown me his tree house with a bed in it under a dome like there was in Zane’s room. He had an awesome little boy’s room.
The books he’d read me were mostly informative, though there were a few that were adventure stories and they were his favorites, so I talked about writing an adventure story and he told me he wanted a story with Chili in it. At this stage, Chili was on his shoulder, adorably preening with tiny pink paws that he’d scrub through his little bunny-like head, nose wiggling and small ears pinned back, his tail wrapped like a monkey’s tail around Ollie’s wrist.
He cooed happily when he wasn’t hungry, and he seemed like he just wanted to visit everyone and snuggle with them. I really couldn’t work out why Zane had insisted that his species was a nuisance.
It was beginning to get darker out and Ollie wanted me to tell him one of my stories, so I suggested it as a bedtime story.
“If you want to wash up and brush your teeth and get into bed, maybe I could tuck you in and tell you one.”
“Tuck me in? Into what, Tanya?”
“Well, I make sure your blankets are all snuggled around you and then tell you a story that helps you go to sleep with the idea of a great adventure in your mind. Then you can dream about it as if you’re the main character or concoct your own adventure as you dream.”
“I wanna concoct my own adventure!”
“I would, too,” Zane put in.
“Is it bedtime, Daddo?”
“It’s getting pretty close. Go ahead. I need to make a call or two. I’ll come say goodnight to you in a few minutes.”
“Tanya can just tuck me in. I’ll see you tomorrow, Daddo. You two get more acquainted after I’m asleep. I’ll see you in the morning.” Ollie threw himself into Zane’s arms and hugged his father hard as he whispered something in Zane’s ear. Zane planted a kiss on top of his son’s head and gave him a squeeze with a love shining in his eyes that made me swoon.
Hot dad with smarts, sweet, and skills plus an adorable little boy with a very advanced vocabulary (or maybe it was just the translators that made him seem like it, I couldn’t know for sure) who loved books, and a furry pink adorable pet? Life on Phallyx could be perfect. Absolutely.
***
I wandered out to the lounge after Ollie was tucked in, having told him my story about a lost little horse who chases a bee out of curiosity, asking questions about pollination, and who finds himself in the dark, lost and afraid. The mother horse finds him in the end, and he learns a valuable lesson about wandering off as well as learns about the importance of bees.
Ollie tactfully told me that it was an okay story for a small kid, but that he wanted a story for a kid that was a little smarter and braver than a kid that didn’t know his way home and who was afraid of the dark. He wanted me to rewrite the story so that the little horse found his own way home because of being smart and resourceful. He told me all this in a sweet and careful way that didn’t disparage my story. He was a sweet and sensitive boy. A smart one.
“Most of my stories are for little kids and I always try to weave in a moral of the story to teach them things. Maybe we can write one together,” I suggested.
“Maybe we can do both. I can illustrate your smaller kid stories and we can use those for, say, a possible baby brother and a sister of mine who will need those lessons. And also, you can write stories with adventure and danger for smarter, older kids who are brave?”
I smirked. He wanted a baby brother and a sister. This kid was melting my heart. “High five and goodnight?”