Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 83946 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83946 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
“You tell me. You must have been in there not too long ago, yourself. The tea you left was still warm.”
“I check on you often if you’re sleeping and I’m not.”
The information makes my heart swell for a million reasons that all center and focus around the Hallan now heading my way. He gives both animals a hearty pat on their necks before tossing the paddle brush to a nearby work table. Bothaki catches me on the step under the rear eave for a kiss that sets my heart on fire.
I cling to his arms as his hands cradle my face. Every stroke of his lips against my own, parting them little by little until he can finally taste the tea on my tongue, wakes me up even more.
“Did you sleep well?” he asks, pulling away too soon.
Far too soon.
Now, my core aches.
“I did sleep well,” I say as he uses the tip of a black claw to toy with the neckline of my dress. Just to give himself better access to look down my shirt, of course. I bat his hand away before the Kahlas suddenly coming our way get any closer. “Stop that, Bo—look!”
He turns with a laugh, keeping one arm around me while he reaches for the animals that stop mere feet away from us. They crowd themselves more, heads butting back and forth as they fight for attention.
“They missed me, too,” he mutters. “Want to touch? They love the attention.”
“Sure. You know, you didn’t tell me their names.”
“They don’t have names.”
He chuckles at the furrow in my brow as I reach out to pet the creatures that shudder with joy when I stroke their hides. Smooth like flesh, and black as night, they’re warm and soft to the touch. Even their bellies rumble with their purr-like sound the longer we pet them and the pointed bushels of hair that make up their mane and tails shudders with their happiness.
“I need not name them,” he explains when the sight of something flying, and squawking, overhead sends the Kahlas rearing back to chase the flying creature higher on the mountain ledge. Fondness in his face, Bothaki watches them go for a moment before he turns back to me. “They won’t go far. I’ve had them for many changes of moons. Caught them myself with Halun at my coming of age. I am sure they have names, but I don’t know them. They can’t say my name, either, but we understand our purposes and needs from each other just fine all the same.”
“You caught them?”
“I caught two,” he corrects, grinning. “Like I told Halun I would.”
The sight of his confidence and pride is a different beast that makes butterflies beat inside my stomach. I’ve never been the hunt-and-prey type of girl, but I bet Bothaki would make it an experience for us both.
“Once they’ve let you ride them once,” Bothaki explains, “you’re bonded. Not unlike a mated pair’s bond, you are theirs and they are yours for life. Never is there another rider. Well, except for perhaps my children, and you. I’ve been away from them for too long, so they were already stuffing their heads in the windows as soon as I opened my eye earlier. Apparently wanting to make sure I could see both of them good and well where they were left for the evening.”
I stifle a laugh at his poor joke. “I can ride one?”
“Likely, with some patience and learning. They’ll only harness for a carriage. Everything else is as they are.”
I nod. “You can teach me, then.”
His hand finds my middle, then, cupping my stomach as he drops another kiss to my smiling lips.
“You and our children.”
“I better be riding before they do.”
He winks, as cheeky as ever. “Maybe that depends on you, doesn’t it? I have all the faith in your ability, though.”
Before I can come up with a quick reply for that, the black Kahlas come rushing back down the slope, their manes and tails of feathery domes of hair shining as if wet against the gleam of the sunlight.
“All right,” Bo tells me, “it’s time for them to eat and lace up.”
“What?”
“We’re heading to the city. You’re to have breakfast with my mother, sister, and the Minas. A morning they’ve been planning for a while according to Vabila. She stopped by before you woke up. Do you mind a morning being fed, pampered, and adored?”
“Oh, and adored?”
Bo turns to crowd me under the eave again, pinching my chin gently between his thumb and finger to draw my gaze up to him. “Always adored here,” he assures, and then his forehead finds mine for a few silent seconds. Until the Kahlas hearty shrieks send him pulling back with a noisy sigh. “Yes, yes, I hear you, too. I have not forgotten the brush and feed.”