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)
I looked into his eyes and I guess I must have shaken my head no, because we were on the move.
I held my skirt to my thighs with my left hand and my right arm went around his neck. His soft, curly hair touched my forearm. His neck and shoulders felt so powerful under my arm. My heart was racing.
His daughter’s room. Of course there would be sad memories since she was gone. Plus, now he’d killed a man inside the room.
He took us to the end of the hall and inside a vast masculine room.
The rest of this house, so far, was bright, light. This room had a very different feel. The doors were coffee-colored and looked to be covered with textured hide. The room was also rounded, but the walls were grey and dark brown flagstone, other than the wall with the massive big, round bed with a giant back panel the same texture as the door. Brown suede, but with buttons. The bed sat up on a platform under the same type of domed ceiling the other bedroom had. The dome wasn’t stained glass or decorative; it was wavy beveled glass and it revealed a purple star-studded sky. Surrounding that dome was a ceiling made of what looked like hammered, dull pewter. This was certainly a man’s domain. Not that I’d been inside any men’s rooms, but I’d describe the space as the epitome of masculine.
It took two steps up to get onto the bed, which was covered in black bedding and brown and beige pillows. I spotted a piece of paper on one of the pillows. At the foot of the bed was a tan couch, a few inches lower than the bed, concave and snug to fit against the rounded bottom. He snatched the paper away before I could see it. Something Ollie had drawn.
The rest of the massive room was empty, other than a big black leather chair by the window that was large enough and masculine enough to be described a bit like a loveseat-sized throne. Also, there were large windows alternating with three doors as if the building swelled out between each window inside the vast turret. One door was slightly open and revealed what looked like a cavernous sitting room down one level with sunken furniture in chocolate brown, a big theatre screen on the wall. Another door was closed. The third door was slim and beside it sat another of those black cabinets like the food delivery one.
“I’ll give you a tour of the rest of the house in the morning, if that’s okay,” he said, folding the drawing and putting it into his pocket. “We need rest. I’ll take a shower and then run a bath for you. Relax.” He disappeared through the door that’d been closed, and I was again alone.
And suddenly I was a bit panicky at being by myself. I tried to reassure my heart, which beat out a drum solo in my chest. My mouth was dry. What a day. What a wild, wild day.
***
My bathwater glowed blue. Correction: it was the lights within the massive soaker tub that were glowing, but it was pretty and romantic. I was a bath person who loved a long soak in the tub with a book and a glass of wine. I had neither books nor wine right now, but that was okay, because I couldn’t have read if I’d wanted to. My mind was still absolutely whirling.
The water smelled delicious, like fruit. The bathroom was leaning toward masculine, like the room of the man it belonged to, with similar color schemes, but not overpoweringly so. Dark grey. Brown. Black. On a fur-covered stool near the cream-colored tub sat fluffy brown towels and on a hook near the tub there were silky sleeping clothes for me.
Sconces on the walls had lights that looked like holographic flames.
When we first entered the room, he told me – gesturing to the hook with his lips upturned just a little in amusement at me reaching to touch the flame light – “I ordered clothing for you, sized based on the questionnaire. I’ll show you tomorrow. There’s something for sleeping.” He gestured to the hook.
“You… pardon?” I asked.
When he’d come out of the bathroom in loose-fitting dark grey lounge pants, his feet bare, his upper body in a tight-fitting Henley-like off-white shirt of gauzy and translucent material, my jaw had dropped. I was still a bit embarrassed about gawking, but I’d been able to see every muscle, every bulge of his upper body. I could even see the darkness of his nipples and count his abs, it fit that snug. I’d blinked as he stood, arms folded across that wide chest, his curly, dark hair just slightly damp.
I went to move, and he was suddenly in front of me, lifting me out of the bed.