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)
“It’ll be strange tomorrow if you walk instead of being in my arms,” he agreed.
My belly went wobbly at the way he said it, like he’d miss it.
“Maybe I’ll just have to trip and fall again accidentally on purpose,” I mused, feeling like my face was on fire.
Seriously, though. My boldness kept surprising me.
He showed me his dimples and his eyes sparkled.
“I’ll carry you any time you like. No injury required. In fact, I’d prefer you didn’t injure yourself ever again.”
He walked us up an outdoor staircase back to the middle floor where that floating daybed sat. He set me down in it and climbed in with me.
“How long before that thing they gave me yesterday wears off?”
“That thing?” he asked. “Which thing is that?”
“The stuff that was supposed to make me ovulate and lower my inhibitions.”
“Oh, it would’ve worn off overnight. Why?”
My jaw dropped. I clamped it closed and shook my head.
“Tanya?” He looked amused.
“Oh. I just thought…” I shook my head. “Never mind.”
“Tell me.” He leaned on his side and waited, eyes on me.
This was kind of a bed-like thing we were in and I was feeling all sorts of aroused.
“I thought I was still under the influence. I’m usually just so… shy. And with you I’m … I mean, a little, but also not. Does that make sense?”
He smiled and stared at my mouth, then licked his lips. I swallowed hard.
“No. It doesn’t. But whatever the case, I’m enjoying your company very much, Tanya.”
“Same,” I whispered, chewing my lip.
“You’re going to rip that lip open one of these days,” he said, staring at my mouth. “And that’d be a shame.”
I released the lip and looked away.
He shook off a daze. “I’ve got a few calls to return. Would you like to sit here and read? I have a device that I can calibrate. Or would you like me to get your notebook that you can write in?”
“Both, maybe? Depending on how long you’ll be?”
“I’m not sure yet. There’s a call from Tithe Nova about the man arrested on my roof. I don’t know what that’ll entail. Be right back with both for you before I call.”
When he was back, he asked me some questions and I told him I had oodles of books on my e-reader but didn’t know if it would work here on another planet. Mine should be in my bag.
He told me they would’ve taken it away on my arrival as any electronics brought by Earth women would be confiscated and examined in case there were any plots by our government. It made me sad that they didn’t trust us, but I couldn’t blame them.
I gave him my username and password as well as told him where I ordered my e-books online. He told me he’d be back. He came back with the journal and then came back not long later with an iPad-like tablet and told me he’d connected to my account.
This was both exciting and worrisome. That other planets could login to our systems was unnerving. They could likely hack in and see what we bought, read, what our web surfing habits were. Yikes.
Zane told me that his planet had their internet many years before ours and that much of our technological infrastructure in the 21st century was modeled after their original setup, which made ours sound rudimentary.
He carried me through to his home theatre room, which was a sunken room inside one of the three bulging turrets in his room.
He handed me a tablet that belonged to the master bedroom that I could use to get things either delivered to any nourishment station in the house, any closet in any room, or alternatively, showed me how to order a robot to bring me things, such as food and beverages since a nourishment station wasn’t always going to be within reaching distance with my bum ankle.
And then he checked my ankle and seemed satisfied, so left me with my journal, with the e-reader, and a glass of that razzleberry stuff, which I’d begun to think of as throat-warming juice. The screen before me played music and a screen show of various parts of the planet. Monuments. Mountains. Oceans. Cities. A place with pink waterfalls. Lush gardens. Forests filled with blue trees that were covered in ice and surrounded by black mountains. Animals. Some of them scary. Some of them kind of funny-looking. Their cows had massive teeth. They had pigs the size of houses that lived in lush forests with pastel-colored leaves, but the pigs had long hair on their heads that mostly covered their faces. They had yellow porcupines that were the size of kittens, but they showed them shooting their spikes at a bird and the massive bird keeled over instantly. I spent more time watching the screen and listening to the music than I did writing or reading. Their birds were absolutely terrifying here.