Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 41518 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 208(@200wpm)___ 166(@250wpm)___ 138(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 41518 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 208(@200wpm)___ 166(@250wpm)___ 138(@300wpm)
“Are you ready to get up and enjoy your day?”
“Or you could get in bed with me, and we could snuggle with Silly?” she suggested.
“That does sound appealing, but perhaps I could tempt you. The cook has made your favorite breakfast.”
“Waffles with strawberries and whipped cream?”
“Waffles with fresh peaches and whipped cream, courtesy of a woman with a sore whipping arm. I know I hate it when that happens,” he joked, delivering a slap on her bottom.
“Daddy!”
“Isn’t there a human tradition where the birthday girl gets a spank for every year they’ve been alive?”
“Let’s not worry about weird human traditions. I’m with you now. Everything is totally different. Besides, waffles with peaches are so close to those with strawberries in my list of favorites. It’s a perfect silver dragon’s mate tradition.”
He scooped her out of bed and stood to twirl her around. Ciel could keep from laughing at his antics. “Stop, Daddy. You’re going to make me dizzy,” she pleaded as the world whirled around.
Instantly, he froze, holding her close. “I’ll charge one kiss.”
Ciel nodded and leaned forward to press her lips to his. Allowing her control of the kiss, Argenis responded to her every action. When she brushed her tongue across his lower lip, he opened his mouth to grant her access. She hummed with pleasure at his flavor.
When he lifted his head, she licked her lips very deliberately, drawing a groan from deep within him.
“You are a temptress, Little Sky.” He squeezed her bottom as he held her before adding, “No delaying! Think of the whipped cream on top of the fruit.”
“We can’t let that go to waste. Maybe there would be some fluffy stuff left over. I might not have tried my favorite thing to eat,” she suggested with a flirtatious tilt of her head as she trailed one finger down the center of his torso.
That earned her a full, two-second stare as he appeared to consider her suggestion. When her smile became a grin, he shook his head and tossed Ciel up on his shoulder.
“Potty!” she alerted him as her weight settled on her bladder.
Without asking a single question, he took long strides to hurry to the bathroom as he slid her back down into his arms. Argenis set her feet on the tile and let her run to the toilet. Collapsing on the seat, she relaxed her muscles.
It had seemed so weird to have him in the bathroom with her while she peed in the beginning. There were no boundaries with Argenis. She was his.
When she finished, Ciel joined him at the sink where he waited. She stood naked, facing the mirror as he brushed the tangles from her hair.
“Ponytail or braid?”
“Braid,” she answered definitively.
“One or two?”
“Two into one?” she asked to challenge him.
He simply nodded and divided her hair into two sections at the top. Argenis didn’t seem concerned about the difficulty level of that request. “Purple ribbon?”
“Yes, please. Daddy, what’s your favorite hairstyle to do?”
“Mohawk. You know I’m great with a razor.”
“A mohawk? I can’t do that.” She looked at him in shock, knowing her jaw had dropped at that mental image.
“Then I guess we do my almost number one.”
“The two braids into one suggestion?” she asked, suspecting he was teasing her.
“Exactly.”
He braided her hair quickly and smoothly. She loved that Argenis never tugged her scalp.
Standing there naked was awkward. Facing the mirror while he finished, she couldn’t avoid looking at her body reflected in the mirror. The longer she looked at herself, the more anxious she became. She was not a raving beauty. What could he see in her?
She forced her gaze to focus on other things in his bathroom. Sure, that even a bathroom could tell you a lot about the person who decorated it, Ciel looked around. There was a professional flower arrangement in the niche on the far wall. A decorator must have chosen those.
“Tell me what you’re thinking about, Little Sky,” he asked softly.
“I don’t think you selected that vase thing,” Ciel rushed to say, pointing over her shoulder and getting turned around by the mirror’s reflection. In the process, she flailed around a lot, demonstrating all her flaws like untoned arms and breasts that sure didn’t look like the perky stacked ones famous, beautiful people had.
“I didn’t choose that. That space was created in the last makeover. I told the designer I didn’t want one, but she was sure I’d change my mind. I think Abby, my housekeeper, picked that up for a couple of bucks at a garage sale in Wyvern.”
Argenis paused to wrap a scrunchie around the bottom of the braid before admitting. “I didn’t notice it for a couple of weeks. The staff had a pot going on and took bets on how long it would take me to comment on it.”
“Who won?”
“The head gardener. All right. I’m all done.”