Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 124140 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 621(@200wpm)___ 497(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 124140 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 621(@200wpm)___ 497(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
“I just have to do a couple of things. Then I’m all yours.”
She didn’t mind that he had to work. As long as she got a piece of him.
She half-drifted, only rousing when there was a knock on the door. Alejandro was tapping away on his phone.
“Come in.”
She turned her head toward his chest.
“Gracias, Bernard.” There was a pause. “That was good thinking.”
What was good thinking? She didn’t turn to see. She couldn’t imagine Doomy Gloomy ever having a good thought.
The door closed again and she relaxed.
“I’m going to need to order some more things for days like this,” Alejandro muttered. “You need a high chair and a crib. We’ll have to make do today.”
He shouldn’t spend all that money on her. This only happened once every few months. And she likely wouldn’t be here for the next one.
Sadness filled her at the thought, but she pushed it to one side.
“Hmm. I have an idea.” He stood and then set her down on the bed. She let out a whimper of protest, but he lightly tapped her leg.
“You’ll be all right, Preciosa. I won’t take long.”
She watched as he pulled out some spare pillows from the closet. Then he texted something on his phone.
A few minutes later, there was a knock. Alejandro opened the door and spoke to Bernard while she attempted to make herself invisible. When he turned back, he held about eight pillows in his hands. He stacked them in a semi-circle on the rug. What was he doing?
“It’s not perfect, but if you fall over while sitting, it will cushion your fall,” he told her as he walked over and unwrapped her.
She wasn’t going to fall over while sitting. That was ridiculous.
She also didn’t want him to take the blanket away from her.
“Shh, Preciosa. It’s all right. I’ll drape it over you. But you need to eat something.”
He set her down in the semi-circle. She couldn’t lean against the pillows as they’d all fall. But it was a sweet thought.
“I’ll order you something sturdier for in the future. There’s got to be an oversized triangle pillow or something.”
He set a food tray in front of her before sitting on the other side. She stared at the food, not feeling all that motivated to pick up the knife and fork.
But she should have known she wouldn’t be feeding herself. Reaching over, he plucked the pacifier from her mouth. She reached for it, but he gave her a stern look.
“No, Pequeña. You can’t have it all the time. Now, open up.”
She looked at the egg on his fork with disinterest.
Yeah, she didn’t think so. She ran her gaze over the tray. Where was the coffee? Wait . . . was that a baby’s bottle?
A blush filled her cheeks.
“You have to eat,” he told her calmly. “Unless there’s something else you’d rather have? Like this?” He held up the bottle and wiggled it.
Her cheeks had to be bright red by now.
“Bernard was right, then.”
Bernard had made her this bottle? Of course it had to be him. Who else?
“I still want you to eat five bites,” he told her. “Then you can have the bottle and get dressed. And then we can see about these toys.”
Oh. She looked at the toys. She didn’t know if she could play with them today. But she also didn’t want to let him down.
“Open up,” he said in a firmer voice.
There was no choo-choo train. Which was kind of a bummer. It would have been funny to see him making choo-choo noises. She took a bite of egg. It was actually delicious. She held up Roger.
“Oh, Roger is hungry too? Well, here you go, Roger. What a good pirate you are, eating up all your breakfast. Let’s hope your owner is a good girl and keeps eating. Otherwise, she might need to spend some time over her Papi’s lap.”
Boo.
With a sigh, she ate four more mouthfuls. But not a bite more. He shot her a look, but didn’t say anything. Instead, he stood and moved over to pull out a drawer. When he returned, he was carrying a pair of fluffy socks. They were blue with white polka dots. She stared at them curiously as he crouched and then grabbed one of her feet, putting the sock on.
Ooh. Okay, that felt good.
He eyed her. “You like that, don’t you? I thought you might. You like soft, fluffy things. Like your Snuggly.”
Damn, he was observant. Scarily so.
After pulling on her socks, he sat and gathered her into his lap. Then he picked up the bottle.
Oh. Cat hadn’t been expecting him to feed it to her.
However, he expertly leaned her back and placed it against her lips. She opened her mouth and accepted the nipple, sucking experimentally.
Part of her rebelled at this.
She wasn’t a baby. She kind of figured she’d regress to around four or five. But today wasn’t a typical kind of day. She sighed as he held her tightly.