Total pages in book: 218
Estimated words: 209489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1047(@200wpm)___ 838(@250wpm)___ 698(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 209489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1047(@200wpm)___ 838(@250wpm)___ 698(@300wpm)
But none of that seemed to make a difference because he wasn’t looking away. Why the hell was he frowning?
“That’s not what it looked like on the mannequin.”
I shimmied my shoulders just a little. They were already C-cups when I was in middle school. He could stare at them all he wanted, and they weren’t going to get any smaller.
His gaze flicked up toward mine. He scowled. “Keep the jacket on.”
It was my turn to frown. “Get real. I’m not risking getting this coat dirty; I read the label. And maybe there’s a sugar daddy or two that might be interested in an all-right-looking, almost thirty-year-old virgin. Do you have a lonely, rich cousin?”
His scowl went nowhere, and it might have even got meaner. “No, and don’t do that shoulder shake again.”
I blinked, and his scowl hit yet another level. He eyed my boobs one last time and finished coming over, walking beside me toward the double doors, where a man in a dark suit stood. He must have recognized him because he stood up straighter, cleared his throat, and said, “Welcome, Mr. Akita.”
A woman came over and helped me take the coat off, handing over a small slip of paper to Alex who pocketed it. That was when I got my first look at the inside of the house.
Mansion.
Estate.
I had never used the word “opulent” before, but that was the best adjective I could think of to describe the house. Everything was massive and expensive. The hallways wider than normal, and even the artwork on the walls seemed like something I should have recognized in a museum.
I pressed my lips together to make sure I wasn’t walking down the hall with my mouth open.
“How rich is your family?” I whispered.
His elbow bumped mine, and I glanced over at him to see him raising his eyebrows.
Oh.
I slipped my hand into the crook of it.
That was nice. Some of the tension left my shoulders as I squeezed the hard muscle beneath his clothes. It felt like a rock under there.
“Rich,” he answered simply.
I snorted. “The fact you didn’t even try to play it off says everything, huh?”
He grunted, but I knew it was an amused one.
“I meant to ask when we went to that building… are they, your family, the same Akita family that—”
To give him credit, he didn’t try to play that off either. “Yes.”
“You didn’t let me finish. The electronics, the cars—”
“Yes. Both sides of the family have successful businesses and investments.”
“No shit,” I breathed. That was going to take me another second to process. “And the rest of the families? The other Atraxian people?”
“The head of the house in Eastern Europe is a steel magnate.”
I blinked.
“The family living in India is in biotech.”
“Huh,” I muttered. “Wait. Did everyone that came from Atraxia look different, and did that determine where they settled? So they could fit in better?”
He nodded just as we made it to another set of double doors where yet another man in a tuxedo stood.
I needed to start a list of all the things I was curious over so I could ask him in a better situation. Not when we were surrounded by other people who might have his incredible hearing.
“Are those security guards?” I asked him instead.
“Yes. We don’t need it, but it’s more the impression.”
I’d fucking bet. “I was thinking, if you want to get out of here sooner, I can pretend to faint so we can leave faster. Wink at me or something. That can be our sign. But you have to promise to catch me.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“What? Catching me or me fainting?”
“Catching you.”
I tightened my hand over his inner elbow and groaned. “Never mind. At least point your mom out to me so I can pretend to use the bathroom when she starts to make her way over.”
“Too late,” he said just as I spotted a tall woman making her way over with Achilles and Alex’s almost twin, Leon.
Shit. “I can’t make a run for it then?”
“Sorry.”
He wasn’t sorry.
Fuck.
First of all, if this was her, she didn’t look old enough to be his mom. The woman seemed to be in her fifties, her hair a shade of blonde that no bottle in the world could recreate. It was styled in an elegant up-do, her makeup not exactly light but done really well. I felt like an expert now that I’d spent so much time looking at makeup tutorials on my new computer. A couple inches shy of the sons at her sides, she was formidable looking. Her skin tone was a deep tan like The Primordial’s, and I totally understood how her DNA wasn’t 100 percent human. Even from a distance, she had presence. Her features made her heritage indescribable. I was fairly certain she had contacts in, but whether they were naturally purple or bright blue, I had no idea.