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)
His eyes traveled the length of me, and I felt my face go hot, and not just out of blushing. Was I feeling this wine after just a few sips? I drank two bottles of wine most weeks. I wasn’t what you’d consider a cheap drunk. It must be nerves. And maybe that hormone?
Jingling chimes sounded. It was coming from the device clipped to Zane’s belt. He lifted it and put it to his ear.
“Spar,” he greeted, and then listened intently, eyes on me while he did.
I felt shy. And a bit awkward. So, I sipped some more, staring out at the landscape, at the sky, which was a deepening purple shade, though all the pink wasn’t quite gone.
“No? Shit. Yeah? Right.” He gestured a peace sign with his hand held up and slipped inside.
Peace? Two minutes, probably.
I watched him through the glass doors as he listened, concern etching his features. He grasped the back of his neck with his free hand and frowned as he scrolled on another device in his right hand while his phone was held to his ear by his left. His eyes met mine and he stepped back out, still talking, putting the second device into his front pants pocket.
“I’ll hurry to my lab and look into it. I’ll be in touch,” he said into the phone, looking at me with remorse. He ended his call and clipped his phone to his belt.
And then he seemed to think better of putting it away and brought it back, touching the screen and then he put it to his ear.
Zane’s eyes roved up and he muttered, “Damn.” And then he looked at the screen, hit a few buttons, sighed, and put the device back to his waist.
“I’m sorry, Tanya, it’s something urgent. I’ve got to go to my office to take care of it.”
“Oh?”
“I just called to attempt to get my father and Ollie back to keep you company, but I can’t reach them. Unfortunately, I’ll have to go for a bit and leave you here on your own. I hate to do that, but it’s an emergency. Can I show you to your room? Perhaps you can rest while I do that.”
He gestured for me to head inside. I lifted my wine glass and got to my feet. His hand touched the small of my back as he led me inside. I flinched at the contact. My heart stuttered, but then leveled out.
“How is the translation device working for you so far?” he asked, leading me through a vast open family room area with comfortable-looking couches and a long dining table that would seat a dozen. I didn’t get much of a chance to take things in, but the walls were adorned with art, photographs of people, paintings of nature. We passed a wall of hardcover books with gorgeous spines, vases of colorful flowers on gleaming tables, and I was so focused on his voice and the feel of his hand on my back, along with the fact that I wasn’t as nervous as I should be about all of this that I didn’t really take in much else about my surroundings.
“I… I understand you. Your lips don’t match the sounds, but you make sense.”
“My lips … oh. Right. Yours don’t either.” He smiled. “That’s not the problem.”
I returned the smile. God, he was tall. Probably two feet taller than me. And broad. His hand spanned a large portion of my back and the heat it gave off?
“Has there been any pain or discomfort at all?”
We were in a hallway and he stopped two doors down and twisted a copper-toned door handle to open a rounded white door. He gestured for me to go ahead into a vast round room with a colorful and lit domed ceiling. This ceiling was crusted with gems and painted with flowers.
“Oh my,” I said aloud, looking up.
The room felt like a vast castle turret with smaller turrets bulging from the perimeter. At the curve of the wall on one side were several built-in drawers with gemstone handles. One was ruby-crusted gems. Another was a long handle that looked as if made from blue sapphires.
The room had light stone walls bordered with framing that contained intricate carvings within each frame. Some were swirls that looked like symbols. Others were flowers with gemstones encrusted into the petals. In the center of the room sat a dressing table and mirror, and on one side of the room was the façade of a castle-like little house matching the look of Zane’s house (from what I’d been able to surmise as we landed) with a round, concave door. On the other side was a set of orange drapes of a gauzy, chiffon-like fabric opened just a few inches, revealing a sleeping area in a bulge of the turret.