Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 86162 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86162 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
“No, but that’s okay.” Abbey reached for him and he leaned down to her. She ran her hand through his golden mane and then up the twisted spiral of one horn. “I like your horns,” she told him.
“Mmm, and I like it when you stroke them,” he rumbled. “But you should know that my horns are an erogenous area for me.”
“What?” Abbey exclaimed, yanking her hand away. “Do you mean that me touching your horns is like I’m touching your, uh…you know.”
“My shaft, you mean? Yes, it’s exactly like that.” But there was a rumble of amusement in his deep voice that made Abbey laugh.
“Oh—you’re teasing me, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I am,” Solon admitted, laughing too. He had a deep, rumbling laugh that Abbey liked at once. “I just wanted to see what you’d do if you thought it was true. I do find your hands on my horns pleasurable, but not to that extent,” he added.
“Well, it’s good to know I’m not going to make you come in your pants if I touch your horns,” Abbey remarked and laughed again.
She was feeling more and more relaxed with the big Monstrum. And the more she thought about it, the more she liked the idea of attending the reunion with him on her arm. She had mostly happy memories of high school—she’d had her sight back then and she’d had a group of girl friends she loved hanging out with. There was only one thing she needed to be sure about—one person she didn’t want to run into…
“Chris Brander, the quarterback of the football team?” Maria’s voice sounded skeptical over the phone. “No, I heard he moved away to the UK. Something to do with his job in finance. I don’t think he’s going to be at the reunion.”
“You’re sure?” Abbey pressed her. She had asked Solon for privacy to make the phone call so he was in the other room, talking with Aunt Rose. “Because I don’t want to ever be near him again. You know why.”
Maria had been one of the few people she’d confided in after the attack back in high school. The two women were still good friends, though they had grown apart after Maria got married and had three kids she was always very busy with.
“I know why,” she said to Abbey. “And I don’t blame you. I still say you should have reported him to the police!”
“You know they wouldn’t have listened—his Dad is so important!” Abbey protested. “Besides, it’s water under the bridge now—I don’t let it bother me anymore. I just don’t want to see him again.”
“You won’t,” Maria promised. “Please come—I know Janelle and Krista are going to be looking for you!”
“Well…I do have a new guy I’d like to show off,” Abbey confessed.
“You do?” Maria’s voice went high with excitement. “Girl, you should have led with that! Tell me all about him!”
They spent a few more minutes catching up and then Abbey heard a voice say,
“Mommy, I need help with this!”
Maria sighed.
“Well, duty calls. I have to go— but promise you’ll come—the reunion won’t be the same without you!”
“I’ll think about it,” Abbey told her. “I have to find something to wear.”
“That sounds like a ‘yes,’” Maria remarked and Abbey could tell her old friend was smiling. “I’ll see you at the reunion!”
Abbey hung up but she was already thinking that if things went well with Solon, she would definitely take him to the reunion with her at the end of the month.
23
ABBEY
The rest of the Holding Week went extremely well. Solon was a perfect gentleman—though more and more Abbey wished he wouldn’t be. By day they roamed around the Monstrum Mother Ship and at night they watched vids together and talked. They also spent hours kissing and Solon would run his big, warm hands over her shoulders and back and outer thighs, but he never touched her anywhere else.
Of course, Abbey knew he was being respectful and gentle and she appreciated it a lot. But she was beginning to long for more—much more—from the big Monstrum. Especially at the end of the Holding Week, after the night he caught her “reading” a spicy romance book…
Abbey wasn’t really reading it of course—she was having the mechanical voice on her tablet read to her. Whenever possible, she got audiobooks but this particular novel was a new release by one of her favorite indie authors and didn’t have an audiobook out yet.
Solon was out, speaking to his boss, Commander Rarev, so she’d thought it was the perfect time to catch up on her reading. She sat on the big couch in the living room area—she had memorized the whole suite now so she could go anywhere she needed to—and let the tablet read to her.
The only problem was, the tablet’s voice didn’t really do the spicy scenes justice, she thought, as she listened to it with dissatisfaction. It sounded so stilted and awkward, especially when it said words like “pussy” or “cock” or anything else that was spicy. She was just about to give up and turn the tablet off when she heard a deep voice from the doorway say,