Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 82371 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 412(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 275(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82371 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 412(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 275(@300wpm)
No one besides him believed that in the slightest but we nodded anyway.
I wasn’t sure if it was because we were good mates or just stupid, but we smiled and nodded.
Both.
Yep, I was going to vote for both, but the closer we got to his door the more I started to worry that we were too stupid. “It’ll be fine.”
If I said it enough, it was going to happen, right?
Carrick just scoffed.
“I love surprises, Daddy.” Lorne had decided to aim his innocence at me too, so I must’ve looked more worried than I’d thought. “And look, I even remembered my keys.”
That was because he’d been storing them in Carrick’s pockets.
Lorne gave Carrick a beaming smile as Carrick handed over the sparkly pink keys. “Thank you, Papa.”
“You’re welcome.” Carrick was still studying Lorne like he was expecting him to do something insane at any second, and the fact that I couldn’t call him out on it was frustrating.
Lorne didn’t seem to mind any of it, though. The brat was having fun guarding his hoard and being vague. If he’d known more mages, I’d have worried that someone had spelled diamonds to eat unexpected visitors, but he didn’t know enough mages for that to be an option.
“Gonna show Papa my hoard. Gonna show Daddy my hoard.” As he bounced to the music in his head, I was grateful that Lorne wasn’t sharing it through our bond. I could only imagine how crazy that would drive everyone and I was sincerely hoping he’d never realize that was a possibility.
Carrick and I both held our breath as he opened the door, but when nothing came exploding out of the house, we started to relax.
“You have a very nice house, monkey.” Following Lorne in, I studied the living room we’d walked into. It was cluttered with all kinds of random things he’d probably found at a thrift shop, but it all went together in a very Lorne kind of way.
It also explained why he lost so many things so often. Just putting his wallet down on a shelf in the crowded room would be dangerous.
“Thank you, Daddy.” Carefully setting his keys down in what I was hoping was their dedicated spot, he bounced over and gave me a kiss. “I can’t wait to show you around.”
Me neither.
So far, I couldn’t decide why he hadn’t let us visit sooner and that was starting to make me nervous again.
As Lorne grabbed our hands and started leading us deeper into the house, Carrick mumbled under his breath and his eyes widened.
Shit.
Brightening our link, I tried not to let Lorne know we were cheating.
“What did you do?”
He didn’t react visually but his thoughts came back quickly.
“I was making sure there was nothing alive in the house. But there’s something alive in the house.”
Damn it.
Lorne was going to get us accidentally eaten.
I was pretty sure, based on the cursing I’d caught as Carrick turned down the link, that he was thinking the same thing.
Was it selfish to hope we got to have sex before Lorne got us eaten?
If he had another Nessie living in his bathtub, I was going to be pissed. Those got entirely too big to be pets. It didn’t matter how sweet the damned things were.
Lorne didn’t seem to realize how insane he was making us, though.
He started swinging our arms as we went toward a hallway at the back of the living room and was adorably excited. “We have to squish up together. My house wasn’t made for two big mates. It’s me-sized. But we can fix that, right, Papa?”
Carrick blinked a few times before he nodded. “Yes, I can widen the existing structure when we add on my study and probably a garage for Monroe.”
That was a good idea…as long as we survived.
“Yes, let’s…let’s talk about what I’ll want for that tomorrow.” Hopefully, we’d live that long. “And I have questions about how you’re going to accomplish that.”
Carrick seemed to find the conversation about the house more fun to latch onto because he actually explained it instead of just being offended. “As long as we actually have the materials we’d need to build it, things like the lumber, I can use magic to incorporate it into the house. There’s a good planning program that another mage wrote a few years ago that will help.”
Huh.
I had every intention of responding logically but then Lorne opened one of the random hallway doors and lucidity went right out the window.
What the fuck?
Walking a bit deeper into the room didn’t help, but all of us wiggling through the door was a bit like an old-fashioned Three Stooges skit and took some of the stress out of the situation.
“What the fuck, monkey?” Carrick echoed my thoughts and made sure Lorne didn’t drag us any further into the room.
As Carrick planted himself firmly by the doorway, Lorne released our hands and bounced over to the large enclosure that took up nearly half the small bedroom. “Hello, sweethearts. I’m home and I brought my mates. See? I told you they were real.”