Total pages in book: 31
Estimated words: 30228 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 151(@200wpm)___ 121(@250wpm)___ 101(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 30228 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 151(@200wpm)___ 121(@250wpm)___ 101(@300wpm)
Oria and Purity smiled and returned the squeeze. “Friends.”
“You’re my first and only friends,” Purity said with a soft smile.
“Then it’s good, lifelong friends we’ll be,” Raven said.
Royden calling out for Oria interrupted the three women.
“I have to go but we’ll talk again,” Oria said, scrambling to her feet.
Raven watched her hurry off, then turned to Purity. “Why don’t we visit the other kittens in the barn.”
Purity found herself blushing again. “Your brother may be there with someone.”
“Did you catch him there with a woman?” Raven asked, jumping to her feet.
“I did,” Purity admitted in a whisper.
“Good, maybe he’ll be there again and we can learn what all the moaning and groaning is about since it doesn’t look like much fun to me.” Raven pretended to gag.
Purity giggled. “I wonder myself. I only know that your brother seems to be good at pleasing women.”
“Ahh, so the true reason comes out as to why you want to wed my brother,” Raven said teasingly.
“I have little doubt that I will never have the opportunity to know such intimacy with a husband,” Purity said, sadness returning to her voice.
Raven scrunched her nose. “Who wants to?”
“One day you will, Raven, and I hope he’s a man of your choosing.”
“Raven is wiser beyond her years,” Oria said as she walked with Royden.
“Da says the same and blames himself for having raised her more accustomed to the company of men rather than women,” Royden said. “Da is hoping, as well as I am, that once we wed you will provide Raven with a much needed woman’s touch.”
Oria smiled. “Your sister already realizes that and is ready for it. Raven has an independent streak that I don’t believe you’ll be able to tame.”
“Can we tame her long enough to find her a husband, then she can be his problem?” he asked with a teasing grin.
“Now I know where Raven gets it from,” Oria said with a laugh.
“Raven is a handful. She speaks her mind when she should hold her tongue, gives her opinion when it doesn’t concern her, demands that she’ll choose her own husband,”—Royden shook his head— “I could go on and on.”
“You forget how kind your sister can be and how much she loves you, Arran, and your da. She worries about all of you as much as you do her.”
Royden raised their clasped hands and kissed hers. “I know, that is why my da hopes to find her a good husband that she will want to wed, though I wonder if any man will please her.”
“It isn’t the man who will please her you need to look for. It’s the man who will steal her heart.”
“Like you stole mine?” Royden smiled and kissed her hand again.
“I doubt I stole your heart as fast as you stole mine.”
“And when exactly did you lose your heart to me?” he asked, steering them toward an area that would afford them some privacy since the urge to kiss her was too much for him to deny.
Oria smiled at the memory. “When I first met you.”
He scrunched his brow trying to recall and when he did, his brow shot wide. “You can’t mean when we actually first met. You were so young, five or six years was it?”
She nodded.
He laughed. “It was when you tripped and I picked you up that you believed yourself in love with me?”
“I knew without a doubt I was in love with you. You were kind, strong, and tall.”
“And barely ten years,” he said, laughing again.
“You were big for your age,” she reminded.
“That’s something I’ve often been reminded of, but still, how could you know?”
“My heart and stomach told me. Both fluttered and raced, and did all sorts of strange things not only that time, but each and every time I saw you.” Oria giggled as she confessed, “I even made sure to trip now and again around you so that you would pick me up.”
Royden gave a hardy laugh. “And here I thought you were clumsy.”
“I was in love with you then and I’m in love even more with you now. I could never love another, want another, have such a need for another as I do for you. You have my heart and love always.”
Royden rushed them behind one of the storage sheds, pinning her against it with his body as his lips came down on hers. He’d kissed other women, nothing meaningful, more out of curiosity, but the kisses where nothing compared to how he felt when he kissed Oria.
It was magical. There was no other way to describe it. As soon as his lips touched hers, he was lost in a world of pure magic. Everything seemed to fade away, concerns, fears, doubts magically disappeared and he felt a contentment he’d never felt. Of course, he also grew aroused and it had grown harder and harder to keep his hands off her. She hadn’t stopped him when his hands had touched her breasts the first time, though she had pushed him away when he had rubbed his hard shaft against her.