Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 114284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 571(@200wpm)___ 457(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 571(@200wpm)___ 457(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
“I’m working on it,” he rasped.
Standing in the middle of the living room, I finally turned to face him again, and I allowed myself to really look at him. The fleeting glances were safer because… Well, this was anything but safe. When I truly saw him, my worries came rushing back. I just wanted to squeeze him tightly and make him forget whatever had upset him.
His T-shirt looked pretty new, but the sweatpants were ratty and holey. Kinda endearing. We all had that one item of clothing we refused to throw out.
He’d redressed the wounds left behind from a certain Nile monitor. Soon, he’d be able to remove the stitches.
He wasn’t making eye contact, and I started to wonder if I was missing something when he went, “Um” and gestured vaguely to the floor.
I looked behind me, toward the couch, only to see a rather large snake slither out from underneath.
I cracked a grin.
“He likes to roam free sometimes,” Lane mumbled awkwardly.
Yeah, I bet. Hell, he was a looker. Probably some five feet long, with stunning markings. Not some trendy morph, just the natural, black circles against the burnt-red skin, a classic Brazilian rainbow boa.
I inched closer and squatted down, and fuck me if he didn’t slither toward me. A curious fella, wasn’t he? A reptile-owner’s dream.
“He okay bein’ handled?” I asked.
“Yes. He’ll pull away when he’s done being social.”
I extended a hand and kept it low, close to the floor. “What’s his name?”
“Frank.”
I chuckled. Good name. Sure enough, Frank slithered up my arm and coiled himself around it, allowing me to stand up again. “What a beauty.” Hefty too. He wasn’t light as a feather, that’s for sure. A nice, pale underbelly. He peered up at me, his tongue poking out to collect scents. “Yeah, you’re a beauty, aren’t you? You don’t know how many of your cousins I’ve found in the Glades.”
Not this particular subspecies, but countless other boas. Another invasive intruder that could breed as if their existence depended on it.
“So, uh…what’re you doing here, Ty?”
Making you mine.
Step one, ambush. Complete.
Step two… This one was gonna take a minute. Luring him in.
“I was in the area.” I walked over to the couch, where I carefully untangled my arm from Frank. Good thing he was this size. Anything much smaller would’ve escaped under the shitty front door.
“How did you know which area is mine?” he countered.
I stuffed my hands into my pockets. “Your boyfriend is a talker. You gonna give me a tour or not? I wanna see your other snakes.”
Poor boy, I was flustering him. He was too polite to make any demands at the moment, and I was sure that had something to do with his guilt too. Macklin had told me Lane felt bad.
He eyed me warily. “I can play nice until I reach my limit, okay? You caught me completely off guard.”
There was that off-guard thing again. I grinned. “I’m good at that, I hear.”
He knitted his brows together and took a few steps toward the hallway that separated the bookcase section and the TV area. “Approaching that limit quickly, dude.”
Sir.
Maybe it wouldn’t be half bad if he called me that on occasion. I’d gotten used to Macklin using Sir. Kit did it automatically too.
I followed Lane down the hall, where all the doors were closed, possibly to put a limit on the hiding places Frank could hole up in. Then Lane revealed his reptile haven, and I felt my eyebrows crawl higher and higher.
Holy fuck, was I impressed.
It could’ve been any boring study or guest room, and he’d turned it into something that almost made me feel like I was at home in Florida. The green-painted walls were just the beginning. Shelves upon shelves with small succulent gardens, plants with clinging vines, and geodes transformed the room into a jungle. More plants and succulents in pots around the floor. And the terrariums, of course. Fuck, they made my heart happy. Lane didn’t follow the joke that were US regulations on tank size. He went bigger. His snakes had way more space than most pet owners offered.
I let out a breath and entered the room fully. Aside from a lone reading chair in a corner, he had no furniture in here. One large fish tank and six terrariums took up most of the space, and I noticed one was empty while another was open at the top. He’d told me he was fostering two spotted turtles as well.
“This is next level, darlin’.” No fucking wonder he needed a dehumidifier in here. I saw it next to the chair. Certainly not for the sake of the animals and plants but to prevent a mold disaster in the walls.
I heard a gurgling rush of water that had to belong to the turtles’ habitat, and I walked over to their space and was unable to keep from smiling. Good Christ, Lane really loved this. He went above and beyond. Rocks, plenty of water, plants, hiding spots… In fact, I couldn’t see any of the turtles, so I moved on.