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)
He chuckled. “Will you tell your friend Jetta?”
“I think I have to. It’s kind of an unwritten girlfriend rule. Dirty details.”
He chuckled and pulled her close, kissing her lips and tucking her hair behind her ear, caressing the pretty red gem.
He decided then and there to surprise her with a ceremony. On a little holiday that he’d been planning for her.
The black of that stone had vanished several weeks back, and it meant a zero reading of the allergens in her system, which brought them all relief.
In their three months together, he’d watched her and Ollie bond. They were as thick as thieves. She was trying to learn their language so she could help Ollie with his homework, so Zane devised a translator software upgrade, allowing any who wanted to update to have the ability to turn it off and on as needed. This would allow Earth women to learn Phallyx’s language and the men to learn their wife’s language, too. And he’d been busy with work because Project D participants from Earth had now extended to areas whose languages hadn’t been initially programmed.
While he’d been busy working, spending plenty of time with Tanya and Ollie as he now had a home office again, Tanya had been teaching Ollie, Daylin, Marko, and also the two grandfathers to cook.
Yes, Marko was allowed back in the house. His ban only lasted about a week before Zane allowed it at Tanya’s request. She’d gotten a heartfelt apology from the teenager, and had arranged a meeting between Marko and Zane as the boy had wanted to sit down and apologize to Zane himself as well.
As for the cooking, he opted out of the lessons, but had watched a week earlier as the group worked together to make a dish popular to Tanya’s region called pizza, each of them stretching dough and putting their own desired toppings on it before baking it in a stone oven that Tanya’d had created specifically for cooking this dish. Tanya had put what she’d called a ‘pizza pie’ together for Zane with what she thought he’d like on it. The only thing he didn’t like was a sweet fruit she’d put on it that contrasted with the savory flavors. He plucked all the little fruits off and enjoyed the rest.
She giggled at him for it rather than being annoyed he didn’t like it, which he found another endearing quality of hers. The following week, she introduced their family and the neighbors to tacos, and they decided to make it a weekly meal choice.
She was easy to be with. She was lovely. Caring. Nurturing. She didn’t crowd him, enjoyed being on her own, too, with her books or writing in her notebook. And she was extraordinarily sexual. For a woman who hadn’t had sex before being with him, she was very intuitive about what would feel good to a man. She treated his body like a place of worship, seeking cues for what he liked. He did the same for her.
***
Tanya and Ollie sat while watching Daxx and Jetta get married by Daxx’s friend Strom, who also had his new Earth wife, Sindy, present. Quid and Elaina were there, too. So were Spar and Treya.
He and Tanya had not seen them as a couple, though Zane had met with Spar several times in a professional capacity as well as handed Ollie off three times for visits.
One visit wasn’t as pleasant as the others with Spar, as Spar had told Zane he suspected his brother was alive. He said this in a way that made it seem like he knew Zane suspected it also. He also hinted that while some of the rebels had been captured, they weren’t actively pursuing Joran. Spar eluded to the fact that he was forgetting about Joran as a favor to the Zenith family. This shocked Zane. In truth, a lot about Spar did since the Earth women had arrived.
Spar was like a new man. Marriage agreed with him. He was forthcoming with compliments, which hadn’t ever been his style. He was overly affectionate, which was completely out of character.
Spar and Treya brought their twin newborn daughters to the wedding and despite how poorly Treya had treated Tanya, Tanya’s kindness had again shone through Treya’s ugliness as Tanya went right over, in Daxx and Jetta’s back yard, and spoke sweetly to Treya, immediately divesting Treya of a baby and looking at Zane with a look in her eyes that made emotion swell in his chest. She wanted a baby of her own. It was obvious.
Tanya cooed over that newborn girl who smiled at Tanya and then she switched to give the other newborn just as much attention and that one was in a foul mood, though Tanya didn’t immediately hand her back, instead walked the beach with her and did so until finally getting her to sleep. Tanya held her for the ceremony and Zane heard Treya murmur her thanks. “That one is impossible. She doesn’t give me a moment’s rest.”