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)
Tanya looked at her wrist and lifted a cover from the bracelet she wore and shook her head.
“I think at least an hour or so until he needs to eat again. I’m sure he’ll click at us.”
“Daddo!” Ollie noticed Zane. “We lost ourselves to dance! It was great!”
“I saw,” Zane remarked with a smile. Tanya’s face went bright pink with embarrassment. He winked, playfully. “Good thing your ankle is better, huh?”
***
They’d sat and ate a lunch of sandwiches and salads at Zane’s desk and every chance she got, she devoured his body with her eyes and smiled at him. She fluttered those long eyelashes at him. She moistened her lips while looking at him. At one point, she put a long vegetable stick between her lips and stared at him for a beat, then turned away, looking embarrassed. He found it highly amusing. And arousing, even when she did it awkwardly. In fact, it was even more endearing.
She flipped her hair over to one shoulder, tilting her head to expose her neck to him while smiling. He wanted to lick a line from her collarbone to her earlobe and cup her beautiful breasts again. Mark those beautiful globes by spilling hot seed all over them.
She was doing a number on his ability to try to remain cool and collected. She didn’t do it in a tasteless way that would’ve made Ollie aware. And she did it in a way that made it seem like it wasn’t something she typically did, flirting… Zane was trying to get a read on why she was going to such efforts, because that’s what it seemed like…like she was trying to be a coy little beach fox that lived in the sinking sands and peeked up at its prey, trying to cutely coax that prey to where it’d fall into the sinking spots and get devoured when the cute fox’s teeth would emerge, taking it from adorable-looking to sinister predator.
Because of the games Arla had played with him in their early days, normally this would be something that Zane would find distasteful. Only, Zane just somehow knew there was nothing sinister about her. He suspected this was all very out of character. She was cute, and turning him on, but it was also amusing because of how awkward it seemed for her.
He decided to have fun with it and be playful right back.
After lunch, Zane went back into the lab to finish up the last few things that needed his attention while Tanya and Ollie sat down and Tanya watched Ollie work on a drawing of Chili, who he’d just finished feeding a bottle. Zane went back to his work.
Later, from the corner of his eye, he caught movement. Pace was in his office and his hand was on Tanya’s shoulder.
Zane dropped the fragile tool he had in his hand, resulting in it snapping into multiple pieces, but he didn’t give it a backward glance, instead strode through the doors and was quickly between Tanya and Pace.
“What?” he barked.
Pace was taken aback, and he physically retreated three steps. “I was saying hello; that’s all.”
“Say hello with words, not with your fucking hands. Where’s Ollie?”
He heard Tanya’s small voice behind him. “He’s just in the bathroom, b-baby.” He put his arm around her and brought her to his side.
Baby? He liked that. He liked it a lot. He’d called her that the day before and she’d looked at him like he’d bestowed a gift upon her. She fit perfectly against him, her head coming to just under his chest.
“I need to go over a few things with you,” Pace advised.
Zane waved him through to the lab. “Go. I’ll be right there.”
Pace went ahead, leaving Zane and Tanya alone in the office. He turned his back to Pace and, holding her close, whispered, “Don’t let Ollie tell anyone that your earring is malfunctioning. No one. I didn’t get a chance to advise him to keep that quiet.”
“Okay.” She nodded, looking up at him, blinking slowly and looking like she was waiting to be kissed.
“Does that asshole still look so absolutely ridiculous that you’d never entertain anything romantic with him?”
A smile spread across her face and she leaned into him.
“Utterly ridiculous,” she whispered and then awkwardly lifted her hand to cup his jaw. “You know what’s not ridiculous? What’s so the opposite of ridiculous, it should be illegal?”
She scrubbed at his jaw with her fingernails.
“What’s that?” he whispered back.
“This scruff on your face. It’s incredibly… sexy.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Yeah?”
She nodded slowly. “Oh yeah.”
“I think it’s adorable how pink your cheeks are right now, baby,” he told her, then leaned down and put his lips to hers, gripped the ponytail of her hair, and kissed her with his lips, his tongue, and then trailed a kiss over to the ridge of her ear and playfully nipped.