Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 94091 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94091 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
“Come in,” a deep, purring voice said and as it spoke, the door slid open.
Lucy had been leaning forward to knock and so the sudden way the door opened put her off balance. She teetered for a moment and then—thank goodness!—found her center of gravity.
Chief Commander Rarev’s office was decorated with all kinds of curious things—possibly souvenirs from his own universe, she thought. There was a collection of colorful masks that didn’t look even remotely humanoid on one wall and what appeared to be a kind of ant farm—only the ants were as big as her thumb and glowing with neon colors as they trundled busily through their tunnels—on another.
But what drew her eyes wasn’t the colorful decorations or the Commander himself—(who looked rather like a lion in the face)—sitting behind his large desk. No, what Lucy noticed was that there were two chairs placed in front of the desk and one of them was already occupied by the Monstrum who had saved her life the night before—T’zaren.
The Monstrum warrior was even bigger than she remembered—bigger than a professional wrestler, she thought. He had deep blue skin—almost peacock blue—that was imprinted with the outline of many tiny scales, about the size of her pinky fingernail. She could see the imprints on his face and neck and also on his muscular forearms. He wore black trousers and black boots and a loose scarlet shirt that set off his skin color magnificently and was rolled up to his elbows showing muscular forearms and large, well-shaped hands with scrupulously clean fingernails. (Lucy always noticed this detail on a man’s hands.)
Unlike many Monstrum, he had very human features, she thought as she took a moment to study him. Thick black hair that was almost curly came down to the collar of the shirt and those golden eyes of his were as intense as she remembered when he had been watching her the night before.
She wished she could get a look at his back to see if it was some other color than the deep blue of the rest of his skin, but the shirt covered it. Even if he hadn’t been wearing a shirt, though, she couldn’t have looked at his back without him noticing. He was partially turned towards her, a wary look on his stern features.
“Thank you for coming.” Chief Commander Rarev started to rise from behind his desk and T’zaren also started to rise, but Lucy put out a hand to stop them as she stepped into the room.
“Oh please, don’t get up. I’m so pleased to meet you both and I’m so delighted that—Oh!”
Her last word ended in a little scream for the heel of one shoe chose that exact moment to snag in the moss carpet again. Lucy tripped and found herself falling…falling…
Directly into the lap of the Monstrum warrior who had saved her life the night before.
SIX
T’ZAREN
“Oh my God, I’m so sorry!” the little human exclaimed, looking up at T’zaren with wide eyes the same golden-brown color of her hair. Her long, loose curls had fallen over one side of her face, giving her a kind of sexy-disheveled appearance.
But it wasn’t her gorgeous eyes or silky hair that was bothering T’zaren the most. She had stumbled and fallen to her knees, directly into his lap and she had extremely large, full breasts which were pressed right against the crotch of his trousers.
He could feel her soft mounds rubbing against his primary and secondary shafts enticingly. But even worse was the fact that she was gripping his forearms with her small, surprisingly strong hands.
Which meant they were touching skin-to-skin.
At once, he felt his Sen Stripe flaring—the unmistakable sensation of heat rising along his spine. But this time there was pleasure too—a pleasure that was somehow mixed with the pain. It roared through him like a wildfire, stiffening him in his seat as he gazed down into her eyes, turning his thoughts to incomprehensible babble.
Wrong—this is wrong, his brain whispered. I should be kneeling at her feet—not the other way around. But no—she’s not my S’rentha…is she?
For a long, breathless moment they looked into each other’s eyes…and then she broke the silence by laughing.
“Please excuse me—I’m so clumsy,” she said, smiling up at him with her blonde hair falling into her lovely eyes. “As I’m sure you realized last night when you had to jump in the river to save my klutzy ass!”
T’zaren frowned. How could she laugh about almost dying? Where was her sense of decorum? How could he bow before a female who didn’t appear to have a serious bone in her body?
You’re not going to bow before her because she is not your S’rentha! he told himself fiercely. No matter that her touch makes your Sen Stripe flare—she cannot be the one.
“Let me help you up,” he said stiffly. Grasping her upper arms, he lifted her to her feet and put her firmly away from himself. Then he stepped back, further widening the distance between them.