Total pages in book: 17
Estimated words: 15430 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 77(@200wpm)___ 62(@250wpm)___ 51(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 15430 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 77(@200wpm)___ 62(@250wpm)___ 51(@300wpm)
“Perfect,” Lucas added.
“I knew you two would make a gorgeous baby,” B continued. Lucas snorted, and B ignored the sound. “You need to cut your hours so you can be home with all that sweetness. And this grumpy man in my chair.”
Andrei laughed and tucked his phone away again. “All right, B. You win. I’ll tell Rowe I’m cutting back to just forty hours a week so that I can keep my babies happy.”
“And what about you, big guy?” He turned Lucas in the chair and glared into his wide eyes. “I have serious doubts that you’re cutting your hours.” Andrei’s loud bark of laughter was the only answer he needed.
Lucas gave him a dark look, but B arched a perfectly styled eyebrow at him. Oh, he was not bowing down to this man’s menacing glares. He hadn’t been cutting Lucas’s hair for eight years without picking up a few things. B knew how far he could push this man.
“Yes, I’ll be home more. Less travel. I’ve got people for that,” Lucas murmured.
B smiled. “I have complete confidence that you can rule the world remotely. Your angel and your husband need you.”
A sly smile spread across Lucas’s lips as he stared at B. “I almost feel bad for your boyfriend.”
B put his shears down and grabbed some product to add to Lucas’s hair. He scoffed as he ran his fingers through Lucas’s thick strands. “That man is lucky to have me. He knows he’s got it good.”
“So do I,” Andrei murmured. B looked over to see Cynthia removing Andrei’s mask and massaging in a moisturizer. He looked like he was soaking in every bit of pampering. Tension that seemed to normally hum through his frame was finally absent.
“And what do you think?” B asked as he turned Lucas toward the mirror.
Classic Lucas was back in place with his usual haircut that made him look as if he were preparing to conquer the business world with just his steely gaze, hard jaw, and razor-sharp mind.
Lucas leaned forward in his chair, turning his head to the left and right, narrowed eyes taking in everything. “It’s perfect as usual, B.”
“Excellent. Let me get you and this area cleaned up. Then you can swap with your husband.”
B quickly swept away the hair that had fallen on the floor and Lucas, while Cynthia finished up Andrei’s right hand. He then escorted Andrei back to the wash station, plunging his hands into the man’s shoulder-length locks. He was pleased by their softness. After all this time, he’d learned to listen to B about proper conditioners and care.
When they returned to B’s station, Lucas was comfortably seated in Cynthia’s chair, sipping a cappuccino while wearing a blue mask. Cynthia had already started on the nails of his left hand.
Settling the cloak around Andrei, B smiled and prepared for the usual conversation.
“Don’t even say it,” Lucas announced before B could speak.
“What?” Andrei replied, his tone full of playfulness.
“Just a trim, B. A light trim.”
Andrei snorted. “You’re not the one putting up with a four-month-old grabbing handfuls of your hair.”
“Andrei,” Lucas said in a warning voice.
“I was thinking something short like yours.”
“Oh, I’ll just plug in my clippers,” B started, playing along with Andrei’s fun. They did this nearly every haircut. Andrei threatened to have all his hair cut off and Lucas got all sexy, bossy growly. B would wonder if Lucas carried that growly bossiness over to the bedroom, and then he’d look at Andrei’s grin and realize, yes he very much did.
“Don’t even think about it,” Lucas growled.
“Just something off the neck and ears,” Andrei continued as if Lucas hadn’t spoken.
“Baby, this isn’t funny. I need your hair.”
“Need my hair?” Andrei repeated. That was something new.
Lucas lowered his voice so that it was a rumble barely reaching above the noise of the salon. “I love the softness slipping between my fingers. Love the noises you make when I’ve got your hair wrapped around my fist.”
Andrei sucked in a deep breath, and B could feel his cheeks heating at Lucas’s seductive words. Dear God, he was going to have no hope of keeping his face blank and impassive if Lucas kept this up. B glanced over to see Cynthia’s head down, seeming to be focused entirely on Lucas’s hand, but there was no missing the blush in her cheeks.
“I was thinking…after Ian’s wedding, we could let your parents keep Daciana for a long weekend. We could go to New York for a few days. See a couple of shows,” Lucas continued.
It was wrong how sexy this man could be while sitting in a chair with bright-blue goop drying on his face and a tiny woman buffing his nails, but he was. And considering the way Andrei was shifting in his seat, B was about to witness Andrei climb onto Lucas’s lap and kiss him senseless if he didn’t change the subject soon.