Page 93 of The Mentor
Raven didn’t think twice, she wrapped her arms around his neck and planted a vigorous kiss on his cheek.
“Thank, you darling, you just made this man’s biggest dream come true.” Finn winked and set her down.
“Do you want a kiss too?” she asked me.
“Sure.” I bent down but then Mila stepped forward. “Can I do it?”
“No,I’mdoing it!” Raven insisted.
“But that’s not fair,” Mila objected with a small pout. “You already kissed Finn.”
Finn broke into a deep belly laugh. “There’s no need to fight, girls, Archer has two cheeks.”
That solved the problem, and I received a kiss from Mila on my left cheek and a kiss from Raven on my right one.
“See?” Finn patted my shoulder. “Don’t you just feel like a bundle of love right now?”
“Mr. Archer?” Mila was tugging at my sleeve. “What did you mean when you shouted that she was your woman? Who were you talking about?”
“Ehhm, no one,” I said quickly, but once again Finn came to my rescue.
“Mila vanilla, my sweet angel.” He leaned down and pinched her gorgeous cheeks. “You might not have seen this, but I was flirting with three women before the fight broke out.”
“Uh-huh?” Her large blue eyes were blinking and she was biting her lower lip, looking like someone who didn’t want to miss one single detail of an exciting story.
“The thing is, I was being kind of greedy because Mr. Archer had already told me that he was hoping to get a kiss from the brunette.” The way Finn said the last part of the sentence with a teasing voice and a mischievous smile had Mila completely entranced with him.
“Was that why you were fighting?”
I played along. “I can’t just let him steal the women away from me, can I?”
Mila rubbed her little nose and looked down for a second before she lifted her head with a frown. “I hope the brunette is ashamed of herself. If a boy really liked me, I don’t think I would go and play with someone else. That wouldn’t be nice of me.”
“I wish that all grown-up women were as smart and loyal as you are, Mila, and you know what else I think?”
“What, Mr. Archer?”
“I think the man you choose when you grow up is going to be the luckiest man alive.”
“You do?” The little girl beamed like a lit Christmas tree.
“But then again, Mila…” a soft voice said behind us, and I looked around to see Kya watching us. “No one is forcing you to choose a man at all.”
“Argh,” Finn made a dismissive hand gesture towards Kya. “How rude of you to interfere just when we’re indoctrinating the next generation of women.”
“What does indoscinating mean?” Mila asked and stumbled over the hard word.
“It’s just a fancy word for setting people up for success,” Finn explained. “Now you come with me, sweetheart, and we’ll go share the gift of indoctrination with the rest of the girls, while Mr. Archer and Kya have a talk.”
“Before you say anything,” Kya said, “I do want to talk about what happened, but not here, not in front of the children.”
“I understand.”
“Meet me in my room at midnight.”
I nodded. “Understood.”
CHAPTER 24
