Page 47 of The HalloQueen

“What about your grandparents? Are they still alive?”

Bels shook her head, “no, I only ever met my granny, and she was…awful,” She laughed hesitantly, “She was a fatphobic, judgey, angry old woman. I don’t miss her.”

“And your other grandparents?”

“Never met them.”

I hummed, “so it’s just you and your moms?”

“Yep.” She emphasized the P and then stretched her arms up high, arching her back and groaning. I pounced, knocking her back onto the couch, and pushed my face into her amazing breasts.

“Hey!” she squealed, wrapping her arms around my neck and I lifted my head, placing a kiss on her lips. She melted into the couch again, wrapping one of her legs around my torso and running her fingers through my hair. “It’s getting late,” she spoke softly.

“Oui.”

“Shouldn’t you go home?”

“Non.” Like there was any way I was going to leave this beautiful woman in this empty beautiful house to go back to the store and sleep on an air mattress alone. I couldn’t think of anything less appealing than a night with my fist after spending an amazing afternoon with her. I kissed her again, asking her lips permission for more before moving my tongue into her mouth and grinding my pelvis into her. The give of her body against mine made me insatiable. All I could think about was getting the soft warmth of Annabel under me when everything in my world was so hard and cold. “I want to be here with you,” I murmured into her mouth between kisses.

“No tricks tomorrow, Thomas. I have to go to work. I can’t miss another day.” Her anxiety immediately clicked on and I felt her tense.

I shushed her, kissing her again, “and you will. We will both work tomorrow, and then you’ll come home, I’ll feed you something delicious and you’ll tell me everything you accomplished after having a day to shut off and relax.”

She hummed and smiled, “oh yeah? That’s the plan? Do I get a say?”

I smiled back, “Non.”

Annabel laughed, pushing playfully on my shoulder, and then grimaced and shook out her hand, “Um, ouch.”

“Vam-”

“Yeah, yeah, shut up.”

“Want to go to bed?”

She sighed again, checking the time, and frowned, “yeah, I probably should. I just need to feed Tim and then we can head up.”

“I’ve got it.” Tim and I had spent the day in each other’s company and if I could take something as simple as feeding her cat off her plate then I’d do it. I stood from the couch and offered her a hand.

“You guys besties now?” She asked, accepting it and pulling against it so she could easily stand.

“Obvi.” I mimicked the horrible voice that the teens in the store use, all nasally and entitled and she giggled. My body warmed knowing that I’d succeeded in my mission of making her happy, even if it was just for a moment. “Go settle in and I’ll be up in a minute.” I wrapped my hand around her hip and pulled her into me, kissing her soundly, joining our mouths together.

“Okay,” She scratched my jaw then bent to scratch Tim and headed to the stairs, smiling at me as she ascended them. I moved about the lower level turning off lamps, folding blankets, and replacing pillows.

I went into the kitchen, puttering about, feeding Tim, loading the dishwasher, and resetting her coffee pot for the morning. If I only had until the first week of November to convince her to Handfeast, I was going to make it impossible for her to say no.

19

ANNABEL

“You’re late again! That’s twice this week - is everything okay?” Shannon was sitting at her desk, rotating in her chair absentmindedly and editing the photos that I’d taken on Saturday for the website.

“Yeah, totally fine, I’ve just got a case of the Mondays.” I grumbled, hanging up my purse and moving to look over her shoulder, “those look good.”

“It’s Thursday, Bels. Also, thank you.” She straightened and smiled before scrolling through the ones she’d already finished editing. “I’m hoping to have these loaded in by the end of the day for the launch.”

“That would be great.” I pushed off her desk and moved to mine, sitting down and wiggling my finger over the trackpad, “I can’t believe the launch is next week. I feel like we’re behind.”

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