your pleasure very satisfying,” he assured her and, despite her past experiences, she believed him.
She found she really wanted to tell him that she would return the favor, but instead she bit her lip and rose to her feet. “Let’s go to bed.”
Hrebec awoke after far too little sleep to find Lucie standing next to the bed staring at him. When he had followed Abigail into his room earlier, she had taken one side of the bed, next to Lucie, and he had taken the side next to Tiana. There was plenty of room—the oversized mattress was one of the few luxuries he had brought aboard the ship—but somehow, during the night, he had found himself with the infant on his chest, Lucie’s knee digging into his stomach, and Abigail a soft warmth against his side. For a long time, he had lain there and allowed himself to imagine that this was his family and he had fought off sleep for as long as possible to relish the illusion.
“Leonardo,” Lucie whispered, drawing him back from the memory.
“What is it, little one?” He made no attempt to correct his name, liking the fact that it was just between them.
“I losts my ball.”
“Where did you see it last?”
“It ran away,” she said innocently, but she bit her lip.
“Do you want me to find it for you?”
“Yes, please.”
With a muffled sigh, he prepared to leave the haven of the bed, reluctantly unwrapping his tail from around Abigail’s waist. Tiana still slept soundly on his chest, so he gently placed her next to Abigail. He admired the two of them together - the one so tiny and innocent and the other so lush and seductive.
“Leonardo,” Lucie urged.
“I’m coming.” He hadn’t bothered to undress last night, so all he did now was pull on his boots.
The door into his office was already open and when he entered, he saw the outer door was as well. He must have forgotten to lock it in the sheer ecstasy of bringing Abigail to climax.
“Did you leave these rooms?” he asked sternly.
“Not ‘xactly.”
When he crossed to the door, he saw that the door to his ready room was also open.
“The ball runned over there.” Lucie pointed.
He debated having a conversation with her about the fact that doors did not open themselves but in the end he simply nodded. “Then let's go find it.”
The missing ball turned out to be hidden under one of the cabinets. He used his tail to retrieve it and was just returning it to Lucie when Abigail’s voice sounded from across the hall.
“Lucinda Kathryn Reynolds.”
“Uh oh. Mama is using all my names. That means she’s mad.” The child did not look particularly concerned. “Do you have more than one name?”
“My full name is Hrebec Zarmutek Nak’Charen.”
“Wow! Did your mama use all your names when she was mad too?”
His mother had died when he was three, one of the first victims to fall prey to the disease that would eventually take all of their females, but he looked down at the trusting little face and could not bring himself to tell her. Neither could he lie to her.
“I don’t remember, but it would not surprise me if she had.”
Abigail’s voice came again, a little more frantic this time.
“You should return to your mother.”
“Okay.” She gave him a sunny smile and curled her impossibly tiny fingers around one of his. “Will you take me? So you can ‘splain about the ball?”
The trust on her face and the warmth of her touch rocketed through him and in that moment, Hrebec Zarmutek Nak’Charen lost his heart completely. “I will take you wherever you wish.”
It was a vow.
Chapter Ten
Hrebec passed Lucie off to Abigail, who received her daughter with a tight embrace and a stern warning to not wander off again.
“I will show you how to lock the doors,” he said. “I apologize for my distraction last night.”
As she looked up at him, the intriguing pink color highlighted her cheeks, and he suspected that she remembered why he had been so distracted. Unfortunately, she had donned her outer garment once more, but he could visualize all too clearly how that heated color had spread down across her chest and over her luscious breasts. His cock started to thicken, his tail already reaching for her, but he forced his body under control.
“If it would not inconvenience you, I would like to refresh myself and put on a clean uniform.”
“Oh, no. Of course not. This is your cabin, after all.”
“Does we live