Page 26 of The Alliance
I hadn’t worried for a second that she’d hurt my mate, but found it adorable that he worried about it.
Nana stood by the door of the large western lounge now, watching us all run around under her mate’s orders.
Gramps held up a bottle of port.
“Is this the right one?”
I peered at it. “Yes.”
“Are you sure? I don’t want to give him the wrong thing.”
“No, I’m sure that’s the one he likes.”
Gramps nodded and stashed the bottle away in a small cupboard. He’d been asking me about my aunts and uncles for weeks and I’d been able to tell him all about them, except for Uncle George. He was the quietest of the lot and I hadn’t known him ever to draw the ire of the old Lord Somerville. That was because he stayed quiet, did nothing that wasn’t permitted, and I couldn’t say anything about what he liked to do at all. He was a blank slate as far as I was concerned. The only thing I’dbeen able to remember about him was that he liked a very particular kind of port.
Hence Gramps had found a bottle.
“Bring those chairs over here,” he said as Lew, Milton and Jill came in, carrying a stack each.
He directed them to put the chairs out where he wanted them, and then changed his mind.
“Do you think they’ll be better over here?”
He was starting to fuss now, and I realised that he really did care about this party.
I said, “Gramps, the room looks great.”
“Do you think your family will like it?”
“I think they’ll love it. Aunt Silvia will be thrilled to see her painting above the fireplace. It was really kind of you to put it there.”
She’d brought along one of her own paintings as a gift for the Hoskins clan, among other things.
“Not at all,” said Gramps. “I want it there. I’ll enjoy looking at it every day.”
Taking a last look round, I tried to see if there was anything we’d missed. If there was, I couldn’t think what it would be. Gramps had a well-established routine for Mating Parties by that point, and he’d only had to adapt it a bit to make it an Alliance Party.
“Is that everything? Because I need to go and change.”
I tugged at my clothes, which were old and worn. I’d known I’d get covered in dust and sweat, and I had.
“Yes, I think so.”
I took that as permission to leave and grabbed Dane’s hand as I went. He needed time to wash and change, too.
We rushed upstairs to our bedroom and I was flinging my clothes away the second we closed the door behind us.
“Hurry up, I want to get to the party.”
Dane followed me into the shower at a slower pace, which meant I was already mostly done by the time he stepped under the spray beside me. We’d got a big waterfall shower installed since I’d moved into the castle and it was worth every penny.
At first, I ignored him and finished washing, and then as soon as I was done, I grabbed the soap again and began to wash my mate.
“Are you trying to hurry me up?” he asked. The amusement in his voice made me want to smile.
“Maybe,” I said.
Not really, though. Actually, I’d just wanted to touch his skin. He had such dark, tanned skin and his body was hard with bulging muscle. There wasn’t an inch of it that I didn’t want to worship.
