Sold AS The alpha King's Breeder

Chapter 73 Buy, Buy Baby

**Rosalie‘s POV

“It seems like you‘re starting to get settled here in the cottage,” Soren said a few days after I‘d accepted the position and moved into the little house beside the garden.

I‘d just let him in and was trying to plan my day. I‘d thought about doing a bit of decorating. The cottage looked nice, but I thought it could use some of my own personal touches. “I love it here,” I told him. “I can‘t tell you h ow much I appreciate this.”

Soren waved his hand at me and stepped into the living room. “It‘s nothing, Ro. I‘m just glad that you ar e going to be here to watch over my home while I‘m away. Is everything to your liking? If not, we can always get new furniture.” He ran his hand along a table near the back of the sofa.

“Everything is great,” I assured him. Some of the furniture was a little worn, but it was perfect for me. I didn‘t mind.

“Well, then, Ro, if all of the other rooms are adequate. Perhaps we could go look at furniture for the baby‘s room? Would you like to take a little trip? See what we can find?”

My face lit up. “That would be amazing! But I still don‘t know if I‘m having a boy or a girl. I guess it doesn‘t matter for basic furniture.”

He shrugged. “If you go with white or basic wooden furniture, the gender shouldn‘t matter. You can wait for all of the finishing touches later, I suppose.”

“I would love that. Thank you so much!“.

With a grin, Soren reached out and patted my arm. “Go get ready to go, and I‘ll wait here.”

I went to get ready, putting on a nicer outfit, one that Soren had his own maids pick out for me recently. When I moved in, my closets had been full of cute maternity clothes in my size and the larger sizes I would need. I put on a pair of red leggings and a white flowing top with re d polka dots and my makeup, putting my hair in a ponytail before I headed out to join Soren.

“Wow!” he said, putting his cell phone in his pocket the moment he saw me, making me feel more important than whomever he‘d been talking to something Ethan woul d never do. “You look amazing. You‘re always beautiful, but that outfit is great.”

“Thanks,” I said, “It‘s one that your people bought me.”

“My people have good taste,” he said. “Shall we?” He offered me his arm like we were going to a formal ball.

I took his arm, and we headed out the door into a lovely day where the sun was shining down on us bri ghtly, and the birds were singing. The weather was always nice here.

“Now, there‘s something I need to tell you,” Soren said, as we walked along past the bright flowers in th e garden. Their floral aromas swirled around us and added to the enchantment of this day.

“What‘s that?” I asked him, not bothered by whatever it was he was about to reveal.

“There‘s no baby furniture store on this island,” he said.

I felt a tinge of disappointment inside, but I figured he had to have a solution, or else we wouldn‘t still be walking. “Okay…,

“We will have to go to another, nearby island, and they‘ll ship your purchases over. I‘ll handle all of that, no problem.”

“All right!”

“Don‘t you want to know how we‘re getting there?” he asked as we reached the garden gates.

“Won‘t we just take a boat?” I asked him.

But as we exited the garden and I saw the yard around Soren‘s mansion, I realized there was something at the dock in the distance I‘d never seen there before.

I‘d heard it a few times but never really thought about it before.

“Nah,” he said with a grin. “I thought we‘d take a different ride of mine–if you‘re not too nervous.”

“I‘m not too nervous,” I said, but I wasn‘t sure that was true. My face might‘ve gone a little pale at the sight. Still, I trusted him, and I was up for an adventure.

I was up for a ride in a seaplane.

***

Ibuckled my seatbelt tight, but I was still nervous when the seaplane took off. It was loud, I couldn‘t hear much. I had a headset on, and I was so glad that Soren was right next to me.

“It‘s fine,” he told me, leaning over to me. His voice was clear and deep in my ear, causing goosebump s all over my body. “I fly in the seaplane all the time.”

I couldn‘t help but grab his arm.

“I know,” I said, looking out the window to hide my pinking cheeks. I was more worried about my baby t han myself. I couldn‘t help but think,

if we crashed, something would happen to my child. But I knew that was silly. We would be fine.

I squeezed Soren‘s arm as the seaplane lifted off of the ground, but once we were in the air, and the island beneath us was getti ng smaller and smaller, the view was spectacular. I clapped for him, and that made Soren laugh.

“I want to show you something really special. Look over there,” he said, leaning over and pointing out m y window. He was so close to me, it was hard to focus on the scene out the window and not him. “Do y ou see the waterfall?” He touched me gently on the arm, just a soft, soothing touch.

“I do!” I said, watching the stream of crystal blue water cascading down from the lush green at the top of the mountain. Everywhere I looked, I saw the beauty of the islands. I hadn‘t gotten to see much of my surroundings since I‘d been injured so quickly after my arrival, but it was beautiful here.

Like paradise.

“Oh!” Soren gasped, pointing out to the ocean. “Look out there!”

I turned my attention to the water just in time to see several gray dolphins leaping out of the water and diving back in. “That‘s incredible!”

I turned my head to look at him, and he was so close to my face, my lips almost grazed his cheek.

A rush of heat filled my face as I turned back to look out the window, ignoring the spicy masculine smell of his cologne as well. I couldn’t tell why, but Soren acted a little differently today.

The seaplane ride didn’t take long, and in a matter of minutes, we were landing again. Soren scooted back into his own seat once we began to descend, and

when we touched down on the water, he gently squeezed my hand. I felt a little awkward.

But we were friends, and this was just how Soren was. I told myself to stop overreacting and focus on t he new experiences.

“Let‘s go,” Soren said, hopping out of the seaplane first. He offered his hand, and I climbed out. I hesita ted but avoided his hand-I grabbed his arm to steady myself instead. There was a car waiting for us that took us the short distance to the baby furniture store.

I walked in and was almost overwhelmed with all of the adorable baby decor I was greeted with.

I wanted to touch and see everything! Soren laughed at me as I covered my face with my hands.

“It‘s a great little store, isn‘t it?” he asked, guiding me in with one hand on the small of my back.

“It is.” I agreed. It was a mom and pop store, so it wasn‘t that big, but it had a lot in it. Everywhere I look ed, the next item was cuter than the last.

“Look at this,” he said, picking up a baby bonnet. He put it on his head, even though it was way too small for him

–and pink.

Laughter rolled out of my mouth. “You‘re an awfully big baby,” I told him.

Looking injured, he took the hat off and put it down, “Well, that wasn‘t very nice.”

“Oh, I‘m sorry,” I said and then in a baby voice, I asked, “Did I huwt yow feewings?” and then we both laughed together until we could hardly stand up.

“Can I help you?” an older woman asked, coming over to meet us. She looked amused at our antics, not annoyed, and when we could finally speak again, I decided to let Sore

n be the one to tell her what we were there for.

“Hello, Mrs. Dover,” he said, still chuckling a bit. “How are you today?”

“Oh, Mr. Soren!” she said, bowing her head. “Forgive me. I didn‘t recognize you.. under the circumstanc es.”

“No, no, it‘s quite alright,” he said, waving her off nonchalantly. “This is Miss Ro. I believe my assistant, Thomas, called you to let you know we‘d be in to look for some nursery furniture?”

“Yes, I spoke to him a little while ago,” Mrs. Dover said with a bright smile. She had white hair and glasses and looked like a sweet grandmotherly figure. “Miss Ro, do you have any idea what sort of furniture you might want for your nursery?”

I stared at her for a moment because I hadn‘t really given it too much thought. When I‘d lived in the capital, 1 knew all of those decisions would be made without my input. “No, ma‘am,” I said. “Not really.”

“Ma‘am?” she questioned. “My goodness, you‘re polite! You don‘t need to be so formal, sweetie. Well, come along, and let‘s take a look at what we have, and you can let me know which ones you like the best, and we can narrow it down from there.”

For the next hour or so, we walked around the little shop and looked at all of the options. I looked at several different beds, but when I finally saw one that was in the back of the store, a cherry wood crib w ith a beautiful finish that caught the light and seemed to glow, I thought, “That‘s the one.”

“Can we look at that one?” I asked Mrs. Dover.

“Oh, yes,” she said. “That one is the Leonardo model. We don‘t sell a lot of those because they are so expensive, but it‘s w onderful.”

“Let‘s look at it,” Soren said, his hands in his pockets as if they had no bottoms.

Mrs. Dover smiled and led us over. “As you can see, it‘s very sturdy. The slats are close together, so the baby will always be safe, and it converts into a toddler bed.”

She went on to tell us several other pieces of information about the bed and the rest of the matching furniture, but I d

Sometimes, when you see the right one, you just know. However, I decided to walk away from it. Just because I liked it, didn‘t mean I could afford it.

“What do you think?” Soren asked.

I shook my head. “Soren, let‘s take a look at others.”

“You don‘t like it? Why? Is it the color?”

I shook my head. “No, I do like it, just–”

“We‘ll take it,” Soren said, interrupting my words. I stared at him for a moment, thinking maybe we needed to talk about it. “What?” he asked, staring right back.

“Soren, it‘s too expensive,” I told him. “I don‘t think I can afford it.”

“What? Oh, don‘t worry, I‘ll pay for it.”

I grabbed his arm, “No, Soren, I‘m not sure if I can ever pay you back.”

He tipped his head to the side and lifted his hand to touch my face. “Ro,” he said, “I thought we passed that. Don‘t worry about it. I want to do this for you. Besides… I‘ve thought about that, and I have an idea of one of the ways that you can pay me back for everything.”

“Huh?” | asked him, but before he could respond to me, Mrs. Dover was talking to him again, and Soren was talking to her again.

I had no idea what he was talking about as far as me paying him back, but it made me nervous.

Soren had offered me a good job, and that‘s why I was here. However, even with that, it could be years before ! could pay back what he had sp

Would someone really do that for just a friend?

Knowing how kind Soren was, he probably would, right?

“Are you ready, Ro?” Soren asked, offering me his hand.

Thadn‘t realized that the entire transaction was over. I never saw him pay anything, but then, maybe Tho

“Oh, yeah, I‘m ready,” I said, trying to snap out of my head. I‘d enjoyed my day so far, and I didn‘t want to have it ruined because I was concerned with how I was going to repay Soren.

We left the store and made our way back to the waterway where the seaplane was waiting for us. I‘m so

couldn‘t eat lunch together,” Soren said. “But I do have another meeting this afternoon I need to get to.”

“That‘s okay,” I told him before we climbed in, and I braced myself for the seaplane to lift off again. This

I wanted to make sure he wasn‘t trying to buy me.

We landed and he walked me back to my cottage. “Ro, is everything okay?” he asked, walking next to me. “I feel like something‘s wrong. Did I do

“Everything is fine,” I told him. “I think I just wore myself out.”

“Oh, that‘s too bad,” he said. “Because I was hoping that when we got back to your place, you could start paying me back for all of the stuff I‘ve given you.” He had a twinkle in his eye and a mischievous smile on his face.

I felt my stomach tighten up, wondering what he was getting at.

Maybe I didn‘t want to know.