Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 115400 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 577(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115400 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 577(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
This world is going to kill her.
I’ll watch her from a distance, ensuring she has everything she will ever need. A nicer home in a safer neighborhood away from men like Ezekiel, a car, money, and a full pantry of groceries. I can ensure she’s enrolled back in college and that there will be no repercussions from her time missed while she was here with me. But most of all, I can ensure her life isn’t in constant danger just by being the woman I love.
Fuck, and I do love her. I’m so fucking in love with her it aches. I hadn’t even realized I was capable, but here we are. I let her in, and instead of pushing me away like any sane woman would, she clutched on and sank her nails in, claiming me just as I’d done to her.
I’ve never feared anything. Never been emotionally involved to the point it leaves a scar. I was a fool to believe I could have this. Men in my position don’t get to have happiness. They don’t get to have families and love, not without risking their lives.
I sit and watch her until the sun begins to peek through the window, and when she finally wakes, a soft moan slips from her lips as she clutches the blankets to her naked chest with one hand and stretches her other out across the mattress, right to where I should be sleeping.
Her body stiffens, finding my side of the bed cold, and I watch as she peels her eyes open into the morning light.
“Mmmmmm,” she grumbles, rubbing her hand over her bright green eyes before pushing herself up into a sitting position and blowing me the fuck away. She looks incredible like this. Her hair is a mess, and her creamy skin looks good enough to eat as she clutches the blanket to cover her full tits. “What are you doing all the way over there? Did you sleep?”
“I’m sorry, Chiara.”
“Sorry?” she questions. “What for? Do you need to work this morning, or do you want to come back to bed? You tired me out last night, but now that I’m feeling refreshed, it’s my turn to give you the royal treatment.”
I hold her soft stare, knowing that the words that are about to come out of my mouth are going to break her, but I’ve never been one to beat around the bush. I’m direct in my intentions so that no one misunderstands me, and the same will apply here.
“You need to leave.”
Her brows furrow, and she stares at me confused. “Leave?” she mutters, her lips twisting with unease. “What do you mean? Is this too much? Do you need me to go back to sleeping in my room? If you do, that’s fine, but I thought you wanted this.”
“I don’t mean that you need to leave my room, Chiara. You need to leave my estate. It’s time for you to go back home. I’m releasing you. You’re free to go and live your life. You’re no longer a possession of mine.”
“I’m . . . I’m confused,” she says, clutching the blanket tighter to her chest like a security blanket. “What are you talking about? When you brought me here, you said I was here indefinitely. I was your property. There’s no get out of jail free card. This is my home now. Hell, you told your family I was your wife for fuck’s sake, and now all of a sudden, you’re just going to tell me to get out. What the fuck, Killian?”
“I’m sorry, Chiara. It was certainly not my intention to cause you any grievance. However, our . . . relationship has progressed in a way that is no longer beneficial to me, and so now you must go.”
“Must go?” she repeats as though trying the words out for herself. “I must go?”
“Yes.”
Chiara shakes her head as tears begin to fill her eyes, and I watch as she scrambles out of bed, taking the blanket with her. “You’ll have to forgive me because I’m not understanding,” she blurts, hysteria beginning to creep into her tone. “It was only last night you opened up to me and told me how important it was that I truly understand who you are and said that you needed me to love you. You said that you wanted me to be your wife, and now I have to leave, just like that? It doesn’t make any sense.”
“I’m sorry, Chiara. I—”
“No, don’t give me that bullshit,” she says, striding across the room toward me. “You’re scared. You opened up to someone for the first time in your life and now you’re scared.”
“I am not a man who fears his own heart, Chiara.”
“Then what the fuck?” she demands, stepping right in front of me as I stand to meet her. “I told you I was ready. I’ve allowed you to fuck with my whole life to the point that I don’t have anything to go back to, nor do I want to go back. I want this life with you. I want to be here with you.”