Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 85443 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85443 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
"I wasn't asking you to."
"No. But you will."
"That's a little presumptuous," I said, finally pulling back, wanting to have that conversation face-to-face.
"It's honest. I don't do love and flowers, babe. And women, they want love and flowers. They want their happily ever afters and their prince charmings."
"You're being..."
"Forthcoming," he cut me off. "You won't get flowers from me. And I don't do love. But I'll fuck you until you forget those things even exist. I'll make you come until you can't move afterward. Then I'll do it all over again. You want that, you understand that, then we're good. If not, listen to Ella when she comes in here and tells you to steer the fuck clear of me."
Deciding to leave me to think on that, he pulled back from me, grabbed his coffee in one hand and the bowl of peas in the other, handing it to me, then walking out of the room like nothing had happened. Meanwhile I felt a flush covering every inch of skin.
"Prudence," Ella said, walking in a minute later, her tone taking on an edge that I could only describe as motherly even though I had no personal experience with such a thing.
"You dirty liar, you," I said, small-eying her to try to cover my own embarrassment.
"Don't change the subject. Byron? You? What could you be thinking?"
"I know he seems like..."
"You don't need to tell me what he is and isn't, sweetheart," she said, moving over to the sink and leaning against it, crossing her arms over her chest, and staring right at me. "I have worked for that man for ten years and his uncle ten years before that. I saw him when he first moved into this house. I have watched him grow into the man he is. I know him. I know what he is and isn't. And he wasn't trying to be self-deprecating when he tried to warn you off. He was trying to be decent. You're a good girl. You can bristle at that all you want, but it doesn't change the fact that you are. And good girls shouldn't go anywhere near men like him."
"I'm not expecting..."
"Yes, yes you are," she cut me off, shaking her head. "You can look at me and see an old woman..."
"I don't see that," I objected immediately.
"Regardless. I am older. But back in my day, I was a good girl with a body like yours that bad boys wanted to get to know every inch of. I know the appeal of rich and powerful and enigmatic men. I wasted years of my life trying to convince myself that I could fit into their lifestyle. But I couldn't. You can't. And women, we can't give our bodies to a man without losing a small little chip of our hearts as well. I don't care how old school you think that mindset is, it is the truth. Every time we wrap ourselves around a man, every time one sinks inside us, a part of us imagines what it would be like if we could have that forever."
"Ella, I..." I didn't know what to say. Because, quite frankly, I agreed with her. But that didn't change the fact that I didn't want to talk myself out of continuing with Byron.
"I get it," she said, nodding. "Believe me, I do. My mother gave me this same warning that I am giving you."
"And you didn't listen," I said with a smile.
"We never do," she smiled back, turning back to the counter and starting to chop the potatoes for dinner.
We worked in silence for a long couple of minutes before the words blurted out of me before I could stop them. "What was he like when he first moved in?"
Her shoulders straightened and she was silent for a long minute before twisting her head over her shoulder at me, giving me a knowing smile. "Oh, sweetheart," she said with a head shake. "You are so screwed."
With that, she went back to work.
And, I figured, that was Ella's way of telling me to steer the fuck clear of Byron.
But, just as she didn't listen to the sage advice when she got it, I didn't listen when I did either.
TWELVE
Prue
I spent the entire rest of that day poised for Byron to finally grab me and start something. But I waited in vein because it never happened. He ate dinner alone in the dining room while answering emails on his phone. I ate dinner in the kitchen with Ella. I helped her clean up because Byron went out, I assumed, to Mandy's. I hung back in the kitchen making brownies even though it wasn't my day to make desserts, but I had literally nothing else to do with my time.
I went up to try to go to bed, but tossed and turned for an hour before grumbling, going back downstairs, and taking a walk around the grounds. And, well, when I got to the hot tub, there was really no going back to the house without getting in. My nerves were frazzled and there was no way I was going to get to sleep without some kind of relaxation. True, I had a tub in my room, but every self-respecting woman knew a hot tub beat a bathtub any day. I did a quick look around to make sure none of the guards were in the back and quickly shimmied out of my jeans and tee and climbed into the water in my bra and panties.