Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 73013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
I had felt reassured and even comforted at the beginning of Mrs. Purdy’s little speech. I did indeed want to trust Rick—and I knew my husband deserved that trust, had earned it throughout our courtship, when he had waited patiently and had never pressured me to be intimate before marriage.
The last thing she had said though, about her husband… about him training her in the bedroom…
I swallowed hard. I had tried to maintain my composure, but I could feel how stricken my face must look: lips parted and jaw slack. The blush at least had drained out of my face as my tummy churned.
Mrs. Purdy stood behind her desk, looking again at Rick.
“Let’s get you two on your way,” she said cheerily.
I felt Rick take my hand, and when I turned to look at him again at last I saw concern in his face.
“Let’s just get to the house,” he said, his voice sympathetic. “We’ll talk it all over.”
To my horror, Mrs. Purdy apparently felt the need to give more of her already unwelcome advice.
“That’s a great idea, Mr. Williams,” she said, coming around the desk and looming over us, “but I’d encourage you to make sure you also take action when you need to, to make your wishes clear.”
My heart raced in my chest as I saw Rick look up into the older woman’s face, his face meditative, a small smile on his lips. He nodded.
“Thanks, Florence,” he said. He started to stand up, pulling my hand gently to help me up. For a moment, I resisted, pulling back against his grasping hand.
Let’s see him take action, a voice inside my mind said. My already racing heart seemed to skip a beat. A logical part of me examined the thought and labeled it, to my horror, bratty.
Definitely bratty.
“Let’s go, Mandy,” Rick told me, his voice resolute—not severe, really, but on the way there. He pulled a little harder. A thrill of fight-or-flight arousal traveled through my body, and I felt my hips jerk, just a millimeter, with the faint memory of my husband putting me over his knee.
I rose hurriedly, my face hot once again, refusing to look either at Rick or at Mrs. Purdy. I needed to escape from these thoughts and feelings, I thought. Fight-or-flight, definitely, with an emphasis on flight, right now.
Above all, I didn’t want to think about that bratty moment, that resistance not for the sake of actual rebellion but purely—my brain had seen in an instant—to see what my suddenly confident husband would do, when I defied him.
I kept my eyes on the floor as Mrs. Purdy opened the office door and led us back out to the reception area.
“Joan,” I heard her saying, her voice sounding distant, thanks to how wrapped up in my thoughts I had involuntarily become, “will you be able to come to the club tomorrow to have lunch with Mrs. Williams? Amanda, Joan’s a newlywed, too—she and her husband just moved to Rocky Falls a few months ago. I think she’ll have some good advice for you.”
I looked at the pretty young woman, who smiled up at me a little shyly.
“Definitely, Mrs. Purdy,” she said, glancing over at her boss before returning her attention to me. “Amanda, I’m sure you’re nervous—I was too. But I’m guessing you’ll love Rocky Falls.”
CHAPTER 14
Mandy
The house they had given us was at least twice as big as my childhood home, where my parents had raised three children. I had shared a bedroom with my sister, but this house had four bedrooms; room for as many kids as I had ever imagined having. I stood in the kitchen, looking at the fridge, remembering what Mrs. Purdy said about the New Modesty stocking it for us. I couldn’t even summon up the courage to open it, afraid of what I would find, and how it would affect me.
Rick had wandered off—this beautiful modern colonial had enough space for your husband to wander off, I realized with another little turn of my belly. I thought I could hear him in what I supposed we would call the den, if we actually lived here. Surely, if we did move to this town, they wouldn’t give us a house like this one, though? This was just to make sure we were impressed, right?
But Rick had an opportunity to become an executive… and this house represented the kind of mini mansion that I associated with words like executive and businessman.
I couldn’t stop looking at the gleaming refrigerator, with its double doors. I had my right hand on the smooth, cool handle of the freezer. For the first time I glanced out the huge picture window of the great room, visible over the enormous marble-topped island, to see in the setting sun that the house had a pool, too. The time on the microwave said 6:43.