Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 67905 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67905 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
“And you’ll actually let me get my stuff?”
He stared.
I stared back.
Then he smirked slightly. “We’ll see.”
It was nice to have a home-cooked meal after all the room service I’d had at the hotel. It was nice to eat at a dining table instead of on the couch. And it was nice to be with someone instead of being trapped in suffocating isolation.
Bolton didn’t ask me any questions as he sat across from me. Just looked at me as he ate his food.
“You haven’t gone to work?” I knew what he did for a living, but he talked about his line of work like he was a traveling salesman, selling life insurance to whomever he could find on the road.
He gave a shake of his head. “I handed over my assignments.”
“Why?”
His eyes locked on mine. “I can’t focus. Not when my marriage is about to collapse.”
“It already did collapse, Bolton.”
“It can’t fall apart as long as I continue to hold it up,” he said. “And that’s what I’ll do…until you come home.”
I looked down at my food when the anger seeped from my pores.
“I would take it all back…”
I pushed my food around.
“It meant nothing to me, and you know that.”
“That makes it worse, Bolton. That you would break my heart for something that means nothing.”
His stare burned into my face. “I know this is something you don’t understand, but to men like me, sex is just sex. It’s a means to an end. But with you, it’s not sex. You’re my wife, and I make love to you. They’re separate.”
“That’s fine, Bolton. But I don’t want to be married to a man who feels that way. I want a husband who only wants me.”
“Then I am that man,” he said. “Because losing you has been the worst experience of my life. I want it to be the two of us, in this house, and the only other people who will sleep in our bed will be our children.”
My eyes went down to my food, touched by what he said and hating myself for it.
“Astrid, please.”
“It’s too late.”
“It’s never too late to start over,” he said. “Please.”
I focused on my food like my life depended on it, determined to resist him.
“Is it because of him?” His tone changed once he mentioned Theo, the only man I’d slept with besides Bolton—even though he’d fucked who knew how many women.
I still didn’t look at him.
“Astrid.”
My eyes immediately obeyed at his tone, meeting his angry stare.
“Answer me.”
The thought of Theo always caused me pain, like a knife had been stabbed into my stomach. A man so perfect it hurt. With the darkest eyes I’d ever seen…but the most beautiful soul. But he ended up being the greatest disappointment, because he was either a liar or an asshole. I still wasn’t sure which. My mind continued to try to process the man I swore I knew and the version he’d shown me. “No.”
“Are you still fucking him?” He’d been calmly emotional a moment ago, but now the rage bubbled to the surface.
“No.”
“Don’t lie to me, Astrid—”
“I’m not,” I snapped. “We aren’t seeing each other anymore.” He fucked me then dumped me. Hit it and quit it. Used me as a fucking come dumpster.
Bolton absorbed my stare with his angry look, searching for a lie.
“He—he ended things.” I wasn’t sure why I told Bolton that. I’d never been the kind to lie, even to tell a white lie, to purposely mislead someone with vague words. Truth and honesty were the backbone of my soul. I guess I wanted Bolton to know the truth, that it wasn’t my decision, because if it had been my decision…we would be together.
Bolton should have been disappointed by that information, but his anger started to seep into the ground like rainfall. “I’m not surprised. Got what he wanted…”
My eyes narrowed on his face, my heart giving a painful squeeze. “What—what do you mean by that?”
“Theo and I have a history—a bloody one.”
Hearing Bolton say Theo’s name was the strangest experience.
“He saw an opportunity to fuck up my life, and he took it.”
I kept a straight face, but inside, my heart was working like I’d just walked up ten flights of steps. My body needed more oxygen than my lungs could hold.
“It was a cheap shot, but nothing is beneath a man like him. Though, I suppose this is all my fault, because it wouldn’t have happened if I wasn’t such a fucking idiot.” His eyes drifted away, getting lost in thought. “I’m sorry you were a target in all this.”
Humiliation swept through me. Suffocating and unbearable humiliation. Did I actually get a flat tire, or did he slash my tires before I left? Did he actually give a damn about artwork, or did he need a reason to see me? All those things he said, that I was beautiful and deserved better, was that just to get me to leave Bolton? And when he came inside me on our last night together, was that just his last fuck-you to Bolton?