Total pages in book: 159
Estimated words: 148184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 741(@200wpm)___ 593(@250wpm)___ 494(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 148184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 741(@200wpm)___ 593(@250wpm)___ 494(@300wpm)
When I turn to face him again, his eyes rake across my face only, refusing to dip lower. “Why don’t you go take a shower, and I’ll get the bedding changed so we can sleep? You need your rest so our son grows strong.”
I’ve about fucking had it. Anger burns through me in a hot sticky wave as I spin on my heel and head toward the door. Before I make it to the hallway, I call back to him, “I hope it’s a girl.”
49
ADRIAN
The second she’s out of my sight, something inside me snaps. No. She won’t do this to me again, not while I have breath left in my body.
I heave myself off the bed, still completely naked, and chase after her, grabbing my discarded shirt on the way out. It’s not even that I’ve told her several times she won’t leave my side. It’s the fact that she is running again. If she thinks she can get away a second time, she’s about to face the harsh reality of how far I’ll go to protect what’s mine.
Despite following almost immediately, she got a good head start on me. I catch up to her in the foyer, but she’s stopped in the middle of it like she’s wrestling with the fact that she left the room to begin with. I ease up behind her and lay the cotton over her shoulders so she can cover herself.
“Don’t,” she grits out, almost on a sob. “Don’t touch me right now. I’m not leaving the penthouse; I just needed a fucking minute.”
She doesn’t curse often, but when she does, it feels like a sucker punch to the chest.
“All my life,” she continues, “people have made decisions for me. Who I’ll marry, what I’ll wear, how I’ll act, and you know what…they all say it’s what’s best for me. Every single one of them…even my father, when he saddled me with Sal, said he agreed to the betrothal because it’s what’s best for me.”
I open my mouth to speak, but she cuts in first, “I want to see Rose.”
It takes me a moment to process her request, my heart climbing uncomfortably into my throat, making my words harsher than I intend. “She’s dead. You can’t see her.”
Something feral sparks in her eyes. “You think I don’t know that? You said you took care of her, so I want to go to her grave. I never got to say goodbye to her. And right now, if she were here, she’s the one I’d be running to in order to sort out everything I’m feeling.”
I reach out to pull her toward me, but she shrugs from my grasp. I close the distance between us then, pressing her into the nearest wall. If she won’t let me touch her, then at the very least, she’ll hear me. “You should come to me if you have something to sort out. We are husband and wife. I should be the person you want to fall back on.”
She lifts her chin, her jaw clenches. “And I might if you weren’t so determined to keep me locked up like a goddamn prisoner. I’m a human being. I made a mistake, and I apologized. I thought you’d forgiven me, but now it seems like you are using this pregnancy as a way to punish me for leaving in the first place.”
I slam my hand into the wall above her head, igniting a throb along my palm, and keep my eyes locked with hers. “Do you have any idea what the council—the society—will do to keep my heir from coming into the world? I’m not keeping you locked up as a punishment, but a kindness. For protection.”
“That song still sounds eerily familiar. It doesn’t matter, though. I still want to see Rose. There are things I need to talk to another woman about that I can’t say to you.” Then with her teeth clenched, she adds, “Please.”
“Andrea is another woman,” I say, grasping at straws now.
“Andrea isn’t in any shape to be talking to anyone except a therapist or an arms dealer. She definitely won’t want to talk to me about my pregnancy.”
Neither of us speaks again, and a tense silence stretches taut. A tear slips silently down her cheek, and it’s another punch to the chest. Dammit. Hurting her is the last thing I want to do, but I also won’t allow her to jeopardize herself or our baby. So I pull out the big guns. “I can’t let you leave the penthouse, not while they are riding me so hard about Sal and his disappearance. Not when his family is seeking revenge. On top of that, we’ll have to answer questions about your father sooner or later.”
Her forehead crumples, and her shoulders slump. Pushing the guilt button wasn’t kind of me, but I’ve never been a nice man. If being a dick means it keeps her safe, then I’ll do what I have to every single time.