Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 142664 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 713(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142664 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 713(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
She knows exactly what kind of person I am, and that’s the problem. I’m who she sees in the mirror every day, without the childhood trauma. I’m who she wants to be but is too afraid to try. Though she’s got a pretty good head start with that attitude of hers.
I could tell her that the world I want to give her will release her from that, but she needs to see it and come to that conclusion on her own. I want her to step out on that limb, knowing that I will catch her if it breaks. It’s too soon for that yet, and she’s going to need to take the first step. Only then will I hold her hand the rest of the way.
“Nice suit. The body’s not bad either.” I kept walking, and she followed behind, down the stairs, past the closed-off wine cellar, and through the seventeenth-century door that led to an underground cave where pirates used to hide their loot, then out to the water’s edge.
Before I could drop the shorts I wore over my swim trunks, she dropped the coverup and dove into the water. I followed not far behind and kept up with her so she didn’t get swept out to sea.
We stayed in the water for a while since it was warm and the night was cool beneath the stars. “So, how many houses do you own?”
“Including the historical mansion in your town, there’s my primary home in the Marina District in the San Francisco Bay, then there’s one in Vail, one in Bermuda, this one, one in Florence, another one in Versailles, and you get to choose the next one. I know you like New Zealand, but since I’ve never been, I wouldn’t know where to start.”
I could feel her watching me as I treaded water. “Stop showing off that you know me so well. Give me twenty-four hours, and I bet I will know you as well.”
“But why would you bother if you’re not going to say yes to the dress?”
“You knew I was going to say yes before you started all this, didn’t you?” Until she said it, I really hadn’t been sure, but her words made my heart skip a beat.
“Of course, I knew. We were made for each other.”
“So, when should we do it?” She sounded like she was making a business deal. Scared little girl!
“The sooner the better. You’ve already got a wedding planned, haven’t you? Only, I think we should go to New Zealand for our honeymoon since that is your favorite place.” She didn’t say anything, so I carried on.
“We’ll stay here the first night so you can spend time with your family before they go back home as you’d planned if that’s what you want.” Personally, I think she wanted her family here on the first day of her honeymoon because she wasn’t looking forward to being alone with the idiot who’d cheated on her. I don’t expect to have that problem.
ALYSSA
I can’t believe I’m actually talking about doing this; this is nuts. I had no intention of giving in to him, but Mom had gotten into my head. Simply put, since I was willing to marry someone I wasn’t in love with and was barely attracted to in the last year or so, what was wrong with marrying someone I had more of an interest in since the day we met?
My inner voice wanted me to take things slow and not put myself in a position to get hurt, but there was another part of me, the part that I had fought so hard to tame during my many years of meditation, that was screaming to do it.
He knew everything about me. That’s the one thing that keeps sticking out to me. He knew, and he wasn’t running scared. He knew, and there was no judgment from his end. He knew, and he still wanted to marry me. Yeah, with our genes, our kids ought to be a delightful bunch. Nuts!
ALYSSA
I’m through with his stalker ass, now that’s enough. After our evening swim I was directed to the bathroom in the master suite while he went off to another one somewhere in the house. It was then I noticed my favorite brand of shampoo and conditioner, the soap I love but can only afford three times a year because it’s so damn expensive. I was saving to buy a house in a couple of years without a mortgage, thank you very much.
But what sent me over the edge was the music that piped through the speakers ten seconds after I got into the shower. I know for a fact that there is no way his PI or whoever he’d set on my ass could have no way of knowing my favorite songs.