Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 63243 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 316(@200wpm)___ 253(@250wpm)___ 211(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63243 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 316(@200wpm)___ 253(@250wpm)___ 211(@300wpm)
“Try me.”
“It’s not worth the risk, Blythe.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“You have to.”
“I think you’re being a coward.”
“I probably am, but it’s to keep you safe.”
I laugh at his incredulous statement. “I know what you’re doing, Shawn. This isn’t about me. This is about you trying to save face. You’ve ignored me for a year, you’ve lied, you’ve stolen money, you’ve intentionally deceived me, and for all I know you’ve been cheating on me all this time.”
In a heartbeat he’s on his feet. Lunging forward, he wraps his large hand around my wrist and pulls me from the chair. I crash hard against his muscly chest, feeling the heavy rise and fall. His lips linger dangerously close to mine, eyes gleaming with a passion I’ve so missed from him.
“I wake up with the biggest hard-on every fucking morning because I haven’t fucked my wife for a year, much less anyone else. I go to bed with the biggest hard-on because my cell screen saver is still of you in your fucking pink bikini at Cabo. So, a truth I can tell you, Blythe, is… I have not laid a single finger on another woman.”
My knees weaken with his intensity, and I feel a familiar fire in my belly.
I want to hate him for all he’s done and is still doing. I want to hurt him the same way he has me. But my traitorous body still responds in the same whorish way it always has with Shawn.
He snakes a hand around my neck and through my hair, inching our lips closer. A battle wages within—I want him to kiss me hard and passionate, but I also want to kick him in the balls.
I’m now breathing heavy, the same as Shawn, our hearts racing at the identical speed.
His lips finally crash to mine and I fall against his body, allowing him to claim my mouth the way he so expertly does. We both groan, tongues meeting again after what feels like a lifetime. There’s nothing gentle about him but he’s still the perfect kisser I remember him being. Cupping my ass, he lifts me until my legs wrap around his waist. I feel his cock straining against his pants, pressing delightfully against me. Lowering me to the bed, him on top propped up with his elbow, my husband stares deep into my soul.
“Everything I’ve done is for us. No matter how it turned out, no matter how fucked-up the objective got, it was all for us.”
I feel my heart once again forming sharp icicles. His words sound like lies to my already-jaded ears. None of this—whatever he’s done that he can’t reveal—could possibly be for us. I allowed him to get this far, drawing me into his web of lies, but bitterness and the fear of further manipulation takes over and I attempt to push him away. Sensing the change in my demeanor, he fights me, grabbing my wrists and pinning them above my head.
“Let me up, Shawn.”
“Don’t do this, babe. You—”
“Don’t call me that!”
He looks like I’ve slapped him. “Blythe, this is the best we’ve been in a year. Can’t you just roll with it and see where it takes us?”
So you get a free fuck?
“I know exactly where this is going to take me, and it’s nowhere good. If you can’t explain to me what the hell is happening, then you can never expect me to trust you.”
I struggle against his grip, which he tightens in response. I buck under him, wanting to throw him off, yet all I achieve is feeling his still-hard cock pressing into me.
“One day, babe. One day, I’ll be able to tell you everything. But for now, I can’t. And you just need to trust me on that.”
“Your actions have given me every reason not to trust you, and I simply can’t go on pretending that what’s happening is okay. Because it’s not.”
Shawn lowers his lips to mine and unlike earlier, he kisses me tenderly. I don’t fight against it, I let him do it because, frankly, deep down I want to roll with it. But I’m not a naïve nineteen-fifties housewife who lets her lying husband walk all over her.
“Don’t pretend you don’t want this,” he says, half-reading my mind. If he knew the other half, he’d be scrambling to safety.
“You’ve broken my heart, Shawn,” I admit through a moment of weakness.
Even in the dark, I see the pain in his eyes. The same pain I’ve been carrying around for so long. “Don’t. Don’t do this, babe. We’re stronger than—”
“Listen!” I choke, closing my eyes, feeling like I’m being strangled. “You have no idea how much I love you. You’ve taken my heart and shattered it into tiny pieces. I can never trust you again, and without trust, you and I are nothing.”
My husband wipes my tears with his thumbs, dropping his forehead to mine. A few heartbeats pass and I feel his own tears falling down my cheek, a moment of weakness I’ve never seen from him. He shifts his weight off me and releases his hold. I move to the edge of the bed and straighten my clothes, trying desperately to swallow the hard lump lodged in my throat. Heaving a heavy sigh, I blink the tears away and square my shoulders. Reaching the bedroom door, I turn back when Shawn’s voice stops me.