Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 99960 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99960 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
I rubbed a hand over my beard, trying to piece together the bits of information she’d given me. “I have a feeling Aria doesn’t know.”
“A feeling?” Sarah let out another beleaguered sigh. “You’re her husband, Jar. You should know if your wife has a difficult relationship with her parents.”
At her pointed look, I turned away. “It’s been nice catching up, but I need to get back to work.”
“Okay.” She stood, not at all put out by my abruptness. Instead she reached over to squeeze my arm. “Be careful. I don’t want you to get into trouble.”
“Marriage is trouble?” I joked half-heartedly, trying to maintain the lie.
My cousin saw right through me. “It is if you married for the wrong reasons.”
Hours later, Allegra hadn’t come home. I distracted myself with dinner and cleaning the house. I’d brought down a load of laundry from my room to do, only to discover Allegra had left dirty clothes in the machine, and a pile of clean laundry on top of it. Shoving my things in with hers, I’d set the machine and then considered the clothing in the basket I’d laid down on the floor. Allegra had folded the clothes that were clean and dry and piled her clean underwear on top of that.
I tried not to look too hard at the mix of lace, cotton, and silk as I lifted the basket to take to her room.
It was strange stepping inside what had been Sarah’s room. She and Theo still stayed in here at Christmas. Now they’d be relegated to the attic. I felt almost like I was trespassing in my own home as I entered the bedroom. Allegra’s scent hit my nose as I wandered slowly inside.
She hadn’t changed it much. There were scatter cushions on the bed I didn’t recognize and the duvet was different. Her things cluttered Sarah’s old dressing table. Settling the basket of laundry on the bed, I wandered over to the table. A perfume bottle shaped like a glass grenade caught my attention. Lifting it up, I noted the word Flowerbomb on it and sniffed.
My gut tightened with need as Allegra’s scent filled my senses. It wasn’t a sweet, light perfume. It was floral but earthy. Confident, assured. Sexy as fuck. Just like the woman who wore it.
Jewelry glinted on the table’s wooden surface, and I lowered the bottle. There was a pile of rings and earrings scattered across the dresser. I’d noted Allegra switched up her jewelry regularly, but she had a specific style and taste. The rings looked handcrafted, some hammered metal, some not quite smooth and perfect like they would be if they were machine-made. All of them were fairly unusual, either unadorned metal or with small stones. Not outlandish. But unique.
Kind of like their owner.
Near the jewelry was a picture frame. It also looked handcrafted and held within it a photo of Allegra with Aria. Aria was in her wedding gown and Allegra in a soft silver blue bridesmaid dress. I’d attended the wedding with a date. Allegra had gone alone. I could admit to myself my eyes had wandered to her more than once at the wedding. The dress she wore was made of silk and had clung to her body in all the right places. She was fucking breathtaking on a normal day, but that day it almost hurt to look at her.
Sighing, I shook myself from the memory and strode back to the bed to take her laundry out of the basket.
Lifting out the pile, I laid it on her duvet but the underwear started to fall. When I reached to stop it, my fingers caught on a pair of barely there lace knickers. Hot blood flooded southward as I swallowed hard and I lifted the pants up with both hands.
Holy fuck.
Allegra was wandering around my house wearing shit like this?
The wife who was legally mine and yet I could not touch was walking around the house we shared with this under her clothes?
The image of peeling the lacy knickers down her toned thighs made me instantly hard.
Fuuuuuck.
I dropped the knickers like they burned, my eyes alighting on a bra in the same material. Lifting it up, I took in the matching bra with a hard swallow. The sheer cups were edged in the same soft pink lace.
Her nipples must be visible through this thing.
Suddenly too hot and feeling like a pervy bastard, I dropped Allegra’s underwear and hurried out of the bedroom with the emptied basket.
“This is fucking torture,” I muttered aloud as I practically threw the basket back in the utility room. Images raced through my mind that I couldn’t stop until I was restless and agitated and in desperate need of release. If I stayed in this state when Allegra came home, I knew my willpower would break. I knew I’d initiate something we’d both regret.