Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 127722 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 639(@200wpm)___ 511(@250wpm)___ 426(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127722 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 639(@200wpm)___ 511(@250wpm)___ 426(@300wpm)
The shock hadn’t worn off for me yet. He just didn’t seem like a man capable of those kinds of feelings, let alone saying them out loud. Our marriage started off as a political convenience, and I wasn’t sure when it became genuine. It felt like it’d always been genuine.
Once we were dry, we returned to the bedroom. I hadn’t slept for days, and while I was exhausted, I wasn’t sure if I could sleep. Not after everything that had happened. Not after what he’d just said. Not when the sunlight came through the window because the sun had risen at some point.
“If you’ve got a problem, give it to me straight.”
I had just closed the curtain when his deep voice shattered me. I flinched on the spot, the aggression enough to make my bones tighten. I turned back around, the room much darker now that the sun had been shut out.
In just his underwear, he stood there, his muscular arms at his sides, his jaw clean because he’d shaved off his beard. His eyes were intense, as if we were enemies rather than lovers. “I don’t have a problem.”
“You haven’t said a word to me.”
“You haven’t said a word to me either.”
His eyes narrowed even more.
“I…I didn’t think you felt that way.”
He cocked his head slightly as if in disbelief.
“I was just surprised…is all.”
“Surprised?” His tone became clipped, hostile. He came toward me.
Instinctively, I backed up, as if we really were enemies.
He flattened his hand to my stomach and pushed me up against the wall. He lowered his head, so we were eye level, his open palm taking up my entire torso. “A man shouldn’t have to tell a woman how he feels. It should be obvious in everything he fucking does. And I’ve made it’s pretty fucking obvious.” His eyes shifted back and forth as he looked into mine, and he pressed his hand a little harder into my stomach as if I might try to get away. “I don’t talk about raising daughters like sons with any whore I’ve had in my bed. I don’t challenge my mother for a woman who means nothing to me. I’ve never called another lover ‘baby,’ and I never will. Don’t act surprised. Don’t act like you had no idea that I would slit my own throat before I’d let anything ever happen to you.” He dropped his hand and finally let me go, finished making his point.
“Why are you so angry right now?”
“Why? Because I told my whole fucking family that I love you, and you didn’t say a goddamn thing. That’s why.”
“I was just shocked—”
“Get the fuck over it.” He turned away this time and faced the bed, showing me his muscular back.
“You know I love you.” The words came out, my mind no longer in charge of my heart. “I know I’ve made it pretty obvious too…”
He stilled for a while before he slowly turned back to me. “Then grow some balls and say it—”
“I love you.” My eyes started to fill with tears, and I didn’t even know why. Everything hurt. Like my heart was a dam that was opening for the first time, everything came flooding out. The release was powerful, so powerful it actually hurt. “I’ve loved you for a long time…”
His eyes were focused once again, looking at me with that intense expression that was so fierce it was sharper than a sword straight out of the forge. His arms hung by his sides as he came closer to me, as he backed me up against the wall again.
My heart was beating so fast it was going to give out. There wasn’t enough blood to feed it. Enough air in my lungs.
He scooped me into his arms and lifted me up, my back against the wall. Instead of kissing me, he held me there, his eyes on my lips as if he was waiting for the right moment to feast on my body and soul.
His eyes lifted to mine, and he finally kissed me, a soft embrace that was delicate and gentle, but packed with passion. His eyes were on mine as he gave me purposeful kisses, his fingers kneading my bare ass as he held me without complaint.
My arms circled his neck, and I got swept up right away, lost in his kiss, lost in the most powerful chemistry I’d ever felt.
Without breaking the moment, he carried me to the bed and rolled me onto my back, his hips staying between my thighs. His hand yanked at my underwear and pulled them over my ass and down my legs, and then he pushed his down to his knees.
He positioned himself between my legs, my head on the pillow in the center of the bed, and he inched himself deep inside me as his eyes remained locked to mine. Farther and farther, he went until there was nowhere else for him to go.