Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 95147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
“I was thinking about having a salad.”
“My ass! You had coffee at seven this morning.” He looked at his watch. “That was six hours ago; you’re not having lettuce to get you through the rest of the workday. The fuck is wrong with you?”
“Do you have eyes?”
“What does that mean?” I made an up-and-down motion with my hands in front of my body.
“How many times and ways do I have to say this? If you don’t like you, don’t expect anyone else to, and don’t think for a second that you’re gonna put this shit on me. You don’t have to change a damn thing about yourself for me. You reeled me in looking like this, right? So what the fuck!”
“But don’t you….”
“Don’t I what? Want you to change what I was attracted to in the first place? You’re a smart woman, for fuck sake, think.” Why is he so angry? I thought it best not to find out here and now. He had me so turned around I couldn’t think of what I wanted to have for lunch.
I wish he understood that this was new to me, that I’d never had the freedom to just eat as I wanted to without being judged and frowned upon. People always seem to think that because I’m not stick thin, I should stick to the lowest calorie option on the menu.
Except for Nat, of course, she’s another one that gets highly offended when I bypass something she knows. I like to have something less palatable for the sake of losing or not gaining weight.
“It’s not that complicated, Stephanie; if you eat something heavy for lunch, go lighter for dinner, and vice versa, if that will make you feel better. Stop denying yourself shit you like because of other people; the fuck they know about your life?”
“Maybe I don’t need to compensate myself with food anymore; maybe something else is making me happy.” I forced myself to look at him while I said that, even though my insides had turned to liquid, and saw the look of surprise flash across his face before his cheeks heated with color.
“That’s my girl!” He pulled me towards him with his hand on the back of my head and kissed me right there at the table for all the world to see.
MACE
I knew I had made the right call coming to get her for lunch. If I could, I’d take her out of there for the rest of the day, but I know her, and she wouldn’t want to fob off of work when things were so busy for her. As a businessman, I can respect that, but as her man, I’m a bit on the fence about letting her out of my sight.
I knew there would be backlash from my actions; that’s why I sent Simon and Drake to keep an eye on her, but it’s only a matter of time before she realizes that I’d blocked her ex-mother-in-law’s number on her phones or the old woman found another way to contact her. I was lucky enough as it was that there’d been no contact so far, but I’m not taking any chances.
It's mind-boggling to me how someone as smart as she can let herself be manipulated by others. I know part of it is her soft heart, but there’s something else at play here. It’s almost as if she thinks she needs to be a doormat to these people because she wants acceptance, and the problem is, I doubt she even sees it.
It's easy for me to see looking in from the outside. I’m sure there’s shit about me that she’s noticed when I haven’t as well, but that’s for another time. Right now, it’s her well-being that I’m most interested in; we’ll get to me later, I’m sure, because there’s nothing a female likes more than fixing some shit that’s wrong with her man. Fucking experts, all of ‘em.
The waitress came over, and she was still biting at her lip, so I took charge and ordered for both of us. From the way my girl reddened and tried to hide her smile, I knew I’d made the right choice for her and just rolled my eyes at the fuckery of it all. “Hey, babe, what do you plan to do when you get pregnant? You gonna starve you and the kid to stay thin?”
There were two very surprised people at that table. Her because it came out of left field and me, because I had no idea I was about to say those words out loud. I hadn’t even thought about that conversation I’d overheard the night we met in forever, so the words just sort of fell out of my mouth for no good damn reason at all.
Poor Steph looked flustered as hell, and I wasn’t doing much better, but since the bull was out of the pen, why not go with it? “I think I’ve been subconsciously trying to get you pregnant. Haven’t you noticed how often I forget to suit up? That’s never happened before, not even once.”