Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 91373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
He turned his head on the pillow. His eyes searched my face as his mouth turned up at one corner. “Morning.”
“Everything okay?”
Theo gestured to me in answer, and I moved across the bed to snuggle into him, resting my head on his chest. His arm came around me. Tenderness throbbed in my breasts as they pressed against his side, and I remembered that dull cramps in my lower belly had woken me.
“What date is it?” I mumbled.
Theo mumbled it back and I sighed. My period was due. Had it really been eight weeks since Theo arrived at the cottage? It felt like longer.
“What’s wrong?”
I still wasn’t a hundred percent comfortable talking about my monthly visitor, but I wasn’t as shy about it as I had been all those weeks ago. “I’ve got cramps.”
His arm tightened. “Do you need anything?”
“It’s not too bad.” I patted his chest. “What has you looking so broody this morning?”
“Broody? I don’t brood.”
I snorted because he definitely knew how to brood.
“Fine, maybe I can brood.” He trailed his fingertips down my arm and back up again in a gentle caress. Pleasure flushed through me.
“Why are you brooding?”
It was Theo’s turn to sigh heavily. “I think my brother might have put a missing person’s report out on me.”
I lifted my head to look at him. “Are you serious?”
He rolled his eyes. “Unfortunately. I have a voicemail from a police officer in London.”
“Why … why would he do that?”
“Because he’s like my father and can’t see past his own nose.”
“What will you do about it?”
“Nothing. I won’t play into his little games.”
“But it … has upset you?”
Theo was quiet so long I didn’t think he was going to answer. Then, “Today would have been my mother’s birthday. She would have been turning fifty-eight.”
I felt a wee crack across my heart. “Theo … I’m sorry. I … she must have been fairly young when she had you.”
“Young but not too young. Twenty-eight. She married my father at twenty-two, straight out of uni, fell pregnant, and had Sebastian at twenty-three. I came along five years later.”
“How did she like to celebrate her birthday?”
“Cake,” he answered immediately, amusement in his voice. “She loved cake. But she didn’t indulge much because she was trying to keep a perfect figure. As if that would’ve stopped the bastard from cheating on her.”
I smoothed a soothing hand over his chest.
“But on her birthday we’d have lots of cake. When I was around twelve or thirteen, I started taking her out for her birthday and we’d go for afternoon tea, except I’d arrange it so there were more cakes than sandwiches and tarts.”
I grinned, imagining little Theo doing that for his mum. “I bet she loved it.”
“She did. We’d have a lot of fun together. We did that every year until …”
A deep empathy came over me and I turned, blinking back tears, to press a kiss to his chest.
“She deserved so much better,” Theo whispered, such sadness in his voice. “My mother was the kindest woman I’ve ever known … until you.”
My tears threatened to spill.
“It seems so unfair that someone with such goodness in her was treated so abominably by the people she loved.”
“Theo,” I forced words past the emotion thickening my throat. “Your dad might have treated her poorly and your brother might not have been the best son, but you clearly adored her and she knew that. I know she knew that. Being that loved by one person … it can make everything else bearable. Trust me.”
His grip on my arm tightened and he squeezed me closer to him, I think to let my words percolate. We lay together in silence for a while.
Eventually, he rubbed my arm. “How are the cramps?”
My cheeks heated at how casually he asked. “A bit sore. I might see if there’s a hot water bottle lying around.”
“I’ll get up and get the fire going in the living room and have a look. You stay here.” He pressed a quick kiss to the top of my head before he slipped out from under me. Uncaring of his nakedness, he strode out of the room in search of a hot water bottle. I nestled into the sheets, soaking up the body heat he’d left behind.
Five minutes later he appeared in the doorway, totally naked still. He reached up, easily touching the doorframe above as he stretched, eyes pinning me to where I lay on his side of the bed.
We held each other’s gaze for what seemed like forever, the moment charged. Sexy, yes, but more intimate than that. My heart raced.
Finally, he released the doorframe and crossed the room to me. He didn’t address the moment. “Can’t find a hot water bottle. Does anything else work?”
I shrugged. “Not really. I better check to see if … well, if it’s arrived.”