Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 88580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 443(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 443(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
I shift around so I can face him. I’m surprisingly not self-conscious about being naked around him, still sticky with sweat. “Really? What was he like?”
“Difficult.” He flinches as if another word occurs to him. Something much worse. “My brothers and I used to be close, but my father made sure we didn’t stay that way. He thought conflict would forge us into a stronger unit, but all that fighting, that trauma—it only made us want to forget. I think that’s why my brothers all left for different parts of our empire.”
“How did your mother fit into this?”
“She didn’t. My mother wasn’t a part of his plans. She was always his trophy, the mother of his children, but never his partner. I hated that about them, how she was always so quiet when he was around, because I caught glimpses of the woman she could’ve been. Big and bold and funny. You see that now, although I think even that’s only a fraction of her potential. My father dimmed her light.”
I chew on my lip. It’s a compelling image: a candle in a dark room beneath a glass case starved of oxygen until the flame is barely a flicker.
“Is that what you want to avoid with me?”
“Yes, exactly. I don’t want that for us, and I’m afraid I’ve already started. I’m afraid all the terrible lessons my father shoved into me through force took root in my soul and I won’t be able to shake them.”
“We aren’t our parents.” I think of my own father sitting on the couch demanding more and more of me. Of my mother, struggling to keep afloat. What would our lives have been like if I hadn’t gotten hurt?
“No, we aren’t. Maybe that’s part of why I want this with you.”
“What, you think your father wouldn’t have approved?”
He touches my cheek tenderly. “No way in hell.”
“Why not? I’m delightful.”
“Yes, you are, but you’re also a table dealer. He wanted me to marry a senator’s daughter or an heiress.”
“Instead, you fell in love with a car crash victim.” The words leave my mouth before I can stop them, but once they’re in the air, I can’t make them go away. That word love lingers between us, and I wish I hadn’t said it. “I mean, uh, you know what I mean, right? I don’t mean love. You don’t, I mean—”
“I know how I feel about you, Casey.” He brushes hair from my face. “I’m not afraid of it.”
“Must be nice,” I murmur.
“I want you to stay my wife because you’re good for me in a way that my parents were never good for each other. I want you to stay my wife because I want a real partnership, a real woman. Not a piece of furniture. Not only a womb.”
“Ah, what a lovely compliment. I’m better than a couch.”
“Much better. In this case, I want you to sit on my face, as opposed to the opposite.”
“That is a very gross and weird image, thanks.”
“Except you enjoyed it when you were doing it barely twenty minutes ago.”
“Fair point.” My cheeks flush red as I burrow against him. “Can we just forget about being married for a little while? Just for a few hours?”
“If that’s what you want.”
“I have to figure things out. I mean, between me and you. I’m still not sure how I feel about everything and I just—” I stop, shaking my head. “I just need time.”
“Then you have it. As much of it as you need.”
“Except I’m also stuck here until you resolve the Tony stuff.”
“Correct.”
“I guess it could be worse.”
“It can always be worse.” He kisses me gently. “Now, why don’t we pretend like this is a completely normal night and take a shower together?”
“You’re going to try something on me, aren’t you?”
“Yes. Most likely.”
“Are you getting hard again already?”
“No. A little.”
“Adler Costa. What is the matter with you?”
“Nothing. I’m a healthy man that finds the thought of you all soapy and wet sexually arousing.”
“When you put it that way—” I kiss his chin. “Let’s get in there.”
He laughs, pulling me from the bed, and I follow him into the bathroom, fully aware that I’m doing a whole lot of cognitive dissonance right about now in order to make this feel remotely normal—but as soon as his lips press against mine and the water’s running down his beautiful, cut body, things get very easy.
Chapter 36
Adler
“Double her security.” I cross my arms, leaning back in my chair. Will and Zach sit across from me, both of them looking annoyed. “I don’t care what it costs.”
“Consider it done. I’m only pissed that anyone got near her. I feel like I didn’t do my job.” Zach’s jaw works and he glances to the side.
“Your job is to keep my casino safe, a difficult task which you perform very well. You couldn’t have done anything about what happened with Casey. Just make sure it doesn’t happen again.”