Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 109783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Aria tossed me a dark, sexy look over her shoulder. “You had to be loud, didn’t you. Caveman.” She pushed up off the desk, shoving her skirt back down. “If I lose my job for unprofessionalism, I will lose my mind at you.”
Feeling too satisfied and smug to engage in another argument, I shrugged. “Worth it.”
Hurt flickered over her face. “I can’t believe you think I’d flirt with someone else.”
Groaning, I tried to reach for her and she rounded the desk, putting it between us. “Gorgeous,” I pleaded. “I’m sorry. Look, I know you wouldn’t. I’m just tired.”
She crossed her arms over her ample chest. “Not good enough.”
Frustration gnawed at me. I was home for only a few weeks. I didn’t want to spend that time arguing. “I wasn’t thinking clearly.”
“Still not good enough.”
“Fine.” I threw my hands up. “I am sick and tired of missing my family and feeling like they don’t give a shit I’m never here. You tell me you miss me, but I don’t feel it. I miss you, Aria, like I’m walking around without a fucking limb. But you act like everything’s fine and dandy, that life goes on just the same whether I’m here or not. And Maddox has plenty of men around him, he barely even notices my absence.”
“What do you want me to say?” She shook her head in disbelief. “I knew this was your job when I married you.”
“That’s it. That’s all you have to say.” Crushing disappointment had me staggering back.
“No.” Tears filled her eyes. “No. But if I said what I truly wanted to say, then you’d make changes and resent me for them. And I don’t want you to make changes because of me. I want you to make changes because that’s what you want.”
“So we’re playing games? After almost two decades of marriage, we’re playing games?”
“You’re the one playing games.”
“I miss you. I want to be home more. But not if I’m not needed.” There. I’d said it. My worst fears. “Distance doesn’t make the heart grow fonder, gorgeous. It makes it insecure and lonely.”
“You think I’m not?” She gestured to herself. “When we got married, you chose roles that kept you close to home. Then we got Maddox and we had you all to ourselves for a while. But we weren’t enough for you.”
“What?” I glowered.
“We weren’t.” She shrugged. “You needed more. And that’s fine. But you were the one who said yes to bigger roles that took you away from us for months out of the year. You did, North. And I agreed to go along with it because I knew what I was signing up for when I married an actor. But you don’t get to come marching back after months of being away and accuse us of not missing or needing you. I’m raising our child on my own while holding down a full-time job. So the people around me who love me are stepping in to support us while you’re gone. Of course we fucking need you!” she yelled, pain etching her features. Seeing it was like a knife in the heart. “But I will not be the one who asks you to give up something you love. I don’t want to have to. As for your son, he talks about you every day. He’s just a resilient kid, and he’s making the best of not having his dad around.”
Longing constricted my chest. “You and Maddox are what I love. The most important thing. This was my mistake. These last few years, they were my mistake. Thinking I could have my cake and eat it too.” I shrugged as tears blurred my vision. “I’m not happy without you. I miss you.”
Aria licked her lips and asked tentatively, “What does that mean?”
Almost two decades this woman had been mine. I knew her inside and out. So I knew that her tone and that careful expression on her face was her trying not to hope.
Fuck.
She was trying not to hope that I might want to stay home.
That killed me. “Theo wants me to consider a role on his and Eilidh’s show. It would mean at least a season of work.”
Her lips parted, and I could see the excitement building in her eyes. “They film that forty minutes from here.”
I nodded, smiling. “Aye, they do.”
The light dimmed in her gaze. “But is that what you really want?”
“Aye.” I rounded the desk now, done with it being between us. “It’s absolutely what I want.” I pulled her into my arms, peppering her cheeks with kisses before cuddling her against me. Her fists tightened in the back of my shirt as she hung on. “I’m sorry for being such a bastard earlier.”
“When? When you accused my security guard of flirting with me or when you bent me over the desk and had your wicked away with me?” she teased.