Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 83772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
There were days when the loss didn’t bother me. And there were others when it brought me to tears.
Today, it was somewhere in between.
I’d lived with Theo for the past year, and there had been more joy in that one year than I’d known my entire life. Even on my best day with Bolton, it didn’t come close to what we had, the peace that we’d built together.
Theo hadn’t asked me to marry him, but I wasn’t in a rush. Whenever he was ready, he would ask.
And I would say yes.
“I know you both would love him.” They would love him despite his past. Love him despite the blood on his hands. Because he was a reformed man, a man who had walked away from everything for me. “And I think he would love you too.”
When I came home, Theo wasn’t around, so I assumed he was still at the office.
I texted him. You think you’ll be at work late tonight? I loved that I could text him whenever I wanted and always got an answer. Occasionally, he didn’t respond quickly because he was in a meeting, but that was an hour's delay at the most. And he never seemed annoyed by my questions, like he was more than happy to answer them.
Leaving now, actually.
Oh, okay. See you then.
Want to go out tonight?
Sure.
Have a place in mind?
Scarlett’s restaurant is always a good bet.
I was hoping you’d say that.
Why?
He never answered.
He drove with his hand on my thigh because nothing had changed in the last twelve months. His touch was always subtle but always possessive, except when he grabbed my ass the way he plucked a peach from a tree.
We walked into the restaurant, and Theo seemed to have made reservations in advance because he didn’t demand a table. We were taken to our table, and he pulled out the chair for me before he dropped into the chair across from me. Instead of ordering an old fashioned or a scotch, he ordered a bottle of wine for the table.
He looked at the menu in his hands, his head tilted downward slightly to read the specials.
I stared at his face instead of the entrees, mesmerized by how damn handsome he was. Maybe it was the glow from the candle on the table or the shadows in the restaurant, but his jawline was as sharp as glass and the veins in his neck were plump.
He seemed to feel my stare because his eyes flicked up.
I immediately looked down at my menu and acted like it never happened.
But I could feel his stare, feel it burn into my flesh like a heat lamp.
I lifted my eyes and looked back.
His eyes were intense, but there was a hint of a smile on his lips…like he knew.
Of course he did.
When the waitress returned, we ordered our dinner then enjoyed our wine while we sat alone together.
“How was work?” I asked.
“Just a bunch of meetings.”
“Isn’t that your job? To meet with people.”
“These people were boring.”
After a couple of months spent unemployed, he got into the finance world. In the past, he’d only been interested in accumulating wealth and diversifying his assets. He used to do it with drugs, and now he decided to do it with index funds and stocks and the market. He’d started his own company and had a few people who worked for him.
And none of them had a clue who he was.
“How was the gallery?”
“Good. Someone bought one of my paintings.”
He grinned. “They did?”
I sold my own paintings in the gallery, just never told anyone that I was the artist. The first time someone bought one, I almost dropped to my knees and cried.
“Which one?”
“The one with the sunflowers.”
“That’s a nice one.”
“Yeah.” I’d left my old gallery when Theo had bought his own. I’d been running it ever since, needing something to do while he was at work all day. Life had been easy, so easy it was hard to believe it hadn’t always been this way.
We continued to talk about our day, and then a couple minutes later, our food was served. The waitress wasn’t the one who brought it, but the owner herself. Scarlett was in her chef’s jacket with her hair in a tight bun, and she placed the hot plates on the table with a smile. “My favorite customers. Decided to give your chef the night off?”
“More like satisfy a craving,” Theo said.
“You sound like my husband.” She looked at me. “You look hot in that dress.”
“Thanks. I always stick to black because that’s what Theo likes.”
“I’m sure you could stick to nothing, and he’d like that just fine.” She winked before she stepped away from the table. “Enjoy your dinner.”
We ate our dinner mostly in silence. A year living together had made most conversation unnecessary. We’d learned everything about each other and there was nothing new to uncover, but the heat burned just as hot as ever. I actually enjoyed the familiarity that was so comfortable we had no need to speak. We could just exist in the same place at the same time…and it was enough.