Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 102731 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102731 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
Hers glistened with warmth and tenderness, and I’d know why later when we were leaving and she drew me into a hug and whispered, “Thank you for loving him the way he deserves to be loved.”
Something about her words eased a bit of the guilt I still hung onto from our past.
Coming home to our beautiful house in the woods, it felt almost too quiet after our Sunday dinner with our families. I said as much to Lewis as we snuggled up on the sofa bed we’d borrowed from my parents until our new sofas arrived.
Lewis cuddled me into his side. “Wait until the baby is here. We’ll be pleading for silence.”
I chuckled, resting my head on his shoulder as he flicked through TV channels.
The last six weeks had been a mixed bag of emotions, but what was new? The police had reviewed CCTV but had no luck identifying the men who had broken into the cottage. We were pretty sure from their height and build it was the same men who broke into the house.
I might still be worried about a possible future burglary, but we were all pretty damn certain Nathan was behind it. Dad had reached out to his contact, and he’d been honest and up-front with me when he said that they’d paid someone on the inside to use force against Nathan. Despite my black belt, I wasn’t an advocate for violence. I just wanted to know how to defend myself against it, since it had been perpetrated on me and my mother.
But I felt no remorse that Dad had someone beat up Nathan as a warning. While that put me in a morally gray category, he was the one person in the world I had no compassion or sympathy for. He’d caused us too much pain.
Though he’d sworn to the “contact” that he had nothing to do with the break-ins, they coincidentally stopped after Nathan’s attack. No more men in black, no more watching over our shoulders. Nathan was scum of the earth, and I wished it hadn’t been him taking revenge for his parole hearing, but I wasn’t surprised by it.
Intimidation was his favorite game.
Evil arsehole.
I shuddered anytime I contemplated the fact we shared DNA and that my blue eyes came from him. “The only good thing he ever gave you,” Mum used to say.
Lewis loved my eyes too, but I was manifesting our kid inherited his shade of blue instead of mine.
“I missed Eilidh tonight,” I said as we settled on an action movie that I probably wouldn’t watch through to the end because I needed to be up early for work.
“She’s finished filming in Romania,” Lewis shared. I did not know that. “I think she’s avoiding us.”
“Why?” I sat up, frowning at him.
“I don’t know. I’m worried about her.”
“Like how you’re always worried about her, or do you think there’s something to be worried about?”
“I think there’s something to be worried about.”
“Then I’ll call her tomorrow,” I promised and cracked, “I’ll guilt her into coming home by pulling the ‘I’m pregnant with your niece or nephew’ card.”
“Aye?”
“Look at me already pulling the mum guilt card. How ready am I?”
He chuckled and tugged me back into his side. “Do what you have to do to bring her home.”
I nodded, tracing a heart over his heart. “You know who else is avoiding us? Carianne. I’ve barely heard from her in weeks.”
“Talk to her if it’s bothering you.”
“Hmm. I’m just … She seemed cool about us last time we chatted, but maybe she’s secretly upset about me and you. Or maybe she’s no longer interested in a friendship because of the baby.”
“If either of those are true, you’re better off without her.” He kissed my temple.
I melted into him. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
“Let’s switch off the movie and go have hot, sweaty sex.”
His chest rumbled with amusement beneath my cheek. “One day, people will call you the romantic one in our relationship, but today is not that day.”
Laughing, I got up, tugging him to his feet. “I promise I’ll scream something really romantic when I come.”
“I think we might have a different idea about what romantic actually means.” He switched off the TV before I dragged him toward the staircase.
“Are you saying ‘Lewis, you’re making me come so good’ isn’t romantic?”
His laughter bounced off the walls as I hurried him downstairs. “No, nor is it grammatically correct.”
“Ooh, I love it when you talk dirty to me.”
I squealed as he suddenly lifted me into his arms, carrying me bridal style into our bedroom. “Never change, Callie Ironside.” He lay me gently down on the bed and then braced himself over me, gazing deep into my eyes. “Well, maybe there’s one thing I’d change about you.”
I grimaced. “Oh?”
Lewis’s voice was gruff. “Your name.”
What?
I froze, wondering if he meant what I thought he meant.