Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 75968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
“Finally, some fucking closure.”
“She quit the firm.”
“Why?”
“Because I asked her to.”
“She seems like someone who would put up a fight about that.”
“Oh, she did.” I grinned.
“Why do you care if she works or not?”
“Because she’s doing it for a paycheck, not because she’s passionate about it. Why does she need money when I can buy her anything she fucking wants?” I took one of the cigars off the table and lit up. “Now she goes to the bookstore and reads in cafés. She works out, bakes shit.”
“Why does she need to work out?”
“For her health, asshole. People die of heart attacks in their thirties. It’s not that rare.” It wasn’t because I thought she needed to lose weight or have a tighter ass. I was fucking obsessed with her body.
“Is that why you don’t order steak anymore?” he teased.
“As a matter of fact…”
“Turning into an old man.”
“Just trying to live to be an old man someday.”
He smiled before he puffed on the cigar again. “I’m glad she’s out and about instead of hiding behind a locked door.”
“Me too,” I said. “The conversation got a bit heated, but it ended on a high note.”
“If she’s a prideful woman who wants to work, let her. Kinda sexy, if you ask me.”
“She didn’t work with Adrien, so when he fucked around, she felt destitute. Doesn’t want to feel that way again.”
“She could have taken a lot more than half if she wanted to.”
“I told her that.”
“But she’s got too much pride—one of the reasons I like her.”
“I just didn’t appreciate being compared to him.”
His eyes shifted back and forth in confusion. “I don’t think she did. She just wants to be more independent after what happened to her. Pretty reasonable. I think you’re just pissed off because you weren’t getting your way.”
“She doesn’t want to work. And I want to take care of her. I know I made the right decision because she’s been happier than a little bird at the first sight of spring. Doing what she wants when she wants.”
He pulled the smoke into his mouth then released it as a cloud out of his nostrils.
“I will take care of her—and I won’t stick my dick where it doesn’t belong.” That was all women wanted. Didn’t need to be in several relationships to figure that out.
“Does she have any idea how fucking psycho you are for her?”
I continued to conceal the depths of my emotions from her, to run a marathon instead of a sprint, to play the game by her rules. “I’m sure she does. I think she’s psycho for me too, but she’s doing her damnedest to hide it…unsuccessfully.”
“Unsuccessfully?”
I felt myself smile at the memory. “At the end of our argument, she basically said she was in love with me, without realizing that she’d actually said it. Like it’s been true for so fucking long that it just slipped out. Adrien told me she said the same thing, but he was drunk out of his mind, so I wasn’t completely certain I could believe him. But looks like he was telling the truth.”
“Why won’t she say it to your face?”
“I think she’s scared.”
“Scared? If she still wants to be with you after being buried alive and literally dying, she doesn’t seem like she scares easy.”
“I think she’s afraid to admit to herself that her heart is at risk again. That I have the power to break her worse than Adrien did. Which is ridiculous because I would never hurt her.”
“To be fair, I’m sure Adrien said the same thing.”
“I’m a man and he’s a boy. It’s different, and she knows it’s different.”
He gave a nod in agreement.
“You know how much pussy gets handed to me?” Nearly every night, I ran into a woman who made a pass at me, whether it was at a bar or a meeting spot or someone’s estate. There wasn’t enough time in the day to fuck all those women, even if I wanted to. “And you know how easy it is to turn it down? So fucking easy, man. Because that’s my fucking wife. How Adrien didn’t know that is fucking beyond me.”
“I think he just assumed he wouldn’t get caught.”
“I would never get caught,” I snapped. “She would never know, and you would never rat on me if you knew. It’s about not wanting to do it in the first place. I just wish she understood that.”
“I don’t think she would have moved in with you if she didn’t understand that, Bastien. If she didn’t trust you like she does, she would have left the second you pulled her out of that coffin. She wouldn’t grab her shit and move in with you. She wouldn’t trust you to take care of her. Maybe the road is a little bumpy at times, but she’s never lost her grip on the wheel.”