Total pages in book: 46
Estimated words: 45063 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 225(@200wpm)___ 180(@250wpm)___ 150(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45063 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 225(@200wpm)___ 180(@250wpm)___ 150(@300wpm)
“You wouldn’t have to work at the restaurant,” he says, as if it’s obvious.
I sit up straighter. “I’d want to pay my way.”
He smiles with more gentleness than he has yet. It’s difficult to believe he’s the same savage from the car, with his hand on my leg, the day of Eva’s funeral, but I can see the beast behind his eyes, the animal ready to explode.
“You’re my woman. You can pay your way with anything you earn from the podcast, but wasting your energy working a job you don’t have to? If you really, really wanted to, then okay, I wouldn’t stand in your way… but you’re my woman, and I’ll provide for you.”
His trembling voice makes my own emotions tremble. My heartbeat picks up, and my soul feels as though it shivers.
“Okay,” I whisper, feeling like I’m spotlighted beneath his obsession. “Thank you.”
“This is assuming…”
He trails off. I’m about to ask what he is going to say. Then it crashes into me. It’s assuming Adam doesn’t tell us to stop, which he surely will.
“It started as a crush,” I say firmly, “but it’s not that anymore. I want to start this journey together. I don’t want to waste any time. I don’t get why it’s such a big deal, anyway. I’m nineteen. Plenty of people get married at that age, and it’s not like you’re eighty. You’re only thirty-seven, and…”
My speech picks up as I go, the way it does on the podcast sometimes when an idea strikes me.
“It’s not like you’re some playboy creeping on younger women.”
“No,” he says firmly. “I haven’t dated in years. I stopped trying, and when I did date, I never had a type.”
I wrap my arms around myself. “I hate the thought of you dating.”
“I get that,” he growls. “The idea of you with another man, even for dinner, makes me want to do savage things. I never had anything serious. I never had anything, really. I was waiting for you all this time without even knowing it.”
“So, do you believe me?” I ask, his words glowing inside of me. “I’m deciding to be with you and be the mother of your children. Just because I never believed my obsession…”
“Our obsession,” he adds, and I smile.
“Would have a happy ending,” I continue. “It doesn’t mean I’m not ready. I am. For everything. For us.”
We hold each other’s gaze, sharing in the moment, and then we turn to our food.
“Make sure to clean that plate,” he tells me after a mouthful of steak. “I want you good and strong for our children.”
I squeeze my legs together under the table. It’s like my core is sending urgent impulses to my sex, turning my panties into a sensitivity-producing device, tickling, teasing.
“You know what I am,” I murmur. “A virgin.”
He tilts his head as if finding my change of conversation abrupt. Then his eyes register it. “Do you really think your young, beautifully curvy, and fertile body is going to stop you from giving everything you have to me? When the time comes, you’ll be ready.”
He laughs shakingly.
“What’s funny?” I ask.
“Not funny. Just trying to relieve the tension.” He eyes me with more hunger than he’d ever aim at a steak. “All this talk of the future has me thinking about how we’ll get there.”
We should tell Adam first, right?
I try to force the words, but they die on my tongue.
I can’t knowingly shatter this moment, and that’s what I’d be doing if I gave voice to any doubts. Plus, the pulsing in my womb won’t let me. The aching in my sex tells me to dive at him, to grind against him, to sit down on his huge cock until I feel him buried right up inside of me, all the way, and I can take it, every last inch.
“Let’s eat,” he snarls, “and then it’ll be time for dessert.”
A shaky smile touches my lips.
He silently agrees to ignore the Adam issue for now. Soon, we’ll have to return to the city with the knowledge of what we share. We’ll have to tell Adam at some point. It’s not like we can have a family in secret, a whole life together without my big brother knowing.
“I can’t believe he hit you,” I murmur after a minute.
Bryson nods, sighing darkly. “Neither can I, but lately, he’s been acting weird… and not just because of Eva’s passing. He told me he regretted sending me away, and he’s been leaving us together, despite knowing how badly I want you. I made that clear when we had our talk. I wanted to date you with the eventual goal of making you my wife.”
I gasp, and Bryson smirks.
“Don’t look so shocked. I’d be a madman not to put a ring on your finger, to let the world know whom you belong to.”