Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 43751 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 219(@200wpm)___ 175(@250wpm)___ 146(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43751 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 219(@200wpm)___ 175(@250wpm)___ 146(@300wpm)
I know I’d told her to stay in bed when I left earlier, but I knew she wouldn’t. She still seems to be having trouble settling into her new, more luxurious life where she doesn’t have to lift a finger if she doesn’t want to. I took the stairs two at a time as I heard the vacuum going somewhere in the house and came through the bedroom door to find her sitting on our bed wrapped in a towel, looking like she was fresh from her bath.
The look she turned my way made my gut hurt, and I was across the room in a second. “What is it? What happened?” She just shook her head and fell into my arms as I sat next to her, and I felt my whole world shift. “Are you sick? Did something happen to one of the kids? What?” Her look isn’t what I’d expect from a conversation with my ex; she looked absolutely gutted like a loved one had died or something.
“Sam called!” My back went up right away. Sam is her asshole ex who’d tried giving her shit when we first got together, but who I was sure was out of the picture once we got married. It had taken her a while, but after I realized she was keeping me at arm’s length because of past hurts and had dragged the truth out of her, I’d come to learn the extent of his douchebaggery.
The guy is a complete and total asshole and everything I hate about deadbeat parents. It’s like he was the male version of my ex truth be known, and since I was very well acquainted with that kind of heartache, Justine and I had found yet another thing that we had in common, something else to bond over.
I’d understood her reluctance to expose her daughter to a new relationship with me on the off chance that things didn’t work out, but I was damned if I was going to pay for his sins. Not that I need a reason or an excuse to treat her like a woman should be, but it was because of his treatment of her, the things she’d told me that he’d done, that I now go out of my way to do the complete opposite. It’s my way of trying to give her back some of what she’d lost at his hands.
“What does he want?”
“He says he’s in town, and he wants me to bring Lora to him.”
“He’s not seeing my kid unless she wants to see him. And it goes without saying that neither of you are going anywhere without me.” Yeah, I’m a controlling asshole, but so what? Any man who’d do what he had done to her and his kid didn’t deserve the chance to do it again.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” She had kind of a wistful look on her face that overshadowed the look of utter fear she’d worn before when I first walked in.
“You called her yours.” I didn’t answer, just pulled her in close to kiss her forehead. Women are strange fucking creatures. What did she think it meant when I took her as my wife? I thought it was a given that Lora was now mine as well, but I guess she needs me to spell it out for her.
I have big plans for our blended family, things that I wasn’t ready to bring up as yet because I know that she’s not ready, but in the not too distant future, I’ll tell her of my plans to make things official. Unless her asshole ex tries me, then I’ll have to move things along way ahead of schedule.
“Where is he? Give me the phone.” She passed me the phone, and I sent a text message to the last number that had called her. It’s time I put this asshole in check, so he knows he wasn’t allowed to call my wife and put that look on her face ever again unless he wanted to be part of the foundation of the next building I’m constructing.
I threw the phone back on the nightstand and eased her back across the bed. “Shit, hang on.” I walked back to the door and locked it before making my way back to her on the bed, losing my clothes on the way. “I need to get the taste of your ex out of my mouth, lose the towel.” Yeah, like I need an excuse to fuck her.
I dropped trou and climbed onto the bed, and she opened the knot of the towel from between her breasts. Running my nose along the flesh of her thigh, I inhaled her scent until I got to her pussy. She’d cleaned herself up, removing any hint of my scent from her; that only meant I had a new clean slate to dirty up all over again.