Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 146417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 146417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
“Come here. Please. I’m asking you to come here and give me something. Not because you owe me. One of the things I’ve learned in all of this is I count too much. I keep score, and that shouldn’t have a place in my life. Our life. I’m going to ask you one thing and then I’ll let it be for now. Did you lie about my brother to hurt me?”
“No. I didn’t want to keep it from you, but he was so adamant. I was…”
“Hush, that’s all I need to hear.” His hand was still out. “Please, Kim. It’s been a rough seven years.”
There was something weary and open and longing in his voice, and she found herself standing up and taking his hand. He tugged her gently against him, and then she was in his arms. It was awkward for a moment as one arm went around her waist and the other held her hand. Like they were dancing.
“I promised myself if I ever got the chance, I would dance with you again,” he whispered. “I didn’t dance with you enough.”
What the fuck was he doing? He was holding her like she was something precious, like he’d missed her with his body and his soul. He started to move like there was music in his head. “There’s no music.”
“Yes, there is,” he insisted. “I can hear it. That song that was playing the night we got married. I wanted to go up to the room.”
He’d been horny as hell. He’d wanted to get to the honeymoon part, but they’d walked through the casino and past the postage stamp dance floor. It had been a sad thing, but she’d heard a song she’d loved. “The Twilight song? You hate that song.”
He’d groaned and whined, but he’d danced with her. He’d swayed with her through the whole song and teased her about glitter-bomb vampires, but it hadn’t mattered. Because he’d kissed her and told her he loved her and would for more than a thousand years.
In that moment, the world had been laid out in front of them. Theirs for the taking. A whole future for them.
She laid her head on his shoulder as emotion flowed through her. She’d wanted that life she’d been promised in that moment when they’d danced and the rest of the world had fallen away.
“I stop every time I hear it and I think of you,” he said.
“I thought you were mad at me.” She brought her head up and looked into those gorgeous eyes of his. This was absolutely not where she’d expected to be when she’d woken up this morning. Hell, it wasn’t what she’d expected two minutes ago.
“I don’t want to be mad. This feels so much better.” His hand started to smooth up her back, and he stared at her the way he always did right before he fell on her lips like a starving man. Like he could kiss her forever and still not be satisfied.
“Mama?”
She jumped away from Beck like he was a hot stove she’d touched. Her baby boy was standing in the doorway exactly where his father had stood moments before. She couldn’t help but notice they had similar expressions on their faces. “Are you all right?”
Her son was staring up at Beck somberly. “Is he really my dad?”
Her heart clenched. “Yes. He’s your dad and he’s Uncle Ezra’s brother.”
Roman frowned. “Where’s he been? Because we’ve been in trouble and he wasn’t around.”
“What?” Those words coming out of Roman’s mouth shocked her.
“Mom, I’m not dumb,” Roman said quietly. “We’re not normal. We live in a fortress, and I can barely get Uncle Ezra to stop for gelato after school. Everyone in my class goes places and sees things. We don’t ever go on trips. Everyone goes on trips. You don’t date. And you have a bunch of passports with different names for us and guns hidden in your closet.”
Now she felt sick to her stomach. “Those are in a safe.”
Roman shrugged. “And the combination is my birthday.”
“Are you sure he’s six?” Beck was watching Roman with impressed eyes.
She kind of wished she’d had a chance to grab the stuff in that safe. She also kind of wished Roman hadn’t stopped Beck from kissing her. And she was equally grateful that he had. She and Beck didn’t work. It was only gratitude that made her so willing to take comfort from him. “Yes, but you should understand he’s pretty much got a genius-level IQ, and he’s not afraid to use it.”
Was that very intelligence what had caused Roman to not ask her about Beck? They’d had one conversation about who his father was. She’d told her son that she’d loved his father very much, but that sometimes love wasn’t enough. At first she’d thought he didn’t ask because he had plenty of male authority in his life. Now she wondered if he’d figured out it hurt her to talk about Beck.