Total pages in book: 33
Estimated words: 31205 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 156(@200wpm)___ 125(@250wpm)___ 104(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 31205 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 156(@200wpm)___ 125(@250wpm)___ 104(@300wpm)
This was all too new, and she didn’t want to destroy it.
****
“You’re a good cook,” Vanessa said, cutting into her steak and taking her third bite.
Diago watched her, loving her appetite.
Once again, he’d been able to get her naked, as she sat across from him, just as naked as she had been in the pool. Her hair had dried with a curl to it, as it framed her face. Her blue eyes held a sparkle he’d known hadn’t been there in a long time. His wife looked positively glowing and beautiful.
“I’m not a man who likes takeout.”
“Ah, so you had no choice but to learn how to cook.”
He nodded.
She licked her lips. “Do you have any family? Any friends?”
Diago looked at her, and he knew she wasn’t trying to dig up information to find his weaknesses. Vanessa wasn’t like that. “Only Susan,” he said. “I have other people I trust, but I use them to help me gather information.”
“I know you probably shouldn’t trust me,” Vanessa said. “Because of who I am and who I am related to. I just…” She glanced down at her wedding band. “I want this to work.”
“What to work?” he asked.
“You and me, this marriage. I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and I know you probably don’t want to hear any of this but … I don’t have anything else. You’re the first person to ever treat me like I matter. Like I’m important.”
“You are,” he said. This was already dangerous ground.
She laughed. “Do you know what the crazy thing is? There was a time I used to love my dad. I thought he was this amazing person. He could do nothing wrong. My brothers adored him, and I saw my parents’ marriage as this loving relationship.”
He took a bite out of his own steak. “It wasn’t?”
“No, none of it was. I was a kid, wasn’t I? To me, growing up, that’s what was natural. My dad would yell at my mom, and she wouldn’t do anything about it, and he didn’t want to hear about mundane stuff she’d been up to, and he didn’t want to talk about work. There were a lot of meals in silence, and I only now just realized it.” She pressed her lips together, and then finally looked up toward him. “I don’t want that. I don’t know why you married me—”
“Because I wanted to.”
“But … what if you decide in years to come that you made a mistake?” she asked. “That you don’t want me?”
“That’s not going to happen.” He wasn’t a fool, or an idiot. Diago was aware of the gem he’d discovered, and there was no way he was going to give up on her. “Tell me what you want, Vanessa.”
“I don’t know what I want exactly.” She nibbled that lip and he knew, if he was just patient and gave her a chance to answer, she’d tell him exactly what she wanted.
He watched her.
Waiting.
Wondering.
“I … I’d like to be able to talk to you about your day. I’d love for you to trust me.” She took a deep breath. “To figure out the boundaries of our relationship, and if you hope to expand our family.” Again, she took another deep breath. “I’d like to know about you. Who you are, and I promise this is not to gather information or anything like that. I’d like to get to know the man who doesn’t look at me like I’m damaged goods.”
“How do I look at you?”
“Like you want me. Like you enjoy looking at me. It’s nice not being told to keep my hair down, or to hide my face, or keep it turned away. Did you know my parents were looking into plastic surgery?” she asked.
He nodded his head.
“See, you’re aware of everything even before everyone else,” she said.
“The key to survival is knowing everyone’s business, and making sure no one knows yours.”
The smile on her lips faded, and Diago couldn’t stand to see her unhappy.
“I didn’t know who my parents were,” he said. “I was raised in an orphanage until I was five years old, and then a man, a scary man, came to the orphanage, and he was looking for a boy. One that no one wanted. One that had never been considered by a family.”
“You were that boy?” she asked.
He nodded. “I was a strange boy. I liked silence and solitude. Families didn’t like me, because I didn’t make it work. I didn’t bend over backward to be the perfect son they were looking for. They were interested in children who wanted to be adopted, and I didn’t.”
“You felt that way at five?”
“Like I said, I was a strange boy. The man, he … took a liking to me.” He saw the horror on her face and couldn’t help but chuckle. “Not like that. He was looking for an apprentice. Someone to pass his skills onto, but he couldn’t father children, and he didn’t trust women. He’d spent his whole life around women who would gladly take his money to give him a good time. He didn’t want to trust any of them with a child. Also, he didn’t want to change diapers, or get up early in the morning or through the night to feed a brat. He needed someone who already had the basics, which I did, and so began my training.”