Total pages in book: 37
Estimated words: 36268 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 181(@200wpm)___ 145(@250wpm)___ 121(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36268 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 181(@200wpm)___ 145(@250wpm)___ 121(@300wpm)
“That’s not—” The tears came then, hot and unstoppable. “That reporter was all over you! Touching you! Offering herself to you! And you just sat there!”
“It’s part of the job—”
“Part of the job?” The words tore from her throat. “Part of the job is letting other women paw at you like you’re some prize stallion?”
“You’re being irrational.”
“I’m being—” She was sobbing now, all the pain and fear and jealousy pouring out. “Do you know what it’s like? Watching them throw themselves at you? Knowing you could have any of them? Knowing one day you’ll realize you can do better than some nobody you married out of obligation?”
“Sienah—”
“My father did it.” The words poured out like poison from a wound. “Left my mother for his secretary. Someone younger, prettier, more exciting. Someone who wore red lipstick and cheap perfume and laughed like breaking glass. Broke Mama’s heart so badly she never recovered. Used to find her crying into her pillow at three AM, trying to muffle the sound so I wouldn’t hear.”
Her chest heaved with the effort of finally saying it all. “And then he died. Died trying to steal money from his employer to keep his new woman in designer bags. Died for her while Mama cried herself to sleep every night, clutching his old shirt that still smelled like his aftershave.”
She looked up at him through her tears, seeing him blurry and beautiful and terrible. “And I swore I’d never be her. Never let myself become my mother. But here I am, watching my husband collect women like trophies, waiting for the day he decides I’m not enough anymore. So please don’t cheat on me. Don’t make me into her. If you can’t be faithful, if you need variety, just let me go before—”
“Never.”
The word came out savage, ripped from somewhere deep in his chest. Like the very thought of letting her go incensed him beyond reason.
Damn her.
The thought of her trying to leave him hit like a rival’s car in his blind spot, unexpected and potentially fatal. His perfect wife, who never complained, never demanded, never asked for anything beyond what he chose to give—she was already planning her escape route.
Over something as meaningless as a reporter’s pathetic attempts at seduction.
And she’d been looking for his replacement. Talking to other men. Five of them. Asking about fidelity like she was conducting interviews for his position.
“Aivan, I need you to understand—”
He crushed his mouth to hers, swallowing whatever rationalization she was about to make. He didn’t want to hear it. Didn’t want to examine why the thought of her leaving made him want to tear apart hotel rooms with his bare hands. Didn’t want to think about what it meant that he’d been ready to kill that man in the bar just for breathing near her.
She resisted for a moment, hands pushing at his chest, her mouth tasting of tears and toothpaste and desperation. Then she melted, like she always did, going boneless against him with a sound that might have been surrender or salvation.
“You’re not leaving,” he growled against her lips, the words scraping his throat raw. “Not today. Not ever. You’re mine, Sienah. Do you understand? Mine to protect. Mine to keep. No other man gets to hear you ask about fidelity. No other man gets to know our business.”
“But you don’t—”
He kissed her again, harder, bruising. His hands tangled in her hair, still matted from last night’s ordeal, holding her still for his assault. This he understood. This he could control. Not the chaos in his chest, not the foreign emotions her tears provoked, but this—the way she gasped when he bit her lower lip, the way her pulse hammered when he traced her throat.
Her nightgown tore under his hands with a sound like surrender. He’d buy her a dozen more. A hundred. Anything to keep her here, in his bed, where no other man could even think about having her.
“Aivan—”
“No more talking,” he cut her off with a growl. “No more looking for other men. No more telling strangers our business.”
He stripped her bare with hands that shook from fury at the thought of those five men, at her drugged vulnerability, at his own weakness in caring so much. Her skin was flushed rose-gold in the morning light, chest heaving with broken breaths.
“Look at me.”
Her eyes fluttered open, still swimming with tears but dark with want.
“You think I’d let another woman touch me the way I touch you?” He traced one finger through her slick heat, watching her face as she gasped. “You think I’d give this to anyone else?”
He lowered his head between her thighs, breathing her in before tasting her, and the first touch of his mouth made her cry out, hands fisting in his hair.
“This is mine,” he murmured against her, the words vibrating through her core. “Only mine. Say it.”