Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 92133 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 461(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92133 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 461(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
“I want a divorce,” Adelaide said.
“Not happening.”
Once you were part of the Bratva, you were there for life. There was no easy escape. Signing a piece of paper didn’t beak away from the Volkov Bratva. Only Ivan could grant such a motion and as far as I knew, he’d never allowed a divorce to go through. No one had gotten away. Unless it was six feet under.
“Fine. Then we’ll go for an annulment. How about that?” she asked. “We don’t have to get a divorce. Sex has to have happened between two people for there to be a need for divorce. I know!” She screamed at me and I watched her eyes fill with tears, and I hated them.
“What do you know?”
“About you and Bethany. I know you’re sleeping with her. I know it’s why you don’t need to be with me. Is that it, huh?” she asked. “Is that why you don’t want me to touch you because you can’t stand the thought of these hands on your body? You’ve got Bethany, and I don’t compare?”
So that was what Bethany was trying to do. To drive a wedge between us. I was still having to deal with her drug dealer, but I had my men on the bastard’s tail. Now that Bethany had meddled like this, I wasn’t going to help her. That nasty fucking bitch was going to get what came to her.
“You know what, I don’t need to hear you say it. Do you think I don’t know that I’m nothing like Bethany? I’ve been told that all my life. She has taken everything from me. Anytime I had friends, she stole them away, turning them against me. I had no boyfriends because Bethany made sure to always be around. The only person I ever had was Nathan, and you keep trying to take him away from me too. What is your game? Is it to make me miserable?”
“I have never touched Bethany,” I said.
She shook her head. “Liar.”
I moved toward her, and Adelaide shocked me as she took a step toward me too.
“You don’t scare me.”
“You’re lying.”
“I want out of your life. I want to be as far away from you and this fucked-up life as possible. I hate it here and I hate you, and I want out.”
She went to hit me, but I captured her hands, holding them behind her back, causing her to be flush against me. She wriggled within my grasp, and this close, her body felt so good against mine. I didn’t want to let her go.
“Listen to me,” I said. “I have never been near Bethany. Even when we were engaged, I never fucked her. My dick has never been near her. I don’t like her. I can’t stand her. She’s a nasty fucking bitch.”
She shook her head. “I don’t believe you.”
“I know. The only woman I’ve been with in a long time is you. Just you. No one else.”
“You’re not with me.”
“What we shared the other night, that’s what I have had. Not Bethany.”
Tears spilled down her cheeks. “I still want a divorce. I can’t live like this. I don’t want to live like this.”
I let go of her hands and wrap them around her instead, trying to offer her comfort, even though I’m the last man she wants any of this from. She was not getting a divorce or an annulment. Cupping her face, I tilted her head back so she had no choice but to look at me. I swiped the tears off her face. She was too beautiful to cry.
Kissing each eyelid, I took possession of her mouth and started to move her through the penthouse suite, toward our bedroom. I would deal with Bethany very soon, but for now, I had my wife to handle.
Once inside our bedroom, I didn’t bother to close the door. I tugged my wife’s hair out of the bun, watching it fall freely. Next, I tore the clothes I had so carefully picked out for her, but hated. They were not her. I loved seeing her in sweatpants and shirts, jeans, the clothes that made her, her.
Running my hands over her body, I flicked the catch of her bra, and those luscious tits spilled out, and I cupped them in my hand.
“No,” Adelaide said.
“You want me to stop?” I asked.
“I don’t … Bethany…”
“Is nothing. She’s trying to get inside your head to ruin this, Adelaide. You’re my wife, and I have not been with another woman. I will never be with another woman.” I took her hand and laid her palm against my heart, letting her feel it beating. “I don’t trust easily. I’ve been hurt way too many times.”
No woman was allowed to touch me. Adelaide didn’t seem to understand that she was the only woman I craved. The only woman I had ever wanted to fucking touch me.