Total pages in book: 46
Estimated words: 43447 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 217(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43447 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 217(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
“Hello?”
“Are you ready?” That voice. Just the baritone made her wet.
“I wasn’t sure if we were still going. I haven’t heard from you all week,” she said.
There was silence on the line.
“Tobias?”
“I’ll have a car at your apartment within the hour. A dress would be appropriate,” he said. “And, Adora?”
“Yes?”
“Keep your hair out, and I don’t want you wearing any panties.”
He ended the call, and she sat there looking at her phone. The man was cold as ice. He was ready to continue on as normal without talking, without changing. And she was too much in love to refuse him.
Adora showered and wore a simple floral dress. It was the nicest thing she owned. She wanted to look beautiful for Tobias, to see desire in his eyes. It had been a while since he’d claimed her body, and her pussy ached for him. When they had sex, to her, it felt like bonding … like love. Even if it wasn’t real, she’d take what she could get.
The drive to the downtown core was tense. She had a nervous energy—excitement to see Tobias and anxiety about the fancy event. No matter how much he reassured her, she always felt out of place in his world.
She stepped out of the car and looked up at the building. The sunset reflected off the angled glass surfaces, mesmerizing her.
“Impressive, isn’t it?” Tobias’s arms snaked around her waist from behind. She hadn’t even seen him.
“It really is.”
She twisted around in his arms and rested her head on his chest, breathing him in. Even with the distant traffic, she could hear his strong heart and it grounded her. A well of emotion took her by surprise. She couldn’t imagine life without Tobias, but was she willing to sell her soul to the devil?
“You’re so beautiful.” He smoothed his hands down her hair. “Come on, I want to show you something.”
He took her hand, and it felt like the most intimate thing in the world walking hand in hand with him. The doors were held open for them, and women with trays of champagne danced around the well-dressed crowd in the lobby. Everyone wanted to talk to Tobias, but he brushed them all off and kept leading her to the door just ahead.
Once inside the room, he closed the door. It was an office, but it wasn’t his usual style.
“What is this?” she asked.
He picked up a remote control from the desk and hit a button. The built-in blinds began to lower on all the windows, blocking out the people in the lobby and the view of the street from the other side. “Doesn’t matter. I just needed to be alone with you.”
“To fuck?”
He frowned. “Watch your mouth, baby girl. It doesn’t suit you.” Tobias pressed a finger to her lips and tossed the remote on a chair. “We’ll have time for that later.”
“Then why are we here?”
“We need to talk. Well, I need to talk,” he said.
She liked the sound of that, but didn’t want to get her hopes up. He could be telling her that it wouldn’t work, that he’d find a more fertile woman to mother his heir. “Okay.”
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, and you know what I realized?”
She shook her head.
“I’m an asshole.”
Her jaw dropped. “No, Tobias. Don’t say that.” She ran her fingertips along his jaw, but he grabbed her wrist and kissed her pulse point.
“It’s true. I only wanted a baby to keep my lineage going. I didn’t even want to be a father or husband,” he said. “I planned to ship the kid off to boarding school and maybe see him on holidays. As for the woman, I didn’t want to see her once I knew she was pregnant.”
She swallowed hard.
“I had everything a man could want—money, power, women. But I’ve learned something, Adora. Do you know what that is?”
“No, Tobias.”
He smirked, holding both her shoulders, looking down at her. “None of that matters. Not once you find the woman you love.”
“I don’t understand. What about the test?”
“Baby or no baby, you’re all I want, Adora. You’ve changed me. I’m miserable without you.”
“What does this mean?”
“It means I want more. I want what my brother wanted, it just took me longer to figure it all out.” He cupped her face and kissed her lips once. “I love you, Adora Garcia. Nothing will ever change that.”
He’d actually said it, and she believed him. Not because she wanted it to be true, but because he was being sincere.
“I love you, too.”
“This doesn’t mean I’m not going to keep trying for that baby, just that the game plan has changed. I don’t want to replay my fucked-up childhood. I want us to have a real family, Adora.”
She couldn’t stop the tears from slipping down her cheeks. This was better than a fairy tale, and Tobias was her unlikely hero.