Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 142976 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 715(@200wpm)___ 572(@250wpm)___ 477(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142976 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 715(@200wpm)___ 572(@250wpm)___ 477(@300wpm)
More than his opinion of her. More than a trust fund. More than a soon-to-be mother. And nobody’s opinion mattered but her own.
She was brave. She had outmaneuvered Granger. She had bested him, had survived him…
This was nothing. Just another dark moment to overcome. She’d done it before. She could do it again.
She took another look and ignored the screaming voice in her head imploring her to run, hide, or at the very least change into a camouflaging skirt, then shut her eyes and determinedly turned her back on the mirror.
“Have you eaten?” Fern’s voice, coming from behind him, penetrated the painful pounding in Cade’s ears and head, and he turned to face her with great effort.
She stood in the doorway, wearing just a pair of butt hugging shorts and floaty kind of tank top. A soft pink color that looked pretty against her skin. God, so much skin. Miles of it. Soft, satiny, touchable skin. Her legs looked deceptively long in those shorts and her small delicate feet were bare.
It was still so jarring seeing her in something other than those awful ill-fitting skirts and blouses that he couldn’t do anything but stare at her for a few long moments.
Her face pinkened, a more delicate shade than her top. And he found himself utterly charmed by it.
“I like the outfit,” he blurted, then winced, he wasn’t usually so inept around women.
Still, she’d proven to be a sucker for even the smallest of compliments and he waited for the shy, beaming smile that usually followed any hint of praise.
Nothing.
Not so much as a spark in those expressive eyes. He had a killer headache but despite the distracting pain, he could still tell something was amiss. Her gray eyes were somber, that sweet smile remained absent and he found himself resenting the lack. She seemed to have reverted back to the quiet, unhappy woman who’d been haunting his apartment for the last week.
“Thank you,” she said and he was tempted to check his extremities for frostbite her tone was so cold.
This was not quite what he’d been expecting after everything that had happened between them last night. He’d expected shyness, maybe a bit of clinginess, he’d anticipated needing to gently remind her that the sex had meant nothing.
“Are you okay?” he asked, then immediately regretted the question because his uncertainty was apparent in his voice.
“Yes, of course, why wouldn’t I be?”
Why, indeed?
“You don’t want to talk or anything? About what happened?”
When she gave him a blank stare he coughed into his fist, feeling like a fucking idiot.
“We’ve already said everything that needed saying about that.” She shrugged nonchalantly. “I think we both know where we stand, right?”
She stepped onto the patio and sat down sideways on the lounger next to his, facing him with her knees pressed together and ankles neatly crossed. He moodily glowered at her exposed skin.
“Did you put on sunscreen?”
“I won’t be out here for too long.”
He shook his head, got up, and noisily dragged over the heavy patio umbrella, opening it up right next to her lounger. She watched him with a slightly bemused expression on her face while he shifted the umbrella slightly to ensure she was completely protected from the midday sun.
“You didn’t have to do that,” she said mildly, after he sat back down.
“It’s done.”
“Thank you.” She linked her fingers together and lowered her hands to her lap, watching him for a moment before speaking again. “There is something I’d like to discuss.”
“Okay.”
“I don’t want to move to London,” she said, her words emerging in a rush. “I know you’re based there and I know you have to return for work and everything, but I’d be happy to stay here on my own when you leave.”
Cade’s immediate, visceral reaction to her words was overwhelmingly negative. What was she suggesting here? That he leave her behind? Alone? In the same country as Abernathy?
He bit back his instinctive reply which was a resounding hell no and instead—ignoring the throbbing in his head—tried to read her expression in an attempt to figure out where this was coming from.
She kept her eyes downcast though and her expression was uncharacteristically blank.
“Why?”
“I’ve done some research and believe it would be best if I obtained my degree here.”
“Separating so soon after the wedding will add credence to all the shit Abernathy’s been spewing about our marriage.”
“We can call it a long-distance relationship while I complete my studies. We can visit each other regularly to keep up appearances. I could stay here. Or find a completely different place, maybe somewhere close to Gideon and Beth?”
“No. I don’t like it.”
“It’s what I want,” she said, shocking him with her assertiveness.
“If we’re going to do this, we have to do it right, Fern.” Cade was baffled by Fern’s abrupt about-face. It would be of zero benefit to either of them to split this early in their marriage. She should know that. “Separating now makes no sense.”