Total pages in book: 18
Estimated words: 18000 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 90(@200wpm)___ 72(@250wpm)___ 60(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 18000 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 90(@200wpm)___ 72(@250wpm)___ 60(@300wpm)
"Where are these questions coming from?" he asked gently. "What is it do you truly want to ask?"
"Do you think the day would come when you'd want another job?"
Ah.
"You still fear your father."
"The moment you arrest him, he'll want to know what you have on him, and he'll know it was me. He'll know it can't be anyone else but me."
"And you don't think I can protect you?"
"I'm asking if it's possible to have a life where you won't need to protect me. To just go somewhere far away where no one knows us, and..." Her voice trailed off. "You think I'm being silly."
"Never."
Her expression turned gloomy this time. "I can see that you mean it, which makes it worse since I do think I'm being silly. I know how they work. It's always only a matter of time before they find whoever it is they want to kill."
Calixte cupped his wife's chin and turned her gaze to his. "You need to stop seeing your father in the eyes of a child. He's just human like you and me."
A long silence followed, and Calixte started feeling disturbed. He didn't think he had said anything unnecessarily harsh. But if he had still inadvertently hurt her feelings, then of course he would apologize---
"Thank you," his wife whispered. "I don't know how you do it, but you always seem to know what I need to hear and when to hear it. I wish there's something I could do..."
She stopped speaking all of a sudden, and Calixte tensed. "What is it?"
Instead of answering, she insisted on wriggling off his lap, and his tension grew. "Tell me what's---" It was his turn to abruptly stop speaking. The moment her knees hit the carpet, and she positioned herself between his knees, he already knew what she meant to do.
"You don't have to do this," he grated out.
"But I want to."
She was already reaching for him while speaking, and his blood quickened when he saw how her hands trembled as she unzipped him. His gaze swung back to his wife, and the next thing he noticed was the rapid rise and fall of her chest behind the scooped neckline of her dress.
His desire heightened, and by the time she had released his bulging length from its confines, his entire body was as rigid as steel.
His fists clenched involuntarily as he watched her slowly bow her head.
His eyes squeezed shut as her lips closed over him.
And when her head started bobbing up and down, he found himself blindly reaching for her hair.
He could feel her choking and resisting as he took control of the pace.
But at the same time, he could also smell the scent of her need tingeing the air.
Eden. Eden. Eden.
Her name was a secret song of his soul.
And when he finally came inside her mouth, he felt her body shudder, and she, too, started coming as his seed rushed down her throat.
Eden. Eden. Eden.
Her name was all he allowed himself.
And it would remain so until he could find a way to make his wife love him back.
Faking It
"Do people really post fake photos about themselves on the Internet?"
Calixte looked at his wife knowingly. They had just finished lunch aboard his yacht a while ago, and while he was enjoying his coffee after, he had caught Eden gnawing on her lip with her frowning gaze fixed on her phone.
"You watched another documentary on Tiktok, didn't you?"
Her guilty expression was too adorable to resist, and he pushed himself up on one elbow in order to lean over and steal a long, passionate kiss from her rose-tinted lips.
When he lifted his head, her mouth looked properly swollen, and it was one of the most satisfying things he had ever seen.
Today was definitely going to be another good day.
Calixte leaned back against his side of the two-seater lounge. "It's yes, by the way."
Eden immediately sat up at his words. "Why, though?"
"Because it makes them feel good, I suppose. But don't take my word for it." Calixte had zero presence in social media, and unlike others who paid a fortune to make themselves popular online, Calixte had people on his payroll to ensure the opposite.
"But...if you know what you're posting is fake, then how can you feel good about it?"
Calixte's lips pressed together in an effort to stifle his smile.
Not once did his life would one day come to this: a relaxing Sunday spent sailing down the Riviera, and him actually enjoying the challenge of pondering existential questions brought about by his wife's unfamiliarity with the outside world.
Calixte had rarely spent his time considering his future. But in the few times he did, he had only seen three possibilities: an early grave because of his line of work, a solitary existence even in his old age (also because of his work)...or him possibly succumbing to temporary insanity by marrying a cookie-cutter wife who was young and beddable but without much else to offer.