Total pages in book: 177
Estimated words: 167759 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 839(@200wpm)___ 671(@250wpm)___ 559(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 167759 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 839(@200wpm)___ 671(@250wpm)___ 559(@300wpm)
However long, it won’t be enough.
Some days I regret not killing him with my bare hands.
Other days . . . well, I regret it those days, too.
‘Remy.’ I look up at the sound of my name. ‘Don’t look back, remember? We’re not going that way.’
But how can I not dwell there when I will bear her grief forever? I’ll bear it because I can’t bring myself to tell her what happened to Noorah, to her mother, because it would only serve to break her heart. It isn’t about the money or business; it’s about protecting her from the impotent pain of not being able to change the past.
She had little recollection of the photographs and documents Ben showed her that afternoon. Benzodiazepine has the nasty habit of not only rendering a person unconscious, given enough, but it also robs the memory. Which is why it’s often the date-rape drug of choice. Ben himself had little interest in the information the safe contained, except as a red-herring to serve her disappearance. He thought he’d learned all he needed to know.
Then later, far from being abhorred by my lies, Rose listened as I’d explained how I’d looked for her in San Francisco—the misunderstanding that we can now look upon as fate. She understood how I’d needed to know the truth of who she was and how she came to be inheriting. It was never about the money, and she understood that. Her inheritance was never going to affect mine.
The fact is, my father raised me to mistrust everyone and everything around me.
Then he died and left me a secret of his own.
I became obsessed with knowing the truth. Obsessed until I met her, when my obsession took the path to love. I was able to truthfully say to her that, by the time the final package arrived from the investigator, I didn’t care where she’d come from. I proposed, she accepted, and I’d planned to tell her about her inheritance following our wedding night, when I’d also tell her my wealth was now hers. Had she chosen to discover the truth, we could’ve faced it together. opened the package together.
Instead, after all that had happened, after I’d discovered the horror of it, I’d told her a half-truth. I said that our parents were romantically involved a long time ago. That Emile left her shares in Wolf Industries because of that connection. I then set out to make sure those who knew the truth would never tell. I trust Rhett with my life. Carson Hayes III carries his grandfather’s shame. He has pledged to support Rose as she directs her inheritance to the benefit of others. To fight discrimination, homelessness, and poverty. All matters close to her heart.
Going forward, I’ll carry this alone. I’ll make it up to her the only way I can.
By pledging her my eternal love.
‘You’ve changed your mind?’ she asks as I stand and take the chubby babe from her arms. ‘See, no one can resist the charms of baby Beryl.’
I press my lips to the top of my fiancée’s head. ‘I’m returning Ruby to her parents because you and I have plans.’
‘That sounds ominous,’ she says, her words ending in a playful curl.
‘Almost as ominous as marrying me in the morning.’
‘There’s still time for me to escape,’ she teases, chuckling as I reach the door when Ruby grabs my bottom lip, cooing delightedly.
‘Not for you,’ I murmur, though the words don’t quite come out that way as I peel baby fingers from my lip. ‘These lips belong to Tante Rose.’ I press a kiss to Ruby’s chubby fist. ‘She’s going to need them later when I tie her to the bed.’
‘Is that a fact?’ Her voice is pitched lightly, though I’m conscious of the way her eyes flare. Of how she presses her thighs together as she stretches out in the chair.
‘It’s a promise. There’s no escape, ma Rose.’
‘As if I’d even try. Don’t let Byron pour you a drink. Hurry back.’
‘I’ll be gone only long enough for you to make a list.’
‘A list of what?’ she asks, a little bemused now.
‘A list of all the things you want me to do to you between now and tomorrow morning.’
‘You mean between now and our wedding ceremony?’
‘Exactly. The way I look at it, the next fifteen hours will be the only time in your life you get to be fucked by someone other than your husband.’
‘Are you trying to manage my expectations, Remy Durrand? I don’t believe I’m looking forward to a lifetime of missionary with the lights off.’
‘Who knows what will happen after tomorrow. ‘Except that I will love her always. That she will always be my home. ‘We should put the next fifteen hours to good use. The kind of use that encourages unrestrained debauchery.’
‘Then what are you waiting for?’ she asks with a smirk. ‘Get baby Beryl back to where she belongs. It’s time we started baby making on our own.’