Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 121460 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 486(@250wpm)___ 405(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121460 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 486(@250wpm)___ 405(@300wpm)
I nodded, feeling silly now for my outburst. “I ran to the one place you knew I’d run, Brodan. Hardly speaks of any real intention to run away from you, does it?”
The corner of his mouth tugged up. “I noticed that.”
“I try to be rational about it, but it hurts to think of you with all those glamorous women. But I know you never loved any of them. I do know that. I’m sorry too.”
“Don’t be.” He grinned, pulling me into his arms. “Things were getting a bit monotonous around here.”
Feeling something hard prod into me, I let out a huff of disbelief. “Are you turned on by this fight?”
Brodan smiled shamelessly. “So hard right now, I want to bend you over that chair and fuck you senseless.”
My breath caught as tingles exploded to life between my legs. “Then why don’t you?”
At my challenge, heat flared in Brodan’s eyes and, seconds later, I found myself bent over a chair with my dress pushed up. Cool air caressed my skin as he ripped down my underwear until it hit my ankles and then I heard his zipper. A crinkle of foil. My chest heaved against the chair as I glanced over my shoulder at him.
Wicked, stark need stared back at me.
Then I felt the thick, hot push of him inside.
His thrusts were fast and furious, his grip bruising on my hips.
But it was what I needed. What he needed.
Our passion couldn’t be replicated. I knew he’d never had this with anyone else. This overwhelming need to be a part of the other. To claim something that no one else had of us.
I was his, and he was mine.
My jealousy abated as we climaxed together and he stayed buried inside me, pressing kisses to the back of my neck and murmuring his love for me over and over again.
Once the paparazzi left Ardnoch and I was assured of my place in Brodan’s heart, I could breathe again.
Sort of.
There was the small matter of me hiding my morning sickness from Brodan.
The morning after our heated encounter in the turret, I was sick again … and realized that my period was late. Since we’d been using protection (because birth control made me ill, so I couldn’t take it), it hadn’t occurred to me that the sickness was anything but nerves. Until I missed my period.
It turned out it might not have been panic that made me throw up at school. The paparazzi were gone. Life was returning to some semblance of normality, and I was still sick every morning. Thankfully, unlike some women I knew, my nausea only hit in the morning.
There had been no opportunity to buy a pregnancy test without someone at my side, but now that Jock had returned to Ardnoch Estate, I was going to drive to a pharmacy a few villages away and buy one.
I didn’t want to think about how Brodan might feel about me falling pregnant so soon. Or at all. I didn’t think it would happen so easily, considering my age, but there I was … possibly pregnant. A huge part of me was giddy with excitement and gratitude. However, I also didn’t want to ruin what was building between us. So I wouldn’t think about it until I knew for certain. First a pregnancy test and then a trip to the doctor.
The kids had left for the day, and I was just crossing the emptying car park to my car when someone called out to me.
I turned, yanked from my worries, to find Michelle Kingsley standing at the driver’s-side door of her car. Her son, whom I taught, was already in the back of the Ford, not paying attention. “Ms. Kingsley?”
She smiled, but a gleam in her eyes made me wary. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry about all the nasty things people are saying about you online.”
I stiffened. “I wouldn’t know about that.” And I wouldn’t, because I’d promised Brodan I wouldn’t google our names.
“Oh, people are vicious,” Michelle said, taking great delight in telling me. “I mean, just because you’re not a glamour model doesn’t mean you can’t be appealing to someone like Brodan. Attraction sometimes isn’t apparent to the rest of us.”
Bitch.
“I don’t believe them when they say a small-town primary school teacher can’t keep Brodan Adair entertained for long. It’s not like he’ll get bored and run off with a jet-setting beauty who fits his lifestyle better, is it? You’re not worried that he’ll leave you. Again? Are you?” She couldn’t hide her smirk.
Shaking my head, I felt nothing but pity for her. “You never understood Brodan. Or what was between us. You didn’t when we were kids, and you don’t now. And that you find pleasure in trying to upset me just makes me feel sorry for you, Michelle.”
Her expression slackened with surprise and disbelief.