Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 77335 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77335 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
“Did you clean my come from your body?”
Her cheeks turned bright red again, but she shook her head no.
“Let me see.”
She lifted her dress and showed me her glistening thighs that were still wet with the mixture of our cum.
I nodded before changing my pants and grabbing a shirt and my keys.
“Then let’s go return you to your father and abusive fiancé,” I said.
She flinched at my words and looked like she wanted to say something, but I didn’t want to hear it.
We pulled up to the back servants’ entrance to the house, by the loading dock where the kitchen accepted deliveries.
After helping her out of the truck, I caged her in between my body and the open door. “This is your last chance, princess. Come back with me. Be mine. Leave all of this behind. There is nothing in that house that I can’t give you. Nothing.”
“I can’t,” was all she said without meeting my gaze.
CHAPTER 25
CHARLOTTE
“Ican’t marry him,” I said into the phone the second Luc picked up.
I sat in my bedroom, looking out at the treetops of Central Park.
The first thing I should have done when I got home was take a shower, but I didn’t want to wash Reid off of me yet.
I wanted to be able to still smell him on my skin to help give me the courage for what I needed to do.
“What do you mean you can’t marry him?” Luc asked.
“I mean, I can’t marry the man father wants me to marry.” My voice faltered a little, but I pulled my stomach in and sat straighter to help my words sound as strong as I needed them to.
“Father said that you wanted this?”
I didn’t bother to hide the laugh that escaped my lips. “Do you really think Father asked what I wanted? Do you think what I wanted mattered to him at all? Father wants a title in the family. That was the only want that was considered in this match.”
There was a pause on the other end of the line for a moment and then a sigh of disappointment.
“You’re right,” he said, and I could just picture Luc in my mind standing and pacing around the room like a caged animal trying to figure a way out of the situation I was putting him in by telling him what I wanted. “But I thought you agreed to the marriage.”
I knew he would try to help, especially after being with Amelia had changed him.
He used to be exactly like our father. Only his ambitions and the family money mattered.
Then Amelia was literally forced into his life.
Before Luc met my sister-in-law, he wouldn’t have helped me. Now, he was the only chance I had. I just prayed Amelia’s influence was enough.
“I went along with it because I thought it was what was expected of me. I was doing what I thought I had to.”
“Does this have something to do with what happened last night?”
Suddenly, it felt like my heart was in my throat, and a cold sweat broke out over my back. Did Luc know what happened between Reid and me last night? Had Reid told him? How else could he possibly know?
“I…”
How did I admit to my brother that, yes, Reid had made love to me over and over and then taken me hard this morning, and I knew that the only way I could ever be happy or even content was in Reid’s arms?
How could I admit out loud to my brother that Reid made me feel seen, heard, and protected, as well as all the carnal pleasures he had shown me were possible?
Being in Reid’s arms made me forget everything else. The only other thing that had ever consumed me so completely was my cello.
“Reid told me one series of events, but Zeigler had a very different story. Could you clarify which one is true?”
“What did Reid tell you?” I asked, trying not to let the relief show in my voice.
There was no reason to hint to Luc at what really happened.
“Reid said that Zeigler got mad at you and hit you. Then he hit Zeigler repeatedly. Zeigler’s story is a little different. He said that you and he had an intimate moment, nothing too untoward for an engaged couple, and Reid, in a jealous fit of rage, attacked him. Then kidnapped you.”
What did it say about the events of last night that I honestly forgot that he had hit me?
My fingers went to my cheek, pressing down, and it was still a little sore, but nothing compared to the ache between my thighs.
“Zeigler didn’t like that I corrected him, especially not in front of you and Harrison. He informed me that I was never allowed to correct him in public, said some very crude things about what my role as his wife would be, and then he struck me.”