Total pages in book: 26
Estimated words: 24027 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 120(@200wpm)___ 96(@250wpm)___ 80(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 24027 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 120(@200wpm)___ 96(@250wpm)___ 80(@300wpm)
As soon as I was out of that hospital bed and back on my feet, I proposed. I freed up the hold on her father’s inheritance and didn’t even make her sign a prenup.
“Just to show you how much I trust you, baby,” I told her, “I was stupid for what I did in the first place.”
She smiled. “Yes you were. But if you hadn’t done that, we never would have ended up together, so…”
She smiled, shrugged, fell into my arms, and I carried her into the bedroom where we made love and fell asleep together. We gave Shawn a plan for how to run things for the next week while we vacationed in Saint Tropez, and then I spent the next two weeks spoiling her rotten when we came home. It was only when she forced me to stop that I did.
“Okay, baby!” she laughed when I handed her the keys to her third car. “I can only drive one at a time!”
“Well, you said you liked them all,” I replied. “So I figured why not get all three?”
I know a lot of wealthy men use their money to buy women—to try to get them to like them—but it was never like that with Evie and me. I just love doing things for her. Love seeing her eyes light up when I get something for her that I know she’ll love. And that’s a way I’ve never felt for any woman before in my life.
She’s all I ever think about. I love her more than anything, and it makes me happy to express that love in any way I can.
One year after we were married, she gave me a son. We named him Maddox Jr. after her father. At first she wasn’t sure she could do it—say that name every single day and bring back those painful memories of loss, but one night before bed, she turned to me and said, “Let’s do it. I don’t want to be held back by his death.”
She called him Maddie mostly for the first year after he was born, but she’s able to call him Maddox now without tearing up. I think it’s a beautiful way of honoring a man who meant so much to both of us.
Seeing her standing there on the balcony, waiting for me to come to her, just reminds me again that I’m the luckiest man in the world. All the blood, all the fighting, all the violence that I had to wade through to get me to this point in my life—it was all worth it because of her.
“Waiting on something?” I whisper, coming up behind my elegant wife. Evie turns at the sound of my voice, her lips slightly upturned in a seductive, knowing smile.
“Oh, just my big, strong, handsome husband. Wherever he is.”
“Big, strong, handsome husband?” I ask, smiling. “That’s a real shame.”
“Is it now?”
Stepping closer, I let my eyes drag up the entirety of her body. God that dress is magic on her.
“A tragedy really,” I say. “See, I don’t know if you know this, but…what’s your name, by the way?”
“My father always told me not to give my name to strangers,” she replies with a smirk.
“Did he now? Your father sounds like a wise man.”
“He was.” She nods. “He really was.”
“Well, my name is Bruce,” I say, extending a hand. She takes it and shakes it. “Now we’re not strangers.”
Evie smiles. “Well, Bruce, my name is Jane. It’s nice to meet you.”
“Jane.” I nod. “Well, Jane, as I was saying, you really light up a room. I noticed you from over there and knew immediately that I had to come and talk to you. I have to say it’s a disappointment to hear that you’re married.”
Jane’s eyes flash. Our little game we play once and a while. We never plan it—the spontaneity makes it that much more exciting.
“Yes, and my husband is…quite a dangerous man,” she says. “I have to say, he wouldn’t be happy to see me talking to you.”
“Is that right?” I reply. “You don’t strike me as the kind of girl who would let a man control her.”
“Oh, I didn’t say he controls me,” she replies. “But I’d be careful if I were you.”