Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 99960 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99960 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
I laughed. “Good for Quinn.”
“I also saw Rishi Padman at our place in Marbella a few weeks ago.” He said it offhand, but I winced a little at him calling the rental where we’d met to hook up last year and the year before as ours. “Her parents cut her off. I got her a part in my new show. She’s actually good.”
“That’s great.” I glanced at Jared. He wore a flat expression, like he’d disappeared somewhere else, but I knew he was listening to every word. “You know, we’ll catch up later, Taka. We have to go say hi to my parents.”
“Oh, sure, sure. We’ll catch up later.” He leaned as if to kiss me and then remembered himself. He gave me a sheepish shrug and then blanched at the scowl on Jared’s face.
I attempted to hurry Jared away, but it was like trying to move a brick wall.
“Sorry.” I didn’t know why I was apologizing. I mean, we both had a past. But I knew how I’d felt at first about Sorcha, so I understood Jared’s feelings. To an extent.
“So, that was your fuck buddy,” Jared muttered. He tugged at his bow tie as if he wanted to rip it off. He most likely did.
“Jared …”
“I’m not judging you. I’d be a hypocrite.”
“Then what’s wrong?”
He shrugged. “He’s just … not what I expected.”
“What did you expect?”
Jared met my gaze. “Marbella? Santorini? You flew across the world to hook up with this guy?”
“Every time my visitor’s visa here expired.” There had been nowhere else I wanted to be but Scotland, so if I couldn’t be here, I just went wherever I could.
“Right.” Jared blew out a shaky breath. “He and I are very different men, and I don’t have to spend a lot of time with him to know that.”
“Yeah, you are,” I agreed, slipping my fingers through his. Pressing my breasts into his side, forcing his gaze down to mine, I continued, “That’s why he was just a way to pass time and you are my husband.”
He curled his fingers around mine and squeezed, giving me a nod.
It should have reassured me.
But there was something in his eyes that made a flicker of anxiety flare in my gut. I just hoped that nothing else happened to give me cause to panic.
Thirty-Two
Jared
Iwasn’t able to put my finger on exactly what I was feeling. But after a while, the sinking sensation was suddenly all too familiar. It was a mix of dread and devastating disappointment.
If I was honest with myself, it started with the tux.
I never minded putting on a kilt or socializing with my neighbors at Robert Burns Nights and Christmas ceilidhs at the village hall. I didn’t even mind donning my suit for my wedding.
But the tux was ridiculous. I could have handled the jacket, waistcoat, and shirt, but the bow tie was driving me up the fucking wall. Honestly, I thought I hid my discomfort well, but apparently, Allegra could see right through me. About ten minutes after meeting her ex fucking fuck buddy, she’d pulled me into a corner and tugged the bow tie free, stuffing it into the purse thing she called a clutch. She’d unbuttoned the top two buttons on my shirt and I’d instantly felt like I could breathe again.
“Better?” she’d murmured, smoothing a possessive hand over my chest.
I’d bent my head to kiss her in answer.
The best thing about dressing up for these bloody fancy dos was that Allegra looked good enough to eat. She was curvy and sexy in her pinup-style dress. I already planned to fuck her while she wore nothing but those flimsy pink sandals that inexplicably turned me on.
Everything about this woman turned me on.
Which was why as the evening progressed, the biggest black cloud started to gather over my head.
Technically, I knew Allegra had come from this world of wealth, fame, and glamor. Of travel and staff and privilege. It was one of the reasons I’d kept my distance from her in the first place. She and I were from two different planets.
However, I’d allowed myself to forget that while it was just us, living our life on the farm. But seeing Allegra stop to chat with familiar faces I’d seen on the screen and around the village because she actually knew them was an unwelcome reminder that by staying married to me, she would never really be part of this world again. She talked with other guests, and travel came up almost all the time. She’d met them in France. Or the last they’d seen each other was at a bar in Italy. Or a festival in Denmark. A fashion show in Tokyo. I’d never realized how much of the world Allegra had seen, or how much traveling seemed to have been a part of her life.