Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 90894 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 454(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90894 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 454(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
When she opened the door, I immediately buried my face in her neck, breathing in her vanilla perfume. That smell practically got me high.
“Fuck. I’ve missed you,” I said against her skin. “How did you get even more gorgeous?”
It was a relief to see that the tips of her hair were still blue. A tight, matching royal blue dress hugged her heaving chest. As much as I wanted to rip that dress down and suck on her nipples hard, I’d equally just really missed her smile, her laugh, her snarky attitude. Even though we hadn’t been apart for very long, being immersed in fatherhood felt like I’d been a world away from the other important part of my life. I loved my daughter, but my home was with Soraya.
Lowering my hand down her back, I asked, “You hungry?”
“No. You mentioned you had dinner with Chloe, so I just grazed on stuff.”
It seemed like something was bothering her. “Something on your mind?”
She hesitated. “No.”
“What did you want to do tonight? We could go get a drink, see a movie, whatever you want.”
“Can we just stay here?”
“You know I’ll never complain about getting you all to myself.”
“How’s Chloe doing tonight?”
“She’s much better. The doctor put her on penicillin, and the ear pain’s gone down significantly.”
“I’m so glad to hear that.”
My eyes wandered over to the sink. I noticed that there were two dirty wine glasses. A rush of adrenaline hit me.
Two glasses? Who the fuck was here?
“Did you have company?”
Her face turned flush. “Um…actually, my father came by.”
While relieved for the explanation, it bothered me that she hadn’t told me. “Really…”
“Yeah. He showed up here unannounced last night.”
My heart sank, because I knew under normal circumstances, she would have come to me about this. Seeing him couldn’t have been easy for her. Even though I knew the answer, I asked her anyway. “Why didn’t you say anything to me about this?”
“You were with Chloe. I didn’t want to bother you. Anyway, it was fine. We just talked. It wasn’t as bad as I imagined it might be to see him after the way I left his house that day.”
“What did he say to you?”
“You know what? I don’t want to waste this night rehashing all of that. My father and I…we’re actually fine. It was an okay visit.”
“You sure you don’t want to talk about it?”
“I’m positive.”
“Okay.” I pulled her into me and planted my forehead on hers. “You know what I was thinking? Maybe we should go to Italy for our vacation. I want to kiss the ground of the land that brought me you. I’ve never been there. We could visit the Amalfi Coast. What do you think?”
“I’m sure Italy is beautiful.”
“You didn’t answer my question.” I pulled back to examine her face. “You don’t seem as excited as I thought you’d be. We don’t have to go there. We can go somewhere else.”
She placed both of her hands around my face and said, “You’re amazing. I’d be lucky to go anywhere with you.” Yet she wasn’t smiling when she said it.
What the fuck?
“Are you alright? You seem down. Are you sure your father didn’t upset you?”
“I’m okay.”
“I don’t believe you.”
She stayed silent, and it was starting to seriously alarm me.
I brushed the back of my hand along her cheek. “You know you can tell me anything, right? I know that the stuff with Genevieve and Chloe hasn’t been easy for you. I need you to talk to me when things are bothering you, not keep them inside. There’s nothing we can’t work through as long as you don’t keep things from me.”
“There’s nothing to talk about. My mood is just off tonight. Can we just go lie down?”
I examined her face before responding, “Sure.”
Despite her explanation, an ominous cloud seemed to follow us as we headed into her bedroom. I whipped my tie off. As I unbuttoned my shirt, Soraya was just sitting on the bed, watching me. I loved the fact that she was so enthralled with my undressing, but to be honest, it was a little odd and uncharacteristic for her to just be staring at me like that. She was definitely not acting herself tonight.
Throwing my shirt on the chair, I said, “You don’t want to talk, then I’m gonna have to find another way to make you feel better.”
She stood up and walked over to me then slowly traced her index finger around the tattoo of her name over my heart. “The fact that you did this means so much to me. I don’t think I ever really expressed that enough.”
“You mean so much to me. You brought me back to life, Soraya. This was the least I could do to express how I feel. It represents how you’re always with me, even when we can’t physically be together because of work or Chloe. Ultimately, knowing you’re there for me and that you have my back is what’s getting me through.”