Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 91373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Theo looked me in the eye, and I saw the anger he couldn’t bury. Bitter anger and hatred. The intensity of it scared me a little. “Mum was diagnosed with breast cancer, but they caught it too late. It had spread to her lungs and lymph nodes.”
I squeezed his arm, trying to force back empathetic tears that stung my eyes.
“That bastard,” Theo spat. “That festering boil of a father and husband was fucking Saffy while my mother lay dying in a hospital bed.”
Gasping in horrified shock, I reared back. “Please tell me you’re joking.”
“Oh,” he said, huffing a bitter laugh, “little darling, I wish I could. But after watching my mother cry for the thousandth time, asking why her husband wasn’t there, I went in search of him. That human pustule had a bachelor flat. I knew where the key was, and I let myself in and discovered my father rutting between my girlfriend’s legs.”
Nausea pitched in my stomach on his behalf. “Theo …” I didn’t know what to say. What could you say to that?
“I had to lie to my mother and tell her Father was on his way the night she died. And then I had to bury her while my father played the grieving widower. He waited a stunning three months before he moved Saffy into his house and another month before he put a ring on her finger. They divorced three years later after he got bored and moved on to the next barely legal girl.”
“I hate your dad, Theo,” I stated bluntly. “He’s a piece of turd dripping in pond scum a hundred animals have peed in.”
To my surprise, Theo’s expression lightened, his lips twitching. “Yes, he is rather, isn’t he?”
A smile tickled my mouth, glad I could amuse him after such a woeful confession. “I won’t tell anyone what you told me.”
He shrugged. “It’s not exactly a secret in my circle. But when you’re a wealthy viscount, people tend to forgive your sins.”
“Why would your brother ask you to come visit a man who did all that to you and your mum?”
“Because he’s … he’s always sought my father’s approval.” He shrugged. “He took his side when Mum died, when Dad betrayed me with Saffy. Told me that our father was doing me a favor and I’d see that in the end. I suppose he was right. To me, Saffy was a sweet girl who liked to joke and cuddle and loved when I brushed her hair, could be kind and nurturing, and was exciting in bed. I wonder how much of that was just what she wanted me to see … because I wasn’t enough. I think, frankly, she got off on playing me and my father.”
“She’s a horrible person.”
“Yes, well, I’m grateful to her and the lesson she taught me. She gave me an STD, which I realized she probably caught from my father. My father.” He shuddered. “That was traumatic enough to make me almost obsessive with my sexual health. I like sex and I’d hate to do to someone what they did to me, so I make appointments every few months at clinics. Every time I go for my checkup …” His gaze drifted. “I’m reminded all over again why.”
I suddenly knew with absolute certainty that this Saffron person and his father were the two reasons Theo had not been in a serious relationship since. And why he kept everyone, even those he cared about, at a safe distance.
It was such a shame.
He liked to come across as this laid-back, cavalier, playboy writer … but he cared. And he was secretly nurturing and patient. He’d looked after me when I was sick without hesitation or grumbling.
However, I’d be a fool to think he was capable of falling for someone after the story he just told me. It wasn’t only Saffron’s betrayal; it was his father’s and brother’s too.
No wonder his walls were built so high.
“So.” Theo turned into me, his legs pushing against mine with the movement. “Now that I’ve told you something real … will you answer my question?”
Ten
THEO
Sarah stared up at me, confusion marring her expression.
I nudged her with my legs. “Does Juno like to be dominated because you like to be dominated?”
Color flushed Sarah’s cheeks and she swallowed hard as she looked away, staring out the large window. I greedily drank in the sight of all that blushing skin, eyes trailing down to her pretty lips as she nibbled nervously at them. It was strange how, just a few weeks ago, I found her blushing ridiculous, and now it filled me with an odd mixture of tenderness and amusement.
My question was definitely not appropriate, but we were both grown-ups and I couldn’t deny my curiosity about this woman. She was such a contradiction. Shy, mousy reputation back in Ardnoch. Best-selling author of a stellar crime series in the real world. Disarmingly beautiful when you took the bloody time to look, and honestly, the best damn company I’d had in a long time.