Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 141255 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 706(@200wpm)___ 565(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141255 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 706(@200wpm)___ 565(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
I was thinking about my future. I wanted to get back to teaching, maybe. Dare asked me to hang tight while he finished sorting out some business stuff. He didn’t know how long until they’d be free of Kruna. He said there’d been complications with a few business areas that he was trying to get out of but was kind of tight-lipped about it. I didn’t push. I was busy trying to find myself in my new life after being a sex slave. I didn’t ask him about the partner summit, but that date had come and gone.
I took an art class a few blocks away. It was only once a week, but it was fun. I walked there and back alone and I often walked to the library, to the park to watch kids play, to feed the ducks by myself, and occasionally I stopped by the office to bring Dare lunch, a cup of his favorite coffee, or just to give him a kiss.
One day just a few days before our wedding I walked through the park at lunchtime and saw Dare’s ex there. She was sitting with a few girls eating lunch. It was the same place I’d seen her the first time. She glanced at me. She recognized me. She looked to her lap and said nothing to me. So I kept walking. I glanced over my shoulder when I was almost past her and saw her looking at me, a sad look on her face. She really screwed herself when she screwed him over. At least she was smart enough to heed his warnings to stay out of our lives. Poor stupid girl. But it was my boon. If she hadn’t shredded his heart, he’d never have been at Kruna, picking up his birthday gift.
Me.
Lisa wasn’t at our wedding. She was away at a retreat but she and I had been texting. The night before our wedding, when I was having a girls’ night in with Tia, Tess, and Luc for my bachelorette party. Lisa phoned me and I slipped into a bedroom at Tessa and Lisa’s place to have some privacy. She said the therapy was helping and said that she wanted me to do the same, to not bury what we’d been through. She said she was getting so much out of it that she was thinking that after Dare and Tommy were clear of the Kruna world maybe she and I could start up a charity of some sort to help those who’d been through what we’d gone through.
I didn’t know how soon the guys would be clear of Kruna. I didn’t know if it’d ever happen, and if it did, I doubted we could be so public about our truths. But I didn’t want to burst Lisa’s bubble. She seemed confident we’d find our way out. She wished me a happy wedding day and said she’d be home as soon as she could be.
The wedding was a dream come true. We had a little reception afterwards where we danced together to the song “Make Me Do Anything You Want” as our wedding dance. It was perfect for us. And then the music got upbeat and me, Tia, Luc, and Tessa danced our asses off until my new husband whisked me away for our wedding night, which had a whole lot of loud and energetic drunken marriage consummating. And for some odd reason there was nothing submissive about me that night.
The day after our wedding when I woke up my Master, my husband, the love of my life … was coming into the hotel suite. He sat down in front of the window looking like the weight of the world was on his shoulders.
“Good morning, hubby.” I stretched and smiled, wondering where he’d been. “Guess what?”
“What, baby?”
“I did something as a wedding present.”
He looked at me, but he wasn’t smiling.
“When I had the stitches out from my leg and I told you the doc referred me to that plastic surgeon? I didn’t tell you everything. I also got a referral to another doctor and the day Luc took me to the appointment for the plastic surgery consultation I had another appointment, too. I had the doctor take my IUD out. Surprise! Never know… we might’ve made a baby on our wedding night.”
He was looking very troubled.
My heart sank. “I thought you’d be happy. Is it too soon for that?”
I couldn’t wait to give him babies. Maybe I shouldn’t have made that decision on my own.
“I am happy. I’m gonna be so happy when we start our family, my baby. I’m sorry for my anticlimactic reaction but I got a call a little while ago and had to go down and meet with Zack in the lobby. What I’ve gotta tell you is gonna be hard. I can’t keep it from you. That wouldn’t be right.”