Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 100716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
God, I want to believe her. Even before I learned the truth, I was never the brother Riley deserved. I encouraged my mother to enroll her in boarding school and hid her from the world because it was easier to hide from the truth than contemplate its consequences.
I was an adult during Riley’s formative years. I should have been there for her as I was Karolina.
Mara leans deeper under the spray like the temperature isn’t freezing before asking, “Does Riley know Karolina is her mother?”
Even the shortness of my reply can’t hide how furious it makes me. “No.”
She smiles, thankful for my honesty, before asking, “Are you going to tell her?”
I don’t contemplate as long as I thought I would if asked this question. “Yes. Eventually. I just need to stop jumping through fiery hoops first. I’ve taken steps to do that, but they don’t seem like enough.”
The confused crinkle between Mara’s brows is back, and it makes her expression too cute to remember the seriousness of our conversation.
She slaps away my hand for the second time this morning before arching a brow, silently demanding for me to continue.
I do, albeit begrudgingly.
“Our mother”—I cough before correcting myself—“my mother is threatening to make it a public announcement if I don’t…”
“Stay away from me?” Mara fills in when my anger has words eluding me.
I nod, the fury pumping out of me turning the icy water to lukewarm.
Mara looks like she hates herself more than my mother when she suggests, “Then why don’t we keep this between us for now?”
“No,” I immediately respond. “I’m not playing by her terms anymore. I can’t ask you to be my wife, then hide you away like a dirty secret. I want you at my side.”
She looks torn between kissing me and slapping me. I learn why when she whispers, “I’m not asking solely for Riley, Ark.” The love her eyes have been rarely without the past twenty-four hours lowers a smidge when she says, “I’m not ready to tell Tillie just yet. I need m-more time.”
Her stutter breaks my heart.
I did that. I brought that edge of desperation to her voice. The panic.
My insecurities brought her down to my level, and it is the last thing I want.
I lift her downcast head, re-aligning our eyes. “You have time.”
“Not after I stand at your side.” I realize my effort to keep her as far away from my mother as possible was fraudulent when she says, “They’ll want to know why you picked me, and the stuff they will find could tear our relationship apart.”
Her words echo cautions my mother made numerous times over the past two weeks, but I’m not worried. I’ve done my research. I know what I’m getting into. The journalist who met with me yesterday afternoon knows how hard I will persecute anyone stupid enough to strip the privacy of a minor or a victim of a crime.
I’ve also never been more honest with anyone in my life. Mara knows all my secrets, yet she is still here, peering up at me in awe. Nothing they could unearth will change how I feel right now, holding her in my arms.
“Trust me when I say I will destroy any media outlet stupid enough to run Tillie’s story or yours. Tillie is a child, and her rights are protected by a law I will uphold to its full degree on anyone who dares to test me.”
My cock turns to stone when she says, “I trust you.”
I hear a but, so I vocalize it. “But…”
Her words are like a punch to the gut and remind me again of how selfish I am being. “Riley is an adult. Her privacy will be nowhere near as sheltered as Tillie’s. She deserves to find out how she was conceived with dignity and respect.” Her wet eyes bounce between mine. “And she needs it to come from someone she trusts. It needs to come from you, Ark.”
Since I don’t disagree with her, I remain quiet.
The silence should aggravate the tension hanging thickly in the air. It doesn’t. It doubles the chemistry my greatest fears couldn’t hold back and has me remembering the question I asked her when she entered the bathroom.
“I am willing to consider keeping things on the down-low on the agreement you become my wife the instant they know the truth.” I say “they” in a manner she can’t mistake. This is for both Tillie and Riley.
Mara’s smile… fuck. I’ve never seen such an exotic image.
“Can I think about it?”
Her lips part to make way for a giggle when I say all caveman-like, “No. You cannot. That’s not how marriage proposals work. I ask, you say yes.”
There’s no heat to my tone, no malice. It is as cool as the water I guide her under before I reacquaint our lips, certain I will never take a full breath again without her mouth on mine.