Total pages in book: 167
Estimated words: 157175 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 786(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 157175 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 786(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
‘Jesse?’
‘No, the Lord Almighty.’ The roll of her eyes is dramatic.
‘He is the Lord Almighty.’ I laugh softly, casting my gaze to him at the bar. He’s still watching me, though something tells me the glass of bubbles in my hand isn’t the reason why. I can see curiosity scattered across his face, the signature creases that I’ve become familiar with spanning his forehead. I breathe in, unable to help admiring the fine form of a man who is my husband. He has a sexy, magnetic appeal that demands attention, and for the most part, he knows it. He’s a god, no denying it, and I am married to him. Though past all his cocky arrogance, there’s a vulnerability. A weakness. I am the cause of that weakness. His love for me.
I study him as he studies me, his big body relaxed against the bar. My eyes go off on a tangent, roaming the vast length of him, all the way down to his Grensons, and back up again until I get to his face. That face. I sigh, relaxing, a smile breaking free when his green eyes shine, glimmer, and sparkle madly, his devilish smirk faint but apparent. He’s aware of the inspection he’s under, and, as always, he’s taking too much pleasure from my inability to keep my damn eyes under control. I shake my head faintly on a little laugh, and he winks, kissing the air. ‘Arrogant pig,’ I mouth.
‘I love you, too,’ he mouths back, making me laugh out loud and quickly return my focus to Kate before I inflate his huge ego even more. The man’s a case. When I find my friend, I also find a cheesy grin around another one of those bloody canapés.
‘Tell me you don’t adore that man,’ she demands. ‘Tell me it isn’t ingrained into you like every one of your internal organs. Tell me you don’t need him to survive.’
‘I can’t,’ I admit, though the idea is crazy if true.
I look at him and feel electric inside. He touches me, and my veins charge with heat. In his arms, I feel at home. Like nothing can hurt me. And I know for sure that it can’t.
‘I didn’t know what I felt at first,’ I admit. ‘Attraction, for sure, but trying to get my head around this man being my husband was frightening.’ I smile when Kate takes my hand and holds it in a sign of support. ‘I saw something in him, something that I should have been wary of, yet I was more intrigued by him. He’s told me things that are unbelievable, yet I believe them.’ Kate doesn’t ask what things, as I suspect she knows. ‘I just feel myself leaning on him in all ways, and I know it’s the right thing to do. I can’t explain it. I feel protective of him, even though I know he can more than look after himself. But more protective of his ways, like a need to defend how he is. Because I know why he’s like that. The Manor, his uncle, his brother. The scars on his stomach, just the thought of him being hurt, no matter in what way.’ At the mention of the scars, Kate inhales, flinching. ‘I know,’ I agree. ‘I was so mad when he told me how he’d sustained the injuries. I know he claims to have been nothing before he met me, empty and lost, but still. He shouldn’t have been so careless with his life.’
‘Careless?’
‘Not wearing his leathers when he rode his bike,’ I prompt, and she nods slowly, looking across to Jesse with the disappointment I feel myself.
‘He’s a silly man,’ she muses, starting to get up from her seat, the effort too much, even with my helping hand. ‘I need to pee for the thousandth time in an hour.’
‘Want me to come?’
‘Trust me, you don’t want to hear me pee. I sound like a carthorse.’
‘So you’re eating like a horse, peeing like a horse. You gonna start galloping?’ I smile when she chuckles.
‘Sam’s gonna have to roll me out of this joint.’ She stretches, standing tall, her palms in her back pushing her hips forward. ‘Oh, God,’ she groans, the sound pure pleasure. ‘I’ll be back in a minute. You want a drink?’
‘Yes, but don’t let Jesse see it.’
‘I’ll smuggle it through in my gigantic knickers.’ She wanders off, and I fall into thought again, at the same time admiring Jesse. Falling in love with him so quickly seems like an outlandish possibility.
But it happened once before.
And it’s happening once again.
Chapter 39
I watch as Kate half wobbles, half marches towards me, though it’s plain to see she’s trying to execute the latter with grit. It doesn’t matter if she’s failing. The look on her face is like thunder, and I’m puzzled as to why.