Page 69 of The Unwanted Wife

"Keep count?"

She nods.

"It’s easy when you’ve yearned for someone, and cursed yourself for it, and tried to stop yourself from thinking of them, only to have your dreams betray you, for they’re filled with images of the one person who’s off limits."

"Yet, here we are," she says softly.

And it’s how I’ve let down Ben. Losing any appetite I had left, I place my fork on my plate and push it aside. She rises to her feet, begins to walk around, then winces. I frown, but before I can ask if she’s okay, she places the dessert in front of me, then climbs into my lap.

"What are you doing?" I arch an eyebrow.

"Trying to cheer you up."

"Do I look like I needed cheering up?" I smirk.

"You looked like you were thinking of things that make you unhappy."

"They don’t." I brush a strand of hair behind her ear. "They give me food for thought, is all. A reality check. But also, a realization."

"A realization?" She scoops up some of the sweet ricotta cheese with a fingertip and holds it out to me. I curl my fingers around her wrist, then close my mouth around her digit and lick it off.

Goosebumps snake up her skin. Her fingers tremble. The fact that I affect her so much shoots a burst of satisfaction down my spine. My cock thickens, and when her eyes widen, I know she feels it against her ample beautiful butt.

"That you mean the world to me. That when we part ways, my life will never be the same."

37

Skylar

"Why do you have to say that? Why are you convinced we’ll separate?"

"Because this is but a marriage of convenience. We went into it, each of us, to get something specific. And once we get that, there’s no need for us to be together, is there?" He peers into my face like he expects me to deny it. Like he wants me to say this is more than just an arrangement. Like he wants me to come out and tell him how I feel. It almost feels like a test, in some ways. Except for that insistent thrust of his cock into the valley between my butt cheeks, and the sparks in his eyes, and the way his biceps bulge and stretch his T-shirt, which tells me he’s far from unaffected by our proximity. Then there’s the way he cups my cheek and scowls. "Is there?"

I shake my head. "You’re right. We went into this with our eyes open. Once my business is stable and Hugo is taken care of, and you’ve consolidated your role as CEO, there’s no need for us to be together."

His features tighten. A pulse throbs at his jawline. He lowers his arm, only to lock it around my waist. "But I get the time until that happens. I’m your husband, you’re my wife, and you’ll satisfy my needs, isn’t that right?"

I frown. Where is this conversation going? "If you mean, your kinky-fuckery stuff?—"

"Which you happen to like."

"I do." I blush as I say it because, apparently, I’ll never be able to discuss our sexual proclivities without feeling bashful. This man’s been inside of me, and I can feel how aroused he is by me, and yet, I’m unable to come to terms with how much he wants me and how he wants to do all these erotic things to my body.

"And you’ll tell me if you don’t?" His gaze grows intense. "At any time, if you feel I’m going too far, you’ll speak up?"

I nod slowly. "Am I not supposed to have a safe word for it?"

He considers my question for a few seconds. "By now you know, I have a primal fetish.” He pauses… Clocking my response? “But I sometimes lean toward sadism.”

I draw in a sharp breath. I skirted around that word in my head, mainly because thinking of it made my situation too real. But hearing it from his mouth sends a pulse of desire thrumming through my veins. I’ve wanted to know about this world. Wanted to know how it would be to be dominated. I resorted to books, mainly because I didn’t have the time or the energy for hookups.

In school, I was the geeky nerd, the one who salivated at the jocks from afar, but never had the courage to approach them; and they definitely never noticed me. The couple of boyfriends I had were more interested in taking my virginity than anything else. Besides, their fumbling didn’t exactly give me the confidence they knew what they were doing. And then, I turned eighteen and kissed him. I immediately knew he was the one I’d give my virginity to. All of the other men I met paled in comparison.

A year later my mother passed away. And when I moved to London and met Hugo he became the younger brother I never had. When he met with his accident, my life became all about staying afloat. Staying ahead of the responsibilities that came with caring for him, the sorrow I felt from losing my mother, and then Ben leaving on his tours, the frustration I felt at not being able to make my business a success…

When Nate walked into my life again, I was drowning. But seeing him fired up my desire to survive, to win, to reach for the goals I thought were no longer within reach. Sure, he frustrated me and made me angry, but that’s what gave me the impetus to get ahead of my self-doubts. He kickstarted that desire in me to wake up each morning and want to do better than the previous day, and isn’t that what the definition of living is? To look forward to each moment, to want to do more, to enjoy each second you’re alive. That’s what Nate has given me. He’s changed my world; shown me a future I didn’t know was possible. Only… Is he going to be in it? I don’t know. But it’s not going to stop me from enjoying the time I have with him. "The thought had crossed my mind, yes," I murmur.

"I love inflicting pain, but I adore it when it’s on someone I care about. Feeling the flinch, hearing the gasp, seeing the marks on your flesh, inflicting pain on you, my wife, arouses me like nothing has before."

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