Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 61190 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 306(@200wpm)___ 245(@250wpm)___ 204(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61190 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 306(@200wpm)___ 245(@250wpm)___ 204(@300wpm)
“I love you so much,” I said with awe in my eyes.
David smiled and rubbed my back.
“I love you,” he told me. “Whatever you want to do, I’m right there with you.”
I stroked his hair and glanced at the bed behind us.
“I’d love to take a nap with you right now,” I replied as I lifted my eyebrows at him.
David followed my gaze before playfully tossing me onto the mattress. He crawled over me, pecking at my neck and cheeks to draw soft laughter from me.
“Then, a nap we will take,” he said before lying down next to me. He pulled me into his arms, his strong chest pressing against my back. He kissed the back of my head, breathing in the flowery scent of my hair. “Thank you.”
“For what?” I asked as we cuddled close.
“Everything. For being my wife,” David replied, holding me as close as he could like he was afraid that I would slip from his grasp.
He never had to worry about that.
“I always want to be a good wife to you like you’re a good husband to me,” I said before pausing. A sigh then broke from me. “I really like this new thing that we’re trying, but the guilt swallows me whole sometimes. I feel like I’m betraying you.”
“I know you’ve been taught that what you’re doing is betrayal, but most things aren’t black and white like that,” David pointed out. “To me, betrayal is going behind my back to hurt me. Are you doing that?”
I shook my head.
“Never. I’d never do that,” I promised him, my heart aching at the thought of crushing him like that.
David held me tighter.
“Then, everything is perfectly fine. Trust me. It’s good,” he said in a sultry manner.
I laughed softly and placed my hands over his, drifting off into the comfort and warmth of his embrace. There was nowhere else that I wanted to be right now.
“Better than good,” I said, feeling his smile against the back of my neck.
Comfortable silence fell over the bedroom, and we slipped into a deep sleep, resting and preparing for what decided to come next for us.
Chapter 17
Bowen
The night air wasn’t as comforting as it should’ve been.
With a frustrated sigh, I rolled my neck as I leaned my forearms on the railing of the cottage’s front porch, looking down into the still darkness. My head lowered, feeling heavy from all the disappointment weighing down on me from earlier.
We almost had the dictator! We were so close, and we were so organized. Yet… we’d failed.
How could I sleep knowing that the dictator was probably laughing at us right about now?
“Bowen?”
I straightened up and spun around, facing Brianna as she peeked out of the front door. The moment our eyes locked, she froze for a second, staring up at me with wide eyes before stepping out onto the porch.
“You should be asleep,” I told her as she came closer. She should’ve been safe and warm in bed with David. Or the other guys I had seen slip into their bedroom.
I couldn’t believe that David was letting some of the other guys get hot and heavy with his wife or that a shy woman like Brianna would be into that sort of thing. The fact that she was so secretly naughty underneath those gentle eyes stirred something deep within me.
Maybe I had thought about wanting to be in that bedroom a time or two.
“I couldn’t sleep. I guess you couldn’t either,” Brianna replied before stopping a foot away from me. She crossed her arms over her chest with a little sheepish smile, but I could still tell that she wasn’t wearing a bra underneath her large t-shirt that almost covered her sleep shorts.
I exhaled slowly and shook my head before turning away from her, shame making my forehead burn hot. We should’ve come home victorious earlier.
“We don’t fail like this. Not often,” I murmured as I leaned against the railing again.
Brianna moved to my side.
“Everyone fails,” she replied. “You guys shouldn’t hold it against yourselves so much.”
I shook my head, my chest tightening.
“We can’t fail,” I told her. “I can’t fail. There’s too much riding on this mission. On anything that we do!”
Brianna tensed a little as I abruptly turned away from her. At first, I thought I’d scared her away until I felt her hands on my back.
“Why does it scare you so much? Failure,” she asked. “I mean, no one likes to fail, but sometimes things just… happen. There are some things that we can’t control. No matter how hard we try.”
Her words sounded weighted. They had a specific meaning that she hadn’t brought to light, but she had already shined a spotlight on the darkest part of my mind.
“I joined the military for my dad. He was this incredible tech specialist who won all these awards and did all these great things. He was so proud when I enlisted,” I told her, keeping my eyes forward and away from hers as my throat threatened to grow tight. “When he died… I got hooked on this job more than ever. It’s my last tie to him.”