Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 136731 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 684(@200wpm)___ 547(@250wpm)___ 456(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136731 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 684(@200wpm)___ 547(@250wpm)___ 456(@300wpm)
Admiration sweeps through me, but as quickly as it comes, it goes, and in its place festers the pain of uncertainty. I, too, had a champion at home.
My heart squeezes sorely.
What has become of my brother and sisters?
“Julius,” I approach warily. His eyes briefly glance mine and my heart aches, as I all but beg, “I really would like to speak to my brother.” He turns back to the road, and I quickly rush out, “Just one last time and I-I promise to never ask again.” Slumping in my chair, my eyes close and I reach up to cover my face with my hands. I speak through them, but it’s muffled. “Before you tell me they’re not my family anymore, I need you to know that you risk upsetting me, and when I get upset—” I remove my hands from my face and pose my futile, under-delivered threat. “—I am less than cooperative.”
Unfortunately, it’s the only threat I have to use right now.
Luckily for me, Julius’s lip twitches, and I catch the sight of his shoulders moving in silent laughter, and my uptight posture eases. After a moment of composure, he humors me and does it in perfect seriousness. “Can’t have an uncooperative wife now, can I?”
I nod and return in complete sobriety, “I’m sure you’ve heard the saying.” I turn to catch his curious look and realize he has no idea about the saying. I take pity on him and fill him in. “Happy wife, happy life.”
His shoulders bounce some more as mirth takes hold, and I smile to myself at the light teasing.
Julius reaches over and takes my hand, entwining our fingers then pulling them to his mouth, where he presses soft kisses to my knuckles. And my stomach swirls with solid waves of tenderness.
I barely hear him when he mutters a hushed, “Damn fool of a man.” Another kiss. “Burnin’ in hell.” A soft peck. “Worth her weight.”
But, and here’s the important thing…
I do hear him.
The house greets us in silence, and as I walk past him, Julius catches me around the waist and pulls me to him, his front flush against my back. He leans down to place his stubbled cheek to mine, and I lean into it, regardless of how it scratches the delicate skin on my face.
For a strange yet exhilarating moment, I wonder if this is what normal feels like.
If it is, I never want to lose what little normal Julius provides.
“Nice night,” I reveal quietly, into the darkness of the hall.
“Yeah,” he drawls at my nape, and the heat of his breath has me breaking out in gooseflesh.
How on earth was a woman meant to keep her mind about her when in his presence?
At the moment, I don’t really care about my sanity. I spin in his hold and hook my fingers into the pockets of his jeans, standing on my tiptoes, wanting desperately for him to take my mouth in a deep, earth-shattering kiss. “Bedtime?”
His gorgeous eyes hood, and it’s so goddamn sexy that my core contracts. “Mmmm,” is his only response, the approving sound vibrating through his chest to mine.
I don’t hear her step out of the shadows.
Ling speaks softly, her voice unusually tentative. “You’re back.”
I want to yell at her for interrupting and plan on doing so, but when I turn around to deliver, her appearance has me backing off.
Dressed in a short kimono-style robe, her legs bare, with no makeup on, her hair wound up into a ball at the top of her head, she avoids my gaze when she announces, “We got a delivery this afternoon. It was an envelope. I forgot about it till about twenty minutes ago. I didn’t—” She swallows hard and bites the inside of her cheek. “I didn’t think it was important.”
Julius steps out from behind me and makes his way over to her; his cautionary stance tells me this is a rare display from Ling. “Ling Ling,” he says guardedly. “What is it?”
Holding the robe together tightly, she starts, “I only started watching it when you came in. I would’ve called, but—”
Watching it?
“It’s a video?” Julius enquires.
It’s so strange seeing her without her perfect red lips, her perfectly straight hair, her perfect composure. Part of me wants to cheer at the discovery that she is like any other woman, but it’s so alarming that, instead, it gives me chills.
She’s well and truly shaken up.
“A video from Gio,” she confirms. My body turns rigid. Then, finally, she looks up at me, eye to eye, but what she says next has me wishing she didn’t. “And it’s addressed to Alejandra.”
My heart goes from meek stuttering to wild pounding. I see the TV on in the living area and immediately recognize the voice as Gio’s. Without a second thought, my feet carry me there.
Ling calls out, “Don’t go in there!” Then she adds a panicked, “Fuck. Don’t let her watch, Julius. It’s bad.”