Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 104869 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104869 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
Only to arrive home to face this angry and hostile crowd.
He was tired, irritable, hungry, thirsty, and fuck it, longing to see Kenna.
And she was the only fucking person not here.
“Where’s my wife?” he demanded of the room in general, and every brow raised in response.
“I’m not sure you’re entitled to call me that anymore,” the quiet voice that he’d been longing to hear said behind him.
He swiveled on his heel to face her, suppressing the wild joy that had bloomed in his heart at the sound of that voice.
She looked fucking phenomenal.
She was wearing an ice-blue silk sheath dress. It fell to just below her knees, hugging all her curves, and was held up by the thinnest of spaghetti straps. Once again, his modestly endowed wife had opted out of wearing a bra and his mouth went dry at the sight of that modest cleavage, so beautifully showcased by the draped cowl neck of that dress.
She folded her arms protectively over her chest and he recognized that he’d been staring enough for her to notice. And take exception.
“Hello, sweetheart,” he greeted tenderly, longing to take her in his arms. But those frigid eyes and the closed-off body language told him that the gesture would not be appreciated. “You didn’t tell me we were hosting the old man’s birthday this year.”
Her full lips thinned.
Her glossy black hair was swept over one creamy shoulder. She’d done something to her eyes to make them all smoky and mysterious. And her full lips boasted a shade of dusky pink lipstick that he longed to eat right off her mouth.
God, she was beautiful.
“What are you doing here, Smith?” Her voice held all the warmth of an arctic tundra. “You’re ruining my father’s birthday party.”
He grimaced and tossed a look over his shoulder at them. Every single man in that room looked ready to tear him limb from limb.
“Can we talk?” he asked, lowering his voice. “Privately?”
Her eyes narrowed and she looked at him with a speculative glint before shaking her head.
“Nope,” she decided. “If you have anything to say to me, Smith, you can do it here. In front of my family.”
Fine.
“Right.” He ran a hand through his hair and cast another look at her family. Gideon sat down, stretching his long legs out in front of him and leaning back to watch with an obnoxious shit-eating grin on his face. The other men followed suit. Fern and Beth both looked sympathetic but curious.
Well, it didn’t look like there was any way out of this, and really, he deserved this little bit of payback for the way he’d royally fucked everything up.
“I shouldn’t have left the way I did,” he began.
But he was nervous and the words spilled from his lips faster than he’d intended and clumsily bumped into each other in their haste to be heard. He inhaled deeply in an attempt to slow things down.
“I’m sorry, Kenna. I fucked up. I needed to think. Needed to figure out how to tell you that our new arrangement wasn’t working for me. That I didn’t want to wait and see what would come of it. We had one rule, one clear-cut fucking rule. Communication. We’d talk to each other, be honest about our feelings, and within days, you were keeping how much you hated camping from me. And I was keeping how much I hated that you hadn’t told me that immediately from you.
“We were back to repeating the cycle we were desperately trying to break and I was afraid of what that meant. Concerned that we would never figure this out. I needed to clear my head, think things through. And I stupidly decided to head back to Outeniqua. I figured, the gear was packed, I had enough food, why not head up to my favorite campsite to clear my head? I never intended to leave without a word. I sent a text. I swear to God, I did. But it failed to send. I didn’t even realize it until two days later.
“Going off like that in the first place was wrong. I know that. How fucking arrogant of me to head off into the wilderness to make decisions about our relationship by myself. At least that’s one thing my dumb, impulsive trip gave me the clarity to see. It wasn’t my place to make decisions about us. That was something we should have been doing together. As soon as I realized what a moron I was being, I left. I’m fucking ashamed that it took me as long as it did to figure it out. I arrived back in town yesterday, but you were gone.” His voice cracked embarrassingly and he stopped, desperately hunting for any semblance of composure.
Kenna’s lips trembled, and she cast a quick, uncertain look at her very silent family.