Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 93727 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 469(@200wpm)___ 375(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93727 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 469(@200wpm)___ 375(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
“So fucking beautiful,” Daniel murmured against the skin on my back as he kissed his way down my spine.
I felt so empty when he pulled out that I nearly whimpered. Moving slowly, I let him help me back into the shower, which had grown cold, so he could quickly rinse us off. I wasn’t much help. Every limb felt like it weighed a thousand pounds as Daniel helped me back out of the shower and dried us off. Without a word, he looped my arms around his neck and once I’d latched on, grabbed the backs of my thighs so I’d wrap my legs around his waist.
He carried me naked to my room and tucked me firmly beneath the sheets with a kiss to my forehead. As I let my eyes drift closed, he left the room, came back to get dressed, and then left again. Seconds later, I could hear him just a wall away, cleaning up the bathroom floor where we’d left a huge puddle of water.
Then, nothing.
When I woke up alone, I panicked.
Jumping out of bed, I hurriedly threw on whatever clothes I could find, not even bothering with a bra. He wasn’t in bed with me. Why wasn’t he in bed with me?
I’d fallen asleep thinking that he was just cleaning up the evidence of our debauchery before climbing in with me. Instead, Daniel had left me naked and alone.
My heartbeat thundered in my ears as I lunged for the door to my room, throwing it open so hard that it banged loudly against the wall. The house was so quiet that I knew no one was inside. Not even Thunder’s snores broke the silence.
Holding back a sob, I raced through the kitchen and out the back door, searching for him. The barn was dark. The yard was empty. The door to the smaller shop was closed and locked, and the chickens weren’t making the noises they made when someone was near their coop. Ignoring the wet ground, I jogged around the house, searching everywhere.
I came to a stumbling stop when I reached the edge of the front porch.
Pop was sitting in his wheelchair, Thunder lying beside him, and Daniel was on his knees in the flower bed, painting the new lattice he’d installed beneath the porch.
“Hey, sleepyhead,” Pop called. “You get dressed in the dark?”
My cheeks burned as Daniel’s gaze met mine, and I quickly looked away and down at what I was wearing.
The pajama pants I’d thrown on were zigzagging stripes of lime green and neon orange. The socks—purple. And my shirt was a button-down that Aunt Halle had bought me that I’d never worn before, because I generally didn’t have any reason to wear blouses, and it reminded me of the color of baby poop.
“I, uh…” I stuttered. “How long have I been asleep?”
“A couple of hours,” Daniel replied, pushing to his feet. “Gary came back about half an hour after you fell asleep, so we decided to get this done after we’d put the groceries away.”
“Well, aren’t you helpful?” I asked snarkily.
I wasn’t sure why I’d said it or even why I’d used that tone. I wasn’t mad at him.
“You’re grouchy when you wake up,” he said, his lips twitching like he was trying not to laugh. “Good to know.”
“I am not,” I argued as the panic in my chest started to calm.
I was stiff as a board when he reached for me, his thumb gently tracing the curve of my cheek. “I wouldn’t leave without letting you know first.”
I nodded, though I found that hard to believe. Daniel seemed to think he knew what was best for both of us, and if he thought that leaving without telling me was best, he’d do it.
“You want to help me finish this up?” he asked, jerking his head toward the porch.
“It looks so much better,” I replied grudgingly as I walked over to inspect his work. The lattice under the porch had been broken for months. It had begun slowly rotting and was just soft enough that when Thunder had been chasing some animal that ran through the holes but hadn’t been agile enough to stop in time, he’d crashed right through it and gotten stuck. We’d then had to widen the hole just to get him free.
I looked up at him. “This is all your fault, you know.”
“Leave poor Thunder alone,” Pop ordered, leaning down to pet his head. “He doesn’t get around like he used to.”
“He was moving fast enough to break through the dang lattice,” I countered, picking up one of the paintbrushes. “I think he’s playing you.”
Thunder lifted his head off the porch, his sad eyes looking me over, then dropped it back down.
“You’re such a con artist,” I accused, laughing.
He just slowly closed his eyes like he couldn’t be bothered.