Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 91402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
There were no pictures on the walls. In fact, there was nothing except for large moving boxes with German words scribbled on the sides. His office was polished and organized, but this was a disaster.
“I’ve been traveling a lot.”
Since there was nothing else to look at, my gaze went to the floor-to-ceiling window that had a sweeping view of the city. In the distance, his brewery loomed. Smoke drifted from the smokestack, illuminated by the glowing Osterhägen logo.
“Where’s your furniture?” I asked.
“It stayed with the house I used to have.” He paused. “A few months ago, I decided it was too much room. Alicia and I had bought it thinking we might need the room for—”
I sucked in a breath. “Kids.”
“Yes. I’m closer to the office here.”
“How long were you married?”
“To Alicia? Three years.”
I should have left it alone. It wasn’t my business, and it was guaranteed to create more questions, but I did it anyway. “And no kids?”
He straightened, uncomfortable. “No.”
I pressed my lips together to hold in my regret, but he didn’t see it. He turned, went to the large, stainless-steel fridge, and grabbed two bottles of beer. A bottle opener was extracted from a drawer, the caps were popped off, and he slid a bottle across the counter toward me.
“I suppose I should tell you,” his gaze was fixed on me and his face serious, “I don’t want to have children. We both thought I would change my mind about that, but I didn’t, and that was the reason Alicia and I got divorced.”
I took a sip of the beer to avoid saying anything.
“I know it’s a little late to ask,” he continued, “but are you . . . doing anything to prevent that?”
Since we’d had sex without a condom this afternoon.
“Sorry, no.”
He took a deep breath, and the struggle behind his eyes was fierce. Shawn had enormous wealth and had been ensnared in marriage this way once before. I didn’t want to be cruel, and I didn’t make him wait.
“I suppose I should tell you,” I echoed his words, “I don’t want to have children, either. Which is good, because that’s not possible for me.”
He didn’t appear to understand right away. “You can’t?”
“Nope.” I took another sip of my beer, and for some reason it just came out. “Paul took me to every doctor to prove it.”
His face changed. Not pity, or sympathy, but understanding.
I didn’t have to tell him about the hormone treatments I’d reluctantly agreed to, the months of disappointing looks in Paul’s eyes, and why sex had been so focused on the end result and not the act of love. That was behind me now.
“Let’s talk about something else,” I said.
“All right. Are you still naked under that skirt?”
I paused. Once again, he’d put me off-balance. The air in the room was thin and made me swallow thickly. “Maybe.”
“Show me.” It wasn’t a request. He wore the same expression he had in the back of the limo, the one filled with hunger and power.
I set my beer down on the counter lazily. “You don’t have any furniture in here.”
A wicked smile tugged at his lips. “But I do in the bedroom.”
Jason had given me the ‘all clear’ to turn my phone back on, and it was late when it buzzed on the nightstand. Shawn stirred beside me on the bed but didn’t wake. I blinked my bleary eyes at the screen and had to read it again.
Really?
The carpet was plush under my bare feet as I hurried out of the bedroom, far enough out into the living area not to disturb Shawn.
“What do you want, Paul?” I whispered it, but it echoed in the empty space.
“I’ve been calling you for days. Where have you been?”
“None of your damn business,” my temper said. “What do you need?”
“I’ve been worried about you. You seemed okay after the incident in New York, but then you disappeared. No one could reach you, and you weren’t in the office all week. You never take time off—”
“I’m fine.”
He wasn’t listening. “Not even when you’re sick. I know you. Something’s going on.”
Paul thought he knew me? No, not anymore. “What do you want?”
“I have to tell you something about Scott.” His superior attitude, the one he’d kept hidden from me until we were married, seeped into his voice. Almost like he was looking forward to revealing this shocking information.
“I’ve already heard.”
It made me sad. I had liked Scott right up until the gun, and even after, he still didn’t deserve what happened to him.
“So where are you?” he asked, forcing casualness. “With him, Shawn Dunn?”
That was what this phone call was about. His curiosity, his jealousy.
“Why do you care?”
“Have you looked at this guy? He’s got a reputation for sleeping with anything that moves. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”