Total pages in book: 21
Estimated words: 19922 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 100(@200wpm)___ 80(@250wpm)___ 66(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 19922 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 100(@200wpm)___ 80(@250wpm)___ 66(@300wpm)
Maika ended up saying what she had wanted to say earlier.
"Take me. Please?"
His eyes glittered. "Remember that you asked for this, matia mou."
Maika was momentarily distracted. Okaaaaay. Did he really have to sound so ominous when he—ooooooh...so...that's...why...aaaaah!
MYKOS SLIPPED OUT OF bed as soon as his wife had fallen asleep. He envied her ability to forget the world existed so easily. It was a peace that he had yet to experience, more so after what she had done at the board meeting.
No woman he had dated...had ever defended him like that.
In many ways, they had even had it better than his own wife. The women he had kept as his mistresses had all been paid handsomely, and when he had tired of them, he had said goodbye in the only way they would appreciate, and that was to send them a diamond bracelet. Each.
Meanwhile, the girl he had married...had never touched a single dollar from the account he had opened on her behalf. It was where he had deposited her weekly allowance, which by now had accumulated into a small fortune. He had also given her his credit card, but she hadn't used it either.
All she seemed to want was more time with him...
Almost like she was in love with him...
And the moment he allowed himself to think this—
No. No. No.
He could not possibly love her back.
Mustn't.
And he would rather throw her out of his life to ensure it stayed that way.
The Break
the break (n.): the moment when someone who doesn't do love discovers he's been doing it all along, panics, and ruins everything
MAIKA HAD NEVER BEEN the type to pray. Her whole life, no one had really taken the time to talk to her or teach her about God. Sure, she knew about how people went to church, and about souls going to heaven or hell, but she had always felt like she was too busy surviving to have time to pray.
But since that day at the board meeting, it was as if something had changed, and the next thing she knew, she was talking to God all the time, and when she started reading the Bible, she knew she wasn't imagining things. It was like she was hearing Him even when there was no actual voice speaking. It was like she was hearing Him with her heart and not her ears. It was like He was the father she had always wanted but never had, and...
All the things that she never had the courage to say just started spilling out.
I think I'm in love with my husband, God.
No, actually, I'm sure of it.
I'm in love with Mykos, but I don't know if I should tell him.
Or if it's right that I do.
No, wait, I know I'm supposed to love him.
You allowed us to marry, and that means something.
No, wait, I remember reading about this.
I know that means everything, and I...I really love being in love with Mykos.
And I want him to love me back.
So what do I do now?
With every day that passed, it was getting harder and harder to keep her feelings to herself. She had noticed the way Mykos was looking at her oddly every so often, as if he, too, could sense the change in her. But he didn't say a word about it for some reason, and Maika couldn't figure out whether that was a good thing or not.
Her husband was typically the first one to reach for her hand. The first one to pull her close and kiss her. But nowadays, Maika found herself taking the initiative even when doing so also made her turn red. She just couldn't help it, though.
When she looked at him, he was just so beautiful in her eyes that she couldn't help reaching to touch his cheek to make sure if he was truly real. He had asked her to accompany him to his office one day, and while they were walking in the lobby of his building, she had looked at him, and the soft ebony waves of his hair just mesmerized her so much that she found herself reaching to touch it. She just wanted to check if she truly had the right to touch his hair as his wife, and when she did—
His golden gaze swung toward her, and the look on his face was enough to make her breath catch. Not anger. Something fiercer than that, and far more dangerous.
Maika was about to stumble back and pull her hand away, but he had caught her wrist and looked at her, asking abruptly, "Why did you do that?"
"I don't know," she had whispered.
"That's too bad."
"Why?"
"Because you're asking for punishment for no reason."
And that had been her only warning before Mykos had taken her to the elevator, his hand tight around hers, walking so fast she had to half-run to keep up. He hit the Emergency Stop button the moment the doors closed, and then he used an app on his phone to switch off the security cameras. All of this took him maybe five seconds, and the whole time, Maika was standing there with her back against the elevator wall, her heart in her throat, watching her husband dismantle the world's surveillance systems with the same calm efficiency other men used to check the weather.