Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 137144 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137144 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
He raised an eyebrow as he stared at her. “I want to know that too.”
What did he mean?
“How do you not know? Weren’t you . . . weren’t you here?” She wrapped her arms around herself. Had he left her here alone? Or had someone else been in the room with her?
Oh, God. She was going to be sick.
“What? I think we’re talking about two different things. I want to know what happened to you ever since you got engaged.”
Huh? What did he mean?
“When you said that you wanted me to tell you what had happened to you, what were you talking about?” he asked.
“These.” She held out her arms and turned them over. “And this.” She pointed at the bandage on her inner elbow. “When I went to sleep, I didn’t have any of this, and when I woke up, I did. I want to know why.”
“I can see why that would be scary,” he said.
Yes. Well, what he didn’t know was that it wasn’t the first time it had happened to her.
“What happened?” she asked as a wave of dizziness washed over her.
“Whoa, baby. Are you all right?” He reached out and wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close against him.
That did nothing for the dizziness washing through her. Although this became a different sort of light headedness.
He smelled so good. Lily found herself leaning in against him, unable to keep herself upright any longer.
“You need some dinner. Come on, it’s nearly ready. Let’s get you downstairs and fed, and then I’ll talk to you about what happened.”
She should insist that he tell her first, but she found she didn’t have the energy.
She hated feeling this way, so weak, so useless.
He lifted her up against him and carried her out of the room.
That was something else she should protest. The way he just picked her up and took her wherever he wanted her to be. He didn’t really have any right to do that.
Like he’s going to care about your thoughts on that. He kidnapped you, and he’s holding you prisoner. Carrying you down the stairs isn’t even going to rate with him.
As he carried her into the kitchen, the smell of something cooking made her mouth water.
“What is that?” she asked as he sat her on a stool at the kitchen island.
“It’s just spaghetti bolognese,” he replied. “I’m not a bad cook, but I didn’t want to spend a lot of time away from you preparing anything more complicated.”
“Spaghetti bolognese sounds amazing to me. I can’t remember the last time I ate pasta.”
He started dishing it up. “You don’t like pasta?”
“Oh no, I love it.”
“Then how come you haven’t eaten it in a long time?” he asked.
She shrugged. “Mother said it was fattening and that I had to watch my weight so I didn’t end up . . .”
“End up what?” he asked.
Like Clem.
God, Mother really was a complete and utter bitch. There was nothing wrong with the way Clem looked. She was beautiful and fun and brave.
Lily wished she could be more like her.
But she’d let Mother do whatever she wanted.
“End up fat, I guess.”
“She wouldn’t let you eat pasta? Because she thought you would get fat?”
Lily shrugged, looking away. It sounded ridiculous when he said it. Why would she even let her mother dictate stuff like that?
Because it was easier? Because she didn’t have any fight left in her?
“That won’t be happening anymore,” he said to her. “From now on, you eat pasta whenever you want. And as much as you like.”
“Is that a command?” she asked, remembering what he’d said about commands earlier.
“It is.”
“You don’t think Mother should get to dictate what I eat, but you do?”
He stilled, standing there, holding two bowls of food. Her stomach decided that was the perfect time to growl. Urgh, her stomach never growled. In fact, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt hungry.
Right now, though, she felt ravenous.
That seemed to startle him out of his frozen state, and he set the bowl of food down in front of her.
“I get why you’d say that. But I am nothing like your mother. I want you to be healthy, and happy, and safe. It seems to me that all she wanted was for you to be her puppet. No matter what pain or stress it caused you. She didn’t seem to care about your welfare at all.”
That wasn’t true.
Wasn’t it?
When had her mother ever cared about her health, though? The only thing that concerned her was keeping up with appearances and making sure that she could live in the style to which she was accustomed.
All Lily had ever done was try to please her. Just to hear her mother tell her that she was proud. That she loved her.
God. Was she really that pathetic?
It seemed that she was.