Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 142976 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 715(@200wpm)___ 572(@250wpm)___ 477(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142976 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 715(@200wpm)___ 572(@250wpm)___ 477(@300wpm)
And despite her silly disappointment in his response, his honesty, as well as this glimpse of the affection he clearly felt for his siblings, surprised her. Cade didn’t strike her as someone who revealed much of himself. Her impression of him so far was that of a serious, staid man who was stingy with his words and his smiles.
This was a welcome, wholesome, glance behind that stuffy exterior and she ached to learn more.
“Why isn’t your father joining us?” she asked, mostly to keep him talking.
“For one thing, it would be weird for him to join us on our supposed honeymoon. And for another, Dad and our legal team took the company chopper from Copenhagen back to our head office in Edinburgh. We may have signed the documents, but Lambecrete’s ownership transference is going to be a lengthy, complicated affair. Especially if—or I should say when—Abernathy decides to contest it. And my father and the team will get a head start on the troubleshooting process.”
“How can they do that without you? Don’t they need you for that?”
His lips quirked into that almost smile again. “Nice to know my wife believes me so indispensable.”
“You’re the head of your father’s legal team, aren’t you?” she asked, valiantly beating back the flush that rose in her cheeks.
“My associates have it in hand.”
“How long will we be staying in Cape Town?”
“Long enough to be photographed around town, as a couple, and with my family. A couple of weeks maybe, before we fly home.”
Home? The word made her pause and she frowned as she once again acknowledged that she knew absolutely nothing about this man. She’d first met him at an ancient castle-like mansion—apparently their ancestral seat—in Edinburgh and she now wondered if that drafty, intimidating, mausoleum-like place would be their home.
“Where’s home?”
“London. I have a townhouse.”
“I see. And I’ll be living there—uhm—with you?”
“For now.”
“Right. And what about uh… intimacy?” Her skin was on fire with embarrassment, but this was the first time she’d really had time alone with him since this all started, and there were a lot of very important logistical matters that they’d not yet addressed.
“What do you mean?”
“We’re going to be married for at least three years, right?” she said, eyes on her neatly interlocked fingers which were folded into a tight prayer like grip in her lap. “What about sex?”
The silence screamed and it went on for so long that she had no choice but to lift her eyes and peek up at him through her lashes. He was staring at her, looking a little confounded. Why? Because she’d had the nerve to broach the subject or because he hadn’t considered it before now?
He caught her stare and seemed to shake himself before saying, “What about sex?”
“Do you… will we… I don’t expect you to be celibate. But if you’re seen with other women, it’ll bring our so-called fairytale romance into doubt.”
“All fairytale romances eventually crash and burn,” he muttered and the cynicism in his voice stole her breath away.
“What an awful thing to say. What about your siblings and their marriages? Don’t you think those will last?”
“My sister’s marriage already seems to be on shaky ground, and that’s after only a year and a half. Gideon and Beth, they’ve been together the same length of time but they’re solid. They’ll last, but the fairytale can’t. It changes to everyday drudgery. Their love might be forever, but that giddy devotion will eventually devolve into—I don’t know—habit maybe.”
She was about to comment on that, negate it in some way, when his lips twisted into a cynical imitation of a smile.
“So, if you’re worried that me fucking other women will cast doubt onto our perfect little love story, are you saying I should be not celibate with you?”
She stared into his beautiful face for a long, appalled moment, not sure how to respond to that. That wasn’t what she’d been suggesting. Or wondering. Or hoping.
Except… maybe it was?
And right now she had no idea why she’d even brought the subject up, it had seemed important at the time, but now all she could think of was how he’d felt inside of her. The size of him, the pressure, the presence… and she wondered how it would feel to do it again. But maybe with less clothes. And for longer. Maybe it would be—
“Because, I don’t think we’re compatible in that way.” His words registered just as she began to spin impossible fantasies around the two of them. Together again.
“Not compatible?” she repeated, confused, and he grimaced, dull red seeping into his cheeks. He looked discomfited, uneasy, on edge and seemed to have trouble meeting her eyes.
“Look, Fern, the last time wasn’t great, aye?” When he phrased it like that, his accent thickened. It was an unwelcome distraction, when Fern very much needed to focus on what he was saying. “I think we’d both had a little too much to drink and imagined an attraction where there was none. It’s the only explanation I can think of for what happened between us.”