Total pages in book: 16
Estimated words: 14926 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 75(@200wpm)___ 60(@250wpm)___ 50(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 14926 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 75(@200wpm)___ 60(@250wpm)___ 50(@300wpm)
He stopped, turning in a circle to scent the air. He smelled elk, but was in no mood to hunt. Sitting, he lifted his nose to the sky and howled, a long, mournful howl.
Only a toothbrush would get out the dirt between the grout lines of the shower. Ashley pushed her sleeves up and returned to her position on her hands and knees in the empty bathtub, scrubbing at the tiles. She’d attacked the house, cleaning it from top to bottom, as if that somehow might make things right with Ben. It was now pushing six o’clock and he hadn’t returned. Her stomach had clenched like a fist.
When she finished cleaning, she grilled three steaks and made a Greek salad and herbed quinoa.
Still he didn’t come home. The clock read half past eight. Night had come and snowflakes had begun to fall. Surely the cold didn’t bother him. But even so, was it a sign of how upset he was that he didn’t return, despite the dark and cold?
Unable to eat, she dished the food onto plates, covered them with plastic wrap and put them in the refrigerator. The house didn’t feel like hers anymore. She tiptoed around it, like she didn’t belong, every creak of the wood floors making her jump. Wrapping a blanket around her shoulders, she sat down and turned on the television, flipping through the channels. She found an old Clint Eastwood movie and watched it until her eyelids began to droop.
Maybe she should just go to bed. But would he return soon? Or had he gone elsewhere for the night? Was this the end for them? Tears pricked her eyes, but she blinked them back, heading to their bedroom to try to sleep.
She woke at two a.m. to find the space beside her in the bed still empty. A sense of dread filled her chest as she climbed out of bed to check the house. She stopped in the living room, finding Ben’s sleeping form sprawled on the couch. He was naked, as if he’d just shifted back. The chiseled muscles of his powerful chest and arms were exposed, with a light blanket tossed over his waist.
They weren’t sleeping together?
She willed herself to exhale, but couldn’t seem to catch her breath. Did this mean things were over between them? Her nose burned as tears crowded up into her throat. She crept to the side of the couch and knelt down beside Ben’s face, tears spilling down her cheeks.
His eyes blinked open and he sat up. “Ashley,” he said in a hoarse voice. “Go to sleep.”
“I can’t,” she said. She remembered he’d told her once that the smell of her tears would bring him to his knees. She thought she saw pain in his eyes, but in the darkness, it was hard to tell. “Can we talk?” she croaked.
He sighed. “We’ll talk tomorrow.”
“Will you come to bed?”
“No,” he said heavily. “I don’t think so.”
“Then I’m staying here,” she said, brushing the tears with the back of her hand.
“No,” he said, his voice hardening. “Go back to bed. Now.”
She shook her head.
He made a sound of irritation and reached for her, freezing when she flinched. “You’re afraid of me,” he said hollowly.
She opened her mouth, then closed it, unsure how to answer. Had she flinched because she was scared? No, not really. Rationally, she wasn’t afraid of Ben, but his dominance did have an effect on her, making her instincts for self-preservation kick in, just as seeing him in wolf form always made her gulp.
“That’s why you felt you had to lie to me.”
She shook her head. “I just… I didn’t want to disappoint you at first. And then, once the lie was out, I was afraid to confess the truth because I knew you’d be mad—rightfully so.”
“Did you think I’d force you into parenting? That you don’t have a say in the matter?”
“No… no. But you seemed so excited. And I—”
He waited when she trailed off.
“My career is just getting started. I love working for you and I’m just not willing to give that up yet.”
“This is the discussion we should have had five months ago.”
She dropped her head and stared at the outline of her hands in the dark. “I know.”
“I wouldn’t have pushed you,” he said, a bitter edge to his voice. “I thought you wanted this.”
“I do,” she protested. “Just maybe not right this second. We’re not even married yet.” She knew the institution of marriage didn’t matter to shifters the way it did to humans, but they had agreed to have a long engagement to give her and her family time to adjust to the suddenness of their relationship. In Ben’s world, he’d marked her and she belonged to him, period. She had accepted that, but still wanted time to get used to the idea.