Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 115388 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 577(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115388 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 577(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
His whole body softened. Just an inch. A visible breath released from somewhere deep inside. “You’re not being disrespectful to her. Not now. Not ever.”
I pursed my lips.
He sighed. “This changes nothing for us.”
I shook my head. “You can’t answer for me. It could change things.”
The line of his jaw twitched.
“I just. . .would need to see how things go.” My mind raced with unvoiced fears. “I need time. . .”
Could I be a part of a relationship where children from another woman were involved?
Could I stomach the idea of the man I cared for having a whole family with someone else?
Probably, but he would have to be the sort of man that was. . .respectful, honest, responsible, and loving.
Kenji found my hand under the table and his fingers brushed my knuckles and it was both familiar and alien at once. The realization that Kenji might become a father hit me hard. It made me realize that our new relationship could become much more complicated than I ever thought.
His eyes narrowed, not in anger, but in that dangerous stillness I’d begun to recognize. The kind of stillness a predator gets before it pounces. “Nyomi. . .you’re mine.”
I didn’t flinch. “If I choose to be. That’s the part you keep skipping over.”
His gaze flicked to my lips, then my throat, then back to my eyes. “Are you upset with my confession?”
“I’m not upset so much as I’m a little overwhelmed. There’s a difference.”
“What will you need to not be overwhelmed?”
“Time. Continued information. Honesty.” I shrugged. “It could be all fine if there’s respect to her, the children, and me, but the biggest thing is. . .”
He raised his eyebrows.
“I don’t want to walk in on something that is harmful to another woman. Like. . .I don’t want this to be any bullshit where you are telling her one thing and me something else and you’re playing both sides—”
“That would never happen. What I am telling you is exactly what is going on. When I was messing with her. . .there was no emotion just sex. No love.” He ran his fingers through his hair, and I noticed his fingers shaking a little bit. “And if you need more information right now. You could meet her. I would fly you to her whenever. Whatever you want. I am not that sort of man. I saw what my father put my mother through. I have never wanted to be like him.”
“I hope not because I’ve been alone for these years by choice. I do not like drama.”
“There will be no drama, Tora.”
“Good because if I think there’s disrespect toward her or me from you. . .I’m out of here.”
That line in his jaw twitched again like he was holding himself back from roaring.
I shrugged. “You’re not used to women walking away from you?”
Something flickered in his expression. Something sharp, ancient, and very fucking male. “Women never feel they need to walk away from me.”
“But I may.” My voice didn’t shake. “I may walk away. And if I decide this is too much—if I decide that I’m not ready to sign up for a life that includes another woman, potential children, secrets you kept until the soup was cleared—then I will.”
He moved his hand and sat back, barely blinking. When he placed his hands on the table, the light glinted off his ring. “I don’t beg, Tora.”
“I’m not asking you to.”
“But I would beg for you.”
I froze.
“In fact, I beg you to forgive me for taking too long to tell you about the twins. Please. . .I swear there was so much going on that I. . .forgot. . .I know it sounds impossible, but it is the truth.”
I studied him.
“And I beg you to please forgive me because I’m sorry. That will not happen again. I don’t ever want you to feel. . .nervous about us.” His voice wasn't pleading, it was earnest. His eyes weren’t desperate, they held a hope that tugged at the corners of my heart.
The atmosphere between us was heavy with sincerity, anxiety, and regret.
I didn’t speak right away. Couldn’t. Because part of me wanted to freeze time, roll it backward to the moment before he said it—before the fantasy cracked.
Another part of me, the sharper one I’d been sharpening for years, wanted to stand up and walk out.
Not because I didn’t care.
But because I did care, too fucking much.
Because this man could wreck me.
And I needed to know that loving him wouldn’t mean disappearing inside his world and losing myself—my standards, my worth, my sanity.
I took a breath and lifted my chin. “Kenji, this is not a story where I quietly accept everything just because you say I matter. If we’re going to have a future, then my boundaries get to live in it too.”
“I understand.”
I let out a long sigh, feeling the weight of his words. “You should’ve told me sooner.”