Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 75968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
It was a decent place in a good spot, my shelter after I left my husband and stepped into a life of insecurity and isolation. Despite what had happened that night, I would always have love for it, because it was where I started over…even though I had been so fucking scared to do it. The rage and sting of betrayal had pushed me to leave Adrien, and the pride and stubbornness were what had kept me away. That apartment had never been home, but a stepping-stone to this moment, to the man beside me—home.
He had an enormous closet and only used a fraction of it. He was a simple man and a creature of habit, so his wardrobe was a couple pairs of jeans, some t-shirts, and long-sleeved shirts. All dark colors, with the exception of a few lighter grays. He owned one sweater and two jackets. That was it.
Instead of collecting expensive watches like Adrien, he seemed to collect guns. He didn’t appear to collect cars either because he had a driver in a black SUV take him everywhere. The only luxury he really seemed to care about was his estate, which was probably worth a number I couldn’t even write out correctly.
I spent the day hanging my clothes in the closet and organizing my stuff, wanting to get rid of the boxes that filled his rooms as quickly as possible. There was plenty of space, but they were still an eyesore that would drive Gerard crazy.
I put all my cosmetics in the drawers of his large bathroom. I had plenty of counter space for all my things, the mirrors going all the way to the ceiling and outlined in gold accents. I felt like a princess in a palace, rescued by a handsome prince who still seemed too good to be true.
Bastien spent that time at his desk, working on his laptop and firing off texts on his phone. He rarely made phone calls. I’d only seen him make a handful of calls since I’d known him. He had the ability to run his empire in utter silence.
It’d been five days since I died. It took that long to start to feel normal again. The fatigue had finally passed, and I wondered if I’d been so tired because my brain hadn’t recovered from the lack of oxygen…for however long I’d been dead. It might have only been a minute or two, but that was long enough to do enough damage to affect me like this.
I didn’t suffer from nightmares, but I suspected that was because Bastien was there beside me, my dream catcher, a beast that guarded my unconscious mind from unwanted visitors.
I felt so safe with him that if he hadn’t asked me to live with him, I might have asked him instead. “Babe?”
He looked up from his laptop right away, his eyes locked on mine with the attention of a soldier when addressed by his commander. The nickname didn’t make him grin like I’d thought it would. He’d stopped being distant with me, but he was still emotionally mauled by what had happened. I was the one who had died, but I pitied him for having to see it. To pull my body out of the cold water then do his best to bring me back.
“You don’t have to stay with me.” He hadn’t left my side in almost a week. He didn’t have a schedule like the rest of the world, but I knew there had been days when we didn’t see each other because he was so busy with work. He’d never been absent from his obligations for this long. “I know you have work to do.”
He studied me as he searched for the confirmation in my face.
“I’ll be okay.” I felt safe in his palace next to the Seine. Whenever the anxiety would come for me, I would look to the Eiffel Tower for direction like it was the North Star and I was a sailor lost at sea. “Life goes on.”
He left the desk and came toward me, wearing only his sweatpants and nothing else, hard and chiseled and tatted, a fine piece of man that I got to see every single day. He cupped my face and dug his hand deep into my hair as he tilted my chin up to look at him. “Life goes on for everyone else, but not for me, not when my life is bound to yours.”
The hardest and most dangerous man I’d ever met could be the gentlest and most romantic. “It’s okay, Bastien.” I held on to his forearms as his heat transferred into me like flames from the hearth.
“Luca has been covering for me.”
“But Luca isn’t you.” I wanted him there with me always, but I would never weaponize my pain to manipulate him into staying. “Really, it’s okay. You’ve given me enough of your time.”