Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 104869 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104869 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
As if a child born six months after the wedding wouldn’t lead people to draw the correct conclusion anyway.
This entire travesty was so absurd. Who married because of pregnancy anymore? They were both career-driven adults and independently wealthy. They could have reached an amicable custody agreement with regards to this child.
But she’d been weak, concerned with appearances, with her family and colleagues’ opinions of her. And despite her objections and her valid fear that he was marrying her out of obligation, Smith had been persuasive when he’d made his argument for marriage.
They were sexually compatible, liked each other, a child needed both parents, they could make it work, and most compelling of all, their families needn’t know this marriage wasn’t what it seemed to be.
Kenny knew it shouldn’t—she was a grown-ass woman, after all—but her father’s opinion still meant the world to her. She’d nearly shriveled up with embarrassment when her father had point-blank asked Smith at their engagement party, if she was pregnant.
She remembered muttering something inadequate about them being well-suited. The reply had sounded insipid and unconvincing even to her own ears and it came as no surprise that it had left her father unimpressed.
She allowed herself to be shepherded through countless more photographs, conscious of the tall man constantly hovering by her side, while wishing this day was over. That it had never even come to pass.
Day 12
“You don’t have to do this,” Kenny said, watching as Smith organized his toiletries on the dresser in the spare bedroom. She didn’t sound very convincing, even to her own ears. Her voice was dull and disinterested.
Then again, she couldn’t summon up enthusiasm for anything at the moment and trying to persuade Smith to remain in the master bedroom with her when she wasn’t even sure she wanted him there herself—not while she looked and felt like death—was very low on her list of priorities right now.
Most of her focus and energy these days went toward staying upright and not making any sudden movements in case it triggered another bout of violent vomiting.
“Kenna…” His voice was low, gentle. “You’re exhausted. And it doesn’t help that the slightest movement from me jerks you from sleep. Not to mention the fact that half of the time that happens, it sends you hurtling to the bathroom to throw up.”
“It’ll get better soon,” she promised, her throat raw from the constant vomiting. “It must. I’m in the second trimester and by all accounts it should improve.”
“Until then, I think you’ll be more comfortable without me interrupting your sleep. I’ll move back in when—”
“Is it because we haven’t had sex yet?” she interrupted and he stared at her, clearly shocked by her blunt question.
“What? No! Of course not. Jesus, what kind of monster do you think I am?” He looked truly affronted and Kenny chewed on her bottom lip as she studied his handsome features carefully, looking for the lie, but finding nothing but sincerity in the bottomless depths of his beautiful green eyes.
“I just think…feel…this hasn’t been the best of starts to our marriage? Not what you signed up for, maybe? You’re getting nothing from it.”
“I’m getting you,” he told her, a troubled furrow between his brows. “And our baby. And I can wait until you’re not feeling like death warmed over before wanting or needing sex. Right now, the priority is you. And getting you better.”
She wrapped her arms around herself and gnawed on her lip again, hating how vulnerable his words left her feeling, wishing she felt like he meant them. Wishing she felt like she deserved them.
“I’m hardly the prize you think I am,” she whispered, her voice hoarse and low, and from the way his frown deepened, she knew he hadn’t heard her.
“What?”
“Nothing,” she said with a dismissive shake of her head. “Thank you. For…for your consideration.”
Something in her words seemed to rub him the wrong way. She could see it in the flare of irritation in his eyes.
“Do you want me to stay in our room?” he suddenly asked and the question threw her.
It had been strange to her, sharing with a man she barely knew. A man with whom she’d had a four-month long, startlingly erotic dalliance. She hadn’t expected it to last as long as it did. That kind of passion surely wasn’t sustainable?
She wouldn’t know. She’d never experienced anything so intense before.
But then she’d found herself pregnant, and now married to a stranger. And while she knew his body intimately—better than she knew her own, really—she didn’t even know what his favorite color was.
So, yes, sharing a house, a room, a bed with him felt…odd.
Wrong.
Awkward.
“Uh…no, maybe you’re right,” she said in answer to his question. “I’m better on my own.”
She always had been.
Day 21
It started with the cramps. Severe, tearing, terrifying pain that left her curled up and writhing in bed. She moaned, wrapping her arms tightly around her waist as if that would stop what she knew was happening.