by Penelope Sky
“Well, I want to talk to you. I guess that’s something.”
My eyes stayed on the road, but my mind was focused on the sound of her voice. Even when she wasn’t singing, the tone of her words was heavenly. If I didn’t know she was a singer, I would have guessed it just by listening to her talk. It was soothing to my ears, calming my irritated nerves and dropping my blood pressure. Having an affectionate wife should irritate me, but I appreciated her concern…considering my own father didn’t give a damn about me. “And what do you want to talk about?”
“How about we start with your day?”
My mother used to ask me that when I came home from school. She even asked me that when she called me as an adult. Even though it was undeniable that I had aged into a grizzled man, she still talked to me as if I’d just walked in the door from school. It used to annoy me, but now I missed it. “I just finished dinner with a client. He wants to place a big order, but since the production process is so finite, it’s complicated. We found a solution to the problem.”
“That sounds fun. Talking about cheese over dinner isn’t a bad way to make a living.”
And being the wife of a rich man wasn’t a bad way to make a living either.
“What are you doing now?”
“Driving home.”
“Alone?” There was a slight hesitation in her voice, as if she feared there was a woman sitting in the passenger seat at that very moment.
“Yes. Too tired to hit the bars.”
“It doesn’t seem like you’ve been home much for the last few days. What have you been up to?”
“Why does this feel like an interrogation?”
“It’s not. Like it or not, you’re my closest friend, Maverick.”
I’d noticed the way she’d become closer to me, coming into my room to talk rather than screw. She texted me more often than she used to, telling me about her day when I didn’t ask. “I’ve been working a lot.”
“A lot is an understatement.”
“Alright…I’ve been working nonstop.”
“It seems like you’re avoiding me…”
She hit the nail right on the head. “Because I am.”
“Why is that?”
I didn’t want to have this conversation on the phone while I was speeding through the countryside in my expensive car. “I’ll be home in fifteen minutes. We’ll talk then.”
I greeted Abigail then headed up the stairs.
Arwen was on the second landing waiting for me. She was in silk pajama shorts that barely covered her ass and a white tank top that was so thin, it showed the outline of her nipples. Her skimpy clothes showcased the curves of her frame, the feminine beauty of her gorgeous body.
I almost forgot why she was waiting for me.
I walked past her and kept going, pretending to be unimpressed.
She came up behind me and followed me into my bedroom.
When I got inside, I immediately started to take off my slacks and collared shirt. She’d seen me naked so many times that I felt comfortable stripping like she wasn’t there at all. When the buttons were undone, I peeled off the shirt and tossed it onto the armchair.
Her shiny hair was pulled into a high ponytail, and her makeup had already been washed off for the night. Her fair skin had a natural glow to it, like the moon as it reflected the light from the sun. Her blue eyes watched my movements, dissecting everything I did like she knew me better than anyone. “So?”
“So.” I dropped my pants and stripped down to my boxers.
She moved into me, coming so close she might kiss me. Her perfume was still fragrant, and she smelled like flowers, roses on a summer day. She was nearly a foot shorter than me in heels, so she moved her face into my chest.
I watched her, unsure what she was doing.
Her arms encircled my waist, and she rested her cheek against my chest, hugging me.
I stood there as she blanketed me with affection, ignoring the fact that I’d just told her I’d been avoiding her. The insult didn’t seem to offend her, not if she still wanted to hold me. With my arms by my sides, I continued to stand there and wait for her to finish.
When I didn’t return her affection, she pulled away. “You won’t even hug your wife when you get home?”
“I didn’t realize we had the type of relationship that included hugging.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, her eyebrow raised. “You can’t accept a compliment just the way you can’t accept affection. Your father really did a number on you…”
I’d never considered my behavior to be a reflection of my relationship with my father—but I knew she was right. During my final conversation with him, he threatened to kill me…and it wasn’t the first time that had ever happened.
“Why are you avoiding me?” Once I’d rejected her, she turned cold, getting right to the point.
Sometimes I resented her because of my growing attraction. Instead of getting sick of her like most women, I desired her more. And when she wore that tiny little outfit, it made me hard in my boxers, and since the material wasn’t thick, she could see it if she looked down. The more I allowed her into my life, the more I hated it. “I saw my father a couple of nights ago.”
“Oh…that must have been fun.”
“Yeah…that’s one way to describe it.”
She shifted her weight to one hip, waiting for me to explain further.
“He told me to kill you.” He’d made his desires transparent. If I wanted to keep my relationship with my dad, I had to show him my loyalty. That meant I had to execute her…as if she were one of our men who crossed us. He didn’t seem to understand right from wrong, or the difference between man and woman. He wanted her to face the same consequences as someone else…but that wouldn’t be right.
Her eyes shifted back and forth as she looked at me, clearly unnerved by my confession.
“I said no.”
She tried to keep her face stoic, but her shoulders relaxed as she released the air from her lungs.
“Now, we’re enemies. This will only end one way—when one of us is dead.”
She shook her head slightly, her eyes filled with pain. “He’s so far gone…”
He wasn’t a man I recognized at all.
She stepped toward me again. “Why did you say no?”
Killing her would have been easier. She knew that. I didn’t have a good explanation. Why would any man choose a woman over his father? I wasn’t a man with a moral compass. I would have let those women be raped and tortured in the barn without losing sleep. But I chose to protect this woman. “I made a promise to your father.”
She raised an eyebrow. “But that promise changed when I crossed you…I know that now.”
“Do you want me to kill you?” I asked incredulously.
“No. But we both know that isn’t the reason.” She stepped closer to me, moving in on me just the way my father did a few nights ago. “So, what is the reason? The real reason?” Her arms dropped to her sides, and she looked up at me with those beautiful eyes.
I held her gaze and didn’t blink. “Those women didn’t deserve to suffer. You made the right call—even though you betrayed me to do it.”
“That didn’t answer my question, Maverick.” She hardly blinked as she stared at me, pressing for an answer she wanted to hear. “You’ve declared war with your father because of me. Why is my life that important?”
She’d phrased the question powerfully, giving me no wiggle room. I held her gaze with a hard dick between my legs, susceptible to the attitude in her voice, the fire in her eyes. “If I didn’t declare war with him now, it would just happen later. Like you said, he’s too far gone. It doesn’t matter whether I make a stand now or later…but I choose now.”
“And it has nothing to do with the way you feel about me?” She circled closer, not giving up. Now her face was close to mine, close enough that I could see every detail of her beautiful features. “Because I’ve come to care for you, Maverick. I thi
nk you care about me too.”
I became her husband because I’d been forced. It was a role I’d never wanted, but I fell into it easily because she needed me so much. She needed me to guide her during our first dance as husband and wife. She needed me to take care of her father when she couldn’t afford his medical bills. She needed me to hold her hand when he died. She needed me for everything—and I was there for her. It started as an obligation but quickly became a way of life. Now I was used to taking care of her, used to checking on her. And I was used to having someone care about me too. “I don’t want you to die…”
Her hands moved to my arms, her fingertips lightly pressing into my skin. She closed the gap between us and rose onto her tiptoes so we could be eye to eye. Then she closed her eyes and rested her face against mine.
We stood there together, neither one of us saying a word.
My eyes closed and I relished the feeling of her cheek on mine, feeling whatever pull existed between us. This woman was barely my friend and barely my lover, but she somehow meant something to me. I was a heartless man who preferred the easy way out, but this time, I chose the hard way. I chose to protect my sheep.
Her lips moved to mine, landing on my mouth perfectly. The kiss was subtle, gentle. Her lips felt mine, waiting for me to reciprocate before she kissed me any harder. When my lips didn’t move, she pulled back and looked me in the eye.
“I do care about you, Sheep…”
5
Arwen
Maverick’s weight pressed me into the mattress. He covered me completely, holding up his body on his powerful arms as his hips thrust to move inside me. Covered in sweat from the exertion and with a sexy look in his eyes, he was the ideal man to be on top of a woman. He rocked his body over and over, his length burrowing inside me until his balls tapped lightly against my ass. The sex was slow, our bodies moving together at an unremarkable speed.
But the sex was so good. My toes were cramping over and over, and my nipples were sore because they’d been hard for so long. My knees were wide apart, giving him plenty of access to move between my thighs and enjoy me.
For the second time, I came. I whimpered against his mouth, my eyes stinging with tears once more. They burned as they built up then streaked down my cheeks to my lips. I’d never been a crier in bed, but this man brought me to tears every single time. It was always so good that it was heavenly, like I should be thanking someone upstairs.
The condom separated us, but I could still feel the hard grooves of his dick, especially the large crown at the top. Sometimes I wished we were just skin-to-skin, but I knew the request wasn’t optional. So, I enjoyed it as-is…because it was still so good.
Maverick wore the sexiest look in bed, focused on the woman he was with, while keeping his fit body in motion. He seemed more aroused by the expressions I made than the way my tits shook back and forth. Sometimes he would moan, but for the most part, he was a quiet lover, choosing to listen to me instead of being vocal himself.
But when he came, it was always so sexy.
His jaw clenched, almost as if he were angry about something. Then his eyes smoldered, treasuring the pleasure in his body before he exploded between my legs. His chest puffed up as he took in a deep breath to hold. Then he shuddered as his body took over, as his hips bucked to get his dick deeper inside me while he finished. His forehead rested against mine, and he moaned as he came, a little louder than usual.
My fingers snaked into his hair, and I caressed the strands as I felt him relax. My husband was the best lover I’d ever had, and watching him find the same satisfaction turned me on. I wanted him to feel as good as I did, to love fucking me as much as I loved fucking him.
After a few more seconds of rest, he rolled off me and cleaned off in the bathroom.
I lay in his big, comfortable bed, ready to fall asleep.
He came back minutes later, naked and beautiful. He got into bed beside me but didn’t cuddle with me. He’d only done that once and hadn’t done it again since. Now that the sex was over, he was distant. He seemed to be doing it on purpose, as if forcing himself to draw an invisible boundary in our relationship. Sometimes he let me get closer to him, but if I got too close, he pulled away.
I opened my eyes and looked at him, spotting the coldness in his eyes. Our tender moment was long gone. To him, it had already been forgotten. “Maverick?” I propped myself up, my head resting against my palm.
He stared at the ceiling, one hand behind his head while the other rested on his chest. “Yes?”
“Has there ever been a serious woman in your life?”
The air around him turned noticeably tenser, like he had sucked all the life and joy from the room. “I don’t ask you about your past, so why ask about mine?”
“That’s what friends do.” He immediately turned into the spitting image of his father, but I didn’t have the heart to tell him something so insulting—even if it was true. “I’ve had a few men in my life, but nothing too serious. I’ve loved boys in the past, but when I look back on them, I realize that wasn’t love. It was just… I don’t know.”
“I didn’t ask.”
“Maverick, come on.”
He turned his head toward me, his eyes cold.
“It’s three steps forward and two steps back. Every time.”
He knew exactly what I meant, so he faced the ceiling again.
“Stop pretending you don’t care about me. Stop pretending our relationship doesn’t make you happy.”
He clenched his jaw but didn’t make a rebuttal. “No, I’ve never been in love.”
“Ever had a girlfriend?”
He was quiet for a long time. “No.”
“So, when you lost your virginity, that was a one-night stand too?” I asked incredulously, assuming he had to have had some meaningful relationship in his life.
“That was just a fuck in the back seat of a car. You’re the closest thing I’ve ever had to a relationship.”
“So, only when you were forced to get married did you actually try to get to know someone?”
He shrugged. “I’m not much of a talker. I’m an even worse listener.”
“I don’t think that’s true…”
He kept his eyes on the ceiling.
“Why are you like that?”
“Why is anyone the way they are?” he asked. “No one really knows.”
“Well, why don’t you want a relationship with a woman?”
“I don’t like anyone,” he blurted. “That’s just how I am. I’m not a big people person. Being in a relationship requires talking and dates… I can barely get out a few sentences all day. And I can barely listen to a woman speak for five minutes without losing my libido. So, I strike fast. Get what I need, then get out.”
“So, it has nothing to do with sowing your oats?”
He shrugged. “I guess not. What did you see in Dante?”
“He was handsome, kind…and he was good to me.” I hadn’t thought about him in a while. He was probably happy with the woman he’d replaced me with. He’d probably pitied me in the beginning, but now I was just a distant memory.
“He wasn’t that good…if you ask me.”
“It just wasn’t meant to be. I don’t blame him for walking away.”
“I do. Coward.”
I dropped my hand and returned my body to the bed, my hair stretching across the pillow. “Before all of this happened, he used to talk about us getting married and having two kids. But everything changed the second I put on this ring.”
He didn’t say anything to that.
Since he was in a dark mood, I stopped talking. His attitude could change within a few heartbeats. Now he was brooding in his silence, thinking about something he would never share with me.
“I’m sorry about your father… I know it must be hard.”
Slowly, he turned his head back to me.
“Even if he is wrong, even if he is an ass, he’s still your father…and I’m sorry.” I wasn’t
entirely to blame for the divide. His father had turned into an asshole a long time ago. I was the only one who’d stood up to him, who’d done the right thing when even Maverick didn’t care, but I didn’t want to see my husband suffer.
“Whatever.”
I knew it hurt him more than that, but he obviously didn’t want to talk about it. “Maybe you should tell your sister what’s going on.”
“Like she doesn’t have enough on her plate already.”
“It’s still good to tell her…in case he contacts her. I was also hoping I could meet her.”
He kept watching me, slightly surprised by what I’d just offered. “Why would you want to do that?”
“She’s my sister-in-law, right?”
“Because of a sham marriage.”
Like a drop of acid in my eyes, the comment burned. “Still…until death do us part. If she’s important to you, she’s important to me.”
He faced forward again, his eyes on the ceiling. He turned contemplative, his mind a million miles away. Even though there was only a foot between us on the bed, it seemed like we were on different planets. “I’ll think about it.”
Today had been a lot harder than I expected.
I’d been dreading it all week, but I didn’t think it would be as painful as I feared.
Somehow, it was.
I drove to a flower shop in the city and stared blankly at the selections, unsure what to get. Knowing my father, it wouldn’t matter. He would tell me not to waste money on something he would never see.
But it made all the difference in the world to me.
On the verge of tears and unable to make a decision between the selections, I just grabbed a bouquet at random and paid for it. By the time I made it to my car, my tears had destroyed my flawless makeup.
Was I an idiot to think I could do this alone?
I hadn’t been to my father’s grave since the funeral, and of course, Maverick had been with me. With his hand holding mine and strength in his touch, he’d carried me through that day because I was too weak to do it myself.