Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 130317 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 652(@200wpm)___ 521(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130317 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 652(@200wpm)___ 521(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
There had never been any buildup—their sect didn’t believe in foreplay. According to them, sex was just for making babies, not any kind of sexual pleasure. A woman wasn’t supposed to enjoy it—just submit to it.
Which was exactly what Mia had done—for years and years—as long as she was married to Michael. It had felt so mechanical—so devoid of any emotion. He’d gotten on top of her, pushed himself inside her, shoved in and out a few times, grunted, and then rolled off, rolled over and gone to sleep.
There was no petting or kissing or cuddling before and no pillow talk afterwards. Sex was a bodily function—like eating or drinking or using the bathroom. Mia had always wondered why the secular world made such a big deal out of it.
Then she and Michael had left the sect—(well, he’d said that he left anyway— though she had found out he never really had afterwards.) Mia thought that maybe he had believed their sex life would be different after they left—well, after he pretended to leave—because it was about that time that he started accusing her of being “frigid.”
“You just lay there,” he complained. “You don’t even let me know you’re enjoying it.”
“Because I’m not enjoying it—how could I?” Mia had snapped, stung at his criticism. “It’s not supposed to be enjoyable—remember? That’s how we were taught.”
“We’re not in the sect now,” Michael had pointed out. “We left them behind—you could at least try to make an effort.”
“I don’t see why,” Mia had returned coolly. “You haven’t changed your technique one bit—why do you expect me to change how I react to it?”
Michael’s face had twisted into a snarl and he’d spat, “Frigid bitch!” before stalking off to nurse his hurt ego.
Cursing was another thing that was prohibited by their sect, but both of them had picked it right up after they finally got out.
Too bad we couldn’t pick up the habit of good sex too—if there is such a thing, Mia thought to herself. But she kind of doubted it. What was so exciting about laying there, letting some man pump inside you for a minute or two, and then cleaning up afterwards while he snored on his half of the bed?
You used to be excited about it, whispered a little voice in her head. Back before—
But Mia didn’t want to think about that. She pushed the memory out of her head and decided to look for the night clothes they’d been promised by Brother Jonash. She really didn’t want to sleep in her pantsuit—it wasn’t that comfortable, even to wear to work.
She only dressed like she did to try and appear less cute and girly—it was the same reason she braided her hair away from her face and tried to use makeup to cover her freckles and never wore lipstick. Anything to look less like a helpless girl and more like the adult, competent police detective that she actually was.
She opened the drawer Brother Jonash had pointed to and found a pile of limp white clothing. But when she took it out and shook out the pieces, it turned out to be just one set of pajamas and it was sized for Sev, not her. The bottoms were way too long for her and the top would fall nearly to her knees, she guessed. Though she dug around in the other drawers, hoping to find something for herself, there was nothing else.
“Hey, find anything?” Sev’s voice rumbled from behind her.
Mia turned and saw her partner standing there with just a towel wrapped around his lean, muscular hips. It occurred to her that she had never seen his bare chest before and it was absolutely mouthwatering.
He was built like a weightlifter—but not in that gross, over-muscular, veiny way that professional bodybuilders get. He looked more like one of the Marvel superheroes with their shirt off, except his skin was dark red and beaded with droplets of water from the shower.
Mia had a sudden mental image of herself walking over and lapping those beads of water off his six-pack abs…then she pushed the thought away. Where the hell had that come from?
“Did you find any night clothes?” Sev repeated, and she realized she’d never answered because she’d been standing there staring at her half-naked partner, probably drooling like some kind of horny idiot.
“Oh, uh, no—sorry,” she said, finally dragging her eyes away from his incredible body. “Or at least, I found some for you but not for me.”
She showed him the set of limp white nightclothes and Sev frowned.
“Well, that sucks—wonder why they didn’t send any for you?”
“I don’t know.” Mia shrugged. “I guess I’ll have to sleep in my pantsuit,” she added, frowning distastefully at the folded suit, which she’d left on top of the dresser.
“No, you don’t. Look, I have an idea. Here—“ Sev held out the shirt. “You wear the top and I’ll wear the bottoms,” he suggested. “I never sleep in a shirt anyway—gets too damn hot.”