Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 72122 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72122 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
The big ass TV, however, was a welcome addition.
I didn’t often watch TV, but when I did, I’d hated watching it on my television.
But you used what you had, and I was too cheap to go buy a new one when I could wait a couple of months and get one on sale on Black Friday.
So I’d ignored the fact that half of my TV was pixelated and shitty, and I hadn’t realized how much I hated it until I’d gotten a brand new one that sat in its place.
The shop, however, was pushing things.
Her shit was shoved in there with my shit, and I could tell immediately it wasn’t going to work.
She was even using my forge!
“What are you doing?” I bellowed. “Get out!”
Verity didn’t bother to look over her shoulder at me. Instead, she continued to do something with the glass she had on the end of one of my goddamned pieces of metal tubing—the ones that I used to shape my swords—and stuck it back into the fire.
“You can’t be here,” I tried for reason. “It’s not safe.”
“Marriage is a matter of public record,” she said bluntly to me without so much as a flinch. “All he would need to do is run a search on you, and he’ll find my named linked to yours…in marriage.”
“We’re not married!” I barked, worry making me say it a little more harshly than I would have normally.
She smiled sympathetically at me.
“Unfortunately for you, we are,” she said, getting up and emptying her pockets.
She came up with a folded piece of white computer paper, handing it to me with an apologetic look.
I opened it and froze, seeing the marriage certificate in all its glory.
“When…how…where…”
She started to laugh, then.
“Vegas, baby,” was her answer. “Apparently, what happens in Vegas, doesn’t always stay in Vegas.”
My jaw clenched.
Her eyes studied my angry face.
“At least I’m not pregnant,” she offered, thinking it’d diffuse the situation.
But the only thing it did was make my mind go wild with possibilities. If she was pregnant, I’d be ecstatic. At least until I thought about all the ugly possibilities that could happen to a child—and a wife—of mine.
“We have to get it annulled,” I shook my head.
“No.”
“Verity,” I growled, taking a menacing step forward.
She took one of her own toward me, and then threw herself into my arms.
“I won’t leave you,” she said. “You could take your name back, but that would only hurt me. And you don’t want to hurt me. That’s what all of this is about, isn’t it? You don’t want me to get hurt.” She leaned forward until her forehead touched mine. “You take your name from me, and that’ll hurt me worse than anything you, or anyone, could ever do to me. It’ll rip my heart out, and leave me bleeding and vulnerable.”
Chapter 15
If you love someone, just tell them. Or text them eighteen times. It’s the same thing.
-Verity’s secret thoughts
Verity
I’d been living with my husband—and yes, I still couldn’t believe that I was calling him that, let alone that he actually was—now for a week.
I’d realized a few things.
One, he was messy.
Two, he was bossy.
Three, he was noisy.
Four, he was whiney.
Okay, maybe not that fourth one so much until just this minute.
“I’m going to work.” He frowned hard at me.
I idly wondered if that frown of his worked on other people, or if it was only me who was immune to his anger. Maybe it was because I knew he wouldn’t hurt me. Or maybe it was because I could see the excitement in his eyes when I fought with him.
I could also see the hard column of his cock that was straining the front of his black tactical pants that he wore while he was teaching.
“I don’t think you…”
“I’m. Going. To work,” I repeated, much slower this time.
He sighed. “Fine.”
My lips pursed.
“Why’d you give in so easily?” I demanded.
“Because I knew you were going to go in. I got yesterday out of you, but that was just by the skin of my teeth,” he answered instantly. “Now, I need to tell you about the cameras and the security system. Give you emergency numbers, and a code to use if you feel you’re in trouble and can’t speak.”
I bit my lip to keep from denying him, knowing he needed this to know I was safe.
That didn’t make me feel better about being treated like a prisoner by my own husband, though.
Even if I had brought it upon myself.
I listened as he droned on and on, even taking my phone at one point to program in not just every member’s number in the Dixie Wardens Alabama Chapter, but also the Benton, Louisiana chapter. A man named Silas, his son named Sebastian. A man named Kettle. Trance. Loki. Cleo. Torren and Sterling.
There were also a few men from some place in Texas, but he told me not to use them unless I’d exhausted all of the Dixie Warden resources.