Page 65 of Sinful Fantasy


Font Size:  

“Love at first sight,” I sigh. “I knew from that moment that I wanted—”

“A one-night stand?” she simpers. “A banging good time?”

“To marry you.” I butter the second lot of toast when it pops from the toaster, then saving our eggs from the stove, I give them a fast stir to break up the clumps before pouring them on top and finishing with a bunch of salt. “I knew you would change my world, Minka.” I pick up both plates and turn to place them on the counter between us. “I’ve never seen a woman so fucking beautiful in all my life.”

“And while you worked that case and chased some poor schmuck through the airport, I went and got engaged to your brother.”

I choke out a laugh and set her knife and fork down by her plate. “It didn’t last long. Want me to cut up your dinner to make it easier for you?”

“Nah.” She grabs her fork and stabs a clump of egg. “But thanks. I love you, too, by the way.”

I scoop scrambled egg into my mouth andhss-hss-hssaround the heat. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. I mean, you’re talking about how beautiful and smart and wonderful I am. I just wanted you to know I love you too.” Pleased, she stabs another piece of egg, but she holds it out my way this time. “I guess,maybe, it was love at first sight for me too.”

“You guess?”

“I’ve never forgotten my name and also been so intensely angry at a man I don’t know.” She smirks as I take the bite she offers. “My anger was a reaction to the name-forgetting, love at first sight nonsense. It was an unusual feeling for me.”

“See? Lost and scared inside that big old airport,” I confirm. “You needed me.”

When she picks up more egg and, with a snort, aims her fork my way again, I shake my head and wrap my palm around her wrist. Changing the food’s trajectory, I make damn sure she eats her dinner. “You need the protein, Mayet. Not me.”

“But we were having a nice moment.” She deposits the bite into her mouth, then talks around her food. “I’ve never fed a man before.”

“Fill your belly first, then you can do whatever the fuck you want to me.” I peer down at the diary, still closed on the counter, before bringing my gaze back up. “Can I read it?”

She hesitates for a beat, in which vulnerability and fear coalesce in her eyes. But that’s an old reaction. One she would default to before we becameus. One from her days all alone in New York.

She knows me now, though. She’s secure in what we have, so she nibbles on her bottom lip and nods. “Okay.”

“You sure?” I reach out for the book and bring it closer, but I don’t open it yet. Instead, I meet her wary stare. “Babe?”

“I’m sure.” She scoops more egg past her lips and scans the book upside down as I open the pages. “It’s just musings from an unhappy woman. Rambling thoughts, that sort of stuff.”

“May third, nineteen ninety-nine,” I read aloud. Then I do the math in my head and figure Minka was five when her mother wrote this. Maybe six. “Nakia knows about Gregory.”

With those words alone, I peek up and study Minka’s troubled eyes. “I can stop.”

She shrugs, but reaching across the counter, she grabs the book and slides it back her way. She spins it around and positions the diary where she wants it. Then she swallows so her throat bobs, and nerves jump from her belly to mine.

“Nakia knows about Gregory,” she repeats. “I don’t know how he found out. Maybe it’s just me. Maybe I’ve changed. Perhaps I look different now, or speak differently. It could be that I hold myself differently, or possibly, it’s just that I’m not the same woman anymore. He did not marry an adulterer, but that’s who he is married to now.”

“Shit,” I breathe. I lean on my elbow and scratch my head in frustration. It’s not my marriage she speaks of. Not my wife. But this woman’s actions all those years ago shaped the woman I would eventually promise my life to. “Your mom had an affair, and your dad knew?”

Instead of answering, she goes back to studying the diary entry.

“Minka is sick,” she reads. “We cannot afford to keep going like this, but the alternative is not acceptable, so we push on. We make do. Gregory is just a man. He’s nice to me. He desires me. He doesn’t make me feel guilty for wanting to be a woman sometimes, rather than just a slave to an unfair world.”

Pausing, sniffing, Minka glances up and organizes her own thoughts, and not those of her mother. “My parents busted their asses to work and pay for my medical expenses. That was their entire identity. Gregory was my mom’s boss.”

“None of this was your fault.” I reach across and pinch her pointed chin between my thumb and finger. Drawing her closer and stopping only when our noses are half an inch apart, I stare into her eyes and stretch my lips forward to touch hers. “A child is not at fault for her parents’ actions.”

“No.” She licks her lips where I kissed, and suckles on the bottom until a dimple flashes on her cheek. “But life would have been easier if they didn’t have a kid. Or if they got a normal kid whose bleeding disorder didn’t force them into poverty.”

“And if you didn’t exist exactly how you are right now,” I cup her cheek and force her to meet my eyes, “I would be a miserable, lonely, deeply unhappy man.” I press another kiss to her lips. “Besides, hemophilia is a gene passed down by your parents. So this was their fault all along.”

She coughs out a laugh and goes back to eating. And reading. “I don’t know who told Nakia of what I’ve done, and I have less clue of what our future holds. But one thing we can agree on is harmony. For Minka. For our home. Our child needs security, and we vowed long ago to provide that for her.”

Source: www.allfreenovel.com