AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Oh shit. So that wasn’t some metaphor. “The five minute one?”
“A week.”
She paced again, wrapping her arms around her midsection. “I don’t want to pry into things he’d rather tell me himself but…I feel like…if I’m going to help him or be what he needs, I need to know what that is.”
“He should have made those needs known to you in the marriage proposal.”
Oh yeah. “He did, but…I feel like he left out a lot. The stuff I need to know to help him in other ways.”
“What other ways would that be?”
She forced herself to sit and be still. “The intimacy. I know he has needs and he’s not really…letting me do anything for that.”
“I’m sure he will get to that soon.”
Her tummy flipped at that. “He wants to…teach me things.”
“Ethan is a very capable teacher.”
Right. He’d had practice. How much, she wondered. “So… how long…was he…with this woman before they married?”
“Two years and one month.”
Wow. That’s a lot of time to…practice. “Was she from here?”
“Yes.”
Shit. “That’s not my business. I don’t even want to know, really.”
“Ethan has not forbid me to say.”
Shit, shit. “Nope. Still don’t want to know. Was she pretty?”
“He often spoke of her beauty to us.”
“To you and AL?” she wondered, her stomach knotting more.
“Yes. Ethan considers us his brothers.”
She paused at that. “Like…literally?”
“Yes.”
It suddenly hit her. “What about his real family?”
“Ethan’s mother and father abandoned him at thirteen. He has no siblings. The Bishops took him in and raised him.”
Her jaw dropped with a gasp. “Oh my God,” she whispered, her heart aching at that news. “So…he has no family?”
“AL and I are his family. And The Bishops. And now you.”
She paced in dizzying circles, hand over her mouth at that news, his handsome sweet smile flashing in her mind and stealing her breath. And heart now. She froze her steps and lowered her hand. “How…did Ethan take it when…this woman betrayed him?”
“Following the betrayal, Ethan underwent a dramatic transformation. He joined the Noctambule war and after was invited by the leader of the Bishops to become a leader in The Twelve. The celibacy requirement proved to be both sword and savior, allowing him to sever the dark ties and cut a path for new ones. The decision had a profound impact on his lifestyle choices and his psychological resilience, allowing him to channel energies elsewhere as both a coping mechanism and means of mastering his appetites.”
So… celibacy was hissafety. Panic hit her at realizing. He was being forced to take a wife! Oh God, that’s why he didn’twanther! Whateveryouwant, I want.
Sickness churned her stomach. “So, Ethan doesn’t even want this.”
