AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Sovereign sits on the couch facing the fireplace, knees apart. He’s got a glass in one hand.
My stomach tightens.
Is he…drinking?
Small Dog and Big Dog are sprawled out at his feet. Both flipped on their backs, paws in the air, snores rising from their slack jaws.
I creep down the curved staircase, my bare feet silent on the wood. He doesn’t see or hear me until I circle the couch and sink down on the floor at his feet. Small Dog sneezes loudly and flips to his side. He cracks an eye.
“What is that?” I ask, taking the glass and lifting it to my nose.
It’s water. My shoulders sag with relief.
The corner of his mouth turns up. He touches the side of my face, his rough palm cradling my cheek. I burrow my face into it. He feels so strong, so safe.
“It’s Sunday night,” he says.
“I know,” I whisper.
His mouth thins, his eyes flick over me and rest on the fire. “I still want a contract with you, but I want it to be simple.”
“That’s alright with me,” I whisper. “Contract or not, I still love you.”
He bends down and kisses my forehead. My entire body goes still and my lids flutter shut. No one ever touched me this gently before he came along. My heart is tender and wide open like a flower reaching up to the sun. I feel his touch on my chin, tilting it, and I open my eyes.
“It took me a long time to settle my scores,” he says. “I wanted the Garrison bloodline gone and now it is. It’s time to close the book. I’m glad you were here for the last chapter.”
My stomach flutters. His words sound so grim.
“What happens next?” I whisper.
He takes my hand. “Come here,” he says hoarsely, lifting me to my feet and guiding me into his lap. I climb up and straddle him. We’re eye level and I can make out the pale blue of his iris and the dark icy outer ring surrounding it.
“You’re very young,” he says. “I forget how young you are because…you’ve been through so much already.”
I swallow, feeling awkward. I’m not even in my mid-twenties and I feel like I’ve lived half a lifetime already. But he’s almost forty, even though he doesn’t look it. There’s over a decade of life between us, and I feel the weight of it tonight.
“I don’t mind,” I whisper.
He smooths back my hair, playing with a strand. “Tell me what you want for the future?”
The future has never been easy for me to imagine. I’d given up hoping when I realized I’d married a man who hated me and stole my family’s farm. The future had always looked bleak and short.
But with Sovereign…I feel like I’m just waking up.
“I don’t know,” I admit. “But I’d like whatever it is to be with you.”
His jaw works and his hand leaves my hair and trails down to my stomach. My body goes still as his fingertips skate across the curve of my lower belly. His lashes are lowered. His face is unreadable.
“Sovereign,” I whisper.
He clears his throat. “I scheduled an appointment for a reversal.”
My heart picks up. His eyes flick up. The air between us feels thick with tension.
“You…what are you saying?” I whisper.
“The reversal success rates are very high for what I had done,” he says.
