The Billionaire's Wife (A Steamy BWWM Marriage of Convenience Romance Novel) (21 page)
Read The Billionaire's Wife (A Steamy BWWM Marriage of Convenience Romance Novel) Online
Authors: Mia Caldwell
She's even better up close.
Sanniyah is studying her surroundings
like she has everything already figured out, her chin lifted to show off the
graceful swoop of her neck. In the waning light of sunset, I first assumed her
perfect skin was a smooth shade of caramel, but as I move closer, I can see the
different colors under the surface; the ebonies, the siennas, the dark
chocolates. I am staring at her, I can feel it. I have to look away.
She doesn't know how hard this is for
me. She can't possibly know that the very act of allowing someone I don't know
into my sanctuary is tearing me apart internally. It's not her fault that she
is gorgeous and unnerving and I am already so on edge I feel like I might snap
at any moment. So I keep conversation to a minimum, though it is clear she is
unhappy with how I am avoiding talking about the wedding.
She doesn't know that the just allowing
her near me is the biggest step.
But she seems unnerved too. When I
steel my resolve and make to touch her, she goes stiff and jumpy. I wonder if
she can sense the damage inside of me. I wonder if she knows I am not right
inside.
This bothers me.
"Come down here," I tell
her. I am being too abrupt, ordering her around. I expect her to tell me to
shove off, but instead she follows me, to my immense surprise. "I want to
show you something."
She hesitates at the bottom step,
wavering. "Oh, I got that," I say, reaching out to help her unbuckle
her sexy, spindly heels. It's a problem I can easily solve, unlike my inability
to handle a normal conversation.
She lifts her foot. The instant my
hand circles her ankle, I feel it again. That bolt of possessiveness. That
want. A fiery need I haven't felt in...forever perhaps?
I used to feel things. Hunger, drive.
Ideas would come to me like bolts out of the blue. Inspiration would take hold
of me and shake me like I am shaking right now. I am shaking so hard I can
barely get her buckle undone.
My hand looks like it belongs there,
wrapped possessively around her. Claiming her as my own. I know she is what I
need. I know that she will make me whole again. I don't question it, just like
I never questioned any of the ideas that led me to my incredible fortune. I
just acted.
Her bare feet wiggle in the sand, and
I feel another jolt. A different kind of jolt.
This one goes straight a very
different part of my anatomy...
She's standing on the half-buried
last step, which means our eyes are level with each other. "I'm glad you're
here, Sanniyah," I say. And I mean it.
She looks startled for a minute. I
can see a million different expressions flash across her face until she finally
settles on one.
Delight.
Her eyes open wide; shocked and
pleased.
Her beautiful, kissably
plump lips curve into a megawatt smile. Her face is so utterly transformed in
that moment that I make a solemn promise to myself right now.
I want to delight her. Again and
again. I will spend the rest of my life trying to make her smile the way she is
right now.
"I'm pretty glad too," she
laughs. Her voice is softer. "It's gorgeous here."
I look down at the shoreline. The
waves are gentle, sighing into the sand. It's low tide. "Sometimes shells
wash up," I tell her. "Over here."
They wash up everywhere, but I am
using this as an excuse to take her hand. It slips into mine like it belongs
there. "Okay," she says, her voice barely above a whisper. I'm not
sure if she's saying it to me or to herself.
Darkness is gathering in the trees.
"What was that?" she asks, startled by a sharp cry from the branches.
"Migratory birds," I tell
her, picking my way carefully along the waterline. "This is a stop for a
lot of them. Someday I'm going to learn all of their names, but right now I
just think of them as happy surprises. This place is protected, you know. A
bird sanctuary." I pause. "My sanctuary.”
Sanniyah stops, forcing me to look
back. Her head is tilted to one side, exposing the curve of her throat to me. I
eye it hungrily until her words catch me by surprise. "So why share
it?"