AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Ugh!”
Atlis is right–he is a man of his word. We make our way back to the house before he puts me down.
He leans his back against the door after locking it, crossing his arms over his chest and propping a foot up against the wood. With a glaring smirk, he speaks to me in hushed tones. “Zolina. Stay in the house. Unless you like when you get forced to do things we both know you want to do.” He winks and walks into the living room, sitting in front of the embers from the fire he made this morning. “It’s cold out there. You must have known you wouldn’t make it far, so why did you run?”
“Fuck off, Atlis.” I turn and walk up the stairs to my room. I am pushing my luck with him, and I know it.
Atlis doesn’t need to know that I ran to get away from my sexual feelings. He doesn’t need to know that my body craves him in a way I can’t rationalize. He definitely doesn’t need to know that I wish I hadn’t walked upstairs and that I want to drop to my knees and crawl to him.
Chapter 18
Atlis
After warming up, I decide that I am going to sleep in the bed. Zolina won't like it, but it’s the only one in the house. If she wants to fight me on this, I will tie her up next to me. I turn off the lights, grab my gun from under the pillow, and make my way upstairs. No one should come to the house in the middle of a storm, but one can never be too careful.
Knocking softly on the door, I wait. Just like last night, I don't hear anything. I open the door slowly, once again, and walk in. Zolina is in bed, reading a book I haven’t seen since I was a teen. She doesn’t look up from the page I know she is now pretending to read.
“What do you want, Atlis? Coming to check and make sure your Pet didn’t run away again? Can’t you see I’m busy?” She snaps at me, her words laced with indignation.
I don’t know why she’s so angry with me. I’ve told her from the get-go that I would find her if she ran. “No, just coming to bed.”
“Okay, we can switch. Gimme a second,” she tells me. Closing the book after tossing a bookmark in, she throws off the covers.
“No.”
“No? What do you mean no?” She cocks her head to the side, mid-movement, “Wait… you mean sleep in bed. With me?”
“Yep,” I pop the ‘p,’ just like Jezi did to me the night of the party. “Scoot over.”
“Atlis, you can’t sleep in here.”
“And why not? You’re my wife.” I clamber into bed, sitting up with my back against the headboard.
“I-I-fine. Whatever.” She sets the book on the nightstand in a huff and lays down. “Night.”
“Oh, I see how it is. I come to bed, so you stop reading your filthy little book. Have you reached chapter 36 yet? That’s where it gets really good, in my opinion.”
“You’ve read this book?”
“Where do you think it came from? I don’t remember leaving it in here, but it is mine. There is a lot you don’t know about me, Pet.”
“I didn't take you as a reader.”
“I’m usually not. Not that I don't enjoy reading, because I do. I don't get a lot of time away from business. It's been nice to relax… somewhat.” I let out a long sigh.
“Goodnight, Atlis.” She turns off the light that sits on the nightstand. Letting out a sigh much like my own, she snuggles farther into the blankets.
“Goodnight, wife.”
Thinking she is quieter than she is, she adds, “There’s a lot you don't know about me, husband.”
~
I lay in bed, tossing and turning. I just can’t figure out why her father hadn’t told her. What was there to gain? What do our fathers have planned? I roll over, facing my wife.
Wife.
Zolina is mine, and I still haven’t claimed her body, consummating our marriage. Trying to be a good person, let alone a good husband, is so fucking exhausting. I want to bend her over my knee and whoop her ass for running from me, yet I rest next to her in bed and just want to sink my cock into her. She is infuriating, yet such a pleasure to be around.
