AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I...you...” she stuttered. He watched as the anger leached out of her and sadness filled her face. “Fine,” she said, her body shrinking into itself. He reached out a hand, and she moved away from it.
“I’m tired. Am I allowed to rest before we go and get our licence done?”
“Yes, of course, I am not a complete—”
She interrupted. “I thought...I sensed.” She spoke more to herself than him. “I was so wrong,” she said dejectedly, turning to grab her purse. Then she walked to the door, opened it, and walked through, not waiting for him.
Her last words were a punch to his gut, but he had to do this. He needed her to have his name, his children. What would happen to her or his children, especially if the pregnancy went sideways? Carter needed them to at least have his last name. He glanced down at their pictures. He was going to do everything for them. They were now the most important people in his life, even if it meant their mother hating him and having to be in a marriage she didn’t want.
Carter’s jaw clenched, containing his emotion as he followed Zahara out the door.
Chapter 11
Zahara stood under the waterfall shower in the primary bedroom’s ensuite, soaping herself and letting the tears fall and blend in with the water falling on her head and body.
She felt so angry and sad. How could I have been so wrong? Her intuition about people had always been spot on. When she had first laid eyes on Carter, she found him to be devastatingly handsome. But something about his presence and eyes had spoken to her on another level, and she had known that they were destined to be together—but not like this. She had expected love and romance, not a bitter, cold, domineering man.
She gave a sudden laugh full of bitterness and sadness. You only have yourself to blame. He warned you.
Zahara shook her head in denial. No, what she had seen and felt while they were at the ranch was real. Yes, he had been cold and distant when they first met, but she noticed in his eyes that he was attracted to her and was interested. She could tell from the way his eyes followed her in the room, his hooded gaze watching her. And when they touched, from his reaction to their contact that he was feeling the pull between them, just like she did. They belonged together.
Especially that day at Stella’s getaway cabin on her ranch. Carter would not have come after her and made her his if he didn’t feel anything for her. He had been seething with anger when he had come through the bathroom door, while she had been in the shower preparing herself for his arrival, just like Stella said he would. She smiled as she remembered Stella, Deana’s mother and Leaf’s mother-in-law. She was a self-made woman who owned a ranch that secretly catered to the wants and needs of women by offering them romantic packages with the cowboys that worked on her ranch.
Carter hadn’t liked the fact that she had recommended it to Zahara, and Stella had suggested it to her to test his feelings for her by letting him know that she was going to try one of the packages for herself with one of the cowboys of her choice.
The ploy was either going to work or backfire, but thank God it worked. Yet here she was, in this predicament.
If she hadn’t trusted her instincts, they never would have had that time in the cabin.
But now everything was worse instead of better between them.
To console herself, she began to rub and caress her belly and decided to talk to the children about their father instead.
“What do you think about all this, hmmm? Did Mommy make a big mistake?”
She gave them a loving smile as she caressed her tight abdomen. “That day it all started out in a shower just like this one, and your father had barged right on in like he owned the place.”
She remembered her surprise at seeing him there. He had gotten to the cabin more quickly than she had expected. She had been taking a shower and had laid out the lingerie she wanted to wear for him, but his presence in the bathroom had changed her plans. He had looked like an angry Greek God; his hair all mussed up, his shirt out of his jeans, and his feet bare. He had dressed in a hurry and had not put himself together like he always did. Carter was always immaculate in his attire and looks.
His gaze had run hot all over her naked body, and then he had stepped into the shower with her.
Zahara continued telling her tale to her children. “He had ripped open the glass door of the shower, thinking that another man was in there. But seeing me instead turned his anger to lust, and he came in and swept me up in a passionate kiss, stealing Mommy’s breath away. He then proceeded to ravish my body like a man gone mad and—”
“Zahara, that was not quite how it happened,” she heard Carter’s gruff voice say behind the glass door of the shower.
She almost jumped. She had thought he was still downstairs making all the arrangements for the license and their wedding at City Hall, like he had told her when they had arrived home. She hadn’t bothered to answer him and had walked up the stairs with him following behind her like a shadow.
“Do you need me to help with anything before I make my calls?” he’d asked, his gaze trying to capture hers, but she had refused to look at him.
“No, I can take care of myself.” She had walked into the bathroom, waiting for him to leave, and when she heard his heavy tread moving away from the door, she had sighed and decided to take a shower to relieve some of the tension she was feeling. He must have come back upstairs to check on her.
She scowled and turned her back on him.
“As I was saying. He looked all crazed and like a man starved, taking me by storm and then sweeping me off my feet. He carried me to the bed, and with the finesse of a bull in a China shop, in one fell swoop he took my—waahaa!”
She had been so engrossed in ignoring him and continuing her tale that she had not heard him taking off his clothes and walking into the shower with her until he touched her. That’s when she had yelped, startled, before he turned her around to face him and swept her off her feet.
As he carried her to the bedroom, he said, “Let me remind you what really happened that night.” His silver gaze burned down at her, and she could feel his hard cock pressing against her ass cheeks as he strode with her to the bed. He laid her down near the edge, and she leaned back onto the bed, getting the bedding wet with the eater from the shower, but she didn’t care. Once he had touched her, she was lost to the need to have him inside her.
