Page 15 of Wild Ever After
“Have you read of my emails?”
“No.”
“The papers?”
“No.”
“Anything at all Bella? Talked to our children about it?”
“No.”
“Fuck. I never thought you’d bury your head so deep in the sand. It’s a wonder you go out in public at all.”
She saw his regret the second the words were out of his mouth. It didn’t mean they didn’t sting. It also didn’t mean they weren’t true.
He shoved his hands in his pockets and leaned back against the wood paneled wall. His eyes closed and for the moment, he was unguarded and defeated.
It was rare, that utterly helpless look. It was only the third time in all their years together that she’d seen it. She didn’t like it. She didn’t like seeing this side Harry Walker. She hated being the cause even more.
The doors silently slid open and she stepped out.
The hall wasn’t very long, but it felt as though the walk to her door too forty-forevers. And yet, that wasn’t enough time for her to gather her thoughts.
Her fingers shook as she put the old fashioned key to the lock. “I don’t know why they don’t just use key cards like everyone else,” she muttered, agitation making her words snap between them.
“Because,” Harry said gently, taking the key from her. “They aren’t like everyone else. They’re different, unique.” The key slid smoothly into the keyhole and clicked when Harry turned it.
He opened the door and waited for her to enter. He’d wait as long as it took her to pull herself together. Though, which version of together, she wasn’t sure.
The together that allowed her to talk to him, to explain?
The together that kept her tears from falling at the sheer relief and happiness at seeing him after so long?
The together that gave way to her falling on her knees, head bowed, and Sir on her lips?
Bella the teacher and Bella the wife of a senator, was different than Bella the submissive.
She’d been able to convince herself or come close enough to it, that she was no longer submissive, that she no longer wanted or needed that in her life.
Seeing her husband tonight? She knew she’d been lying.
It was possible that over the threshold and within the walls of the hotel room, were all the answers to their future. She wouldn’t know what those answers were until she walked through, until she took the invitation.
That it was her room and he was the current key holder wasn’t lost on her.
“Damn you, Harry,” she whispered, moving past him with shaky confidence and brazen fear.
“I know, love. I know.”
The door closed with a quiet snick of the lock sliding back into place.
She was well and truly alone with him.
“This is not how I thought my night would go.”
“No, I don’t imagine so.”
“Does Riley know you’re here? Oh yes, of course she does. She told you where I’d be.”
