Page 131 of Money Reigns
His thumb strokes once over the cuff as if sealing the words into my skin.
Chapter twenty-six
War
The days blur in to weeks.
Not in a way that dulls.
In a way thatdeepens.
In a way that seeps into me.
She sleeps inmy bedevery night. Curled into my side.
My house doesn’t echo anymore.
It’sfull. Of her.
She moves through it like she’s always been here. My shirts in the hamper, tangled with her dresses. Her hair ties on the bathroom counter. Her book face-down on my nightstand, spine cracked where she fell asleep mid-sentence. Her scent on my pillows.
We wake up together. I watch her stretch, soft and sleepy, lips parted, skin warm with the kind of heat I put there.
I feed her. Wine. Berries. Her favorite chocolate. My fingers.
Whatever I can press past her lips.
She works just down the hall, focused and sharp, bossing men twice her size with that quiet authority that makes me want to bend her over my desk and fuck her until she forgets how to speak.
I let her have her independence.
But she knows.
Every door she walks through is one I opened. Every task she handles is a weight I allow her to carry, because I trust her.
I trust her.
I keep her healthy.
Draped in couture.
Satisfied.
Wrecked.
There are days I fuck her before breakfast, make her wear my marks under her blouse. I whisper in her ear before meetings just to watch her squirm in her chair, breath shaky, thighs clenched.
There’s control in that.
In owning her mind. Her body. Her schedule.
But I know she still keeps the apartment.
Because I bought the building.
So I let her.
She’ll give it up on her own.
