HIS STRIPPER, HIS WIFE novel Chapter 39

Chapter 39

Chapter 39

Bianca

“How did you…?” My voice came out smaller than I intended.

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He smiled, slow and unbothered, the kind of smile that had probably gotten him out of a hundred difficult conversations.

“I didn’t trust you,” he said. “You are always one step away from something. Some small move is always somewhere in your head.”

I rolled my eyes. “Right.”

“The moment you started looking at the door, I knew.”

I stood up, because sitting down was not helping me think clearly and being in this room with him looking like that was making things worse. He had changed into something more comfortable upstairs and I was not going to let myself think about how good he looked right now because that was not helpful to anyone.

“I need to be on my way,” I said, and reached into my bag for my keys.

My hand moved through the bag once, then again. I stopped. Went still for a moment then I looked up at him.

He had not moved from his chair, he was sitting with his arms resting on the sides of it, watching me with the most unbothered expression I had ever seen on another human face.

I stared at him. He looked back at me. “You took my keys,” I said. He said nothing.

“You actually took my keys out of my bag.” I said it again because I needed to hear it twice to believe it. “When? When did you even do that? I was sitting right there the whole time.”

He tilted his head slightly, which was not an answer but was somehow worse than an answer.

“I cannot believe you,” I said, and I meant it sincerely. Of all the things this evening had already included, a small quiet theft was somehow the thing that surprised me most. “Can I have them back?”

He reached into his pocket and held them out. I walked over and took them from his hand without saying thank you because I did not think he had earned a thank you for returning something he had taken without asking. He looked amused by this, which was irritating.

“You don’t have to go right now,” he said.

“I do.” I said. “I actually do.”

“Bianca.”

“I’m getting a cab.” I was already heading toward the entrance. “I’ll be fine.”

“How do you want to go? Should I arrange…”

“I will take a cab,” I said, cutting him off. It came out sharper than I meant it to but I was moving at a pace that left no room for back and forth.

The problem was not the leaving, I was perfectly capable of leaving. The problem was how he looked standing there, shirt open at the collar, completely relaxed in his own space, that was distracting and I did not need to be distracted right now.

Okay, he said, and I heard him follow me toward the entrance. “Good night, then, if that is what you want.”

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Chapter 39

“It is,” I said.

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He reached past me and opened the door. I looked outside and everything in me dropped. The rain was coming down hard,” the kind of hard that was not a drizzle or a light shower that you could walk through quickly and survive, It hit the ground in thick fast lines and the driveway beyond the door was already dark with it and the trees at the far edge of the property were moving sideways.

I looked at the rain for a moment, then I looked back at him. He was smiling. He knew, he had opened that door knowing exactly what was out there and he had let me walk all the way to it anyway.

“So you…”

His hands found my waist before I could finish the sentence. He turned me gently and pulled me back from the door, and it closed, and then his mouth was on mine.

I had one second of complete surprise where I did not do anything at all, and then the kiss happened properly and I stopped thinking about the rain or the door or the evening or any of it.

His hands stayed on my waist, steady, not pulling, just there. His mouth was warm and suddenly he pulled back and looked at me with that same calm expression.

“Okay,” he said. “You can go now.”

I stared at him.

“In the rain.” I said. “You want me to go in that.”

He looked over my shoulder toward the door, as though he was seriously considering the weather for the first time. Then he looked back at me. “You said you were leaving.”

“I didn’t know it was doing that outside.”

“And now you do.”

I looked at him for a long moment, he was trying very hard not to smile and doing a poor job of it. The corners of his mouth were giving him away completely.

“You planned this.” I said.

He said nothing.

“The rain. You knew it was going to rain.”

“I cannot control the weather, Bianca.”

“No, but you checked it. You knew and you didn’t say anything and you were just going to let me walk out there.”

“You seemed very certain about the cab.”

I laughed before I could stop myself, I did not want to laugh, but the situation was genuinely funny and he knew it and I knew it and there was no point pretending otherwise.

I turned and walked back to the sitting room and sat down. He followed after a moment, and came back with the rest of the wine bottle and refilled my glass without asking. Then he sat down across from me, same chair as before, same easy posture. like the last ten minutes had not happened at all.

There are two guest rooms,” he said, after a while. “You can take either of them.”

I can stay in one.” I said carefully.

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Chapter 39

“Obviously.”

“By myself.”

He looked at me with a flat expression. “Yes.”

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