Reborn to Dodge the Bad Marriage novel Chapter 165

Chapter 165 What the Staff Assumed

Fired

Nasound came out of Nora. Julian looked up and found her biting down on her lip, both hands twisted into the sheet, her knuckles white and her eyes wet from the pain.

Julian frowned. “If it hurts, say so. You don’t have to hold it in.”

Nora bit down harder on her lip. “It doesn’t hurt.”

She could take it. Letting anyone see her weak had never come easily to her.

One look and Julian knew exactly what she was doing. “We’re married, and there’s nobody else in this room. You don’t have to be tough in front of me.”

Nora gave him the same answer. “It doesn’t hurt. Keep going.”

The only people who ever saw that side of her were the ones she loved most.

“Then I’m calling your grandmother.” Julian pulled out his phone with one hand and kept working her ankle with the other.

Between the threat and a fresh stab through her ankle, Nora cracked. “Don’t call her. It hurts… ah.”

Julian huffed a laugh. So that was the one thing that cut through all that stubbornness.

A short pain beat a long one, so he leaned in and worked the ankle harder.

Nora stopped holding it in. “That hurts. Julian, go easier…”

Half an hour later, he got up and helped her onto her feet. “Try standing on it. Does it still hurt?”

Nora put a little weight on it. “Much better. It’s not as bad.”

Earlier the floor alone had hurt. Now, it only bothered her when she walked.

“Stay off it for the next two or three days and rest. Bed, now.” Julian scooped her off her feet as he said it.

The floor dropped away and Nora grabbed his neck. “Put me down. I can get to the room on my own.”

“Less walking, faster healing.” He looked down at her. “Or would you rather I called your grandmother?”

Nora had nothing. Her grandmother was the only card he ever played, and the strange part was that she didn’t mind it.

Julian carried her out of the theater without breaking stride.

The staff waiting in the hallway took one look at the two of them, went red, and dropped their heads. “Mr. Weston. Mrs. Weston.”

Nora thought the reaction was strange.

“Go clean up in there,” Julian said.

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Chapter 165 What the Staff Assumed

Finished

He carried her toward their room, and on the way past the full-length mirror she caught sight of the pair of them in it.

Nova’s cheeks were flushed, her eyes were red at the rims, and a light sweat covered her skin. She looked wrecked in a way that had nothing to do with an ankle.

Julian had a sheen on him too, damp hair stuck to his forehead, his collar open, carrying her like she weighed nothing at all.

The two of them looked like people who had just come from bed.

Nora thought about the staff dropping their eyes out in the hallway. They think we just had sex. Her whole face went hot.

Julian set her down on the bed. “I’ll send Hattie in to look after you. I’m sleeping in the guest room.”

“Julian.” Nora stopped him.

Julian looked back down at her. “What is it?”

Nora held his eyes for a moment, pressed her lips together, and let it go. “Nothing. Good night.”

What she had wanted to ask was why, with his body plainly telling on him, he hadn’t pushed for anything or even kissed her. For a man who ran straight over everybody else, he had held himself back.

One look at her red face and Julian understood the question anyway. “If you don’t want to, that’s your call and I’ll respect it. If you do want to, I can—”

Nora dove under the blanket before he could finish. “Good night. Close the door on your way out.”

There was no way she was going to be the one to ask for it.

Julian looked at the shape of her rolled up in the blanket like a burrito, laughed once, and went out, pulling the door shut behind him.

Love had to run both ways. It happened when both people wanted it, never forced by one of them and never taken in the name of love.

Nora worked from home for a few days, and Julian didn’t let her go back to the oflice until walking stopped hurting.

At Starfall she dug through everything that had piled up and sat through a run of meetings.

The first free minute she got, she turned to Bridget. “How’s Sabrina’s diamond campaign coming along?”

“Today’s the last day of the shoot,” Bridget said. “If nothing goes wrong, they’ll wrap this afternoon.”

That didn’t settle Nora. “Where are they shooting? Let’s go by.”

Sabrina was at Brightline Creative, one of the best agencies in the business.

Bridget drove them over and parked at the entrance. “They’re shooting here today. Brightline handles the

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