The MC President's Forsaken Wife (Zara and Knox) novel Chapter 36

Chapter 29-2

swallow.

.ocke squeezes my hand. “You aren’t missing anything, and you’re not less than anyone.”

look away. He waits, then gently turns my face back toward him.

You hear me? Zara?”

I hear you,” I choke out, trying to believe him. “I really do.”

‘Good. Because any man who had a chance to get naked with you would take it in a goddamn heartbeat. Believe me.”

For a moment neither of us speaks, then a familiar smile tugs at his mouth.

What?” I say suspiciously. “What are you doing?”

His eyes drift toward the bathroom. “The bathtub.”

groan immediately. “No.”

‘Just saying.”

You’re not sleeping in the bathtub.”

‘I’m not thinking about sleeping in the bathtub.”

‘OK. So what are you thinking about?”

‘I’m thinking that you need a hot bath.”

The words are simple, and matter-of-fact…. but his eyes remain fixed on my face, his hands resting lightly ɔn my hips. I don’t know what’s going on here, but I know something is bubbling beneath the surface of the words.

‘A hot bath,” I repeat.”You sound like somebody’s grandmother.”

His mouth twitches. “Maybe. But you’ve had a hell of a time.”

Something about the way he says it steals the jokes and deflection from my tongue, because he’s not talking just about today. Not really. He’s talking about my whole marriage to Knox, and bruises, and fear. The fact that he found me shaking in my apartment after running from a man I used to call my husband. The fact that even now, sitting here on his lap, wide open and vulnerable after kissing him, part of me is still waiting for the next bad thing to happen.

“I don’t think you’re telling me the truth about how much physical pain you’re actually in, Zara. I think between the car accident and your surgery, and last night, and now that fucker Knox today, your poor body is just beaten down and exhausted.”

The honesty of the observation catches me off guard because he’s right. I haven’t been honest with him, or with anyone. Not because I’m trying to be brave, but because I’m so used to pain being my own problem that it never occurs to me to share it.

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Chapter 29-2-

Clam

think,” he says quietly, brushing his thumb once across my bruised cheek. “You need hot water, the rest of the wine, some painkillers, and about twelve hours of sleep.”

I smile. “That’s incredibly sexy.”

“I’m serious.”

“I know you are.”

His eyes narrow slightly. “I’m trying to take care of you, you stubborn woman.”

The words land between us with surprising weight, and suddenly my heart is doing something uncomfortable. Something suspiciously close to melting.

I clear my throat. “Fine.”

He cocks his head. “Fine?”

“Yes, fine. I’ll take a bath.”

Relief flashes across his face so quickly I almost miss it. Almost. Then I smile sweetly, and his expression immediately becomes wary.

“Why are you smiling at me like that?” he says.

“No reason.”

“Zara.”

“I’ll take a bath.”.

“OK…” he says slowly. “But?”

“But only if you get in too.”

The silence that follows is magnificent.

I watch the realization spread slowly across his face. Watch him understand exactly what I’ve just said. Watch him glance instinctively toward my bruised side hidden under my clothes before looking back at

“And there it is,” I murmur.

“There what is?”

“That look.”

“What look?”

“The one where you’re trying to figure out whether I’m made of glass.”

A slow breath leaves him. “I don’t want to hurt you, baby. You’ve had way too much of that in way too short a time. I’m not going to be yet another man who leaves you with shit you have to recover from.”

The simple honesty of it steals every clever response I had prepared. For a moment, I can only look at him,

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Chapter 29-2

at this hard, dangerous man who somehow treats me like something precious.

Claim

Then I smile. “You won’t hurt me, Locke. I mean, I have no doubt that you could hurt me – but I don’t believe for one second that you would. Besides, didn’t you just say that any man who had a chance to get naked with me would take it in a goddamn heartbeat? Well…” I lower my forehead to his again, ghost a tiny, teasing kiss on his nose. “Here’s your chance, big guy. So what are you going to do about it?”

His gaze holds mine. Long enough that something warm and electric begins building in the space between us, and I can almost see the moment he decides to believe me.

And when he finally smiles, slow and hot and entirely too beautiful, I have the distinct feeling that neither of us is thinking about just bathing in the tub anymore.

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