The MC President's Forsaken Wife (Zara and Knox) novel Chapter 44

Chapter 33-2

“Do you? Call it a failure and a step down?”

The question settles between us, because that’s the real thing, isn’t it? Not what other people think. What I think.

I look around again. The apartment isn’t impressive, and nobody would envy it. But every single thing inside it belongs to me.

The cheap bubble bath. The books. The second-hand wine glasses. The freedom.

All mine.

“No.” The answer comes easily, in the end. “No, I don’t.”

Something warm flickers in his expression, and I rest my chin on his chest.

“That house was beautiful, though. The kitchen alone was twice the size of this apartment.”

Locke’s mouth twitches. “That’s insulting to this cute little studio.”

“It is a little insulting….”

“But?”

“But… I’d take this place over that one every day of the week. I’d take one room that’s mine over a mansion that belongs to Knox McVale.”

Locke studies me for a long moment before leaning down and pressing a kiss against my forehead. “You know what I see?”

“What?”

“A woman who walked away from a man with money, power, and every advantage in the world.” His fingers brush my cheek. “And then she built a life that she actually wanted. That’s not small, or failure, Zara. That’s victory.”

The silence between us that follows is comfortable, the kind that only exists when two people genuinely enjoy each other. Then a thought occurs, and I glance at him.

“My father is going to lose his goddamn mind about this. You know he’ll pick up on it the second he lays eyes on us at the clubhouse.”

Locke laughs. “Yeah, well… Cobra’s the one who told me to stay with you.”

“My Dad told you to protect me.”

“I did. I didn’t let you wipe out in the tub after you came hard enough on my fingers to lose function of your legs.”

I narrow my eyes. “That’s not what he meant.”

“You sure about that?”

Chapter 1

Locke.” I shove his shoulder, and he doesn’t move, not even slightly. The man is basically a human mountain of muscle and mass. “Seriously, though. What do you think my dad’s going to say?”

Locke considers it, then bis voice drops into a surprisingly accurate imitation:

“Morning, sweetheart. Morning, Locke. Why do you two look like you got no sleep?”

immediately start laughing. “Oh, my God.”

He continues: “Oh, you did sleep, after you tired each other out? Excellent. Glad to hear it. Try to be slightly less obvious next time that you’ve seen each other naked, huh?””

bury my face against his shoulder. “Stop.”

‘That’s exactly how it’s going to happen, baby.”

Clam

The horrible thing is that he’s probably right, and then yet another horrifying image suddenly appears in my

mind.

‘Oh no.”

“What?” he says.

‘Jade.”

Locke groans. “Oh, Christ. She’s never going to shut up about this, is she?”

The certainty in his voice makes me laugh harder. “Oh, she’s absolutely going to shut up.”

His expression says he doesn’t believe that for a second.

‘I mean… she’ll shut up eventually,” I say. “One day.”

‘No.”

‘Maybe after a few months.”

“No.”

“A year?”

“Still no.”

I sigh. “Fair.”

The silence that follows is filled with mutual dread, then we both start laughing again. When it fades, I settle back against him, listening to the steady rhythm of his heartbeat.

For a while, neither of us speaks. And lying here now, wrapped around a man who looks entirely too large for both my apartment and my life and somehow fits perfectly into both, I realize something important.

I finally know what safety looks like, how it feels.

It feels like being able to breathe, and being able to laugh. Like knowing somebody will come if you call.

Knox is still out there wishing me ill. The accounts and businesses that can land me in jail for the rest of

Chapter 31-2

Clam

my life still exist. Tomorrow is still waiting, with more ugly surprises and dirty secrets to uncover. But Tonight, none of that feels quite as frightening as it did before… because for the first time since my life fell apart, I don’t feel like I’m carrying everything alone.

And sometime later, with moonlight still spilling across the sheets and Locke’s arm still wrapped securely around my waist, this is the thought that I fall asleep with:

Somehow, without either of us meaning to, we’ve become exactly the kind of trouble the other one needs.

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