Divorced for Being Barren, I Came Back Pregnant by His Rival novel · Chapter 18 of 24
Chapter 18: The Night Before
"Say it back to me once more," Eliot said, "and then I'll let you touch me."
August lay on the bed with his back against the headboard and the lamplight on his chest.
It was eleven the night before the Met.
The blue coat hung on the closet door, the porcelain cup sat in its box on the dresser.
Neither of them had looked at either for an hour.
"When she says your name," August said, "I take your arm, and I don't move."
"And when I lift my left hand?"
"Audra puts the first page on the screen."
"And?"
"And I stand at the door, and I do nothing at all, even if Grayson comes at you." August's jaw worked. "That part is going to cost me."
"It's going to cost you the whole night," Eliot said. "I know."
He knelt up on the mattress in nothing but the soft gray light, with the first curve of the child under his hand.
"Now be still."
"Yes."
"Give me your wrists."
August held them out.
Eliot took the strip of midnight silk he had cut from the spare lining that afternoon.
He wound it twice around both wrists, above the pulse.
He tied it to the iron slats of the headboard in a flat, sure knot.
His husband watched him do it with eyes gone dark and wide.
"Is that too tight?"
"No."
"If you pull, it holds."
"I know."
"Good."
Eliot sat back on his heels and looked.
August VanDusen lay under the lamp, naked and bound, with his big arms lifted and his chest rising.
He looked like something Eliot had wanted for years.
"You've given orders all week," Eliot said. "To a board, a driver, a lawyer, a tailor. Tonight you give me nothing."
"Eliot."
"Tonight I look at you. All of you. As long as I want."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of Divorced for Being Barren, I Came Back Pregnant by His Rival are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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