Fifteen Days to Divorce novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Say My Name

The premiere suit hung on the closet door with a pin still in the left cuff.

Portia found it at ten on Friday night, when Ellie had finally gone home and Malachi had said "thank you" over and over without a stop.

"Stand there," she said.

"Why?"

"Because the hem is a quarter inch off, and I'd rather die than see it on a screen forty feet wide."

He stood on the rug in his shirt and bare feet.

She knelt and ran her thumb along the inside seam of the trouser leg, and felt him go very still.

"Don't move."

"I'm not."

"Your leg is shaking."

"That's the room," Malachi said. "It's cold."

It was not cold.

She finished the pin and sat back on her heels and looked up at him.

His eyes were dark, and his hand was fisted at his side, and she knew exactly what it was costing him not to touch her.

She could have said something dry.

She stood up instead and put her palms on his chest.

"Tomorrow you're going to have to say a lot of words to a lot of people," she said.

"Yes."

"Tonight I'd like to hear you say very few."

He kissed her.

It was nothing like the lawn.

It was slow and deliberate.

His hands stayed at her waist for a long time.

She walked him backward to the bed.

He sat down on the edge with her between his knees, and she unbuttoned his shirt one button at a time.

His skin was hot under her fingers, and his heart went hard against her palm.

"You're nervous," she said.

"Always."

"Of me?"

"Of getting it wrong."

"You can't get it wrong." She pushed the shirt off his shoulders. "I'll tell you."

She pulled her sweater over her head.

He looked at her for so long that she laughed.

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