The CEO's Unwanted Wife novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Terms

He knocked at eleven.

I had been sitting on the edge of the guest bed for an hour with the lamp off.

Three soft knocks, then nothing.

I opened the door.

He stood in the dark hallway in his white shirt with the sleeves rolled.

He had no tie, no jacket, no driver, and no phone in his hand.

It was the first time in four years I had seen him with nothing to hold.

"Terms," I said.

"Yours."

"I leave tomorrow night. You don't ask me to stay, and you don't ask why I'm going."

"Done."

"You don't touch the grant again, or my friends, or my flight."

"Done."

"And you look at me."

His jaw moved.

"Linnea."

"The whole time. You've spent four years looking at the wall behind my head. Tonight you look at me."

He was quiet for so long that I thought he would turn and go.

Then he stepped across the threshold, shut the door behind him, and met my eyes.

They were dark and tired, and there was something in them I could not name.

I had thought I only wanted him to want me.

I had not known how it would feel to be looked at.

"Come here," I said.

He took one step and stopped.

I closed the rest of the distance myself.

My hands went to his shirt and found the buttons.

His hands came up and hovered an inch from my waist, shaking.

"Touch me, Dalton."

His palms landed on my hips, hot through the grey silk.

A sound came out of his chest that I felt in my knees.

I kissed him.

It was nothing like the careful kisses at the wedding.

He kissed me.

One hand slid into my hair and the other locked low on my back.

He dragged me flat against him.

I got his shirt open and spread my hands across his chest, hard and warm, his heart slamming under my palm.

"Four nights," he said against my mouth. "I stood outside this door."

"You never knocked."

"I didn't deserve to."

"Then deserve it now."

He turned us and walked me back until my knees hit the bed.

He found the zipper at the back of my dress and drew it down slowly, one tooth at a time.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The CEO's Unwanted Wife from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.