Page 131 of Temporary Vows

A therapist would have a field day trying to unpack that. Getting inside my head would keep half the psychiatry profession employed for years.

I’m exactly the kind of broken they’d study.

But that brokenness…

It keeps me in control. It made me a billionaire. It keeps pushing me higher. And that’s why I know I can have anything I want.

Except, that’s not entirely true. The same madness hinders me from having something that could change my life. Something like her.

Elodie deserves better.

She deserveslove. I’d be a different kind of selfish if I couldn’t admit that.

I just don’t know where I’m going with this—these thoughts.

As if she can hear me, she shifts in her sleep. She rolls slightly, brushing against the sheets.

Her hair slips across her waist, spilling over the fabric.

She almost looks like she isn’t real. Like she emerged from one of those Renaissance paintings of goddesses and maidens.

I take another drag from my cigar, but then I go completely still when she reaches across the bed.

Her elegant fingers—one of which has my ring on it—move across the space, searching. It takes me a moment to realize she’s reaching for me.

Such a small thing, but it looks like habit. As if we’ve always shared a bed and she’s never been without me.

Poor little lamb. She has no idea she’s reaching for a torn devil—one who wants to dirty her up and drag her down to his underworld.

Fuck, I want her again. The meagre control I managed to claw back over the last hour is gone.

Hunger has replaced it, rising within me, sharp and consuming.

This is my turning point.

I could leave her alone.

I could walk away. Reset even. Put things back where they belong.

I could at least try.

But I don’t want to.

I don’t want to fucking try to stay away from her.

What I want is right in front of me.

And whatever decisions need to be made… they can fucking wait.

Tonight, I just want one thing.

My wife.

Her eyes flutter open and she pushes herself up slowly. Confusion flickers across her face, then disappointment. It’s clear she thought I’d already gone.

But then she turns, and her eyes find mine in the dark.

Something softens in her expression, brightening just from seeing me. Her eyes roam over my body, taking in my bare chest and dropping down to my boxers. Even in the dark I’m sure she can see my very erect cock, bulged against the fabric.