Page 96 of Sweet Wicked Vows
“There’s a seminar I’ve been invited to through a friend I used to work with atLilypad Press.It’s all about starting up your own business in the world of publishing, and I managed to get a ticket for it.” The tickets were gold dust. “Opening up my own publishing house has always been my dream. To be the person who opens the door for authors, who takes a chance on amazing manuscripts and gives them a voice—it’s all I want.”
Dimples punched his cheeks.
“I’m nervous but mostly excited,” I chirped. “It seems like a lifetime since I wrote anything. I miss it.”
“You’re a good writer. The articles I’ve read prove that you are more than capable of standing on your own two feet.”
“I thought you only read one of my articles?”
“There may have been a few others I glanced over. After your infamous article about me, I was intrigued to see what else you were ballsy enough to write.”
“You’re never going to let me forget that article, are you?”
“Not a chance.”
“I’d say I am sorry, but that article landed me my job.”
Pride swelled in his eyes. “You earned it.”
I grinned like a damn fool. “The thing is, we are getting closer to Flynn taking over. I’ll finally be able to walk away from it all. So, I need to start making the right steps to taking back control of my life once this is all over and done with.”
He reared back as if I slapped him. “You’re only months away from being free again.”
I reached out to take his hand. “We’ll both be free and then we can stop...”
He stepped back. “I have a suitcase to pack.”
“What’s wrong?”
Distinct familiar walls closed around him. “I’ll see you in a week.”
Watching him leave the room, my heart deflated like a balloon. It seemed like no matter how many leaps we took forward together, we were always destined to fall all the way back to the start.
“Make-up sex always works a treat.” Lola cuddled Bell in her arms. “Whatever is wrong with him won’t be a problem when you’re on top of him naked.”
“Don’t think sex is always the answer.”
Lola smirked playfully. “Always worked for me. In all my years, I haven’t come across a single problem that couldn’t be fixed by a blow job.”
“That’s the problem. I don’t know what is wrong with him.”
It was several hours after Jaxon left for the airport. I’d been torturing myself, replaying our last conversation on loop trying to figure out what went wrong, until I needed someone else to talk to. Lola arrived with a bottle of wine in hand and ready tolisten.
We were denned up in the front living room, curled up on the sofa and sipping on our second bottle of red wine on empty stomachs after I told Poppy to take the night off.
“It’s like a switch with him. One second, we’re great and happy, and then the next, he shuts me out and acts like the same man I married six months ago.”
“I’d suggest trying to talk to him, but he strikes me as the suffer-in-silence type.”
I huffed a laugh. “You have no idea.”
Trying to talk to Jaxon about his feelings was like trying to talk to a brick wall.
“If he just opened up for once,” I said. “Maybe I’d be able to fix whatever is wrong. Instead, he bottles it all up and leaves me in the dark. He’s so emotionally stunted. It’s infuriating.”
Lola hummed. “Maybe it’s because he cares. I mean, if he didn’t give a shit about you, he wouldn’t have taken you to meet his family.”
“His brother and grandmother invited me.”