Read Online Back in the Soldier's Arms by Soraya Lane, Karina Bliss - Free Book Online

Sweat clammed her forehead, instantly made her feel claustrophobic beneath her sweater.
    It had been a long time since she’d been on a date.
    “I know we’re living together, but I want to spend time with you, just the two of us. I think we need to give us a real shot.”
    She fought the barbed words in her throat that wanted to sting him.
    Penny hated that they even had to try. That they’d lost what they had. But saying that all over again wasn’t going to help the situation. And she didn’t want to be bitter. Didn’t want to fight, yell, argue. It wasn’t her, and she wanted to preserve her dignity.
    Even if all the people in her life that she loved already knew the truth about her marriage.
    “I’m not sure it’s such a good idea, Daniel. I don’t want to fight with you.”
    He reached for her hand across the counter. Traced his fingertips across hers and played them softly along the top of her hand, then around her wrist, before pulling away and tilting her chin with his hand.
    The touch felt intimate. Way too intimate.
    She wanted to push him away and tell him he didn’t have the right to touch her body, her face, like that anymore.
    But she also wanted to remember what it felt like to be touched. To be caressed by the hand of a man who had once loved her.
    “It doesn’t have to be anything more than two people who know each other spending time together,” he said, his voice gruff. “We can go out once Gabby’s in bed, and it won’t impact at all on your spending time with her.”
    “We’d need a babysitter,” she mumbled.
    Daniel chuckled. “All taken care of. My mom’s ready and waiting to be called upon.”
    sseÁ#x201D;Penny shut her eyes, took a deep breath and opened them again with a confidence that surprised her. Of course she was.
    “Yes.”
    He raised an eyebrow. “Yes?”
    Penny tucked her hair behind her ears and raised her eyes to look at Daniel.
    “Yes to your date,” she told him, with a bravery she didn’t truly feel. “I didn’t marry you to be divorced before my thirtieth birthday.”
    He smiled. Except she wasn’t finished.
    “I also didn’t expect to be dealing with a husband who’d been unfaithful and broken my heart by then either.”
    The words were hard to push out, but then so was seeing the crushed look that passed across Daniel’s face.
    She had to say what was on her mind, though. If she didn’t, they’d never be able to move forward. Perhaps that’s where they’d gone wrong—not being honest and up-front enough about how they felt. About the problems they were facing.
    “I’m sorry, Pen,” he said, shaking his head sorrowfully. “I’m so, so sorry for what I did.”
    She smiled tightly. “I accept your apology, Daniel, I do. But it doesn’t mean that we can ever go back to normal. That we could ever expect us to work again.”
    “I want it to,” he said. “God, Penny, I want to be back to the way things were.”
    For the first time since she could remember, Daniel had tears in his eyes. Tears threatening to spill down his cheeks. Not since her mother’s funeral, maybe since Gabby’s birth, did she recall seeing his tears.
    She fought the emotion in her own throat, determined to keep her composure. At least until she was in the private sanctuary of the bathroom where she could sob quietly in peace.
    Maybe they should have just argued. Maybe they needed to have a rip-roaring row and vent their anger and frustration. But that wasn’t her, she didn’t want that to be her, and she certainly didn’t want to behave like that when her daughter was asleep down the hall.
    “So when’s our date?” she asked, forcing herself to smile. To stop the conversation from getting too heavy. Because she wasn’t ready to go there yet.
    “Tomorrow night,” he said.
    She reached for the dishcloth to give the bench a final wet down.
    “Anywhere in particular?”
    “Yeah.” Daniel’s face lit up with a smile. “Pedro’s,” he told her, head angled