Read Online One Less Problem Without You by Beth Harbison - Free Book Online

to life. The button had been pushed. I wasn’t just walking to my doom, I was running to it.
    As I had so many times before.
    â€œYou’re my wife. It will never be over.”
    â€œWhy do you even want me? You have so many extracurricular activities . Why hold on to the old ball and chain when there are so many things, so many people, you prefer to me?”
    â€œBecause you are my wife. I married you. I made a vow, and I don’t break my vows.”
    I noticed he didn’t deny it that time, and something in me died even while I knew it was the truth and any other objection would have been bullshit. “You’ve broken plenty of your vows,” I said tartly. “You can’t cherry-pick which ones to honor and which ones to completely ignore.”
    â€œYou are the one I chose.” He ran his hands down my bare arms, and my skin rose in goose bumps beneath his touch.
    â€œOnce.”
    He lowered his mouth onto mine and drew me into his familiar kiss. It never got old. What was it about him? I’d had the most frustrating moments of my life with him, the most heartbroken moments of my life over him, but somehow I couldn’t bring myself to resist him.
    So I kissed him back, tightening my arms around him and running my hands up his back.
    He slipped his hands under my nightshirt, his skin so warm against mine that I thought I might melt. He pulled the shirt off over my head, leaving me naked in front of him, and trailed his fingers down my back and across my hips before pulling me closer against his hardness.
    â€œI don’t want to do this,” I murmured against his mouth, even while I allowed his tongue in and played at it with my own.
    â€œYes, you do.”
    â€œNo…”
    He walked his fingers down my abdomen and reached between my legs, instantly finding the proof he wanted.
    My body’s betrayal.
    He smiled against my mouth. “Yes, you do.”
    â€œYou hurt me.”
    â€œNo, I didn’t.”
    How could he even say that? “Yes, you did!” I said with more strength. How could he dismiss so much pain so completely?
    â€œYou know me, you know the deal. You stay because you want it, too.”
    â€œNo, I stayed because I believed in you, like an idiot. I didn’t know how big a liar you were!”
    â€œShhhh.” He kissed me silent again.
    And I let him.
    Damn it, I let him.
    â€œTurn around,” he said.
    â€œNo.”
    â€œYes.” He spanned his hands on my ribs and turned me, forcefully, to face the counter. Now his touch stopped feeling good and left an ache behind.
    â€œNo!” I said, and I tried to wriggle away, but he held me in place easily.
    â€œYou know you want it.” He touched my wetness again. “And I know you want it.” He used his hand to guide himself into me and began to move.
    At first my body betrayed me yet again. I had spent a long time loving this man and his touch. But very quickly his movements grew harder, slamming my pelvis against the cabinets we’d just paid way too much to have replaced. I’d hated them when he picked them out, hated them when they were installed, and now I hated them more than ever. Who would have thought those brass plumbing-pipe drawer pulls would end up being so painful to me this way?
    â€œStop!” I was begging. My voice trembled. Everything in me was alert to danger.
    He put a hand over my mouth and used his other hand to spank me. Hard. It wasn’t the first time he’d slapped my butt in bed, it wasn’t even the first time it hurt, but a resolve grew in me that it would be the last.
    â€œLeave me alone!” I cried, and tried to get away again. I had to be drying up fast. Nothing about this was a turn-on. It was pain. Pure pain. Nothing more to it.
    â€œShut up!” He banged into me so hard, the slapping noises echoed in the kitchen.
    Tears burned in my eyes and spilled out, plopping onto the cement counters Leif