Read Online Simple Perfection by Abbi Glines - Free Book Online Page A

silence. Della let me hold her as close as I needed to. She let me kiss her head and hands and run my hands over her arms and back to reassure myself she was okay.
    The knock on the door ended our peace and quiet. Della started to move out of my lap but I held her to me. I was going to ignore whoever it was. Vince should have been out there by now.
    “Is everything okay, sir?” Vince asked from the other side of the door.
    “Yes, we’re fine,” I replied.
    Della tilted her head back to look up at me. “Did he see me?”
    I nodded. I didn’t want to lie to her, even though I knew she hated for people to see her when she was like that.
    “He’s going to think I’m insane,” she said with a defeated sigh.
    I grabbed her chin and made her look up at me. “No, he won’t. You aren’t insane. You are intelligent, lovable, and beautiful. But you are not insane. You lived through hell and you beat it, Della. Most people can’t overcome something like what you’ve overcome. Don’t ever think you’re less than amazing.”
    A small smile tugged at the corners of her lips. “You just love me,” she said.
    “More than life,” I replied before pressing my lips to hers.

Della
    W oods hadn’t left me alone since my blackout yesterday. I knew he had work to do. I also had work to do, but he was keeping me by his side at home. Every time I mentioned going into the office, he did something to distract me. Oral sex on the kitchen counter had been his first tactic, and it worked. I had forgotten about anything but the way he made me feel.
    Then he’d caught me sneaking off to take a shower when he was on a work-related phone call. I mentioned that we needed to get ready, and then he’d taken me against the shower wall. After he cut the water off and carried me to bed, we’d made love again.
    Now he was outside on the phone again. I knew he was dealing with work from home and it only proved my point that I was hindering him. My weakness was a weight on him, but I wanted to help him. When he opened the door and stepped inside, I started to tell him that we should really go to work. I was going to fight off any sexual advances he tried to use to keep me there.
    “That was Vince. I have two board members in my office that my mother contacted about some things she knows nothing about. I need to go into work to deal with them. I should be back in two hours max,” he said before the door closed behind him.
    He wasn’t going to let me go. “I could go to work, too. There are things I didn’t get done yesterday.”
    “No. I’ve got to concentrate on this meeting, and knowing you’re there will distract me. I’ll be worried about you. Just stay here and I promise I’ll come right back.”
    He pressed a kiss to my lips before walking to the bedroom to get dressed. I stood there and let his words sink in. He was taking my job away. He was going to keep me here again. He was afraid of my being at work and having one of my episodes.
    I had been working so hard to be tough. To ease his worries. One bad day and he had me in a glass box again. This wasn’t fair. I wanted to live. I loved being close to him and having a purpose, knowing I was helping him. Staying here all the time was lonely. I couldn’t do this again.
    He walked out of the bedroom dressed in a suit and smiled at me. “We’ll eat at that Italian place you love in Seaside tonight,” he told me, as if that made this all okay.
    Instead of telling him how I felt, I just nodded and kissed him back, then watched him leave. I didn’t fight back. I just let him decide what I was going to do. This wasn’t tough. Blaire wouldn’t have let Rush do this. She would have fought back. She would have turned Alabama badass on him and gotten her way.
    I had to show Woods that I could do this. I’d had one slipup but I was bigger than that. I could keep working. He needed me there. I was helping him. I was good at it.
    I went to the bedroom and got ready for work.

    Facing