It all sounded expedient, but that was marriage, wasn’t it? Supposed to be convenient when it was arranged?
Thus far, it hadn’t been, not particularly, but I wasn’t too put out. I especially liked how clean she was, how neat. It suited me and made me realize how good a match we could be if I was decent to her.
And I didn’t mean if I beat her or not, even though I knew that was standard in the life, but if I treated her with kindness. It wasn’t too hard. I wasn’t a total bastard. Aoife, Finn’s wife, liked me, and so did Jen, her friend. Although she checked out my ass more than I checked out hers, so that was a little different. But if I could be friendly with Aoife, I didn’t see why I couldn’t do that with my wife.
Rubbing my chin as I carried on with my mental note about which furniture needed replacing, I went to the gym, which was just off my office, and realized that most of the gear in there needed replacing too.
Fuck.
I had sex in a lot of places that wasn’t always my mattress.
To be fair, I didn’t intend for that to change, so I figured I could christen a lot of new furniture in that way…
When the matter of Inessa’s hymen wasn’t an issue.
Fucking virgins. I didn’t get what the appeal was.
As I headed to my treadmill and began my workout, I carried on with my mental note-taking until Inessa walked in.
She was sleepy and kept stretching, and had changed out of the fuckable sleep shorts and cami into some yoga pants and a sports bra that turned her tits into perfectly round globes, that did things to me no workout gear really should, especially not when a man was running at six miles an hour.
Oranges, eat your heart out.
She ignored me, as was her way. It didn’t piss me off, if anything, I appreciated it. Neither of us were morning people, but we had routines and we weren’t going to get in the other’s way.
Just like she had for the past six days, she went to the cross-trainer. Her phone went into the slot, her AirPods made an appearance, and she started her own training.
I knew she was listening to audiobooks, knew it because, sometimes, her cheeks would turn pink and not from exertion, and she’d laugh. Far as I knew, there weren’t many songs that could inspire both reactions in someone. I mean, I could have asked, but if I asked, she’d talk, and that wasn’t why we were here.
We were working out.
But, not for the first time, I found myself with questions, and I wasn’t a man who liked waiting on answers.
Though I liked working out alone, hence a personal gym, she was something to look at. Better even than the news.
After forty minutes, I switched to free weights, and about twenty minutes later, she stopped her cross-training.
I knew she’d go for a shower next, and then would make breakfast—a protein shake. Though hers tasted of girly shit, she’d started making me one too, and I wasn’t going to complain. Putting shit in a blender seemed to be about as much of a cooking repertoire as she possessed.
Before she could wander out, when she’d stacked her AirPods back in their case, I turned around as she did so and stated, “Tomorrow, I’ll be back to work.”
Her arched brow was a silent, ‘So what?’
My lips curved, and I continued, “I want you to go shopping.”
“For food?” She scowled. “They deliver, and what they don’t, Winnie can bring here. Why do I have to go to the store?”
“If you listened… I want you to buy new furniture.”
“New furniture,” she repeated flatly.
“Yeah, new furniture.” I cleared my throat. “A new sofa, new bed. I’ll make a list of what I want.”
She folded her arms across her chest, plumping up her tits and making my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth as she did so. “Why?”
Why?
“Isn’t it obvious?” I retorted.