Claiming His Wife (Unlikely Love)
By: Sam CrescentHe’d dated and fucked skinny women. Opal wasn’t thin. She was all woman, and he wanted her with a desperation that shocked him.
Her gaze kept slipping to his hands. Glancing down at hers, he saw the small diamond wedding ring he’d given her. At the time she’d thought it was a trinket he’d picked up on the way to the church. He made her believe he hadn’t spent the time picking something out. In truth, he’d spent close to six hours shopping for the right ring to go on her finger. A big jewel would look vulgar. Opal didn’t need garish. She needed something with class, stylish but also a band of ownership. With that ring on her finger, he announced to the world she was his.
The waiter came, and Tony ordered two pasta dishes. He was more for Chinese food than Italian.
Tony stared at her. She glanced around the room rather than look at him.
“How have you been?” he asked.
“Fine.” He didn’t want this. To be estranged from her. He wanted to get to know her and to prove to her that he did want her. What he’d said on her wedding night had been the biggest fucking mistake of his life. At the time he’d been afraid. There was a seventeen year age gap between them.
“How are you?” she asked.
“Don’t, Opal. What are we doing?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“We use to be better than this. I don’t know why we’ve decided to change who we are.”
“I was thinking about starting work,” she said.
Tony stopped. Frozen solid. “Why?”
“I don’t like being alone anymore. I’m trapped in that house, which I know is beautiful, but I’d like to get out a little more. Maybe learn how to drive or at least do something. I’m being driven insane every day.”
He sat back in his chair. “I don’t want you working.”
“I don’t think it’s your place to tell me what I can and can’t do.”
“You’re my wife.”
“For how much longer?” she asked.
Tony turned his gaze away from her. The one thing he had done well in all of their two years of marriage was to provide for her. Make sure she had no worries. Allow her to find her independence.
“Are you saying you want to divorce me?”
“No.”
“Then what are you trying to say?”
“We don’t have to get a divorce. We haven’t had sex or anything. A simple annulment would be fine.”
The blood pounded in his head.
“Then you’d be free to go and do whatever you want.”
“I don’t want to be free,” he told her.
“You’re not making this easy for me.”
“What’s to make it easy? I don’t want a divorce, and I’ll fuck you before I allow you to go for an annulment.” Tony heard her gasp, and he cursed. Shit. He was losing control of his monster. The need to be in control. To claim what was his. This is what he feared most when he was around her – the lack of control to the point he could scare her away. Turning back to her, he saw the blush spreading up into her cheeks.
“I’m sorry.”
“I was trying to help you. You don’t wear a wedding ring, and you helped me back then. I’d hate to keep you in a marriage you didn’t want to be part of.”
“I don’t wear a ring because you didn’t give me one.”
Out of everything that happened that day, he refused to buy his own wedding band.
“Oh. I didn’t know I had to get you one.”
“Speaking of wedding bands. Our engagement wasn’t a conventional one, but I felt you deserved to have a ring to show off to your girlfriends.” He pulled the small blue box out of his pocket and handed it to her.
He noted the trembling in her hands and hated himself for being the one responsible for putting it there.
“It’s beautiful,” she said as soon as she opened it. “I know this is going to sound corny, but would you put it on my finger?”
Tony nodded. He took the box back and pulled out the small band. Her fingers were so delicate. Taking off her wedding ring, he placed the engagement ring on first, followed by the main one.
He kissed her fingers, grateful she was his.
