Her Reluctant Husband by Erica Marselas (books to read for 12 year olds .TXT) 📕

“Where are you going?” I ask as she slips on a pair of cotton plaid pajama bottoms she picks up from the edge of the bed.

“Where I always go. What’s it to you?” she snaps.

"You're telling me you’re going to stay up all day? You'll crash and burn."

"I've done it a hundred times." She shrugs and puts her hair in a ponytail with the hair tie she had on her wrist. “What’s another night?” Her voice is somber, and even I pick up, it’s not what she wants.

"It's only midnight. You’re out of your mind."

Her eyes close and she falls back onto the bed. "Shit. Really?”

“Yeah. If you want, I still have that Zzzquill in my room.” I tease and she snarls at me. “Or if you want, I got some sleeping pills.”

"You have sleeping pills?”

"Not for the same reason as you, but sometimes work stress would keep me up."

"No thanks. They don’t work either. Plus, I’ll be fine. I’ll exercise, that sometimes can knock me back out.”

“Exercise?” I smirk and scoot in closer to her. She makes me mad, but she’s still tempting, and I do want to help. “I have a better way of rocking you back to sleep.” Like making you quiver underneath me, calling my name again as you come around me. My fingers travel over her shoulder and my lips attach to the side of her neck as I push down the thin strap of her tank top. She tenses under my touch and shoves me away.

“Don’t touch me,” she screeches. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Wrong with me? I’m just trying to put you back to sleep honey bear.”

“The last thing I need right now is your techniques. Please leave me alone.”

“I don’t think you really mean it.” I cup her face and move my lips inches away from hers. “I told you I’d be fucking you again, and what better way than getting you back to sleep than with a hard fuck?” I growl. Her face goes pale and the fear I saw this afternoon glows in her eyes as they shimmer with fresh tears. Shit. “June. Listen…”

“Please just go, Alex,” she begs, her voice shaking. “Please.”

“I—”

“Just go. You’re just making things worse.”

I’m making it worse? What the hell did I do?

I’m here. It’s more than I’ve ever done…

“Suit yourself,” I say gruffly and rise from the bed.

“I will.” She sniffs and pushes her knees to her chest and looks away from me.

I storm to the door, leaving her as she wanted. I don’t need this. She wants to be cold and distant, I’ll do it right back, like it was. I need to focus on my work, and after this afternoon she’s distracted me enough. I have a chance at a promotion, more money, and it’s everything I ever wanted. I can’t have little Ju-Ju fucking things up for me again.

But as I turn back to the closed door, hearing her soft cries once again, I can’t help but wonder, what am I missing?

My head is throbbing, and I have the biggest crick in my neck from falling asleep at my computer. I don’t think I even slept for an hour before my head slipped off the desk because my chair rolled away.

Coffee.

I need coffee.

I still have hours of work to do to finish this project and I feel… dead. I don’t know how June works off only hours of sleep daily.

As I make my way to the kitchen, I spot movement on the front porch.

June is leaning against the rail talking to Ms. Gandy.

When I went down sometime around four for a snack, I found June passed out on the couch. I was surprised to see her drooling away in some non-haunted dreamland. I watched her for a little while before covering her up. At least one of us got some sleep last night.

I start the coffee maker and pop two pieces of sourdough into the toaster.

The nutty aroma of coffee fills the kitchen and I settle onto one of the barstools. I pull out my phone and open my app with all the world news to catch up on the latest events. The screen hasn’t even loaded yet when I hear the hardwood creak and I see Ms. Gandy with her perfect white bun coming at me, guns blazing.

She slams a metal container down on the island in front of me with her hands on her hips. Her eyes narrowed and her lips pinched together, a look I know well. She’s not happy.

“Ms. Gandy, it’s so lovely to see you. Coffee?” I ask, giving her my best smoldering look.

“I would love to say the same young man, but I’m not happy with you right now.”

“I think I missed something, Ms. Gandy, but I’m not sure what I could’ve done. And if this is still about that time I put all the bull frogs in your garden when I was twelve, I’m still sorry.” I grin cockily, but it only fires up the older lady in front of me.

“Alex,” She slaps her hand on the counter, “I want to know why you still hate that poor girl?” Ms. Gandy asks, and I groan. “You’re supposed to be trying to work things out and make this marriage work.”

“I don't hate her.” And it’s not a total lie, not anymore. “Why would you think that we aren’t trying?”

Ms. Gandy crosses her arms. “I was having a long talk with her and she was quite upset. She didn’t say anything directly about what was happening between you two, but I can tell these things. When I bring you up, her whole demeanor changes and not in a positive way.”

Ms. Gandy is staring me down when my