No Longer Mine Read Online Free PDF

point either. You weren’t encouraging him and that’s all the matters. I should have had more faith in you.” He stood abruptly.
    Startled, Nikki was slack when he pulled her out of the chair and into his arms. Wade yanked the rubber band from her hair and buried his face in it, breathing deeply. Silently she locked her arms around his waist and stood there, feeling vaguely as though something was wrong. Something else was going on, but what it was, Nikki didn’t know. Her internal radar was sending out signals.
    He began rocking back and forth, and instinctively she tightened her arms. Turning her head, she pressed a kiss to the side of his neck, cuddling against him, trying to ease some of the tension that was rolling of him in waves.
    She gasped out a breath as Wade swept her up in his arms and went to the bed, cradling her in his lap.
    That internal radar was screaming now. They’d fought before and he hadn’t acted like he was afraid she would slip away.
    “Wade, what’s going on?” she asked, cupping his face in her hand and forcing him to look at her.
    Nikki searched his eyes for some clue but all she saw was torment and guilt. She was almost afraid to ask, but knew she had to. “Is there something I need to know about?” He closed his eyes and Nikki felt her stomach drop. She waited for him to tell her, but all he did was bring her hand to his lips and kiss it. “I just don’t want to lose you,” he said, raising his head and staring at her intently.
    “I’m not the one who left,” she reminded him softly. Then she shrugged. “It was a fight. It’s not the first and it won’t be the last. I…I shouldn’t have hit you.”
    “You’ve got a mean right hook, Nikki,” he said, a ghost of a smile on his face. “But I deserved it. I’m sorry. The entire thing happened because I’m an ass.”

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    23

    Shiloh Walker
    With a forced smile, she replied, “You are an ass.” Then she shoved aside her misgivings. Everything was okay. “It’s all right, Wade. It’s over.”
    “It’s not all right,” he insisted, cupping her face in callused, gentle hands. “It’s not, baby. I’m sorry for everything I’ve done that hurt you. I’m sorry for things I said and did and thought that weren’t fair to you.”
    She only tucked her face against his shoulder, looking away from those intent eyes. Meeting them only made her vague feelings of wrongness return.
    Nikki had to bite her lip to keep from asking, “What things?” A month had passed since that day. Buried in her writing, working part-time and dealing with a few extra summer courses, she had her hands full.
    There was also the minor detail of a wedding.
    They were getting married.
    A quiet, simple wedding, but they were getting married. Shortly after their honeymoon was over, she’d start back at U of L for her third year of nursing school.
    Yeah, she had her hands full, all right.
    Hunched over Wade’s computer, she focused on her book. Two hours—she was giving herself two hours. Then she’d get her stupid, endless homework done. She’d get the damn homework done and then she might even have time to work on the book some more.
    Wade slept like the dead on the couch.
    The broken-down, secondhand couch was comfortable but not that comfortable. He wasn’t interested in sleeping in the bedroom though. When she’d mentioned the bedroom a weird look had crossed over his face and he’d shut down, shut her out. Distracted, she hadn’t thought much of it, but as she forced herself to turn off the computer, she looked over at him. Nikki had thought he liked the little ranch house they’d picked out. But maybe she was wrong. He ended up at her dad’s apartment every morning after work, and slept there on her narrow twin bed until she got home from work.
    To top it off, his sleep was fitful. Often he’d wake the minute she got home and tumble her down onto the bed with him, holding her tightly against his side as he