Arouse (Spiral of Bliss #1)

by Nina Lane

And the world fell away the instant our lips touched.

I love him to my bones, but suddenly I’m wondering what I might have been without him.

“The right one is always worth waiting for.”

I’d have loved to believe I was a fair lady to his knight, but from what I could remember of the King Arthur tales, none of the women met with a desirable end.

“I don’t think turtles have very interesting lives.” North’s voice, wry and gravelly, echoed at the back of my mind. Some of my anxiety eased.

My very vivid imagination. My very mundane reality.

I wanted to live in the space where the two met. I imagined it as a place of sunlight and green trees where a man and I wanted each other with crackling desire and our bodies fell into pleasure.

He grins. “Any time you want, Julienne is open. I’ll cook you a meal that’ll make your soul sparkle again.” That, I think, is a meal I’d love to eat.

“I’ve given you all I have,” I say, my throat closing over the words. “All I am. You know that. Why didn’t you do the same for me?”

Except now the bad stuff is like quicksand beneath my feet, pulling me under, and my husband can’t rescue me from it.