Chapter 24: Good Mood
Matthew
I'm staring at Sarah's sleeping form, the woman who's supposed to be the embodiment of everything I despise.
Yet, I couldn't stand another man touching her earlier. Sometimes I don't understand my own feelings.
I reach out to brush back a stray strand of blonde hair from her face. She had fallen asleep after crying in my arms. I thought about leaving the room and taking a long walk afterward, but I find myself unable to move now.
It's madness, this fleeting sense of protectiveness toward her. It's ironic. I should be pleased that Mark's action scared her to death. It served her right. But instead, I feel this need to shield her, to keep her safe from men like Mark... or even men like me.
"Damn you, Sarah," I whisper against the silence, my voice a low, grating sound against the quietness of the room. "What have you done to me?"
I can still feel the heat of jealousy when I see Mark's hands all over her body in my mind.
Sarah is my wife.
She shifts in her sleep a little, murmuring words too faint to grasp. I look at the curve of her cheek, the way her lips part just slightly.
Tentatively, I pull the corner of the sheet, revealing the slender line of her shoulder, the soft slope of her side. My gaze trails down the length of her body, noting the stark differences between her and Amanda.
She's too skinny, I tell myself, trying to believe it. That's why I don't find her attractive, not truly. Yet as my fingertips graze the smooth skin of her arm, trailing a path across the cool surface, I can't ignore my racing pulse.