Free Open Door Marriage by Naleighna Kai

resist you? ”
    She paused and faced him, thinking that she had asked herself that same question from the moment the frosty air had blasted her face when she ran from her home this afternoon.
    “ You take care, ” was her reply.
    To this, he only smiled as he watched her step into the elevator.

 
    Chapter 9
    10:28 p . m.
     
     
    Dallas went into the Grand Suite and trudged past the moonlit dining and living room areas. Tori had planted a seed in his mind, and he needed to figure out why she had even put something like that on the table.
    Tori lifted from her lounging position on the bed the moment he paused at the threshold. “ You came back to me. ”
    Her soft words sounded more like a question than a statement, but at that moment, the truth was, he was trying to decide his next move. He didn ’ t feel as if he belonged with Tori anymore, but her proposition was swirling in his head. Especially the part about children; his legacy was important. But was it as important as Alicia?
    “ Thank you for sending up dinner, ” Tori said, gesturing to the tray of food that had been wheeled in earlier. “ Would you like something to eat? ” she asked.
    A quick glance showed she had barely touched anything. Dallas shook his head and continued his study of her golden features — deep-set eyes, and silky lips. Tori was stunningly beautiful in every way. She was the perfect woman to be his wife — intelligent and driven, and genuine in her friendship with and caring for him.
    “ So, have you given my proposition any thought? ” Tori asked when he didn ’ t respond to her question about dinner.
    “ I ’ m still trying to make sense of it, ” he said, crossing the distance between them in a few strides.
    Tori slipped off the bed and met him halfway, wearing only a red lace bra and panties. This was his first glimpse ever of her semi-nude body and he was not moved.
    She reached to cup his face in her hands in much the same way Alicia had done minutes ago, which shocked him. He could count the number of times Tori had engaged in any kind of intimacy with him. “ It ’ s simple, ” she said. “ You couldn ’ t really love someone like her. It ’ s just sex, Dallas. That ’ s all it is. Just sex. And I know that, and understand that. But, I also understand other things. ”
    “ Like children?
    “ Exactly. My aunt is forty-five; how would she give you eight children? Could she even give you two? ”
    Her points, her questions were good ones that left him feeling conflicted. Part of Dallas knew that was why Alicia left him in the first place. It was right after they laid in bed and he talked about the children he so desperately wanted to have. The next morning, she was gone.
    Tori splayed a manicured hand over his broad chest. “ I love you. Enough to let you have us both. At least for a while. ”
    He shook his head. “ I can ’ t do that. I ’ ve hurt you enough as it is. ”
    “ Leaving me will hurt me more. And I know that it won ’ t take long for you to get her out of your system. ”
    She laid her head on his chest, but Dallas withdrew from her. “ I don ’ t know how to get you to see it ’ s deeper than that. I just can ’ t do this. She deserves better than that. ”
    Tori glared up at him with an intensity that lasted only for a few moments before a flash of sadness took its place. “ She deserves better than that? ”
    Dallas closed his eyes against the crush of pain he saw on her face. “ I already told you that I don ’ t want to hurt you either. ” Dallas laced his fingers through the streaked blonde tresses that spilled over her shoulders and down her back. “ You don ’ t want this. ”
    “ Shouldn ’ t I have the right to decide what I want? ” she asked in a voice so hoarse with sorrow it made his heart skip a beat. “ With everything you ’ ve done for me and my family, I ’ m willing to let you have your cake and the cherry. Why is that so hard to believe? ”
    Dallas hated