Free Nascent Decay (The Goddess of Decay Book 1) by Charles Hash

wanted a family and I wanted to explore the galaxy…” he put the other half of the bacon down and looked at her. “I regret that. I never replaced you.”
    “Stop it,” she said. She really didn’t like where this conversation was coming from, or where it was heading. They took my baby , she thought. She didn’t want to know what they had done with him.
    “I’m just being honest,” he said with a flat expression on his face.
    “No, you’re not. Just drop it, now,” she said angrily. Ryan frowned.
    “We should talk about it sometime,” he said. “When you’re in a better mood.”
    “No, we shouldn’t. We should never talk about it. Never again,” she said. What the hell was going on ?
    “But I know that’s what you really want, sugar. I know. I know everything,” he said winking. It was creepy. It reminded her of one of her friend’s fathers that was always hitting on her when she was growing up.
    “I can’t do this,” Rhylie said pushing away from the table and standing up. “This is too weird.” She felt dizzy and the room swam a little bit. She needed to lie down for a moment.
    “We can do this,” he said, standing up and moving around the table. “I missed you so much,” he murmured, pulling her to him and burying his face in her hair. He was so tall and strong. So real. She struggled for a moment against his embrace until she felt his strength consume her. He wrapped his arms tighter around her and she leaned into him, letting herself go. He held her, supported her, as her knees gave out. He smelled nice, too.
    “No,” she murmured into his chest. “We can’t.”
    “I’m here for you now, Gota, and nothing else,” he whispered into the softness of her hair. “We can do whatever you wish, go wherever you desire. We can have the life you always wanted.” His words were mesmerizing, seducing her. She shook her head pitifully against his chest.
    “No. This isn’t right. This is wrong, so wrong,” she protested weakly. “We can’t do this.” Ryan’s hand began to move up and down the small of her back, stroking her gently with his fingertips as he rocked her in his arms.
    “We can. You can have anything you want, Gota. Anything at all,” he said in a hypnotic tone. Rhylie closed her eyes and wept softly, tears of happiness and joy this time. His scent was intoxicating; his embrace was a warm, safe cocoon that held her, steady and secure.
    “Children sound wonderful,” she finally murmured into his chest as he stroked her hair and kissed her forehead. “A boy and a girl.”
    She could already picture them in her mind.

8
    Rhylie lay in bed in the upstairs bedroom, underneath the covers, trying to sleep. It came in spurts lately, a broken existence of dry, ineffective naps and fits of wasteful tossing. Eventually she gave up, and threw the covers off of herself. The shades were drawn in the room, and even though it was pitch dark, the light coming from beneath the door and through the gaps around the shades beamed like flashlights.
    She couldn’t even masturbate anymore without Ryan knowing about it somehow, and trying to help her out with a session of his terribly emotionless and robotic lovemaking. She could do without it, as it always left her unsatisfied, but sore. The one time she had told him no, it had gotten weird fast. She had found it was better to just get it over with. She was tired of him, and she hated to admit it, even to herself, but she was tired of the children too. She felt trapped in her perfect life.
    Rhylie hesitated at the bedroom door before opening it. She knew what awaited her downstairs. Nothing ever changed anymore. She had fallen into a rut, a downward spiral that was made all that much easier by Ryan and the children. They didn’t care what she did, or what she made them do. Being happy had never felt so mundane and depressing. She finally opened it and made her way past the children’s rooms, and down the stairs.
    Ryan was in the kitchen