Free Life Begins by Taki James Page A

Juljiana Zaire Knežević. ”
                  “Not if you don’t marry me. Otherwise I expect her to stay Jones.”
                  “Convince me.”
                  Which way? With him, she never knew what he was fully thinking “What if I don’t want to convince you?” He allowed her to sit up, but she couldn’t break his hold long enough to stop straddling him. She wasn’t sure why his strength surprised her, considering. “What do you want from me?”
                  “I want you to be free.”
                  She couldn’t help the slight smile touching her lips. “That seems the exact opposite of what you’re offering. It sounds to me like you’re making me a mistress.”
                  “How is that?”
                  She rolled her hips against him. “You’re hard against me.”
                  “I can have sex without you being mistress.”
                  “But you can have me as a mistress because you’re providing the income I need.”
                  “You are working for it. Mistress is prostitute for taking.”
                  She snorted with laughter. “That was rude. Some women feel they have no choice but to give a man their body because no matter how progressive the world says it is, the world still belongs to men.”
                  “You made choice to be housewife.”
                  “And I don’t regret it. I enjoy taking care of this family, even though you are a difficult man to deal with.” She found she wasn’t trying to manipulate the situation when she bent down to kiss those constantly sneering lips of his. “You want me to give myself to you, while you decide to take my kids. Where’s my real benefit?”
                  “You get to cling to me during the night while I am naked.” She tried to roll off him, but he didn’t allow that. “What do you want as benefit?”
                  What did she want? He took care of her kids’ needs. He paid off the hospital bill and lawyer fees. He was willing to help pay for changing her daughter’s name. It didn’t take much energy to care for his daughters and he himself wasn’t too demanding. He even seemed to love having her children around and gave them the attention of a father that she’d been dying for them to have.
                  Maybe most of her problem was the fact that she kind of wanted that for herself, to belong to somebody that was going to take care of her like they did her children. She wanted to be a family and have a real family experience, the way that other women were able to achieve. Yes, she didn’t feel the need to work a job, but that didn’t mean that she didn’t have dreams. She wanted to be with someone who was going to support it.
                  She lay her head on Žarko’s chest, listening to his heartbeat. “I want to be a family,” she finally said quietly. “I think that I want to be able to have a husband and have my children call someone dad. You can’t just have my children without taking me. It has to be the whole package.”
                  She felt him take a deep breath and release it. “Then I will take your family. We will speak of the terms of your surrender to me.”
                  He finally allowed her to roll off of him. She laid there, staring at the ceiling as he got up and prepared himself for bed. “This is the height of insanity. You do know that, right?”
                  “We can do what we desire because we are two adults.” There was a short pause before he said, “You do know we are changing Jason’s name, too.”
                  She covered her face with her hands. “Why? His name is fine.”
                  “Is not fair for Juljiana to have Serbian name and not