Chapter 118 - Taryk

"Just over here," Scarlet said in one of the softest voices I'd ever heard in my life. She wasn't being shy or coy. Her voice was just that quiet.

I'd had to strain to hear anything she said at the dinner table. I could tell it bothered her, too. Her face would go varying shades of pink or red when someone asked her to repeat herself. A blush would slide over those pink cheeks, a pinch at the corners of those green eyes, and those rosy red lips would pull down at the corners with a grimace.

"Sure thing, sweetness." I wanted to punch myself. I'd never had a hard time treating women with the respect they deserved. Or showing that respect. But these two women in my life now, everything in me just wanted to tell and show - hell, I wanted them to feel - how loved they were.

After my mother died early from hard work and exhaustion, I never underestimated the power of a woman. Nor had I ever bothered to coddle them. Women were strong in ways men just weren't. I feared Kiema's wrath a