Read Die Before I Wake for Free Online

little time.”
    “That’s not everything, Tom. There’s more.” I told him what Taylor had said to me, the terrible things his mother had taught her, and he winced as if in pain.
    “Christ, Mom,” he muttered, rubbing his face with his hands. “What the hell are you thinking?” I hated to see him this way. Hated even worse knowing I was the one who’d put that look on his face. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t want to tell you, but I thought you should know.”
    “I swear to God, Jules, I had no idea I was bringing you into this kind of nightmare. I wouldn’t blame you if you walked away. It would kill me, but I wouldn’t blame you.”
    “I’m not going anywhere. I take my marriage vows seriously. For better or for worse, remember?
    I’ll do whatever it takes to win her over. If that doesn’t work, then I’ll just have to learn to live with her. Somehow.” The picture that painted in my mind was bleak enough that I had to shove it aside.
    “I’m not sure it could get much worse. This isn’t fair to you. It’s unacceptable. If Mom keeps this up, she’ll have to live somewhere else.” Aghast, I said, “You can’t throw her out, Tom.
    She’s your mother.”
    “And you’re my wife! There’s another vow you should remember: forsaking all others. Yes, she’s my mother. But you’re my family now. You and the girls. If she’s determined to come between us—” he scowled “—or between you and my daughters, I won’t allow it.”
    I wasn’t sure if I felt better or worse. It was a comfort to know that Tom was solidly in my corner. On the other hand, I didn’t want to be responsible for the dissolution of his family. Wishing I could avoid asking, but knowing I couldn’t, I said, “Tom? What did your mother mean when she told Taylor I wouldn’t last any longer than any of the others?” My husband rolled his eyes. “All those others,” he said. “All the screaming, swooning hordes of women I’ve dated since Elizabeth died.” This was one thing we hadn’t talked about, not in detail. His sexual history. Mine. We’d been too busy falling for each other to get around to the topic of our collective romantic past. At first, we hadn’t thought much about it. Once we were married, it didn’t seem to matter.
    But now, suddenly, it did. “Have there been screaming, swooning hordes?” I asked.
    “Come on, Jules. Do I look like Jon Bon Jovi to you?”
    In my book, he looked far better than Jon. Which was saying a lot. But he was deliberately missing the point. “I’m serious, Tom. How many were there?” He crossed the room to me and took my hand.
    “Elizabeth’s been dead for two years.” He tucked a strand of wet hair behind my ear. “I haven’t lived like a monk. I’ve dated a few women. None of them stuck around. None of them stuck around because I wasn’t serious about any of them. I swear, Jules, you’re the only one who ever screamed or swooned.” Coyly, I said, “I don’t seem to recall any swooning.”
    He leaned over me and buried his nose in my hair. “You smell so good. What’s that scent you’re wearing?”
    “Strawberry. It’s my shampoo.”
    “Don’t ever stop using it.” His chin brushed my temple, his five o’clock shadow grazing my skin. His breath warm on my ear, he crooned softly: “Julie, Julie, Julie, do you love me?”
    “Stop,” I said weakly. It was a private joke between us, that hokey old Bobby Sherman song. “Please stop.”
    “You know you love it. So tell me, Jules, is the honeymoon over yet?”
    I toyed with a strand of his hair and said, “Not quite yet.”
    “Then why are we wasting time? Hand over your weapon.”
    I gaped at him stupidly until he pried the hairbrush I’d been brandishing from my fingers. “You could do a lot of harm with that thing,” he said, “depending on where you’re aiming it.”
    “Ouch.”
    “Exactly. So what do you say, Mrs. Larkin? Time to end the foreplay and cut right to the main event?”