Read Online A Marriage Between Friends by Melinda Curtis - Free Book Online Page A

someone else?”
    “No,” she said much too quickly.
    “Because you have carte blanche. I know I certainly have.”
    It was the wrong thing to say. Jill crossed her arms over her chest and raised her eyebrows.
    “You thought I’d been a monk all these years?” Vince could tell by the way Jill worried her lip with her teeth that she hoped he had. It went against everything he’d once felt to hurt her but, “I refuse to feel guilty. You left me. ”
    Jill studied him, judged him. Vince’s hands fisted at his sides.
    Then Jill sighed. “Why?”
    “Why what?”
    “I don’t know,” she said. “Why did you marry me? Why didn’t you divorce me?”
    He ground his teeth. She didn’t understand. “Jill—”
    She waved a hand in his direction. “Clearly, you don’t want to be married.”
    “I wear my ring, don’t I?” Vince didn’t know where his anger was coming from. He was nearly shouting.
    “Why keep it on? So you can pick up girls who aren’t looking for anything more than a one-nighter?”
    The admission broke free. “Yes. You know better than anyone that I’m not cut out for this love business. My parents sure as hell didn’t love me. My dad thought a good backhand to the head was an appropriate father-son greeting. And my grandfather…well, whatever he once felt for me is long gone. I know who I am, Jill. I know what I have to offer.”
    “Sex.” The word sounded foreign coming off Jill’s lips.
    “Guilty as charged.” Vince waited for Jill to close in for the kill. He was scum. He deserved it, probably more so because he wanted to kiss her. “Damn it, Jill. If we’re ending this thing, we’ll do it the same way we started.” With a kiss. Only this time it wouldn’t be G-rated.
    Capturing Jill’s gaze, Vince moved another few feet up the path. The Jill he’d married would have made an excuse and scurried away.
    News flash: Jill wasn’t backing off.
    They were going to kiss. Vince could see from the widening of Jill’s blue eyes that she knew it, too.

CHAPTER SIX
    J ILL’S HEART POUNDED , urging her to flee, to hide the warmth creeping up her neck.
    Stupid, stupid fantasies.
    But the rest of her railed, insisting she demand Vince leave. He must think her a real piece of work. What kind of woman left her husband on their wedding night and didn’t annul the marriage right away and then waited—after he’d admitted his marriage vows meant nothing to him—for him to kiss her goodbye?
    Vince stared at her without speaking as he advanced. And yet, Jill swore she could hear his thoughts. He wanted to know everything—from Jill’s reason for marrying him to her excuse for staying away after she discovered she adored Teddy to why she never divorced him. He’d listen, because that’s what he’d always done for her. He’d listen to Jill whether he stood in the chilly September sunshine in dress slacks and a white sodden T-shirt or they sat on the hearth in the dining room with a fire blazing behind them or lay in bed—
    No. That was her fantasy Vince. This Vince was hungry and after instant gratification. He stalked toward her, his long strides reminiscent of the proud boy who’d survived on the fringe of high-school society. But where he’d been lanky as a teenager, he was solid now with a broad chest and muscular arms that could crush a woman to him whether she wanted that intimacy or not.
    Jill was unable to pull her gaze away from Vince’s lips. It was a crime for a man to have such a perfect mouth. There’d been no one since Vince’s kiss sealed their vows. Her wedding ring ensured that.
    When Jill didn’t argue, Vince paused and cocked an eyebrow, sending another unwanted, heated signal her body couldn’t ignore.
    Get a grip. If not for yourself, then for Teddy.
    That jolted Jill’s brain back into defense mode. “This is not how I pictured us meeting after all these years.”
    Vince frowned. “You’ve been hiding up here waiting for me to serve you divorce papers?”