a threat to you.”
“You have the nerve to talk to me about love right now?” she asked, her throat trying to close.
Them.
So it was more than just Marilyn. She wondered if Marilyn knew she was just the tramp in the Tuesday slot on his calendar. “You’re disgusting.”
His lips curved back into that patronizing smirk he was so good at. “And you’re boring in bed and my intellectual inferior, but I’ve learned to live with it. At least you’re nice to look at now that you’ve gotten your gym routine back on course.”
The hateful words knocked the breath right out of her. Doug had said mean things to her before in the heat of the moment. They’d been together since high school, so of course they’d had their fights. He could be critical beyond reason, always watching that she didn’t eat too many calories or go outdoors without makeup or say the wrong thing in public. She’d tolerated it because she knew how concerned about image he was in his business. And she’d comforted herself with those moments when he was sweet and indulgent with her behind closed doors. He had the capacity to make her feel like a princess. And even though those times had grown few and far between over the last five years, she’d had no idea his opinion of her had sunk so low.
Boring in bed. Inferior. Stupid.
God, is that what he told the women he cheated on her with?
My wife isn’t too bright, and she’s clueless in the sack.
She grabbed her purse, her stomach threatening to toss up all its contents. She couldn’t stand here for another second and look at his smarmy face, smell the scent of sex in the air. “Go to hell, Doug. I hope you’re happy with your college-educated whores. Now you won’t have to worry about me getting in the way.”
He scoffed. “Come on, Tessa. Stop being melodramatic. You’re not going to
divorce
me. Your life and everything in it exist because of me. Leave and it all goes away. You’re going to give up all this just because I like a novel fuck every now and then? Please.” He grabbed his wallet and flipped a piece a plastic her way. “Take the credit card. Go punish me by buying something useless and extravagant—you’re good at that—and we’ll move on.”
The credit card landed at her feet, and she had the urge to spear its platinum face with the heel of her Jimmy Choo pump. He was right. If she left him, every bit of her lifestyle would disappear in a poof. From the clothes on her back to the oranges she’d just hurled at him—all of it was funded by him. There’d be no way to prove his affair in court, not with the legal demons he could afford to hire. And she’d signed a prenup. She’d be left with a pittance of alimony. All the comfort and security she’d worked toward her whole life would be gone. She’d be back where she started all those years ago—a nobody with nothing.
Alone. With no money of her own and only a high school education to her name.
She bent and picked up the card from the floor, turning it in her fingers before dropping it in her purse.
Doug smiled, satisfied. Victorious.
Without another word, she turned on her heels and calmly walked back out to her Mercedes. When she made it into town, she bought the two most extravagant things she could think of.
The services of an attorney.
And a plane ticket home.
It’d be the last of Doug Barrett’s money she’d ever spend.
Chapter 1
“Hold up. Why are you buying condoms? You said this was an emergency stop.” Tessa snatched the box of Trojans from Sam’s fingertips and held them up like Exhibit A.
Sam sent her an innocent look, one that Tessa had seen her use rather effectively on both sets of foster parents she’d shared with Sam. “What? I’m out. And we may need them.”
“You may need condoms,” Tessa repeated. “For a
cooking
class.”
Sam grabbed another box from the rack. “
We
may need them. I’ll get some for you, too. You never know who we might meet.”
Tessa groaned and
“You have the nerve to talk to me about love right now?” she asked, her throat trying to close.
Them.
So it was more than just Marilyn. She wondered if Marilyn knew she was just the tramp in the Tuesday slot on his calendar. “You’re disgusting.”
His lips curved back into that patronizing smirk he was so good at. “And you’re boring in bed and my intellectual inferior, but I’ve learned to live with it. At least you’re nice to look at now that you’ve gotten your gym routine back on course.”
The hateful words knocked the breath right out of her. Doug had said mean things to her before in the heat of the moment. They’d been together since high school, so of course they’d had their fights. He could be critical beyond reason, always watching that she didn’t eat too many calories or go outdoors without makeup or say the wrong thing in public. She’d tolerated it because she knew how concerned about image he was in his business. And she’d comforted herself with those moments when he was sweet and indulgent with her behind closed doors. He had the capacity to make her feel like a princess. And even though those times had grown few and far between over the last five years, she’d had no idea his opinion of her had sunk so low.
Boring in bed. Inferior. Stupid.
God, is that what he told the women he cheated on her with?
My wife isn’t too bright, and she’s clueless in the sack.
She grabbed her purse, her stomach threatening to toss up all its contents. She couldn’t stand here for another second and look at his smarmy face, smell the scent of sex in the air. “Go to hell, Doug. I hope you’re happy with your college-educated whores. Now you won’t have to worry about me getting in the way.”
He scoffed. “Come on, Tessa. Stop being melodramatic. You’re not going to
divorce
me. Your life and everything in it exist because of me. Leave and it all goes away. You’re going to give up all this just because I like a novel fuck every now and then? Please.” He grabbed his wallet and flipped a piece a plastic her way. “Take the credit card. Go punish me by buying something useless and extravagant—you’re good at that—and we’ll move on.”
The credit card landed at her feet, and she had the urge to spear its platinum face with the heel of her Jimmy Choo pump. He was right. If she left him, every bit of her lifestyle would disappear in a poof. From the clothes on her back to the oranges she’d just hurled at him—all of it was funded by him. There’d be no way to prove his affair in court, not with the legal demons he could afford to hire. And she’d signed a prenup. She’d be left with a pittance of alimony. All the comfort and security she’d worked toward her whole life would be gone. She’d be back where she started all those years ago—a nobody with nothing.
Alone. With no money of her own and only a high school education to her name.
She bent and picked up the card from the floor, turning it in her fingers before dropping it in her purse.
Doug smiled, satisfied. Victorious.
Without another word, she turned on her heels and calmly walked back out to her Mercedes. When she made it into town, she bought the two most extravagant things she could think of.
The services of an attorney.
And a plane ticket home.
It’d be the last of Doug Barrett’s money she’d ever spend.
Chapter 1
“Hold up. Why are you buying condoms? You said this was an emergency stop.” Tessa snatched the box of Trojans from Sam’s fingertips and held them up like Exhibit A.
Sam sent her an innocent look, one that Tessa had seen her use rather effectively on both sets of foster parents she’d shared with Sam. “What? I’m out. And we may need them.”
“You may need condoms,” Tessa repeated. “For a
cooking
class.”
Sam grabbed another box from the rack. “
We
may need them. I’ll get some for you, too. You never know who we might meet.”
Tessa groaned and
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