Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71911 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71911 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
I set my purse on the counter and slipped off my heels so the arches in my feet would have a break.
Bolton exited his study and walked up to me, his eyes turning guarded once he drew near. “How was work?”
Theo appeared in my mind, across from me at the café, a silent comfort like the paintings in the gallery. “It was fine. What was that about?”
“I’m having dinner with a client. I’d like you to come with me.”
“It sounds like your client wants me to come with you.”
His eyes flashed with a quick look of irritation, but he pushed it away. “He’s bringing one of his women, and she’d like company over dinner.”
“Then why don’t you two just go alone?” I didn’t want to make small talk with a woman who would just be replaced by someone new in two weeks.
“Because he likes to show off his woman, and I like to show off my wife.”
I felt the daggers sharpen in my eyes, felt the strain of my fury. “Do you?” I tried to keep the rage out of my tone, but it was so fucking hard.
Bolton stared at me, trying to dissolve my anger with just his stare. “I love you.” His words broke through his frustration and anger, coming out like the music of a songbird, loud with truth and beautiful with sincerity. “So fucking much.”
For just a flicker, my reality changed and the past was rewritten. Nothing had transpired. There were no other women. It was just us, back to our lives, back to our happiness.
“And I want you there. I don’t want this distance between us when I’m home. I don’t want us sleeping on opposite sides of the bed. I fucking hate this. But I’ve given you space because I know you well enough to know what will happen if I try to force it. But my patience has waned.”
How could this man ask to sleep with other women? How could he say these beautiful things to me then stick his dick in someone else? It felt like there were two versions of him, and I didn’t know which one I would get.
“Come with me,” he said gently. “Please.”
We left the villa and drove to the restaurant.
He moved his hand to my thigh.
Guilt shot up my spine because all I could think about was Theo. When he grabbed me like that when he took me to dinner. When his fingers gently moved up my dress but never ventured past an invisible line I didn’t have to draw. For the last six weeks, I’d felt like I was betraying Bolton, but now, I felt like I was betraying Theo.
I crossed my legs in the opposite direction, and that was enough to get his hand to move.
He didn’t seem to think anything of it because he needed both hands when he entered the roundabout crowded with buses and motorbikes as he navigated out of the congestion and headed onto a different road.
We arrived at the restaurant moments later, and after Bolton got me out of the car, he grabbed my hand.
I didn’t fight his touch, but it didn’t feel the same.
Nothing felt the same.
We entered the restaurant and were taken to an empty table because Bolton’s client hadn’t arrived yet. He pulled out the chair for me and immediately ordered a bottle of wine for the two of us.
His arm moved over the back of my chair, his fingers gently grazing my hair. After he surveyed his surroundings, he looked at me, his blue eyes taking in my appearance the way he used to. “You look beautiful.”
I wanted to flick my eyes away, but I couldn’t. They were stuck in place, remembering our wedding day, the moment he dropped to one knee and asked me to be his wife, all the good memories that looked different in hindsight…that had been irrevocably changed.
14
THEO
I was in the back seat of the SUV, parked at the curb as we waited in silence.
Octavio was in the front seat, waiting for the signal we needed to move in. “They’ve taken the guys on the west perimeter. No gunshots.”
“Good.”
Another stretch of silence passed. I looked out the window onto the dark street, seeing cars pass once the light turned green. It was never quiet, not with the sounds of motorbikes and taxis constantly passing.
Octavio spoke again. “We got the east too. We’re clear.”
“He’ll have three guys on the corners.” He wouldn’t have picked that spot unless he had immediate coverage, guys who were packing from the best vantage point.
Octavio spoke into the comms. “Theo says there should be three more at the corners. Check it out.”
I suspected Bolton would only be armed with a knife because a gun was too bulky for dinner, even if his dinner date was criminal enough to hire a hit man. He was exactly that arrogant, assuming he would stay at the top just because he was good enough to get there in the first place.