Total pages in book: 190
Estimated words: 181992 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 181992 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
His shoulders stiffening, he did a slow blink. “Say that again.”
“She showed me an old photo that she has saved in her phone—apparently her friend took it from afar and then sent it to Mimi to show her you’d moved on. It was a picture of you and Angel looking quite cozy together while standing outside the strip club you used to own. Mimi tried making me believe it was a recent photo. She was unsuccessful at that, which pissed her off somewhat.”
He stared at me, his jaw tightening, his expression chilling. “She insinuated that I could be cheating on you?” he asked, a rough quality to every word, as if he was fighting back a growl.
Nibbling on my lower lip, I nodded. “Yup.”
A cold rage swam into his eyes, icing them over. His neck corded, he smashed his lips together and dragged in a breath through his nose.
“I don’t know if she went to my office with the intention of playing that game. She claimed it was a spur of the moment idea that she ran with because I remained aloof in the face of her attempts to goad me.”
“Whether or not she planned it is irrelevant,” he gritted out, every word sharp as a blade.
“I agree, I’m just saying I’m unsure if she intended all along to tell such a tale. Whatever the case, she was set on making me feel how she feels—hurt, angry, jealous. But she couldn’t claim you cared for her to wrench such reactions out of me, so she chose one of your past bed-buddies instead.”
“You shouldn’t have given her the time of day.”
I jutted out my chin. “It was my opportunity to get the message across that I’m here for good and she needs to deal with it.” Not that she’d believed me. “I just want her to leave you alone. I don’t like that she does things that hurt you. I don’t like that she won’t accept what you want and don’t want. It’s no different from you wanting to communicate to Grayden that he needs to back off.”
Dax’s mouth set into a hard slash, his eyes flaring. He hadn’t yet told me what got said between him and my ex. All he’d said was that it had been “sorted.”
Shaking his head in incredulity, Dax turned his body slightly and pinned his gaze on a spot on the wall.
I pushed to my feet. “Her behavior can’t be that much of a surprise to you. You had to know before we got married that Mimi might make a nuisance of herself.”
“I didn’t suspect she’d go this far,” he replied without meeting my gaze. “Act out in petty ways? Yes. That’s always been her style. But try to cause serious problems in my marriage? No. That’s a whole other level of vindictive.”
“If it makes you feel any better, she didn’t do it to hurt you. That was an attempt to hurt me.”
His brows slamming together, he turned back to me. “That doesn’t make me feel better at all. Far from it. You’re mine. She has no fucking right to go anywhere near you. And it pisses me off that I wasn’t able to shelter you from her bullshit. I didn’t see it coming.”
Everything in me went all gooey at the protective comment.
His gaze sharpening, he tilted his head. “The photo she showed you … You didn’t even suspect it was recent?”
I sank my teeth into my bottom lip. “I’ll admit, there were a few seconds where—completely taken off-guard—I assumed it was. But cheating goes against who you are. I couldn’t believe you’d do that to me. I just couldn’t. So I took a closer look at the picture, and I noticed background details that clearly spelled out it was from years ago.”
An emotion I couldn’t quite name leaked into his eyes, thawing some of the rage there. Those same eyes roamed over my face with blatant possession. “I don’t think anyone has ever trusted me quite as much as you do.”
The question “Not even Gracie?” was on the tip of my tongue, but I held it back. It wouldn’t be a fair thing to ask. “Mimi also said that you watch over Angel. I’m not accusing you of anything,” I hurried to add. “I just know you’re a protective person, so—”
“Only to those under my protection. I haven’t been in contact with Angel since we ended our bed-buddy arrangement.”
The last knot in my belly fell away. “In better news, Mimi’s actually leaving Redwater for a while.”
He let out a low snort. “Of course she is. She doesn’t want to face me after pulling this stunt.”
He whipped out his phone, unlocked the screen with a press of his thumb, tapped said screen a few times, and then put the cell to his ear. The room was quiet enough that I heard the dialing tone, heard it ring and ring and ring, heard a muffled automated voice, heard a distinct beep.