When he came back to town he swore he would take everything from me.
According to my fathers will I inherit nothing. Everything went to him, to the man my father thought should have been his son. To my oldest enemy. Lost and desperate and on the verge of losing my future, I was bound to make a stupid mistake.
One night. It was only one night. One night with my wife in his bed and my old enemy would walk away from me. One night wasn’t too much to ask, was it?
But since that night things have been different. Since that night she has been changed. I’ve got my empire now, but I think I might lose everything else. I think I might lose her.
He’s my old enemy but he’s her old flame and all it took was a single breath of life to bring her back into his arms. She’s sneaking away from me. She’s lying to me. She’s drifting away from me and dammit, I can’t do a thing to stop it.
But do I want to? That’s the real question. Because it hurts when she’s with him but the pain just makes my pleasure so much better. Am I really this man? Do I really have these appetites?
Am I the weak man everyone thinks I am? Am I going to lose it all and love every last minute of it?
Excerpt
I turn to Carrick and he turns to me. He keeps me close to him, his grip loose but his touch firm enough that I can’t run if I wanted to but god I don’t want to run. Yet when he dips into me, ready to kiss me and to drag me back down into the depths of a passion that is undeniably wrong and absolutely a betrayal of my vows now I find it in me to say no, but not for the reasons I should.
I should tell him no because I’m married. I should tell him no because it’s wrong. I should push away and run because I love my husband and because I hate the thought of hurting him.
But instead.
“Someone will see.”
Carrick smiles, his lips hovering an inch from mine. He raises an eyebrow and teases me because of course he is, because as much as he wants me and as much as he wants to fulfill his promise to make me mine again he also is doing this to hurt Jack.
“Is that the only reason?” he asks, “Is that the only reason you don’t me to touch you? To kiss you? To fuck you right here and now? You’re worried about what people will think? You’re worried people might notice and judge you for it?”
“Carrick,” I beg him, “Please.”
He doesn’t kiss me. He spins me around and turns me out towards the gallery and I stare at the empty rooms, the painting all blurs and swirls of color as it registers to me that we are all alone.
“The painting you love belongs to me,” he says, whispering those words in my ear, “All of the paintings in here belong to me. The fucking gallery belongs to me, Molly. I cut a check when I saw you walk in here and I told them to get the fuck out. I locked the doors behind them. It’s just the two of us here. We’re all alone.”
He spun me back. He stared into my eyes, into my soul, and he challenged me to do the right thing.
“Tell me you have an excuse now. Tell me no, just one word, and I’ll walk away and I’ll leave. I’ll leave everything. I’ll leave town. I’ll leave your life. I’ll leave you and J.R. alone and you can live your sad little lives in peace and quiet.
“Go ahead and say it. One word and I’m gone. One word and you do the right thing. You want to do the right thing, don’t you Molly? You want to be a good girl. You want to be a good wife. Or do you?”
No. No to that. No to the last question but none of the rest of it. I didn’t want to say no to him, I wanted him to make me scream yes instead.