“You’re being unfair.”
I bark out a laugh. “There it is again. Unfair. That’s rich, coming from you.”
“When was I supposed to tell you? When you were shoving money into my G-string? When you were telling me to get down on my knees in exchange for three thousand dollars? When you were manhandling me at OWM?” She flings an arm out. “Or how about when you told me you wanted to marry me for a year so you could ‘fuck me’ and put your hand between my legs?”
That’s it. I’m not going to stay in the stall and listen to her try to justify what she’s done. I cut the water and come out, grabbing a towel. “How about the time I asked you to tell me your secrets? How about the time I told you my ugly past with Annabelle Underhill? I’ve been many things with you, but never a hypocrite.”
“As far as I’m concerned, Mr. Grayson is my problem. I owe him money, and I figured once I pay him off he won’t have any leverage over me. Why do you think I wanted to get a job?”
“And you could’ve told me then, too. When I told you it was pointless to get a job since I would be providing for you. You also could’ve told me what was going on, and I would’ve paid Grayson off on your behalf.” And seen if I could squeeze any information out of the man, given his connection to Keith Shellington, the Embezzling Asshole.
“I was embarrassed, okay? It was stupid to take his money. But…I was desperate.” She bites her lower lip. “You know how things were when we first met. We just started to have a decent relationship, and I didn’t want to ruin it by asking you to pay off my debt or talking about all the ways I screwed things up after I left Lincoln City.”
I toss the damp towel on the floor and glare at her. “So it’s my fault that you couldn’t come clean.”
“You’re twisting what I’m telling you.” Unshed tears spike her eyelashes, and she looks at me as though I’m the monster.
The same way Annabelle Underhill did when I called her out on her fucking scheme to marry my father. We were in a small closet where various dresses and outfits were stashed for their ceremony and reception. It was one of the few places we could have some privacy.
You’re twisting what I’m telling you, she said. If you hadn’t kept your plans secret…
“If we hadn’t such a rocky beginning…” my wife is saying.
I close the distance between us in three big steps and grip her wrist. I can feel her pulse spike against my thumb. “Then what, wife? You would’ve told me everything?”
She tilts her head to look up at me. The motion pushes her tits forward, and I wonder—quite cynically—if it’s a calculated move. Annabelle did the same then…and then let her mouth quiver…just like my wife is doing right now. The two women start to blur. And I finally realize
why I’m more furious now than before. I assumed Belle would be on my side, that she would never betray my trust because she’d thrown some crumbs about her past my way. But of course that was an error. A very stupid one.
Belle’s breathing shallows. With fear or something else…I don’t know and I don’t give a damn. The edges of my vision dim and redden.
“Elliot…”
“I should’ve stuck to our agreement,” I spit out between clenched teeth. “Trying to change that, as though we could ever have anything meaningful for a year, was my mistake.”
Infuriatingly enough, my mind tells me I should stop now, before I hurt her too much, but I can’t. I want to devastate her the way she’s devastated me. I want to be contemptuous, make her feel as much self-disgust as I do.
And I can’t stand myself for wanting her. My cock’s so hard I could use it to split timber. I twist my hand into her hair and pull until she’s arching into my body. Her pointed nipples stab into my bare chest, and I growl deep in my throat. My dick presses against her belly, and she gasps.
Before she can regain her equilibrium, I crush my lips against hers in a punishing kiss. There’s no gentleness or finesse as I plunder her mouth with every violent emotion that whips through me. She needs to know what she’s done, and I don’t even know why that matters so much. The likeliest scenario is that she doesn’t care, because all this had been coldly calculated, and everything between us is just one huge farce. I exert more pressure, my teeth almost cutting the tender flesh of her lips. I brace myself for her reaction—a recoil of shock and distaste, an attempt to slap me away, a struggle…
But none of that comes.
Instead she’s kissing me back with wild abandon, like a woman on a mission to prove she wants me. Her tongue tangles with mine with an aggression that stuns me…then stokes my need.
She tunnels her fingers into my hair to keep me close. Blood roars in my head as I push her robe and nightgown away with unsteady hands, revealing smooth, sun-kissed skin. Her warm, delicious scent is a narcotic; as I crush her hair, I can smell faint apple from the silken strands.
Need pulses in my veins, throbs through me. My dick aches so hard it feels like it’s about to break.
Desperate to maintain some semblance of control, I cup her breast, kneading it, toying with it. My thumb brushes over her beaded nipple more lightly than a feather, but she shudders violently.
“More,” she moans, breaking away from our kiss long enough for that one word. And I give it to her, circling the tip with my thumb, my touch light and teasing. Her fingers in my hair tighten until my scalp feels the sting. I pick her up and prop her on the vanity; her thighs part wide to let me stand between them. She rocks shamelessly, her cunt wet.
She can’t fake this. She can’t will her body to be this ready for me. She either wants my dick in her pussy or she doesn’t. And I’m inexplicably grateful for that bit of honesty from her, then ticked off with myself for feeling anything positive.
She is wanton, her eyes barely slits as she looks at me, her body liquid and undulating with desire. Her nipples are so tight I know they have to hurt every time she draws a breath. She digs her small, even teeth into her swollen lower lip. I’m so attuned to her, I know what she wants, but I don’t want to give it to her. Not like this.
“Beg for it,” I say. “Tell me exactly what you want; don’t leave anything out.”