CHAPTER ONE
Dumbstruck and unable to speak, Evie Williams stared into the open doorway of her bedroom, her brain tripping and stumbling as it tried to process the sight before her.
Everything looked and sounded familiar—the sunlight gleaming off the polished footboard of her mahogany sleigh bed, the melodic tick of the ceiling fan as it spun on its highest setting. Even the perfume she’d spritzed herself with before leaving this morning—Jo Malone Peony & Blush Suede—still lingered in the air.
And yet, everything was different. She knew with mind-numbing certainty that her world, as of this moment, would never be the same.
This couldnotbe happening.
The words tumbled around in her head, over and over and over again. This couldnotbe happening. There had to be an explanation.
Evie tilted her head to the side and continued to stare, trying to make sense of the senseless. The dark green satin sheets she’d washed yesterday partially shielded a perfectly tanned ass that pumped up and down in rhythm to guttural grunts. She knew that ass intimately. She’d seen it this morning, when her fiancé had walked from the shower to his closet while she stood at their bathroom mirror getting ready for work.
An impassioned cry rang out as a pair of shapely legs wrapped around Cameron’s waist. Manicured nails clutched his back. They were painted a bright pink that Evie would never have chosen to wear in a million years.
The sight of that garish nail polish gave rise to another bout of confusion. The color was the antithesis of her own style. The man she knew better than any other would never bring a woman who painted her nails such an obnoxious color into their bed, would he? Cam had his faults, but he would never cheat on her, despite what she could clearly see happening with her own eyes.
This could not behappening!
She had to get out of here. Maybe if she left the house, then came back, this alternative universe she now found herself in will have righted itself.
Evie backed out of the doorway. Time slowed to the pace of a garden snail as she turned and made her way up the hallway, past the open-concept living room and kitchen, and out the front door. It felt as if her body were moving through molasses, the movements seeming to belong to someone else. Her hands fumbled with the house key as she locked the front door behind her and headed for her car.
She had experienced this particular sensation only a few times before, but it had been enough to recognize it as herbody’s response to shock. She needed time to process what she had just witnessed before she could deal with it.
Evie opened her car door but then stopped with her fingers on the handle. Her head snapped up.
“What is there to process?” she asked the slanted reflection staring back at her in the driver’s side window.
She knew exactly what was happening. Cameron was in their bed, making love to another woman. The same bed where he’d made love to her last night.
The sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach morphed into a searing rage.
Evie slammed the car door shut and rushed back up the walkway leading to the house. This time her fingers were steady as she slipped the key in the lock and opened the front door. She marched through the foyer, her blood pounding to an angry beat in her veins.
She’d just entered the living room when a buck-naked Cameron sauntered out of the kitchen with a bottle of water, his toned six-pack abs gleaming and semi-flaccid penis bobbing as he walked. He ran a hand through his dark blond hair and brought the bottle to his mouth.
His steps faltered the moment he saw her.
“Ev… Evie!” he said, choking on the water. He glanced toward their bedroom. “Ev, what are… Why aren’t you at… ah… at Ashanti’s? Is everything okay?”
No!she wanted to shout at him.No, Cameron! Everything is not okay!
But the words would not come. Evie could only stand there. She stared in disbelief at the man she’d planned to spend the rest of her life with. Those plans were gone now, shattered by his callous disregard for their relationship.
“Evie,” Cameron demanded in an irritated voice. “What are you doing here?”
“This is my house,” Evie finally answered, both surprised and pleased at the calmness she managed to maintain. “Am I not allowed to visit my own house in the middle of the day?” She crossed her arms over her chest. “A better question is, what areyoudoing in my house in the middle of the day, Cameron?”
Instead of answering, he said, “You’re supposed to be at work.”
“So are you,” she pointed out. “But you’re standing in the middle of my kitchen without any clothes on. Why is that?”
“Stop calling it yours,” Cameron snapped. “I pay half the bills here.”
For the briefest second, Evie’s eyes flashed to the knife block sitting on the kitchen counter next to the Keurig. But the satisfaction she would get from chopping Cameron’s dick off wasn’t worth the jail time.
He could keep his dick. She didn’t want it anymore.
