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ANYONE BUT YOU!
BY CLARICE JAYNE
My life was over!
Walking into our bedroom and finding my fiancé in bed with his secretary saw to that.
So I grabbed what I could and headed out into the worse snowstorm of the century to go home to my parents. When my car broke down in the middle of the woods on a country road, I did the only thing I could: got out to find help.
In the distance was salvation. Or so I thought, until the owner came into view.
Hunter Barrett, my brother’s best friend. The man who returned from combat when my brother didn’t.
Why him? Anyone but him!
Please Note
Anyone But You!
Has been written by an English author in UK English. You may therefore assume there are some spelling errors within it, however, it is just the way we spell things in good old Blighty.
CHAPTER 1
Ember
I’d hada long and stressful day at work. I wasn’t meant to be on my way home, but with the impending snowstorm that was due to hit, I decided not to travel to see my parents this evening.
I pulled up outside the house I shared with my fiancé just after six o’clock and noticed that he was already home, which was unusual. He was a senior manager for a manufacturing company, and with the big order they had just received, he usually wouldn’t have been walking through the door until at least nine in the evening.
As I walked inside, I was astounded to find that all the lights were off downstairs. Perhaps Wayne had dropped his car off because he was going to a dinner meeting and would be drinking? He had done that a few times before and then gotten a taxi home.
Deciding that had to be the case, I walked into the kitchen to make myself a mug of hot chocolate. With the cold weather that was coming in, I just wanted to snuggle in front of the fire and veg out for the evening.
I filled the kettle and turned it on, then headed upstairs to the bedroom to have a shower and get changed into something more comfortable. As I walked towards the bedroom, I could hear a noise coming from inside and stopped dead in my tracks.
It was a woman, and she was moaning Wayne’s name. I burst into the bedroom just as the woman was screaming out with her orgasm while Wayne was pounding into the woman, obviously trying to reach his own release.
I stood there for a moment in shock, unable to comprehend what I was seeing. Pain and anger started to build inside of me, and I couldn’t hold back the tears as I screamed out to him.
“What the fuck is going on here, Wayne?!”
He instantly stopped, rolled off, and looked at me. As I looked at the woman lying there, I instantly recognised her: his secretary, Stacey.
Wayne instantly got out of bed, grabbed a robe, and put it around himself while he started to walk towards me. “It’s not what you think, Ember, sweetheart.”
“How the fuck can you say it isn’t what I think? You are in our bed. With another woman. And you were fucking her! How the fuck is that not what I think?”
He stood there for a moment looking at me; I could see his brain ticking over trying to come up with some excuse. But how could he? I had caught him red-handed, and there was no explanation for it apart from the truth.
“Howcouldyou, Wayne? In our own fucking bed, and today of all days!”
“Well, you haven’t exactly been putting out lately, so I had to get it from somewhere.”
I let out a bark. “Maybe if you came home once in a fucking while, then we could have done something. But you’ve been out fucking your secretary for the past six months, I suspect, seeing as I have hardly seen you in all that time. I’m fucking done withyou! You can forget our wedding and all the money I have as well. Let’s see how this bitch does and if she can keep you in the life you’re accustomed to, because I bet she can’t.”
I could see both his anger and panic starting to grow with every second. He may have been a senior manager in the firm, but I was the main breadwinner in the house. I was a partner in the firm of solicitors that I worked for, bringing in six figures every year. Right now, I was just grateful that I had insisted on separate bank accounts, along with a joint one that we used to pay bills. It meant that most of my money was safe.
