“Good morning, Sam. I think I created a sex monster. You still want more?”
“I was trying to cuddle. I wouldn’t want to tire out a man your age.” It was always so easy to bait him. He rolled until he was on top of me.
“Does this feel like I’m tired out?” Lucas was definitely sporting morning wood, and when he ground it against me, I let out an involuntary moan.
“Ha, that’s what I thought.” He trailed his tongue across my collarbone, over my breasts, taking a nipple into his mouth and gently biting it. It would be so nice to wake up to that every day.
The phone rang, and it was too early to be anything but bad news. I looked at the caller ID, and it was an area code I didn’t recognize. I reached over to pick it up, a thousand scenarios going through my head to justify a call this early on a Sunday morning.
“Hello?”
“You miserable, fucking whore.”
Marc. My guess was he talked to Carmine. I was a bit disappointed; the deli incident was a couple of weeks ago, so Carmine missed a step. I had expected this call the following morning.
“Wow, I haven’t spoken to you in months, and the first thing you say is ‘you miserable fucking whore?’”
“What?Who is that?” Lucas sat straight up and grabbed for the phone, but I waved him off. This was my fight, and he didn’t need to be involved. I mouthedMarc,and his jaw clenched.
“Hang up!” Lucas told me through gritted teeth.
“Well, what do you call it when your wife is making out with a guy in a deli in the middle of the afternoon? And of all people, you’re fucking Lucas Hunter? You always had a thing for pretty boy, so I shouldn’t be surprised.” Carmine may be late, but at least he was accurate.
“We’re getting divorced. You were served with separation papers months ago that you never signed. I changed the locks and took all your clothes to your parents’ house. This isn’t your home anymore, and I’mnotyour wife—so who I spend my time with is none of your business.”
“Oh Jesus, another tantrum when you get your panties twisted. Look, for now, I’ll accept you were lonely and always wanted to screw this guy. Stop it, and we’ll talk when I get home.”
I think I saw red or looked like one of those cartoon characters where smoke billows out of their ears. Going to a lawyer and drawing up separation papers was me having a tantrum? Even now, he didn’t take me seriously.
“Marc, there is nothing to talk about; I’m in love with someone else. There is nothing to come back to. You don’t call to speak to your daughter, and you obviously can’t stand me. Why the hell would you come back? You never wanted to be here and aren’twantedhere! This isn’t your home anymore.”
Marc let out a long sigh. I could picture him rolling his eyes like he usually did.
“I won’t have you all over this guy in public, embarrassing me. You know the shit I had to deal with from the guys after Carmine told Rick what happened. How fucking dare you act like this while I’m away! Stop acting like a whore, and remember you’re still my wife. I don’t want him at my house, either.”
“How dare I act like this? We aren’t married and really haven’t been for a long time. Sign the fucking papers, and you won’t have to deal with me anymore.”
The maniacal laugh I heard on the other end of the line made my stomach turn.And here was the shit storm I was expecting.
“Fuck you, Samantha. I’m not signing shit. For what? So you can play house with pretty boy?”
I ran my hands through my hair, wanting to yank it out. Marc didn’t love me, but now that people knew I’d moved on, he was embarrassed and wanted to spite me. I chuckled at the fucked-up-ness that was my life.
“You don’t live here, and I’ve been paying the mortgage on my own for a very long time. What the hell makes you think you can have any say in what I do or who I’m with inmyown fucking house? You have no right to call me a whore!”
“Give me the goddamn phone!” Lucas yelled as he yanked the phone out of my hands.
“Listen to me, you fucking asshole. If youevercall her a whore again, I will beat the shit out of you like I should’ve done when you were a punk back in college.” He hung up and threw the phone across the bed.
“There has to be something I can do—go around him somehow. I’ll call Robyn and figure out something. He’s not bullying his way back home or into my life because he’s fucking embarrassed.” I tried to get a hold on my anger. Marc wouldnotget the best of me.
“You can always move, you know.” I could tell Lucas hated being in this house, knowing I lived here with Marc, but I wasn’t going to be intimidated out of my own home.
“This house is mine. There has to be a way to get his name off of it. I know Robyn; I’ll tell her to figure something out and she will. I can’t let him get to me.”
“I meant what I said. I will knock his teeth down his throat if he ever calls you a whore or talks to you like that around me again.” I loved when alpha Lucas came out—the hot, possessive, and maybe a little unreasonable way he would protect me made me fall for him over and over again.
We would get through this. We loved each other, and I wasn’t going to let Marc’s attempt to punish me ruin any of that.
