“You first,” she said, nodding her chin toward me as she rested her elbows on the edge of the table, pushing those perfect tits together and taunting me with the deepening slope of her cleavage.
She was hot enough back then, but the fuller curves made her that much sexier. And harder to look away from, as I’d had to struggle not to stare all night.
The air between us still had a familiar crackle, and I was finding it harder to ignore it.
Grabbing the back of her neck and tasting those pursed lips was such a visceral temptation, I felt my fingertips tingle with the impulse, even though I knew damn well it was a bad idea.
It had been a bad idea back then too, but we’d been too young and stupid to care.
“Sure, I can go first if it makes it easier,” I said.
“Yes, please,” she said, the corner of her mouth twitching. “I’ll judge if it’s a true horror story or not.”
“It won’t be hard,” I scoffed. “Marie and I were married for about five years. We both worked long hours—or, at least, I did. I found out her idea of overtime was having affairs after she clocked out for the day.”
Sabrina’s brows jumped.
“Affairs?” she asked slowly, emphasizing thes. “How many?”
“More than I probably want to tally up.” I coughed out a laugh. “Three that I know about, a few more I’m suspicious of. And I had no fucking idea. I was that into my job and myself that I didn’t realize what she was doing.”
I left out the part about how it had all hit when my mother had first become sick, but I didn’t like talking about that, even to Sabrina. What Marie had done was a gut punch when I wasalready down on the floor, and maybe that’s why it felt so hard to get back up.
“Shit, Caden,” she said, shaking her head. “I am so sorry. You didn’t deserve that.”
I shrugged. No one deserved that, but it had been going on for so long, I almost couldn’t blame her for doing it. It had been too easy.
“If I hadn’t caught her one very terrible day, it would probably still be happening. It’s hard not to blame myself for being an idiot.”
“You are not an idiot. You trusted the person you married. Which is what you’re supposed to do—although now, I don’t trust anyone.”
“Is that enough of a horror story?” I tried to joke. “I showed you mine, so you have to show me yours, which I bet isn’t as bad.”
“Don’t assume,” she said, laughing to herself. “I was cheated on too. For long enough that when I found out, my husband and his girlfriend had a six-month-old baby together already. Austin worked a lot of hours too and traveled for business.” She leaned back against the bench. “Gone enough to cultivate a whole other life.”
“I’m sorry, Sab.” I reached across the table and grabbed her hand. “You didn’t fucking deserve that.”
A slow smile crossed her lips as she scooted forward on the seat, draping her hand over our joined ones.
“You didn’t fucking deserve that either. You were always one of the good ones. A pain in the ass sometimes, but definitely a good one.”
At almost thirty-nine, I knew a smile from a woman shouldn’t have made my stomach flip or trigger a rush of warmth through my chest. But Sabrina had always been different. So different that I couldn’t confess how I felt to her or anyone else.
After all this time, it was even hard to admit it to myself, because I still couldn’t do anything with it.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were trying to sweet-talk me, Tirado.” I quirked a brow, drifting my thumb back and forth over her wrist.
We locked gazes as if we were under a spell. A spell brought on by mutual raw rejection and memories of the easy satisfaction we used to find in each other.
Satisfaction that I shouldn’t have craved so damn badly.
“Don’t flatter yourself, Williams,” she said with a playful scowl on her lips.
The lips I could still feel drifting down my chest and wrapping around my cock.
A little satisfaction wouldn’t hurt anyone, right? Just two old friends getting reacquainted, regardless if it would mean a whole lot more to one of the friends.
I was considering it hard enough to frighten me a little.
