His gaze left the road once more. If he did this one more time, she’d get out and walk. Shiny gray hair made its own part as it fell across his face. Immediately, she wished she could take back her last retort. Instead, she took a defiant drag.
“I hope that’s just the Rochelle McArthur bitch role and not the real you,” Jesse said. “You couldn’t be stupid enough to believe that you’re the one supporting our lifestyle.”
“I’m not stupid, Jesse, and, yes. I’m supporting a good deal of our lifestyle. If I get the Killer Body deal, we’ll be set. Even if I don’t, I know Bobbo will give me the Ass Blaster. He said it again today. He just wants—no, he demands an untainted public image. Those are his words exactly.”
“Meaning you can’t have your husband trying to buy out the competition.”
“Exactly. That’s what I told you in the first place.”
“It was our idea, babe, and it could have worked.”
“Might have worked.” Her mouth tasted like an ashtray. She flipped the remains of the cigarette out into the air, watching it shoot past the car in tiny sparks. “Didn’t work.”
“Why?”
“Because those two teamed up. Can you believe that? Princess Gabby and Tania Marie, the honey bee? Who would have thought they’d compare notes?”
“I’m so seldom wrong, and I missed that one all the way.”
“Your turnoff,” she said as she covered her eyes. “Damn it, Jesse.”
She felt the careening motion, that threat of their tiny little world spinning out of control. She didn’t want to see.
“We’re fine.” He patted her leg. Squeezed, not a sexy squeeze, a doctor squeeze, like the little silver hammer on the knee. “You’re turning into a regular bone fuck, you know that?”
“Now, there’s a lovely term.” She forced herself to sit up, relax into the seat, no broomstick posture like a certain princess. “Would you rather I look like Tania Marie? Or Gabriella Paquette, perhaps?”
A smile crossed his lips, then disappeared faster than you could sayPrincess Gabby.“I like you just as you are,” he said.
How many years had he said it? Why could she still not believe it? Because he only said it; he didn’t demonstrate it, and every time he mentioned Gabby’s name, he all but salivated.
This was the worst part of going home—not the back-to-back traffic, not the lost hours—but all of the doubts that manifest themselves when two people who should love and care for each other find themselves together, in a car, on a freeway that may never end.
This is the place you remain silent or you attack. She decided to remain silent. She had plenty to think about, anyway, especially if cute little Rikki decided to forget that what they discussed was off the record. Then she’d have big-timeproblems. And if Gabby were remotely interested in Jesse, she might have even bigger ones.
“Is Bobby on our side?” he asked.
“I think so, although no one really knows for sure with him.”
“You should.”
“Why? Because of something that happened years ago? I was a kid, and he was gorgeous. What did I know? I cared about him for a long, long time.”
“I know.”
“Then, what’s your point?”
No answer. She hated it when he did that, as if someone had just pulled the cord out of the stereo.
“He’s not what you think,” she said finally. “Under all of that body-builder stuff, he’s a good guy.”
“He’s a drunken tyrant.”
“Sometimes. He’s the last person I’d choose for a boss, but I’m not in a choosing position. I just hope this mess with Tania Marie and your friend the princess doesn’t hurt my chances.”
“So do I.”
“It was an idiotic idea, anyway, thinking you could buy them off.”
