Pressing my inner elbows together to make my breasts appear more pronounced, I let the timer run, taking a couple of shots from all my most flattering angles before sending off the best ones. And unlike the last time, my nerves don’t get the better of me.
Springing down from the table, feeling light as can be, I pull the brush from my hair and return to my canvas.
A new wave of inspiration is coming over me, and once I’m finished, I have a feeling it's going to be my best work yet.
Theodore Ellis
CHAPTER XVIII
The dinner party happening around me is thriving with life.People surround me on all sides. Usually, that wouldn’t bother me. I’m a people person. I love talking and catching up with family and friends. But this isn’t my crowd. It’s my wife’s boss’s birthday, otherwise known as my father-in-law, and his staff, along with their spouses, wereadvisedto come.
In other words, I was forced to be here.
I stand by my wife's side, playing the part of the doting husband while she blatantly flirts with her coworker, Joshua Kellar, across the island.
If I saw her do this a week ago, I’d have been pissed, livid… downright murderous. But silent. Not only because I would be cautious about saying anything, but because that’s what my wife demanded from me. She wanted the clean-cut, proper man she met in college, the one who put her on a pedestal and showered her with gifts from my trust fund. She wanted a man that wouldn’t embarrass her family name.
She demanded my utmost attention and faithfulness while she screwed her fifty-something fuck-toy behind my back.
As fucking embarrassing as it is to admit, I would’ve given her that. I have given her that for who fucking knows how long. But something changed in me last night, or should I say,someone, changed me.
I was no longer the same man I was days ago. I didn’t want to be him anymore. He was spineless, willing to bend over backward for a woman he called his so long ago while she continued to stomp on the heart she tore from my chest.
It’s clear Beth isn’t mine now, and she hasn’t wanted to be with me for the past few years. Yet, here I stand, off to the side at my in-law’s party, drinking a watered-down Bourbon Old Fashioned still quiet, concealed… hiding the most primal parts of myself because that’s what Beth commanded.
But not for long.
My phone buzzes lightly in my pocket, pulling my attention away from my wife's wandering hands. I hide my smile with a sip of my drink, although I’m not sure why; no one is looking my way.
Scarlett.
Thoughtful.
Wild.
Completely unbound by her sexuality. The type to free a man from his chains.
I can feel mine cracking. After only eight days, she’s splintered my entire existence.
I need more.
I need her.
Right now.
“Where are you going?” Beth asks, barely hiding the sizzling fury in her scowling face as I walk away from the table.
I down my drink before answering, making sure to look her dead in the eyes, just as she does me when she sneaks off to see her lover, Joshua.
She doesn’t bother to hide that she’s fucking him, loving to come home from his place late at night, smelling like cheap cologne, snuggling up beside me. And God-forbid I mention or complain about it…
“I need some air. It’s a bit stuffy in here.” I set my glass firmly on the cracked granite top, then lean in close, sweeping her hair back to kiss the sensitive spot under her ear. “Plus, being around you while you flirt with your boyfriend is making me fucking ill.” It’s a risk saying something so harsh to her, but Scarlett’s given me the strength to stand up for myself. Even if it doesn’t last, I can’t believe I did it.
She draws back at my tone, eyes sharpening to blades before looking away for the slightest second. Quietly, she growls, “Glad to see you still have some balls. I almost forgot you were a man, sweetheart, since you act like a pussy every other day.” She smiles. “Maybe you should just go home. I would hate for you to be sick.”
“And how will you get home?” I question, since we drove here together.
Dropping her head to the side, she rolls her eyes back, glancing toward Joshua, who’s poorly hiding his smirk behind a dripping bottle of beer. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll get a ride home.”
