“Why?” Tasha was genuinely curios as to why he wouldn’t have had a woman spend the night with him at his house.
“Because I don’t want every girl I just fuck to know where I live and I certainly don’t want them to meet my kids.”
“You took me there and I was the girl you were just fucking.”
“You were never the girl I was just fucking. You are more than that and you were more than that from the first night in New York. You will be the wife I am fucking though. And your ass is going to be sore enough without you keep saying fuck.” He arched a brow that somehow contradicted his serious tone.
“Can I ask you about Lizzie?” she asked changing subject slightly.
He frowned, but nodded.
“I said she was sweet, and Marcia said something about your exes disagreeing,” she explained.
“Did she now?”
“She wasn’t being unkind, and I think it just came out and she really did speak fondly of her,” explained Tasha, hoping she hadn’t got Marcia into trouble.
“Number two liked Lizzie and Philip, but when she wasn’t able to have her own child she found it difficult to have them around and Lizzie was very young. Number three was not really into kids. She tried in the beginning, but Lizzie hated her. She thought Maddie was trying to take me away from her, which with hindsight she probably was and then she made the kids lie and stuff.”
Tasha figured that made sense and tied in with what Philip had said about her.
“Number four was a very nice lady, but made the same mistake as Amanda and tried to make the kids like her by giving in on everything they asked for. Then I would say no or Sara would and they would throw step-mommy under the bus, Lizzie more than Philip. So the pattern was set and the more they tried to win her over the more of a bitch Lizzie became.”
With a short nod, Tasha wondered if anyone else would or could get away with referring to Lizzie as a bitch and knew they couldn’t and with the exception of Philip she doubted anyone else would even try.
“Then we have number six who loved Philip and hated Lizzie because she had tried to play me and her off against one another but Esther had pre-empted it and avoided the situation so Lizzie waited for Esther to fall asleep and then called me to say she had woken up from a bad dream and couldn’t wake Esther so called me at some business dinner. I, of course, dashed home and had a huge row with Esther about being neglectful of Lizzie and assumed she had been drunk, which she always denied, but Lizzie said she’d seen her drinking. Lizzie doesn’t like to share me, but she likes you and is older now and I hope she wants me to be happy and you make me happy, Tasha.”
“You make me happy too,” said Tasha and laughed.
“What?”
“She told me you were making people, men, cry at work courtesy of me putting you in a foul mood the other week.”
“Damn Marc!” said Jim as Tasha realised he really had.
“You really want me to live in your house when I make you so mad for so much of the time? When I infuriate you?”
“Yes. Even when you infuriate me, I can’t wait to see you, to be with you,” he admitted.
She smiled. “Why is marriage so important to you?”
“I don’t know. I was brought up to be married and to raise a family and of my six wives I should probably have only married Sara, but I do value and respect marriage.”
“That is where I struggle with it, Jim. How can you value and respect it when you married five women in error? One in order to screw her and four who were just mistakes. One out of six is pretty short odds for me.”
“I see now that five out of six were mistakes, but not at the time,” he sounded serious, almost nervous.
“Last night you said,I really want you to be the only woman I ever fuck for the rest of my life and even when I got married I don’t think I ever thought that, ever, so you are admitting that when you married each of your wives you didn’t imagine really being faithful to them,” she reminded him. “And by divorcing them so easily it makes me think you view your wife as disposable,” Tasha admitted for the first time to herself and to Jim.
“Look, Tasha, I am what I am, and I have no intention of defending my past. I cheated on four of my six wives and I have been open with you about all of them. I could have lied and told you that they all broke my heart and all I needed was to be loved again, but I didn’t. I believe in being married. I would like to know you’re mine completely. That the whole world knows you belong to me. That you wear my ring and have my name, simple.”
She thought about the conversation she’d had with Maisie about Jim thinking marriage put him in control but only being in control if you are allowed to be.
“Do you believe that I love you and I don’t ever want to be with anyone else?”
“Yes,” she replied honestly, and she did, she really did.
“Good. Now tell me, I know about Gerry, Jake and Liam, although he doesn’t count, but how many sexual partners have you had?” he asked not moving his gaze from hers.
