Especially when she found Chloe sitting on a bench during her break, flipping through more of Kennedy’s personalized stationery.
“What is that?’ Lara demanded, swiftly approaching the young maid before she could see the oncoming storm and put the evidence away. “What has she given you?”
Chloe gaped at her, caught red-handed. God, she looked barely a day over eighteen. In truth, she was in her early twenties, but had such a babyface that Lara wouldn’t blame her partner for lusting after her. In another situation, Lara may lust after her as well.We would both devour you, girl. Lara didn’t want to consider the thought right now.
“It’s nothing, ma’am. Just a list of instructions.”
Bullshit. Chloe made a grave mistake by not hiding those papers. Lara attempted to snatch them right out of the maid’s hands… but Chloe’s grip was so strong that the papers tore in half. All Lara had to show for her tantrum was the letterhead and the tops of words she could not make out in her wife’s cursive writing.
“Look here,” she growled, pointing a steel-tipped boot in Chloe’s direction. “I know what’s going on here. You’re staying low for now, but a wife knows when hanky-panky is underfoot. My partner is an idiot who thinks she can get away with it. You?” Lara cackled. That same cackle that sent so many of hercolleagues running and calling her a “crazy bitch” behind her back. Or right in front of her. “You’re nobody. I can wipe the floor with you. I can make sure nobody hires you in the city for as long as you live. Got it?”
At first, Chloe looked petrified. Lara did not enjoy scaring a girl shitless. It wasn’t as satisfying as, say, scaring a fellow CEO. There was no joy, no pride in making some little no-name girl quake in her flats and act like she was about to relieve her bowels in front of the boss.
Then Chloe changed. Knowledge overcame her. Soon enough, she knew exactly what her crazy-ass boss was referring to.
“Oh, my God!” she cried, crumpling the yellow stationery in her hands. “I swear I’m not… no… you have the wrong idea, Mrs. Anderssen!”
“Do I? You think I haven’t played this game before?” A part of her wished the change in Chloe’s demeanor meant a tiger cub was about to burst out. Threatening, but nothing she couldn’t deal with. Instead, she got a scared and defensive little girl who probably really believed what she was saying. “You would be remiss, Chloe. I know exactly what my partner is up to.”
“You… do?”
“Oh, yeah. And I know your role in it, if you know what I mean.”
Now the maid was simply confused.
“Mind yourself,” Lara said as a final warning. “I wouldn’t merely destroy you, girl. I would make your life such a living hell that you would have to move to the other side of the country to get a break from me. And even then? I would find you. Stay away from my wife.”
The wordwifehung between them.I said what I said.Lara did not call Kennedy her wife flippantly. It was a word she had adopted for herself upon marriage, after all.I am “the wife” in this relationship.The feminine yin to Kennedy’s moremasculine yang. The one everyone underestimated. The one with so much female baggage in her ovaries that she still felt like a bad wife for being forty and childless, despite her and Kennedy’s lack of desire for children.
To call Kennedy herwifewas to share that load. It feminized her. To Lara. To Chloe.
“I…”
“Shut up.” Lara turned, a satisfied grin taking over her pale complexion. “Oh, and I believe your break is now over. Roberta has some things for you to do.”
Lara learned nothing from that encounter, but damn if she didn’t feel better!
Chapter 10
“Do You Think I’m Pretty?”
“Oh, boy,” Elle said over margaritas the next afternoon. “Bullying your maid? That’s a new low, even for you.”
Lara slammed her margarita on the table between them and squared her shoulders. “I did what had to be done. You think I liked doing that?”
“Yeah, I do. At least a little.” Elle laughed, pushing out her fake tits and brushing her manicured nails through her crunchy brown hair.Outside of the club, you can really tell she does shit to herself.Lara hoped she never reached that level of delusion. “You like throwing your weight around. Nothing wrong with that, especially from a badass bitch like you, but was it really necessary to make your maid piss herself? Even if you think your partner is searching for treasure in that pretty pussy, that was brazen. Jesus, Lara.”
Yup. I’ve told someone. When Elle called her up the night before, wondering if she wanted to do afternoon drinksdowntown, Lara jumped at the chance. She needed someone to bounce her suspicions off. Elle was as good as it was going to get on short notice.
“I can’t believe that Kennedy would cheat on you. Honey, that one is over the moon for you. Even after ten years, I can tell from the way she looks at you. You could tell her no more orgies for the rest of your lives, and she would go along with it if she got to be with you.”
“See, that’s what I’ve tried telling myself.” Lara lined up their empty glasses before sitting back in her seat, arms crossed. “I know she still loves me. But is she fawning over me to keep me placated and distracted, or is it all in my head?”
Elle shook hers. “You’re a mess. Are you taking this attitude with you on your second honeymoon? That should be a time for mindlessly boning your partner until she ain’t got a drop of energy left in her. Don’t take the mind games with you. If you don’t have this all cleared up by the time you go, then you might as well not go at all. I’m serious.”
“Says the woman who has never been married.”
“Don’t give me that! You know no one can keep me tied down. It’s more like me keeping them tied up.”
