I ignore the lie, the reference to Hal being hers as opposed to ours, and I absolutely ignore the tightness in her shoulders, I add to the list ignorance of how she’s arrived dressed. Something from the past... Apeignoir par excellence, the boutique owner had called it. We’d been in Paris on a second honeymoon of sorts. A swan song of sex might be more appropriate, our marriage already ebbing. Silk and embroidery, soft billowing sleeves, and like a starlet of yesteryear, she’d swanned around our hotel room, barely concealing her nakedness underneath. I hope to God she’s wearing more under it now. Yet I know if I slid the silk to her hip, I’d find bare skin. Call it instinct. Survival, probably.
‘You can’t keep coming in whenever you like,’ I repeat tiredly, now rubbing a hand across my stubbled chin. ‘You don’t live here anymore, remember?’
Her hand slowly lowers from the shelf. Pausing, she turns. ‘I still have keys.’
‘Then maybe you should leave them.’
‘What would be the point? The door is always open. You’re the only man in London who doesn’t batten down for the night.’ She uses a chiding tone, toying with a lock of hair that’s fallen against her breast. Her eyes slide to the side for a moment, before she looks back, gazing at me from beneath her pale lashes. ‘Darling, you just invite trouble in.’
Could she be any more obvious?
‘Use the front door next time. Ring the bell. Your kind of trouble I don’t need.’
‘Rather large, isn’t she?’ Belle replies, ignoring my demand as her gaze falls to Louise lying in the window still. ‘Not really your type.’ Her words are light, but I see well enough the tightness around her eyes.
‘She’s taller than you are, if that’s what you mean.’ I keep my tone even, but can’t help but twist the knife. ‘But isn’t everyone? And since when have you been an expert on me?’
‘Since forever,’ she replies simply. ‘Since the first day I saw you. Since I began picking girls out for you to fuck in the club.’
‘Funny that. They were always some facsimile of you. A little heavier, a little plainer, but always a... little... bit... you.’
‘Because I, my sweet, am still what you need.’
Her words are smoky as she steps toward me, looseningthe belt on her gown. I can’t stop her. Not without touching her. And I don’t want to do that unless it’s to wrap my hands around her neck. I say nothing and keep my eyes about her mouth as she lets the robe drape open like some porcelain peep show.
I still refuse to look as she steps into me, laying her palms against my chest. ‘Don’t,’ I grate out, grabbing her wrists swiftly as theytravelledto my waistband, finding a sliver of naked skin.
I shiver; revulsion, not desire. This woman has put me through so much, I’d happily never set eyes on her again.
‘Will if I want to,’ she murmurs. ‘You’re not the boss of me. Not presently.’
‘I saiddon’t,’ I growl, pulling on her wrists hard. ‘Not fucking ever.’
Her eyes cloud with want, her knees caving slightly as she pushes herself against me. It’s not the reaction I was aiming for, but perhaps one I should have anticipated.
‘There’s my darling monster,’ she exhales libidinously. ‘I thought you’d left. Gone all vanilla on me.’
I smile, aiming for malicious intent, but then bend my mouth to her ear.
‘I don’tgoanythingon you anymore, Annabelle. I don’t come in you nor come on you. I don’t eventhinkof you anymore.’ I slip my fingers around her elbow, gripping tight as I move her towards the door. ‘You leftme. You don’t get to do this.’ Pushing her out into the cool morning, I almost yell, ‘And tie your gown; you look like a wanton slut.’ Then I quietly closedthe door.
‘Unfinished business?’ Louise’s dry tone catches me off guard, my heart beating as though I’d just sprinted a mile. Fuck.
‘You’re awake.’My stomach twists. I’d hoped to spare her—us—from this.
‘Did I miss anything?’
‘Embarrassment of mammoth proportions,’ I murmur hopefully, moving towards her, watching her as though she were a skittish animal. Did she hear everything? See?
‘Would that be hers or yours?’Double fuck.
I shake my head in some semblance of an answer because what could I say? That I loved her once? That she’d ruined my life? Up until the day I decided she deserved none of my pain?
‘She doesn’t really mean it. She’s greedy, that’s all. The cake and eat it kind.’
‘Okay...’ There’s levity in the word, but she isn’t laughing. ‘I’m not really sure what that means.’ She pulls herself upright, straightening her inside-out t-shirt and refusing to look at me. ‘If she’s the cake eating kind, what does that make you?’
‘Nuts.’ I bark out a laugh, not sure of its source. ‘An absolute fruitcake. I must’ve been mad for marrying her. God only knows.’ I exhale a heavy sigh, my shoulders moving along with it. ‘Still, you live and you learn, apparently.’
