Dirty Addiction (Dirty 2)

He pulls out a decanter of whiskey and two glasses pouring us both a glass of alcohol from the decanter. He hands one of the glasses to me, and I take it, happy to have alcohol to finish this conversation. I need the strength to say anything to get him to leave.

“The bastard doesn’t even have any tequila. So, you want to explain to me again how this is true love.”

I don’t answer him. It doesn’t matter, and whatever excuse I make for him, it’s clear that Brody won’t believe me anyway.

Brody opens the door to the balcony and steps outside. I step out as well, happy to get some fresh air.

“Why?”

“Why else do you get married? Love.”

“Why did you cheat on him? If you are so in love with him that you said yes the second you came back, why did you sleep with me?” He stares at me as he asks the question, like it’s the most important question that he needs to know the answer to. His eyes seem sincere for the first time in a long time.

“Because it wasn’t cheating.”

I watch Brody’s hands drum against the railing, and I want nothing more than for him to take me in his arms and kiss me. I want him to stroke my face. Or even just hold my hand. But it seems that he won’t. But he has more self-control than I could’ve ever imagined while I’m on the edge of doing something very, very stupid.

“Were you on a break? Broken up? Is that why it wasn’t technically cheating?”

“It wasn’t cheating because we were never together.”

Brody reaches out and grabs my hand, jerking me to him. My breathing is fast and heavy, as I’m filled with the weight of what I want him to do but can’t let him.

“You’re telling me that, after spending a week with me giving you the best sex of your life, you cut that short so that you could go back to marry a man you hadn’t even kissed before?”

Pain—that’s what I see when I look into Brody’s eyes. It can’t be pain though because I was nothing but a sex toy to him for the week. So, it must be something else. It must be that I heard him wrong, or it’s jealousy at letting another man take the woman he was just with.

“We had kissed once, but that was it. I didn’t think it was going anywhere.”

He lets me go and takes a step back. “It must be love then.”

My heart aches as he says the words, dripping with the same pain that I myself feel. It doesn’t make sense for either of us to be feeling such pain, but it’s how I feel.

“So, you’ll leave then? I told you the truth. I told you that I wouldn’t sleep with you again. And, just as I promised you, you can’t stay.”

He grins just enough for me to be concerned. “I think I’d like to have that dinner firs

t. It’s clear that he’s rich, so I’m sure he knows where to get a good meal in town. And I’d like to hear from him a little more about how he got a woman like you to fall so quickly in love. I might need to use the skills myself someday. I’ll leave after dinner if that’s what you still want.”

He says he will leave, but it seems more like a threat. I failed at getting him to leave once. I won’t fail again.

14

Brody

She has a fucking fiancé. A wealthy, powerful, good-looking fiancé. A fiancé who has one of the sickest condos I’ve ever seen or had the privilege of being inside.

She has this whole other life in Albuquerque, which is completely different than their life here in LA. And I can’t make the two lives, the two parts of her, make sense together in my head.

On the one hand, she’s such a simple country girl who doesn’t care about fancy things or if she fits into society; she only cares about her animals. She cares about doing good in the world, in leaving the world a better place than she found it.

But there’s this other side of her. One that enjoys the finer things in life. Expensive vacations, fancy condos, and fast cars. The ring he gave her easily cost more than the wealth of several small countries.

She has two lives. Two worlds. And I don’t think I’ll be able to fit into either one of them. Because she’s in love with the damn fiancé.

Or maybe she’s lying. I’ve definitely seen her give warmer greetings before, and the answers to a lot of my questions didn’t make sense. But I can’t imagine Skye ever getting married for any reason other than love.

She might have wanted dark, filthy sex with me. The kind that allows for zero attachment, but it was clear the only reason she wanted that was that she was apparently hung up on Gabe.