“Now,” I whisper low in her ear. “I want you to answer the door, in nothing but my shirt, with the taste of my cock and your cunt on your tongue and deal with her.” I press a kiss to the space behind her ear and take a step back meeting her wide eyes. “I am yours, Olivia Clarke.” I back away from her before turning towards my room, I call over my shoulder. “Make sure she’s clear on that this time.”
I follow Bennett with my eyes as he leaves the room, my eyes trained on his perfectly sculpted ass and muscular back. The veins on his legs protrude with every step and his arms flex sexily as if he’s doing it on purpose. I’m completely turned on by the minor assault on my sex and my heart and mind are completely fucked by his words. He wants me to handle Amanda?
I let out a breath, trying to calm myself down and mentally prepare myself for dealing with his mistress.
Ex-mistress.
I press my hand to the lock, turning it shakily before taking a deep breath and opening the door.
Blue eyes widen the second she sees me and I watch with satisfaction as she runs her gaze up the length of my bare legs. I cross my hands in front of my chest and lean against the door jamb. “Is there a reason you’re here?” I’m not confrontational. Far from it, and I’d encountered it very few times in my life. I’m well liked and I’m patient and mild-tempered. Until it comes to this woman.
I hate her even though I know she didn’t cheat on me. I know that Bennett is more to blame and I don’t want to be that wife that blames the other woman, but I hate her. I can’t help it. She makes me crazy. Maybe a part of it is pure jealousy. She’s perfect and gorgeous and blonde and probably could give him a baby that Bennett’s mother would love.
She scoffs and narrows her cold hard gaze as she flicks a hair over her shoulder. “I would like to speak with Bennett, my boyfriend.”
I raise an eyebrow at her. “My husband is unavailable; can I take a message? And…furthermore, how did you even know we were here? He’s been staying at our apartment with me.” I give her my most saccharine smile and scrunch my nose slightly.
“It’s not your business.”
My heart rate spikes, as my adrenaline rushes and I feel my patience withering. “Oh, but it is because I’m his wife, and you’re not.”
I can sense her irritation as she presses her hands to her hips. “He’s going to remember. He’s going to remember me.”
“And then what? You think he’s going to leave me? Oh, you’re right because when he remembers, he’ll just be reminded that he’s spent six months trying to get me back. And you were just…there. You were a mistake, Amanda. A bump in the road. And while the problem in our marriage that this bump has caused may never completely go away,” I take a step forward, “You will.”
Surprisingly, she doesn’t take a step back. Instead, her eyes narrow and her jaw clenches before she unleashes the jealous statement I should have been better prepared to hear. “He doesn’t love you,” she grits out, and I’ll admit it stings. It’s a pain in my chest that I wasn’t expecting. I know she’s goading me, but I also know that she had gotten to know Bennett a bit better than I did the past six months.
Had he fallen out of love with me?
No.
He was begging to reconcile and for me to give him another chance even before the accident.
Call her bluff, Liv.
“You don’t even believe that.” I shake my head and prepare to unleash my feelings on this woman who thought she had a chance with my husband. “This is so sad. Let me guess, how your so-called relationship with Bennett went. You met him at a bar while he was drunk and alone and upset. You had a couple drinks, you professed to know exactly what he was going through. You were a shoulder to cry on. ‘I get you, Bennett, she doesn’t appreciate you.’ And while that’s not your business, I’ll give you that. Because I didn’t appreciate him and that’s on me. So, while completely hammered on one too many tequila shots. Did you guys have tequila? He blacks out really easily on that.” She huffs and I put my hand up. “I digress. You guys hit it off or whatever, you go home and I’m sure he regales you of stories about me, good or bad,” I shrug, “but all the while, you’re the good friend, that’s listening and understanding and blah blah blah.” I roll my eyes. “And then you make your move—”
“He kissed me.” And the smirk on her face, tells me that not only is she satisfied with the dig, but that it’s probably true.
I pause and my pulse quickens in response to the fury building. “Fine. He kissed you. I’m not denying that you fucked my husband. I’m denying that he felt anything more for you than a place to put his dick and someone to stroke his ego. Move on, Amanda, because this is embarrassing. If Bennett wanted you, he’d be with you,” I snap, much harsher than I’ve ever spoken to anyone. She looks like she’s about to say something in response so I cut her off. “We don’t have children and I was more than fair in our divorce settlement, it would be easy for us to proceed with our separation and you two could ride off into the sunset.” I lean back against the frame and shrug my shoulders. “He doesn’t want to…and neither do I.” I pause. “Now, it would behoove you to stay away from my man and to not ever show your face here again.”
She huffs, and I can see the tears forming before she swallows them down. For a brief, and I do mean brief second, I feel bad. I feel bad for the woman who may have been made drunken promises or maybe even sober ones. I know Bennett loves me, but I’d walked away, and maybe he would have kept her around had this accident not happened.
My mind goes to the letter in the safe, the letter he’d written while he was supposedly dating Amanda. To the wedding ring he was wearing around his neck and the shrine to me he still has on his desk. He was never going to want more with her, even if he never got me back. Their relationship had an expiration date one way or the other, and that had nothing to do with me.
“It wasn’t just sex, Olivia. Would he introduce me to Caroline otherwise?”
I did forget about that little anecdote. Why were her and Caroline so fucking friendly? Caroline didn’t like any fucking one except Bennett.
Add that to another question I’ll probably never have answered.
“You know I’m right.” She takes my silence as defeat, and I am quick to tell her differently.
“No.”
“We do yogalates together. She loves me. We have lunch. She says I’m good for Bennett.”
It burns, hearing that she’s received the approval from my mother-in-law I’ve spent years yearning for. “I’ve never been able to understand Caroline’s issue with me, but trust me her liking you is just another way for her to stick it to me. You could be literally anyone.”