Staged (Exodus End 3)

Roux stopped midpace and whirled to face him. “This must be terrible for you,” she said, moving to stand in front of him. She lifted a hand toward his head, but hesitated. “Is it okay for me to touch you?”

“Why wouldn’t that be okay?”

“One of my sisters was raped, and she couldn’t stand for anyone to touch her for a long time after. If you want me to keep my distance, I understand.”

“I want you touch me,” he said. “I need to know that this hasn’t destroyed what we have.”

“Of course it hasn’t.”

She slipped her fingers into his hair and pressed his face against her belly, curling around him protectively. His arms slipped around her waist, and he hugged her close. Why was he trembling so hard? He couldn’t stop.

“I’m here,” she whispered, stroking his hair. “You don’t have to go through this alone. I will always be here for you. Always.”

Her vow triggered silent tears to steal from beneath his clenched eyelids and slide down his face.

Thirty-Four

Roux held Steve against her belly for a long time. She wasn’t sure how he felt about losing himself to emotion, so when he finally loosened his grip and lifted his face, she smiled and didn’t comment on the wetness he’d left behind on her shirt.

“Do you think I should press charges against her?” he asked, his fingers lacing through hers. He brought her scraped knuckles to his lips and kissed them gently.

“Absolutely.”

“Then I’m sure she’ll retaliate by having you arrested for physical assault.”

Roux shrugged. She didn’t much care if she got in trouble for knocking the snot out of the woman who drugged her man and took pictures of herself violating him while he was unconscious. “I have countless witnesses that will say she started it.”

“Did she start it?”

“I was too mad at the time to remember who threw the first punch, but my sisters said she did.” Then again, her sisters would say anything to protect her. She wasn’t sure their testimony would hold up in court.

“Dare told me you’d been drinking.”

She ducked her chin. “Seemed like a good idea at the time. I was so hurt, so angry.”

“I’m sorry about all of it.”

“You have nothing to be sorry about. The one who will be sorry is Tamara.”

“She didn’t act alone,” Steve said. “She told us that Bianca is the one who actually posted the pictures online.”

Roux supposed crazy ran in the family.

“She’ll probably include them in a story in her tabloid, so be prepared,” he said.

“Why has Bianca made it her life’s mission to hurt you?”

“I have no idea.” He released a breath. “Well, I did spend a lot of time away from home, and back then the band really stuck to the no-women-on-tour rule.”

“That might explain why she cheated on you.” Roux made a face. “No, fuck that. There is no excuse for her screwing around on you. Stop making excuses for her. She doesn’t deserve the slightest bit of consideration from you.”

“But I—”

She pressed her finger to his lips. “I’m not listening to you take any blame for what happened with Bianca or with Tamara, so knock it off. You hear me?”

“Yes, ma’am. You aren’t going to hit me, are you? I heard you have a mean right hook.”

Grinning, she lightly tapped his jaw with her fist, and he threw himself backward onto the sofa as if she had superstrength. He grabbed her wrist to tug her down onto his lap.

“I have an idea,” she said, hugging her arms around his to draw his arms close to her belly.

He used the tip of his nose to brush her hair aside so he could nibble a sensitive spot just beneath her ear.

“I have an idea too,” he murmured, and a shiver of delight raced down her spine.

She was certain his idea was far more X-rated than hers, but she was starting to come up with a few ideas of that caliber as well.

“I’m not sure if you’ll like mine.”

“I’ve liked every idea you’ve ever had,” he said. “I’m sure this will be no different.”

“I want to be open about our relationship,” she said. She turned her head to look at him. “I mean really open. Embarrassingly open.”

“In what way?”

“You know those celebrity couples that post pictures on Instagram showing how nauseatingly perfect their love for each other is?”

He grinned and rolled his eyes.

“I want to do that.”

“Why on earth would you want everyone in our business?”

“For one thing, it will drive your ex-wife insane.”

He laughed.

“And I want the entire world to know you’re mine, that I love you, that I will stand by you through anything.”

“Isn’t it enough that I know that?”

“It’s more than enough,” she said, turning on his lap and straddling his hips. She kissed him lovingly, her heart so full she could scarcely breathe. “But maybe I want to brag a little.”

It wasn’t her true reason for thinking this was a good idea, but his proud smile delighted her.

“I scored a rock star,” she added, kissing him again, allowing her lips to linger on his.

“So did I,” he said against her mouth.

Her? A rock star? Yeah, right. But she couldn’t help teasing him. “And you don’t want everyone on the planet to know what a prize you’ve scored?”

“I do want everyone to know. It’s been hard keeping this secret.”

“So let’s beat them at their own game. You know that tabloid of your ex-wife’s is going to shape our relationship to their liking—especially our secrecy about it. You also know that first impressions are vitally important. If people start with thinking of what we have in a negative light, it will stain our relationship forever.”

“So we have to do this before the potentially shitty article comes out.”

“Potentially shitty? We both know it’s going to happen, and it’s going to be incomparably shitty.”

He nodded slightly. “What about the pictures that Bianca posted of me with Tamara? Everyone thinks I’ve cheated on you already.”

“We’re going to be very open about that too.”

“About me cheating on you?”

“About what she did to you. It wasn’t cheating. Don’t ever think of it that way.”

He shifted her off his lap and stood, pacing to the far corner of the room.

She shouldn’t have pushed him so soon about the part of her plan that would expose the sexual assault. He was still rightfully disturbed about the incident. He might always be distressed over it. But she didn’t want him to blame himself. She wanted Tamara to be forced to take all the blame, and if millions of people knew what a fucked-up cunt she was, Roux was certain Tamara would be the one blamed. What Roux wasn’t certain of was if people would try to make Steve feel weak because it had happened to him.

“I don’t want everyone to know that I fell for her ploy. It’s embarrassing,” he said quietly.

Roux crossed the room and pressed a hand against his back. “More embarrassing than voluntarily fucking that woman? Because that’s what everyone thinks happened.” Everyone but her and a few others who were close to him.

He shuddered beneath her palm. “She doesn’t look bad,” he said. “Outwardly, she’s someone I might have once . . .” He shook his head. “Nope, I can’t even say that. Something about her has always given me the willies.”

“She’s a sexual predator, Steve.”

“I thought she was just hyperaggressive, but you might be right. You are right. I’ve always given her the benefit of the doubt because she’s female.”

“Which is bullshit,” Roux said. “If a man gave a woman that much unwanted attention, he’d have been called out on it a long time ago.”