Dare To Love Again

But somewhere along the way in the last two years, she’d reverted back to form and seemed even timider than when we first met if that were possible. I had a gut feeling that that was because of me and our son, which only made my anger boil. I bit my tongue for now, though, while inwardly I was seething. I had to think long and hard about how to answer her and to put her fear at rest.

“No, baby, this is how you take your power back. She’s trying to control you. There’s only one alpha dog in your life, and that’s me. The only person who has any say in when, where, and what you do is me. Remember that. You don’t owe anyone else that level of compromise.” I almost said too much but caught myself just in time.

I turned the phone off and all but threw it on the nightstand before turning back to her. She looked so vulnerable and fuckable at the same time that I didn’t think twice as I pushed her back on the bed. She sat bolt upright again. “Wait a minute, you know?” I could already see the telltale tremble in her lip.

“I know.” She broke.

I had to hold onto her when she tried to run away from me and instead wrapped my arms around her tight while she cried heart-wrenching sobs of anguish that dug into me hard. I didn’t utter a sound. Just let her get it all out until her wails turned to sniffles and her body literally collapsed against mine from exhaustion.

“Did Dana tell you? Was she the one who told her where I was?”

“She told me some of it, and yes, she’s the one who told your mother where you were, that you were married to me.” I wanted to ask and say so much more but realized that part of my reluctance to do so stemmed from fear. If she’s so afraid of this woman that she’d ran, leaving the life we’d built together behind then, I have no idea what kind of hold the woman has on her or from whence that fear comes.

“Do you want to tell me about it?” See? Her whole body went into fight or flight, and I already knew from the look in her eyes that if given a chance, she’d choose flight again. “Okay, you don’t need to answer that, but I’m going to ask you one thing, and you’d better tell me the truth.” I waited for her eyes to clear before cupping her cheek with my palm and staring into them.

“Did Ann Winthrop threaten me?” I got my answer before the sound of despair left her lips, and she threw her arms around me, holding on tight. My poor baby, fuck! My poor treatment of her, every negative thought I’ve had about her since she left, all of it came at me like a wall of bricks tumbling down on me at once.

I felt such guilt at that moment that I couldn’t even find words. I held onto her as tight as she was me and the two of us sat there on that bed, both lost in our own thoughts. My mind had switched from making love to my wife to murder and mayhem. It was just past six in the morning, which gave me roughly three hours to get my shit together. I have the rest of my life to make love to her; this other cannot wait.

First things first, I sent Ann’s number to my phone, then blocked and erased it from hers. I didn’t bother going through her old messages since I could well imagine the kind of communication they once shared. “I’ll be back. I have some stuff to take care of in my office. I’ll meet you and Junior in the breakfast nook for breakfast when he wakes up.

I kissed her head and headed for the door. I’d told Silas not to call until he had everything I need and I know the other man well enough to know that he’d take that shit to heart. But I also know that with his resources, he’d have found something by now, no matter how small. I won’t put Giselle through the trauma of telling me about her bitch mother, not yet. I want her as far away from this shit as possible. But I’m not about to face her in a few hours with my dick in my hand.

Silas answered on the first ring, and the first words out of his mouth were very encouraging. “Morning, sir, I was going to give it another hour before calling you with what we’ve got so far.”

“Give it to me.”

“Okay, going with some of what Gordon gave us, it was a pretty good head start. We’ve traced your wife back to the Swiss boarding school. It wasn’t easy getting through the red tape, and the boys had to do some stuff that wouldn’t hold up in a court of law, but we got results.”