Absolutely Mine

“Does she know?” I asked, sounding way too meek, leaving him to read too much into my words.

He faced me, standing near his chair like the powerful businessman he was.

“Know what?”

I glanced anywhere except at him when I said, “That you and I are technically still married and what that means?”

“No. And I want to keep it that way.” When I said nothing, he added, “You sign the papers and sign an affidavit that you turned in the annulment papers and we are all good or so my lawyer says.”

“Lawyer?”

He was a lawyer.

“I’m not licensed in the State of Nevada. I had to hire someone to act on my behalf.”

A thought hit me. “Do I need a lawyer? Am I in trouble too?”

He caught my panic and came over to me to grasp me by the shoulders.

He sighed. “You aren’t the one married to two people.”

I gazed up into his fathomless gray-blue eyes. “You’re married to both of us.”

“Technically yes, otherwise I wouldn’t be facing up to four years in prison. However, since it’s illegal for me to be married to two women, you would be recognized as my wife, being the first.”

As irrational as it was, I started to laugh. “Your wife is going to kill you.”

His grip tightened. “She won’t find out.”

“And what if she does? Hell, what will Chris say?”

I tossed up my hands and stepped out of his grip. His touch was doing things to me that wasn’t good for either of us.

His jaw clenched as if he hated that I’d moved away. But that couldn’t be true, and his next words confirmed that. “She can’t know.”

I wasn’t sure if he was talking about my sister or Chelsea. It didn’t matter. I had no intentions of telling my family.

I sighed. “I’ll go get the papers to sign. You have to know I did turn the paperwork in. I never meant for this to happen.”

He nodded. “I know. You can sign them tonight. We can have dinner and discuss this job in detail.”

“You mean there’s more than answering the phone?” I said on a giggle. He didn’t find that funny. “Anyway, I can’t tonight.”

“Why?” he asked.

“I have a date.”

You would have thought I told him I sold our story to the tabloids. “Date?” he asked dangerously.

“Yeah. A date.”

“You’re my wife,” he said so casually, I almost thought he was being serious.

I pointed my finger at him. “You almost had me there. Like seriously, I didn’t know we were still married any more than you did. Our marriage—” I said sarcastically “—is just on paper. What you have with Chelsea is real. One day I’ll have that too.”

“Chelsea is—”

He was cut off by his phone ringing. I held the finger I had aimed at him to the ceiling, indicating him to hold a minute. Then I sidled over to his desk and sat on the edge so I could lean a little to pick up his phone.

“Mr. McCabe’s office.”

When I turned to him as the caller announced himself, Eddie’s eyes were hot on me. I put the caller on hold.

Before I could speak, he’d stalked over and stood right in front of me.

“Don’t ever fucking do that again.”

His tone was coarse and I gasped, fish mouthing as I tried to figure out what to say next.

“What did I do?”

His eyes swept over me in the hideous top I wore. My cheeks flushed as I guessed he probably thought I looked ridiculous.

“I’m a man, Jillian. You sitting like that gives me ideas.”

Ideas. He was married.

“Don’t look at me that way,” he said.

I felt the confused frown on my face and tried to release it. But his words still did something to my insides I didn’t want to admit.

He leaned in closer, his hands coming to a rest on either side of me. His nearness made the incessant throbbing between my legs impossible to ignore.

In a low voice, he added, “I’m not cheating on my wife by saying that. Especially when you are my wife.”

And what the hell was I supposed to do with that?

Chapter Seven

He was way too close and dumbly I waited in vain for him to kiss me. A second later, he straightened, putting some distance between us. I took the opportunity to flee. I got to my feet and dodged him as I went to the door.

“I should get to work,” I said.

Just as I opened the door, he said, “We need to talk this evening about your duties.”

I had to swallow, thinking of things he might want me to do for him. I turned to look at him over my shoulder.

“I have a date.”

“Then I can come by later.”

The last thing in the world I wanted was to be alone in my apartment with him. Okay, I wanted that, but it wouldn’t be the right thing to do.