Page 84 of Twisted Temptation

"He got called away."

"Tell me what happened."

“You don’t want to know,” I say, sucking the peanut butter off the spoon.

"I didn’t take two subway stops and a ten-minute walk to hear nothing. Now spill it."

"Are you sure you want to hear?"

"Unless it involves body parts.”

When I don’t answer, he looks visibly traumatized at what might come next. “Oh dear, it’s going to be one of those conversations.”

“I slept with him. Well, not slept. In fact, it was against the wall of the⁠—”

He holds up his hand. “I don’t need details, Mrs. Di Zaro.” He sighs. “So what is the problem? Last week you were a bit iffy about him. But now iffy seems to have left the building.”

“That’s the problem. He’s a monster. He forces me into this ridiculous marriage and then…”

“Then what?”

I suck on a spoonful of peanut butter as I consider the question.

“Well, he…”

Put my father in an addiction clinic and is covering the cost.

Bought me a wardrobe of designer dresses and accessories.

Makes me want for nothing.

Taught me how to shoot.

Gave me a delicious orgasm against the wall of his library.

But do they cancel out his putting a gun to my father’s head and forcing me into marriage?

“I’m still confused about Chantelle,” I say.

“Mr. Di Zaro hiring Chantelle was a favor to her father and a catastrophe with a mop. Nothing more.”

Charles steps closer and rests his hands on the back of a stool like he’s about to address the nation.

"May I ask you something, and would you consider answering it honestly?"

I make an affirmative sound around the spoon in my mouth.

"What are you actually afraid of?" he asks.

"That I'm married to a man who owns half this city and doesn't blink when somebody gets in his way."

"Mm, nice try." He doesn't move. "Try again."

"That he put a gun to my father's head, and I'm wearing his ring because of it."

"He did. That's true, and it's appalling, and I've no intention of passing any kind of judgment on it." He narrows his focus. "But that’s not why you are sitting on a bench top eating peanut butter out of a jar with a spoon."

The spoon stops halfway to my mouth.