Page 49 of This for That (The Edge of Retaliation 1)
I look over to him, and then smile. “It’s okay; you don’t owe me anything, but thanks for clearing that up anyway. I appreciate it.”
He reaches over, grabbing my chin. “I want to be here with you, more than you’ll ever possibly understand.”
That makes me feel good inside. Really damned good. “Thanks.”
“Are you still going to go out with Andrea and her friends?”
“Yeah, I am. I’m looking forward to it.”
“Be careful. Her friends are over the top, and they get a little crazy.”
I laugh. “I can handle myself, believe me.”
“I’m sure you can,” he murmurs. “When you’re done, bring your friend Jo over to my place. The boys and I are having a get-together. Get to know them more.”
“Really?” I ask, shocked by his open invitation. I guess he’s serious when he says he wants this to go further.
“Fuckin’ yeah. I told you I want to know more about you; I meant it. You up for that?”
“Sounds good.” I grin.
“Right.” He stands and leans down, kissing my forehead. “I gotta run. Got a car to finish, and I’ve already been distracted by you way too long tonight. Not that I’m complainin’ because you’re fuckin’ sweet.”
I blush again. Goddammit.
“Call me tomorrow when you wake up. Tell me how sore your pussy is. I want you to think of me for the whole fuckin’ day. In fact, I want you to always remember that it was me who got to be inside you first.”
“I think you made it pretty hard to forget,” I whisper, looking up at him through my lashes.
He runs his finger over my jaw. “Somethin’ about you tells me you’re trouble, but I’m excited to find out more.”
Then he turns and walks out leaving me stumped and speechless, and very, very sore.
In the best possible way, of course.
I get myself ready for bed. It has been a long and exhausting night.
Jo returns home about half an hour after Tanner leaves. She comes in and peeks into my room, and I can see right away she has been crying. Oh no.
“Hey,” I say softly, walking over to the door. “You okay?”
“I didn’t know if you’d be awake. Can we talk?”
“Sure, of course. Come in.”
She comes in and lies flat on her back on my bed. She does this a lot; sometimes she even stays in here. I think Jo is lonely, so damned lonely, and she’s broken, and she wants desperately for her life to be anything other than what it is, that very thought makes her feel guilty, because she knows it could be so much worse. She’s stuck in a spiral she’s unable to detach from. I feel for her. Everyone deserves happiness. Everyone.
“What’s happened?” I ask, plugging my phone in and then lying on the bed next to her.
“Pat and I got into a huge fight when I dropped in to see him after work. I mean, huge.”
“How?” I ask her.
“I don’t even know how it started to be honest. We were talking about me moving back in there, and I told him I wasn’t really ready. I mean, we’d just had sex, and it was horrible. It was boring, and I felt so detached. I tried to enjoy it, I really did, but it just wasn’t there for me. It made me feel so much worse than I already do. So, obviously I wasn’t overly excited about the idea of that being my life again.”
“Understandable,” I say.
“So, I told him I wasn’t ready. It has only been a few weeks, and honestly, he has barely tried. He takes me to dinner here and there. He has never slept over here; I always go to his place. He’s not trying. Not really. It’s like sometimes he thinks he’s just got it in the bag, like he’ll keep me no matter what. Like he owns me. So I told him no, I’m not ready to come back. He lost it. He said it looks bad on him when he’s going to work functions alone, and people in the office are talking.”
Oh. Poor Pat.
Not.
If he stepped up and actually made some effort for his woman, he might find she’d be more excited about coming back to live with him.
“I told him I was sorry he is going through that, but it isn’t enough to just make me come back. He said even the girls at work are trying to come onto him, and it’s really hard for him to stay away from them when his own wife doesn’t want him.”
“Oh he didn’t!”
She nods. “Yep, he did. Well, you can imagine I just flipped a switch. I told him if that’s how he feels, why the hell is he bothering with me? He might as well just let me leave and be done with it. To which he replied that he’s not just going to give up that easily, and he’s not letting me leave. But I realized that the only reason he doesn’t want me to leave is because he knows damn well the kind of talk it’ll generate. Someone with his power, it’ll look so bad, and God forbid he looks bad. Not to mention the money split; he’s not willing to share that yet either. He’s content in his boring little life, and he’s content with having a boring wife at home. I’m not, though.”
