Page 13 of Because I Need You
“Again, nothing to do with my wanting out of this marriage and this world.”
“I can find out, you know,” he said. “One phone call and I’ll know every dirty little secret you’ve ever tried to hide.”
“Go ahead. Make that call.” I smiled at that; it was the first thing he’d said that gave me real courage. Men like him were so used to getting their way at all costs, because men like him didn’t deal with women like me very often. “I have nothing to hide.”
“Everyone has something to hide.”
I let out a laugh. I almost felt like I was sitting across from Will.
“What’s so funny?”
“You reminded me of someone just now.”
“A boyfriend,” he said, and there was no question in the statement, he was sure of it. So sure, of it, that I didn’t bother to deny it.
“Yes, a boyfriend, which makes this situation a little more urgent.”
“Why? Has he proposed?”
“No.” I bit my tongue, then let it go, because fuck this guy. “None of this is your business. I am not your business.”
“You’re my wife.” He crossed his arms, rocking back again, a sexy grin on his stupid beautiful face. “So, that kind of makes you my business.”
“This is so stupid.” I threw my head back and groaned. I felt like one of my middle schoolers, but I didn’t even care. This was a waste of time. He thought this was a joke.
“Just answer some questions for me and I’ll think about it. Would that be so difficult if you have nothing to hide?”
“Fine. Ask.” My eyes snapped back to his.
“Queens or Chelsea?”
“I currently live in Chelsea,” I said. “Spent a chunk of my life in Queens.”
“What do you do for a living?”
“I teach English and History.”
“Really? A teacher?” His brows rose. He assessed me again, this time a little closer, his gaze heating as if I’d just said I was a Playboy model or something. My heart skipped a beat, even though I tried to contain it, because that was completely inappropriate considering I had a boyfriend. I glanced away.
“Yes, really,” I said to the wall.
“What grades?”
“Seventh and eighth.”
“God.” He laughed, a real laugh, though it was so short I missed seeing it on his face when I finally looked at him again. “That must be a nightmare.”
“Can’t argue there,” I said.
His eyes crinkled, but he didn’t smile this time. “Why a teacher?”
“Why an astronaut? Why a firefighter? Why a…whatever it is you do?”
“You have a very short temper for a middle school teacher.”
I ran my tongue along my teeth and drummed my fingers on his desk. “Is that all?”
“Is your boyfriend a teacher?”
“No.” I almost laughed at the thought of Will as a teacher. He didn’t even like kids.
“You’re in love.”
“So, you do make assumptions, after all.”
This time, he did smile, and holy shit I wished he hadn’t. It was slow forming, his eyes sparkling as he grinned. If he looked hot before, it was nothing compared to this. I brushed my hair behind both ears, knee bouncing. I didn’t want to answer his question. I loved Will, but I wasn’t in love with him. Not yet anyway, but sometimes love takes time, and I was giving myself that.
“I make you nervous,” he said.
“You make me annoyed and angry and disgusted.”
“Wow. All within, what, fifteen-minutes of meeting me?” He kept smiling. “That’s a new record.”
“Yep. Now, can you please for the love of God grant me the divorce?”
“No.”
“No?” My jaw dropped. “What do you mean no?”
He tilted his face, running his tongue along his bottom lip. “I need things, some assets that your father has that don’t belong to him.”
“Like what?”
“I’m not at the liberty to say without my lawyer present.”
“Oh, okay.” I laughed. “You’re one of those.”
“One of whom?”
“One of those people who need their lawyers present for every conversation and sues everyone for everything,” I said. Will was also one of those. He’d just sued a freaking newspaper, for God’s sake.
“And this annoys you.”
“Kind of. It means you’re going to stall, and I don’t have time to stall.”
“Because the boyfriend is going to propose soon?”
“Will you stop it with the proposal stuff?” I placed both hands on the sides of my face and looked up at the ceiling again, asking for patience and serenity and anything else that would help me. Will was nowhere near close to proposing, but I wasn’t about to admit that to the man in front of me.
“I have a right to know when my wife is going to be proposed to by another man.”
“Your wife?” I squeaked, looking at him again. He looked so smug, too. “Will you stop saying that? I am not your wife.”
“The law says you are.”
“Fuck the law. I’m not your wife!”
“Fuck the law, huh?” He raised an eyebrow. “Sure, you’re not ‘part of this world’?”
