Page 116 of Between Now & Heartbreak

I look back at this asshole, and he’s eating his steak again, and he looks positively giddy.

“You’re delusional, ” I say, but sit back down, a prickle of worry piercing my anger and bravado.

He smiles.

“I find her a little… vanilla, but she’s prime pussy, isn’t she? Enjoy her. But when you’re done, throw her back. I’m more interested in her other assets anyway.”

My blood runs cold at his words.

“Men like you make me ashamed to be a man.”

He rolls his eyes and effects a bored expression while he makes a show out of cutting his steak.

“You’re aboywho plays the piano,” he sneers before he shovels a huge piece into his mouth.

I remember Liz telling me about his closet bisexuality and I can’t resist the opening he just gave me.

“And you’re a man who dreams about marrying princesses.”

The words whizz through the air, shed their disguises, and he looks stricken as they land.

He freezes mid-chew.

His eyes narrow, his face flushes scarlet and his fist tightens around the handle of the steak knife he’s still holding. He looks like he wants to plunge it into my eye.

I grin at him.

“She’llpay for that and every other insult you hurl my way,” he says coldly and the humor I was enjoying at his expense is shattered. He’s not bothered at all. In fact, he seems downright happy.

“If you touch her, I’ll kill you.”

He chuckles and puts more steak in his mouth.

“Oh, I’ve been as young and as hotheaded as you. So, I won’t report that threat because I know you don’t mean it. But the longer you drag this out, the worse it will be for her when it ends.” He smiles dryly and examines his fingernails.

“It’s not going to end.”

He smiles at me and there’s a darkness that chills me. I have the awful sensation that comes from swallowing something before you’ve chewed it properly.

“Oh. Itwillend. And, I’ll take her back. But first, I will make hercrawl.”

I laugh, dark and mocking and loud.

His face contorts and turns red at the ridicule in my expression.

“Glad you think it’s funny, I’m sure she won’t.” The threat in his eyes and in his voice is chilling.

“She’ll never crawl for you. If you think that, you don’t know her at all.”

He shrugs.

“She’s a woman. They’re all the same. The only time she forgets her place is when she’s with a weak man who doesn’t remind her. When she’s married to me, she’ll never forget it.”

He takes a casual sip of his Scotch and then shoves more steak in his mouth. His self-assured smile back in place.

Like all is right in his world.

My anger is like a geyser, unexpected and explosive. I lean across the table and grab his lapels. My arms knock his glass over and send it crashing to the floor. Gasps of shock mingle with the scrape of hastily pushed back chairs and the clatter of dropped silverware.

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