Page 175 of Lovers' Dance: Vol. 2

Matt’s mouth hung wide open for a second, his eyebrows had shot straight up. “What? Beg pardon?”

“Yeah, I said it,” the decibels of my voice had dropped into a low snarly sort of tone. “For all I know, this could be some elaborate scheme of yours to get rid of me,” My face twisted into a derisive sneer. “I never did sign a pre or postnuptial agreement, did I?”

Matt inhaled sharply, the skin of his cheeks was slowly getting redder with each passing second then he let rip. “You’re insane. Completely and utterly insane.”

“Makes sense to me,” I retorted. “You wanted out of our marriage and instead of being a real man who used real words to say this isn’t working, you chose the coward’s way out and fabricated evidence of my infidelity so you could screw me out of a divorce settlement. I watch tv! People do crazy stuff like that all the time, especially wealthy people.”

Matt just blinked incredulously at me. Huh. The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. Surely this was not going to end well.

“You and I both know that isnotwhat happened,” His scathing tone didn’t scare me. Nuh uh, not one bit.

“Really?” I scorned. “WellIknow I didn’t do anything wrong, and you found my replacement pretty quick. I saw the pictures on the net. You and some big-boobed beauty at a function.” Thinking of that photo made my heart hurt. “You were practically groping her butt. How long have you been seeingher? Feeling her up in front of everyone. We’re still married, you jerk.”

“She’s an associate of mine who kindly accompanied me to an event and I did nothing of the sort,” Matt snarled. “You’re one to talk. Why the fuck do you have condoms in your bag?”

Oh.Ah, that’s why he’d been looking at my purse.

“I haven’t used any, and stop invading my privacy.”

“I’m not invading anything. It’s right there in the open.” Matt started to approach me then stopped mid-stride.

I think he realized us being near each other was not a good thing. Maybe he remembered he was in my house and I could probably get away with killing him by claiming self-defence. Ha! His next words were cutting though, sharper than the knife I was already envisioning stuck in his back with my hand wrapped around the handle.

“At least you’re being careful while you screw around, we should all be thankful for that. What I’m not thankful for was my health being put at risk. You’re damned lucky my tests came back clean.”

How bloody dare he. How dare he stand in my kitchen and speak to me like that. And he’d gotten himself tested because he thought I-

“Argh!” I threw my hands up in the air, frustrated beyond measure. There was no changing his mind about this. He believed without a doubt I was guilty. “I can’t wait until this year is over and you’re out of my life.”

“The feeling is mutual.” he snapped back.

“You’re so up your own ass, you can’t see the woods for the trees.” I hoped that insult burned, I couldn’t think up a better one in my addled state. “I don’t know what I ever saw in you.”

“We’re in England, it’s pronounced ‘arse’ and I can think of a few things,” Matt said coldly.

I knew exactly what he was insinuating. Fucking gazillionaire. It always came back to the money with these people. “I hope you’re happy with that brunette,” I needled, wanting to hurt him back. “She looks like she can’t string two words together, the conversation must be scintillating,” I flicked my curls over one shoulder.

“She’s a very competent C.O.O of a multi-national corporation and you sound jealous,” his saccharine tone had me seeing red.

I was jealous, damn him to hell, him and that stupid scruffy stubble of his. It was the newer and improved version of SSS, forget sexy stubble spell. I was gaining immunity. “Please. I wouldn’t take you back if you were thelastman on earth and the continuation of mankind was dependant on us.”

“Ha.” His exclamation made me jump. “That’s rich coming from you. You don’t even want children.”

I couldn’t deny the fact. He was right, I didn’t want kids. But hell if I was going to let him have the last word. “You never listened to me, Matt. It was always ‘your way or the highway’. I honestly don’t care anymore,” Weeks of pent up confusion, hurt, and anger came pouring from my lips. “We were fooling ourselves into believing a marriage would ever work. How can you stand there so self-righteously as if you’re a saint? You obviously had no faith in me, you consistently subjected me to mentaltorture,” Ok, maybe that was a slight exaggeration, but he had made me feel quite bad after the Dougie incident. “And,andyou took my bodyguard away when we split up! I never wanted one or actually spoke to him, he lurked in the shadows which freaked me out. Mental torture, see…but still, it’s the principle involved. Youpromisedto always put me first and I did everything you wanted-”

“Mental torture? You- I swear- Bollocks,” his enraged shout stopped me in my tracks and his eyes raked over me with savage contempt. “All I wanted was for you to love me forever but you couldn’t do that. You just couldn’t keep your bloody knickers on, could you?”

I had no answer to give. What was the point? The more I denied it, the angrier he got. What was that Shakespeare quote from Hamlet? Ah, yes: ‘The lady doth protest too much, methinks’. The more I protested my innocence, the less inclined Matt was to believe me. We scowled at each other. Matt was unwilling to bend, and I was too tired to care. If this was a sign from God, I got the message loud and clear. I should not have gotten married.

“You’re not even Christian,” I mumbled, as if that proved anything more than the undeniable fact my thought process was not firing on all cylinders at present.

Matt rubbed his hands over his face and through his wavy hair;vigorous, frustrated. Then he took a deep breath and said, “I think I should leave.”

“I agree wholeheartedly, Matt.” Turning in my heels, I stalked out the kitchen. Again, he was close behind me. I was already planning how to deliver my final verbal jab. I would open my door then demand my keys back with such blistering contempt he would know I was over it. Over him.

When I got to the front door things didn’t go as planned. My hand did land on the door handle, and I did crack the door open a couple of inches. But then I felt him behind me, not touching, but close enough for me to feel the heat from his body. And his hand, oh I missed his hands; one of his hands landed on the wall next to the partially opened door. I froze, unsure of what was happening and too scared to move.

The air whispered past my lips in a sigh when he pressed himself against my back, and I melted. There was no other way to explain it, I melted into him. Another feathery sound escaped me when his other hand made its way to my hip before sliding across my stomach. My breathing was raspy now, and so was Matt’s.

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