Page 131 of Prince Charming

She’d all but abandoned him from the airport, not inviting him in. God, how unforgivable?

She hadn’t invited him over for dinner since either.Stupid Marianna.

He probably thought she didn’t care.

Or worse, she’d used him.

It wasn’t as though she was keeping him a secret.

That first night, she told Galina everything.

The Tag chapters most of all.

“It’s like a romantic movie, Marianna.” Galina had exclaimed.

She mentioned Tag’s name in daily conversations. The meals he liked or the movies they’d watched. Speaking about him in every conversation. And he didn’t know it because she was too scared to tell him she missed him, for fear he didn’t return the sentiment.

She missed him dreadfully.

Her life wasn’t either or.

She could have both.

She would work hard to have both, she decided.

But first, she needed to find out if this was the life he wanted too.

That night, after a hot shower and an even hotter fantasy about Tag which led to a swift,much neededrelease, she curled up on the couch to call him.

It rang four times and then connected to a voicemail box.

He’s busy. She told herself. Probably busy with his boys.

But what if he wasn’t busy with his boys?

What if he was busy with someone else?

As ludicrous as a thought could be, it settled like cement in her stomach and festered a little that night.

A lot.

It festered a lot.

* * *

Across town in the clubhouse, Tag was about to lose his shit.

His back to the bar, he tuned out Jed behind him.

Tag was watching Arson.

Sitting on one of the leather couches, the music loud enough to deafen, legs sprawled out in front. He had two women sitting either side of him. One had her leg leveraged over his thigh and she was nibbling on Arson’s neck.

Tag wasn’t paying attention to the women, didn’t care if his buddy were about to have a pay-per-view orgy.

It was the half bottle of Jack in Arson’s hand that bothered Tag.

“He’s been at it a while.” Jed said from behind him, “tried to get the boy to go home. Rider and Preacher tried too. He said he was fine.”

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