Page 38 of When the Last One Falls
“No, you’re right,” I agreed. “There really is no reason for not leaving with you.”
Ares smirked. “I’ll even apologize for the last time that we met.”
Surprisingly, that got a soft smile out of me. “Such a gentleman.”
Ares grinned, and when he wasn’t being a disgusting slimeball, he really was handsome. “While you do have my apologies, I can see that you’re not going to leave with me.”
My brows furrowed a bit. “Why do you say that?”
“Because you’ve done the unthinkable, my dear,” he said dramatically. “You’ve gone and fallen in love with your husband when you really shouldn’t have.”
“You don’t know-”
“Keris, it’s written all over your face,” he informed me. “No one’s that good of an actor.”
“Why do you hate Brantley so much?” I asked, deflecting from the truth.
“It’s just an old business rivalry that’s gotten out of hand,” he answered truthfully. “One that I welcome and enjoy because it keeps me at the top of my game.”
“Do you even want to sleep with me?” I asked. “Or would it all be for Brantley’s sake?”
“Oh, make no mistake,” he said wolfishly. “I most definitely want to fuck you. I’d just prefer that you not be thinking of him while I’m inside you.”
“I didn’t peg you for being high maintenance,” I teased.
He winked, but then quickly got serious. “I think that you should leave.”
My head jerked in confusion. “What?”
“I think that you should leave,” he repeated. “If Kingston follows you, then you be honest with him. Tell him that you love him and make your marriage work. If he doesn’t follow you, then you have your answer. You can decide your next move, knowing that your marriage is truly over.”
“What makes you think that I haven’t already told him that I love him?” I posed.
A small dimple twinkled in his left cheek. “Because, after everything that I’ve learned about you, if a goddess like you told me that she loved me, I wouldn’t even dream about looking at another woman,” he said, and I could feel embarrassing pressure forming behind my eyes.
It was so weird to be having this honest conversation with a virtual stranger, but since he wasn’t invested in me or my emotions, I could count on the truth from him. Granted, Dylan was also all about the truth, but she’d also been the one to advise me to tell Brantley the truth of how I felt and look at where that got me.
“He won’t follow me,” I said, voicing my greatest fear in this moment.
Ares looked at me understandingly. “No, he won’t,” he agreed. “Brantley Kingston doesn’t chase women. He chases business deals, money, power, and status, but women not so much.”
I eyed Ares. “I still don’t know why you’re helping me, Ares.”
“Because I owe you,” he answered simply. “What I did the first time that we’d met was wrong. I dragged you into this thing between me and Kingston, and that had been unfair of me. Consider this my apology.”
“Plus, you also want to sleep with me,” I added, a small smile playing on my lips.
“There is that,” he agreed good-naturedly.
I let out a heavy sigh. “Still, you’re not wrong. Even though I know that Brantley isn’t going to care about me walking out of this building, I still need it spelled out for me.”
“The letters will be bigger if you allow me to escort you outside,” he said, and Ares was right again. If me walking out with Ares wasn’t enough to make Brantley come after me, then we were officially over. The writing would be written all over the wall, and I did havesomepride after all.
I opened my purse to leave a tip, but Ares had quickly stopped me. “I’m not a cad all of the time, Keris Bishop,” he said as he pulled out his wallet. “Believe it or not, I do know how to treat a woman. Especially, when she’s not married to my business rival.”
“But Iammarried to your business rival,” I pointed out.
“Not for long, I think,” he replied brutally, and I couldn’t even argue with him.
