Page 98 of Her Dreadful Will

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Soleil heard him whisper into Elena Brownell’s mind.Look at his phone, quick. Before he can hide it.

Reluctance emanated from Elena’s mind, and Soleil realized that she already knew—or strongly suspected—about the affair. Soleil spiked the woman’s curiosity, just to test her influence; and Elena Brownell snatched the phone from her husband’s hand.

“What the hell?” he snapped.

A quick thought-prompt from Achan, and Elena leaped from the bed, scanning the texts as she backed away from her husband. “No, David—what the hell isthis?” She held out the phone. “You’re banging that slut from your office? I knew it.”

I’ve got Elena, Achan thought to Soleil.The mayor is all you.

Soleil shifted her focus to David. Sifting through his panic, she plucked at the motives she could sense and pressed him to speak the truth.

“You don’t care about sex anymore,” David said. “What else am I supposed to do?”

“Who says I don’t care about sex?” shrilled his wife. “And since when is our marriage only about sex? What about all the support I’ve given you, for decades? What about my own career? My work is never a priority to you, ever! It’s always your events, your deadlines, your connections, your damn workload. I’m so sick of it! And I’m sick ofyou. I want sex, but not with you—you fat, hairy, balding piece of shit!”

Shocked, Soleil almost lost her control of the mayor’s will. His pain and surprise washed over her like a suffocating wave.

“Then who do you want?” David stammered.

“I want that hot young thing over at the dentist’s office. Or the muscled guy who pushes the carts at Costco. Or the pest control guy with the great arms. Literally anyone but you.”

“So go get one of those boys, if you think you can!” shouted the mayor.

“Maybe I will!” Elena’s eyes blazed and her arms trembled at her sides.

“Yeah, okay. See if they’ll put up with your saggy self when they could have any sweet little ass in town.”

Achan breathed a hint of chaos into the mix, and Elena Brownell hurled a decorative statuette at her husband. He dodged it, and it shattered against the wall. When he flung a pillow back, it struck his wife full in the face.

Soleil sent a pulse of reproach toward Achan.Take it easy.

His satisfaction was nearly palpable.But it’s so much fun.

Through the mayor’s eyes, Soleil watched Elena, panting and furious and fierce, like a cornered panther ready to pounce. She was beautiful, and wild, and her husband saw it. Soleil felt the tune of his desire switching from his assistant to his wife. He still had feelings for Elena, weak as they were, swathed in regret and buried under all those years of self-indulgence. Soleil couldn’t strengthen the emotions themselves, but she could boost his will to act on them.

Through Achan’s tether with Elena, Soleil could sense that the woman wanted a young, gorgeous guy to lust for her, so she could feel young and beautiful again. That was her painful truth, and it probably wouldn’t change. But beneath that desire lay a deeper, truer one—to be cherished and appreciated by the man she’d once loved more than herself.

Recklessly Soleil drew on the couple’s wills, sweeping their impulses to fresh heights just as Achan released a flood of chaos into the room. His shock mirrored her own, but it was too late—David and Elena crashed together, gripping and wrenching and throttling.

“You’re a sick bastard.” Elena seized her husband’s jaw in her hand. “A rat turd would make a better husband than you.”

He caught her wrist, breaking her hold on his face. “Who else would have put up with your constant nagging all these years? You used to be fun, and sweet. Now you’re a sad, sour bitch.” He flipped her onto the bed, climbing astride her the next second. The mattress creaked under the shifting weight.

“You know why I’m sad and sour? Because of you, moron.” Elena kicked him off, rolling him into the rustling sheets. Then she straddled him, her nightgown scrunched in silky folds around her thighs.

The two of them stared at each other, panting, heat suffusing their bodies, flaring hottest where Elena sat across her husband’s groin. Soleil’s own skin heated, an answering arousal slithering between her thighs.

“What happened to us, Elena?” David said. “We used to be so great together. Remember Naples?”

“Don’t you dare talk about Naples to me.” Elena smacked his face. “Not after you cheated on me with your office trash.”

“She’s nothing. She’s just living porn, I swear—I don’t care about her.”

“Likethatmakes it better? You think I’ll forgive you because you’re treating some other woman like a toy for your pleasure? You should have more respect for women than that!”

“But you just called her a piece of trash,” David objected.

“Because she’s a slut—”