Page 89 of The Holy Grail
“You were definitely rubbing him the wrong way. Did you see the way he was looking at you?”
“Of course. I was right across from him—and it didn’t bother me at all.”
“Really?”
“Really. I’m not afraid of your dad,” Jules said, patting his knee. “Which is probably one of the main reasons why he doesn’t like me … although I did give him plenty to work with tonight.”
He chuckled softly. “Gwen used to kiss his ass. God, I hated that.”
“Gross. I would never do that, so nothing to worry about there.”
“My mom definitely liked you, though.”
“I hope so.”
Just then, Malcom’s phone pinged with an incoming text. Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he looked down at the message from his mom and smiled, before showing it to Jules.
BEVERLY: She’s delightful.
Chapter 27
Gwen and the end, Part I
“I’m not used to pillow talk, but I was wondering about something,” Jules said slowly, as she lay in the crook of Malcom’s arm. She was on her back, playing with his hand. After the dinner with his parents, they’d returned to his place and jumped on each other almost immediately.
“Hopefully it’s not about my sexual performance, because I thought it was pretty good,” he mused.
She gave him a little elbow to the ribs. “It’s not about that. That was pretty good.”
After pretending to wipe his brow in relief, he switched back to her original comment and asked, “So what were you wondering about?”
“I was wondering about your marriage … and why it ended.”
Her question was so unexpected he was at a loss for several seconds, other than to think she really might want to work on her pillow talk skills.
“You said Gwen wanted more than you were willing to give,” Jules said. “What did you mean by that?”
“It might be better if I start at the beginning,” he told her, knowing the telling of this story was going to be … not fun.
“Okay.”
“We met through a mutual friend—well, more like a mutual acquaintance—and I was really attracted to her. She was very pretty—” he broke off. “Shit, you probably don’t want to hear about that.”
Julesshifted to her side so she could look at him. “It doesn’t bother me to hear your ex-wife was pretty and you were attracted to her—I’ve always assumed that was the case.” She kissed him firmly. “I’m not intimidated or threatened by pretty women, so feel free to be honest, and don’t be worried about upsetting me.”
After she settled back in place, he continued. “Gwen was always more outgoing and social than I was. We went out a lot during that first year of dating, but I thought after we got married, she’d be more inclined to stay in.”
“Hang out and watch Netflix with you on the couch?”
“Exactly.”
“I’m guessing she didn’t?”
“No.” He paused for a moment. “And then her sexual appetite started to … evolve, I guess you could say.”
“Evolve, how?”
“Well, she’d always been adventurous, which I appreciated—” he paused to clear his throat, “—but she started to push boundaries. It began with teasing me in restaurants, when we were seated in a booth, side-by-side. One night she was being particularly affectionate and she slid her hand in between my legs and grabbed my cock. Needless to say, I was a little surprised, but I … went with it, because it felt good and no one could see us. What I didn’t enjoy was having blue balls during the entire meal, and all I could think about was getting home as soon as possible and having sex. When we got to the car, before I could open her door, she had me pinned against it, and, um …”
