Page 43 of The Hottest Daddy
It wasn’t until she had driven halfway back to Rockford that Sunday realized what he had called her.
Sunday was quiet all through dinner and later, when Berry was asleep, River went to find his lover. She was sitting in her office, reading another one of his father’s diaries.
“Hey, pretty girl.” He sat down beside her and hooked his arm around her shoulders. “Are you okay? You seem a little out of it.”
Sunday leaned her head on his shoulder. “Just thinking about stuff. Life. I saw Aria today.”
“You did? Strange, I didn’t hear about any girl fights.”
“Ha ha.” She chuckled then sighed. “We actually talked. She has some stuff going on, and she needed a friend.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah.”
He kissed her temple. “Making friends all over the state.”
Sunday nodded but she didn’t smile. “And I saw Brian Scanlan. I think our first impressions of him were right. He’s a creep.”
River’s eyes narrowed and he studied her. “Did he come onto you?”
Sunday nodded and River had to quell the pang of jealousy inside him. “I shut it down quick. Ugh. Why do men do that? He knows we’re together, so why on earth would he think I would respond to him in that way?”
River choked back a retort. It wasn’t Sunday’s fault. “Not all men, but you’re a beautiful woman. Douchebag likes to try his luck.”
“Douchebag is right. As if I’d go for anyone who had been with Ange—shit, baby, I didn’t mean …”
River had gotten up and was pacing the room. Sunday got up and reached for him, but he stepped away from her. Sunday’s eyes filled with tears. “I didn’t mean … you weren’twithher, River, she abused you. I misspoke. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean you.”
River drew in a deep breath. “But I was with her. We had sex.”
“No. Rape is not sex, River. It’s violence, sexualviolence. Did you ever seek out intercourse with her?”
“Of course not.”
“Well, then.” She gave a shaky laugh. “What I meant was, Scanlan voluntarily fucked that spider. Please, River, don’t push me away; you must know that’s what I meant.”
For a moment, River felt like running away. He didn’t want to feel sullied or unworthy of Sunday’s love, but he had to admit—it was at the back of his mind, always. There was some damage he hadn’t yet come to terms with.
Eventually though, he could not bear to be estranged from Sunday. He opened his arms and she went into them, the relief clear on her face. “I love you,” she said, “I want you and only you, for all time. You are my reason to live, River.”
He pressed his lips to hers, her words a salve to his fractured mind, and he knew, to move forward, he would have to deal with how he felt about what Angelina had done to him.
The idea came to him during the night and he woke Sunday up, apologizing. “I need to ask you something before I chicken out.”
She rubbed her eyes sleepily and sat up. “What is it, baby?”
“What you told Angelina, about you going deep cover to get my story—what if that was the truth? What if you went back to the career you gave up? Journalism. Help me tell my story, Sunday. The statute of limitations on having her arrested is way past … but we can still expose her.”
Sunday stared at him for a long moment, then she smiled. “You got it, baby. Let’s bring Angelina Marshall down.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Neither of them realized what it would take out of both of them to relive and to hear the horrors of Angelina’s abuse. Often, Sunday would end up sobbing with anger, or River would feel like he couldn’t face remembering, but together they made it through the worst of it. Sunday worked on the story, and River was stunned and thrilled by her love of her profession, seeing finally what she had given up.
He, in turn, upped his efforts to find her stalker and rid them of his menace. There had been a few incidents that caused them concern—silent phone calls, wreaths of dead flowers left at the gates of the property.
“It’s just so … prosaic,” Sunday said after one of the incidents. “It seems … the whole time in New York, he didn’t do any of this. I mean, he sent flowers, but not dead ones, and he never, ever called me. Maybe it’s not him. Maybe it’s Angelina fucking with us?”
