Page 8 of The Marriage Bid
They all gave me surreptitious looks, but obeyed my command and filtered out of the meeting room, leaving Saffron and me separated by the large midnight blue oval table. “You have some nerve,” I said, crossing my arms.
She winced. “Hi Tyler.”
I hated how beautiful she still was even after five years. That stunning oval-shaped face haunted my dreams, and nothing on it had changed. She had grown even more beautiful. Thick eyelashes framed amber eyes, which many fake ones tried to imitate, but failed disastrously in doing so. And that body of sin. The well-tailored black pantsuit she wore hugged her slim curves, accentuating the bosom that always appeared large on her delicate frame. Her hold over me should have waned, especially after that night, but it was stronger than ever. Even after all these years, I was still getting a semi in her presence. Fuck my pathetic body.
“You’d better explain yourself. What did you do to my brother? Did you lie to him?”
She blanched. “Excuse me? I did not—”
“There was no way he would work with you if he knew who you were.”
It was her turn to cross her arms. She bent her head to the side, her voice slowly rising as she spoke. “Trust me, if I had known you’d be here, I would never have come except to get my divorce papers.”
“Speaking of which, what are you trying to pull? Divorce? Really?”
“What? You don’t want a divorce? I thought you didn’t want to marry me in the first place! I must have been confused with all the husbanding you’ve been doing all these years.”
I scoffed. “Trust me, I would rather be free than be shackled to you.”
“So? What’s your fucking problem?”
“You know damn well if it weren’t for your father blackmailing me, I wouldn’t be in this position. There’s a woman out there I want to marry, and I can’t because of you.”
Her face fell. Her combative stance flipped back to apologetic. “Tyler. I did not know what my father did to you when you married me. But we can fix it now if you just sign the divorce papers.”
I got out of my chair and strode over to where she stood. She was even more beautiful up close. She had tied her hair into a French chignon and left a few strands falling on her face. I desperately wanted to push them away, to caress her supple skin and feel it under mine again. The urge was so strong I balled my hands into fists.
“You know very well I can’t do it. Unless this is your game all along. Trigger a divorce so you can be free to send the information you hold on me to the press.”
Her face was full of confusion. She shook her head.
“Or maybe you know I can never say no to,” I pointed to her pitch that was still on the screen. “This. Because if I do, you will divorce me. Is that why?”
“Tyler, I only came here because my partner couldn’t make it. And she’s the one who approached Sebastian. Because trust me, I’ve been doing my best to avoid you and your family for years.”
I had to concede to that. When I spoke to Seb, he told me about a different person he was in communication with, but I still didn’t believe her. She could have easily used her so-calledpartner as a covert way to get to me. But then again, why would she do so after all these years? What did she want?
“Doesn’t matter. What I want to know is how you got into this room. How did you know I was here? Are you stalking me?”
She rolled her eyes. “I told you I don’t even want to work with you. I didn’t even know you’d be here; I thought I was meeting Sebastian. If it were up to me, I would not have bothered.”
“And yet…”
In the short time we were speaking, I had moved closer to her, or had she come to me? Either way, she was inches away from me now, and I could not stop obsessing over how the red lipstick she had on matched the complexion of her skin so well. She had enticing lips that made a man think of the nastiest stuff they could do as well as want to kiss them forever. My obsession with her seemingly never ended, and right now I wanted her under me.
Saffron must have caught the lust in my eyes because she frowned and stepped back, putting more space between us. I drew back, shame washing over me like a pervert caught ogling a naked woman.
“Should I assume I am not getting this deal?”
“Fuck no.”
I expected more fighting words from her. A snappy retort or at the very least a snide remark under her breath. But her shoulders dropped, and she disconnected her laptop from the projector, closed it, and slid it into her bag. Resigned, she turned to face me and said, “Nice meeting you again, husband. But if you’re not going to give me this deal, then I really want those divorce papers signed.”
I watched as she cat-walked out of the room, her years in the modeling industry showing in the way she swayed her hips. Like father, like daughter. Blackmailing me again. Was the moneyI was sending to her not enough? She acted as if her coming here after sending me divorce papers wasn’t linked, was all a coincidence, only to threaten me with it as she left. I had to say; her innocent-looking face almost fooled me. She could have been a marvelous actress had she pursued the career.
Frustrated, I left the boardroom a few minutes after her. I went back to my office and tried to work, but I couldn’t. So I gave up and went home. I didn’t want to think of her, and the office kept reminding me of my wife. The loft, however, was just as bad. For the first time in five years, I couldn’t stop thinking about our sexual encounter and how it began.
Bile filled my mouth as the memory of her father showing me the bribery came to mind. When I didn’t believe him, he then sent me images of my father meeting with the commissioner. And that wasn't all. He also had images of the two of them exchanging what suspiciously looked like a briefcase full of cash. And what’s worse? They weren’t alone. Another man was with them, a well-known Mafioso. It did not look good.
