Page 94 of Honeymoon Phase
My jaw drops. “It’s over two miles up the mountain. You’re not fucking walking.”
“I’m walking!” she screams, turning her back on me and making her way toward the highway, pausing as a semi goes squealing by.
“Damn it, Roe,” I growl, wishing I had my hat on so I could rip it off and chuck it to the ground.
My brothers, Dakota, Trista, and Cozy all stare at her stocky frame as she jogs across the blacktop and turns onto the gravel lane that winds up the mountain toward our cabins.
Dakota hands me Roe’s coat while Calder rests his hand on my shoulder. “Looks like you’re walking, bro.”
I sigh heavily and without a word, run across the highway to catch up to my wife.
Addison
My pulse rushes between my ears as I march up the snowy tire-worn path of Fletcher Mountain, the cold air biting the exposed flesh on my legs and my belly. My heart feels like it’s going to beat out of my chest and my lungs burn as I pant out a puff of air in front of me.
Walk it off, Addison. You just need to walk it off.
But an evil voice echoes in my mind as I recall the way that woman looked at Luke. She looked at him like she could eat him alive. She looked at him like he belonged to her.
And the way he looked back at her? What the actual fuck? We’re supposed to be exclusive through this arrangement. He shouldn’t have been looking at her at all!
Footsteps crunch behind me as Luke calls my name, but I refuse to turn around. I’m too angry to look at him. He’s going to hit me with that innocent puppy dog face that I will want to punch.
He finally catches up to me and drapes my coat over my shoulders. If I wasn’t freezing my ass off, I would chuck it the ground and make him pick it up. But goddamn it, it’s too cold for even my pride.
“Who the hell is Robyn?” I bite, my hands shaking with rage.
Luke makes a weird noise before replying, “She’s no one.”
“Bullshit no one,” I spit, a white cloud of mist dancing on my lips. “You’ve obviously fucked her.”
“So what,” Luke huffs, stomping in stride beside me. “I don’t know everyone that you’ve fucked.”
“Do you want to know?”
“Fuck no.”
“Good for you... but I want to know.”
“Why?”
I stop in my track and thrust my finger at my friend. “Because when a woman has her claws all over you like you’re open territory, it pisses me the fuck off. We’remarried, Luke.” I flash my ring to him as proof. The ring that I love more than I can even admit to myself.
“I know that.” He frowns back at me, his eyes looking soft and tender.
“So why lie to me?”
“Because I didn’t want you to know about this part of my life,” he roars, throwing his hands out wide. His face is stricken with fear and shame as his heavy exhales release plumes of vapor in front of him. His cheeks are red from the cold, and likely stress, as he grips the back of his neck and looks down at his feet. “Because it’s embarrassing and fucked on so many twisted levels. And because it would kill me if you ever thought less of me.”
“I wouldn’t think less of you for that,” I scoff, crossing my arms over my chest and shivering against the cold. “I’d think less of you for not being open with me though.”
“That’s rich coming from you.” Luke shakes his head, his entire body radiating defensiveness.
“What does that mean?”
“You keep me at arm’s length, Roe,” he cries, the veins in his neck bulging as he hits me with an intense look that takes my breath away. “You let me in but not all the way. I don’t feel safe with you because I don’t ever know that you’re not going to bolt. I mean, hell, I kissed you and you didn’t look at me for two weeks. You’re paying rent at your apartment in Boulder still because you need to make sure if you want to get away from me, you can. It’s plain as fucking day that if I make one wrong move... we’re done.”
“That’s how you see me?”
