Page 84 of Bound to Him
“So, what do you say? An hour? Two? Three? All night?” He rested his cheek on my shoulder and gazed up at me. I grabbed the beer bottle and my wedding ring clinked on the glass, drawing Holland’s attention. He brushed his pointer finger over the titanium. “I didn’t peg you for sentimental. Didn’t you get divorced a while ago?”
“Only a few months.”
A man on my right got up and left the bar, and I groaned when Antoine slid onto the stool. He was dressed in a suit, as usual, and his blond hair was brushed to the side. Fen pointed a finger at him and hustled off to mix him up a Manhattan, the only drink I’d ever seen him order.
“Sir. Elf.” Antoine nodded at Holland, who snickered and twiddled his fingers.
Holland leaned against me and up onto the bar, curving his body beautifully. “You’re so bad, Antoine. You ready to come to the dark side yet? I have some free time tonight.”
I snorted when Antoine’s lips thinned and he cleared his throat. “My wife would be furious if I ever did any such thing and she wasn’t here.”
Holland bounced, and a bad-boy grin took over his face as glitter rained onto the bar and me. “Bring her.”
Antoine nodded at Fen when he slid the Manhattan in front of him in a fussy martini glass with a cherry garnish laid across the top. “I doubt she would agree.”
“Never know until you ask.”
Giving Holland a small hug, I forced a smile. “I’m not in the mood, sweetie. I’m going to have my drink and go home. Maybe next week.”
“If you’re sure?” He pouted.
“I am, sugar britches. But I think a man over there is checking you out.” I nodded at the end of the bar where a fellow with a short white beard, who looked a stunning amount like the academy’s principal, happened to be sitting. I smirked to myself and shook my head as Holland sauntered off in his direction.
“What brings you here, Antoine?” I asked.
He gave me a long side-eye. “Sir, when are you going to work in the house again? It’s exhausting chasing you all over the countryside to do my job.”
“I’ll work where I want.”
Antoine was good company for a while. We both finished our drinks and ordered another, not talking, just two men of business existing together in the world. It was nice and not something I got often these days. I’d royally pissed him off when Noah left, and he hadn’t quit on me, but he’d been a lot less friendly.
It hurt.
It all fucking sucked.
Nothing had been good since that day.
“Why aren’t you home with your wife?” I glanced across the bar at Holland. “Or here with your wife. Whatever.”
“How long are you going to carry on like this?” he fired back, precisely like I was a child who needed a good talking to.
Straightening my shoulders, I loomed in his direction, but he didn’t budge, only stuck one of the cherries from his drink into his mouth. “Excuse me? I am a grown man here. I don’t need to be talked to like that.” But I laughed all the same.
Antoine sniffed and sipped his drink. “Yes, that makes your behavior worse, I agree.”
“What do you want from me?”
The bastard waited until I was taking a swallow of my beer, then asked, “Why haven’t you talked to Noah?”
For a few long seconds I thought I was on death’s door as I coughed and choked. A man I didn’t know patted my back, and a woman in a flashy evening dress passed me a napkin. Hearing his name spoken out loud hurt like a knife to the chest.
“Why would I do that? He signed the divorce papers fast enough. There’s no reason on God’s green earth he should’ve done anything different. I don’t know if you’re aware of this, Antoine, with us bein’ such good friends an’ all, but I’m quite often a stubborn bastard.”
He snorted and drained half his drink, not commenting.
It wasn’t like he needed to add anything, we both knew how I could be. “Noah and I had an agreement, I ended it early. It’s done. I accomplished everything I set out to do. Mark one in the win column for Alton Bouchard.” I checked off an imaginary box and was feeling a little loose and a lot bitter as I slapped my beer bottle down onto the bar with a clatter.
“Yes, people who are treated poorly and shouted at often don’t respond well to it.”
