Page 41 of Crashed
She’d stayed with him Friday and Saturday night. They’d spent all of Saturday watching old DVDs, eating junk food, and fucking like rabbits. He hadn’t been able to get enough of her.
He wanted her still.
The only reason he was at the office and not holed up in his apartment with her, was that Alex had to go to work, some urgent job Rusty had called her in for. A protest had been on the tip of his tongue when she told him she had to leave. But he knew her well enough to know that wouldn’t fly.
He tried not to come in to work on the weekends, especially on Sunday. But the apartment had felt empty after she’d left. A damn mausoleum, like she said the first time she’d seen it. And there was plenty for him to do here.
He had to go away for a few days, had meetings to prepare for, but he’d accomplished nothing, had been as good as useless all day.
“Screw this.” He grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair and headed for the door.
The elevator dinged as he shut the door behind him, and his ex-wife walked out. Her watery blue gaze lifted and caught on his immediately.
Jesus.
Tammy had obviously had fun spreading her poison.
Thank God he was in the office alone. He did not need an audience for this.
“Deacon.” A shaky smile covered her face, and he had to fight not to outright growl with the rage he was suddenly feeling.
He crossed his arms over his chest. “What are you doing here? How did you find me?”
“You weren’t at your apartment. I tried here next and saw your car.” She took another step toward him. “Can we talk?”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea, not after your friend’s performance the other night.”
She had the decency to blush, but then her lips twisted and her attempt at hiding her true colors became too much for his deceitful, manipulative ex. “What do you expect when you start parading that woman around town? It’s humiliating. We haven’t even been divorced long.”
“Nearly two years. Long enough to?—”
“What if people think you left me for that trash?”
“I would watch what you say about Alex in front of me.”
“Oh, really?”
Scrubbing his hands over his face, he struggled for patience. Emily had been fragile for years, undergoing regular counseling sessions. She’d been going since before they separated, sessions he was still paying for. But it was time for her to face the reality of their relationship—the fact that there wasn’t one anymore, and if he had his way, there never would be, of any kind, beyond a polite nod across a crowded room. “What do you want, Emily?”
“I want you to stop seeing her, stop taking her out like she’s more than a distraction, more than just a rebound.” She looked a little desperate, her eyes almost pleading with him not to say what he was about to.
“She’s none of those things. I care about Alex very much.” He watched his ex-wife carefully, looking for signs she might fall apart. “Where’s Steven? Does he know you’re here?”
She looked away. He knew she hated when he mentioned the poor bastard saddled with her now. Steven had once been a friend, an associate, until Deacon came home and found his wife screwing him in their bed. He hadn’t even blamed her for it. He didn’t love her, and her lies had made sure he never could. But the worst part was he’d been relieved that he’d finally had a way out, stupidly thinking he could hand his troubled wife off to the next idiot. But he’d been wrong. Emily still came to him during those tenuous times, needing his reassurance. He couldn’t do it anymore. It was time Stevie boy manned the hell up.
“He’s playing golf,” she whispered, bottom lip quivering.
She blinked and a tear slid down her cheek. “You never loved me, did you? It’s always been her. That filthy little nobody.
Did you want her the whole time we were together?”
“No.” But Alex had always been there. Hell, she’d carved a space in his heart the moment he’d met her. A scared, lonely little kid. Of course, he’d tried to make a go of things with Emily at the beginning, thinking if he worked at it hard enough, he could make a life with her. But the truth of it was, if Emily hadn’t lied to him, he and Alex wouldn’t have wasted so many years. He wouldn’t have been forced to bribe the woman he loved into spending time with him. That was a truth his ex-wife wasn’t ready to hear.
He’d let Alex go, for Emily. He’d put everything into making his marriage work in those first few months…until he’d discovered Emily had lied to him, had fooled him, had used the pain he carried from his own parents’ separation against him, to get what she wanted.
She wiped a tear from her cheek. “How can you be so cruel to me?”
Of course, he had to be doing this to hurt her. It would never occur to her that his relationship with Alex had sweet fuck all to do with her. “I don’t know what you want me to say. You lied to me, Emily, cheated…”
