Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 57779 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 289(@200wpm)___ 231(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57779 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 289(@200wpm)___ 231(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
I’m an inch from his bloodied and bruised face when I ask, “What is this I hear about you wanting her house and her dog?”
11
MIRANDA
Shiloh, my business partner, who isn’t actually my business partner since she refuses to accept the title, slips into my car before fighting past her crazy curls to grab the seat belt latch.
“I was starting to think you weren’t coming. You are usually half an hour early…” She stops talking with the silver part of the belt suspended in midair.
I start to panic that I wear harlot well when she slings her eyes to me so fast that I’m certain she’ll be out of commission for a month with whiplash.
She doesn’t speak. She just stares, her gawk a cross between admiration and disgust.
The cause of her alarm dawns when she murmurs, “It worked.”
Since she isn’t asking a question, more summarizing, I remain quiet.
“The teddy worked.”
She looks like she wants to vomit. Since it is a rare expression for her to wear, I double the urge by waggling my brows.
Shiloh pushes past the carrot I’m dangling in front of her, going straight for the juicy slice of cake our out-of-town meetings usually inspire.
Roy has me on a banned list at all bakeries and cafes within fifteen miles of our home.
“Nope. No. I refuse to believe it.” She finishes latching her belt so I can begin our trip to our latest client’s chosen wedding location. “I’ve known Roy for as long as I’ve known your sexy ass. He doesn’t have this”—she wiggles her perfectly polished nails in my face—“in him.” I roll my eyes when she says, “Where the hell has my I-haven’t-climaxed-in-my-entire-adult-life boss gone? This hussy ain’t her.”
She sniffs me, doubling the heat of the stare of the person stopped at the traffic light next to us. He looks as desperate to take a bite out of Shiloh’s booty as Nero was mine last night.
“How many times did you orgasm over the weekend? From the sweat slicking your skin, I’d say over half a dozen.” She tsks, her head cracking side to side. “So I stand by my statement. Roy does not have this in him.”
I hold on for as long as I can before breaking the news, and then I try to take the non-adulterous route.
“Roy filed for divorce on day zero of the four-day anniversary-moon vacation I forced him to take so we could spend some quality time together.”
Shiloh scoffs, but that’s the beginning and end of her reply.
“It was couriered to me while he was in a honeymoon suite… with his mistress.”
She’s practically panting, dying for me to continue.
Since I am just as desperate to move through my shock of the past few days, I continue.
“While wearing the teddy you mentioned earlier, I went to the hotel to confront him.”
If she gets up in my business any more, she’ll be sitting on my lap. That’s how close she sits to make sure she doesn’t miss a word I speak.
“Roy wasn’t the only person in the room when I let myself in.”
My silence leaves Shiloh no option but to interrupt. “Someone was there with him?” When I nod, her mouth falls open. “His mistress?”
“No,” I answer a little too loudly. I startle the commuter next to us as much as the person behind him does when they beep, announcing to him the light has switched to green. I shift to first while saying, “It was the husband of his mistress.”
That sounds bad even to me, but Shiloh acts oblivious. “Holy shit cakes. So the people who were being cheated on cheated with each other?”
I hate the way she makes it sound, but there’s no denying the truth.
I nod, and again, Shiloh’s mouth falls open. “What did he look like? Was he hot? Did he have tattoos? Did he do nasty shit to you? Was he everything Roy will never be?”
My nods are endless, and they feel as freeing as Nero’s attention has made me.
“He was…” I bite my bottom lip, and Shiloh goes crazy. She rocks her hips and makes inappropriate noises like I wasn’t married the last time we spoke.
“Miranda!” She looks like she wants to pinch my cheeks like my aunts did in my youth. “I’m so fucking happy for you. This is exactly what you need.”
“It’s not like that,” I say, shifting gears. I bought a stick shift car on purpose. It means Roy can never borrow it. He can’t multitask, so steering and changing gears is above his skill set. “It was just an at the time type of thing.”
Shiloh sinks into her seat, her exhale a harrumph.
She only stays down for half a second. “Then why do you smell like a hot hunk of a man now? Your anniversary was four days ago.” Her tongue slithers like Hannibal. “I can practically taste the testosterone slicking your skin. If this god, who finally showed you what you’re worth, used protection, he must have marked his territory all over you with the remnants left in the bottom of the condom and you refused to shower.”