I had only been asleep for an hour when I woke up again.
An arm over my stomach shattered my dreams. I was used to sleeping alone, having the whole bed to myself, so a touch was jarring.
I opened my eyes and looked at Sofia beside me. I felt like I’d gone back in time to when she was beside me always. Her brown hair was stretched across the pillow, and her lips were still red from her lipstick. Her eye makeup was smudged, but of course, she still looked like a million bucks.
I was transfixed as I stared at her.
But then I was annoyed.
What the hell was I doing?
Why did this keep happening?
She wasn’t even coming on to me. I was instigating all of it, so I couldn’t even blame her. Every time I thought she would end up in another man’s bed, I did whatever I could to stop that from happening. I had no idea why.
I grabbed her shoulder and gently shook her so she’d wake up. “Sofia.”
She blinked her eyes a couple times before she was awake enough to understand I was talking. “Hmm…”
“You should go home.”
She propped herself up on one elbow and looked at me. She blinked a couple more times before she became focused enough to understand what I’d just suggested. Then she looked pissed. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying right here because I’m not some stranger you’ll never see again. I’m different from all of them, and you know it.” She got comfortable under the sheets again. “I’m sleeping here, and I’m going to fuck you in the morning before I go.”
When I woke up the next morning, she made good on her word.
I tried to get out of bed, but she grabbed me by the arm and pushed me down. She straddled my hips then sank down onto my hard dick and didn’t give me a choice in the matter. She took me like I was already hers.
Once I was inside her, I was defeated. My dick was in the best pussy I’d ever had, and my eyes had never seen a sexier lady. She had a little belly from her pregnancy, but I liked it. Her stretch marks were badass, and her hips made her easier to grab on to.
And her tits…damn.
I lay back on the pillow and watched her bounce up and down on my dick like a professional. She kept her promise and fucked me good, fucked me so good that I forgot our circumstances altogether.
She brought herself to a climax in just a few minutes, and I followed behind her as soon as she was done.
With her, I couldn’t last long anymore.
The second she was done with me, she got off me and grabbed her clothes from the ground. She pulled on her old underwear and pulled the tight dress over her head and down her body. After quickly fixing her hair in the mirror, she pulled on her heels and walked off.
She didn’t say goodbye.
I may not feel the same way anymore, but everything else was the same.
I got addicted to her quickly…just as I did years ago. I was hypnotized by her beauty and totally mesmerized by her. My dick fell in love with her pussy instantly, and now he didn’t want anything else.
In just a short amount of time, I was right back to where I was.
Not that I wanted to be.
What was it about this woman that made me so damn infatuated?
I used to be a man, but she turned me into a little bitch.
I left my office and walked down the hallway until I pushed in his door. I was in a bad mood, so I didn’t care if he was with clients or doing something important.
Damien was on the phone, and he kept talking as he raised an eyebrow.
I snatched the phone out of his grasp and slammed it down onto the receiver.
Damien raised both arms in protest. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Stay the fuck away from Sofia.”
He slowly lowered his arms. “Hades…”
“I mean it. Go near her, and I’ll fucking kill you.”
“Why the hell do you care anyway? You don’t want her, right? She’s free to do whatever she wants, as am I.”
The idea of the two of them together made me angrier than I’d ever been in my life. The idea of him between her legs and her calling out his name made me want to pick up his desk and slam it on his head. Her sweaty body, her sexy curves naked on his bed while she rocked with him, made me so sick. “Did you fuck her?”
Damien got to his feet. “How is that any of your business?”
“Answer. The. Fucking. Question.”
He slid his hands into the pockets of his slacks and gave me a bored look.
“Motherfucker, do you want to die?”
“You know I don’t kiss and tell.”
I grabbed the phone on his desk and slammed it down like a gorilla, and then I shoved everything onto the floor. His laptop snapped in half, and his coffee destroyed all his papers.
Damien glanced down at the pile of his things. “You owe me a new computer.”
“Answer me, or you’ll be broken too.”
He stared at me for a long time without answering.
This was eating away at me. Damien had an ownership stake in a winery and also had stock in a shipping company. If he was the one Sofia was seeing, my head would explode. If it was him, she would lie about it. I couldn’t handle that kind of truth.
“Instead of focusing on me, why don’t you just get your wife back?”
My nostrils flared at his lack of response.
“Alright, I’ll answer you.” He raised his hands slightly so I would calm down. “But regardless of my answer, you should get her back. You’re losing your fucking mind. I’ve never seen you lose your shit like this before. If it’s not me, it’s going to be someone else.”
“Just answer me.”
“No.”
“No, you won’t answer me, or is no your answer?”
He answered calmly. “No. I haven’t slept with her.”
Fucking hallelujah. My hands went to my forehead, and I slowly dragged them down my face in relief.
“But you clearly want to. So why don’t you go do that instead of wasting your time with these women you don’t care about?”
I still resented her for what she did to me, but these feelings were pouring in again. It happened so quickly, I couldn’t believe it. I was so jealous, I turned into a psychopath. What the hell was wrong with me? “I’ll handle the meeting with John tonight.”
He raised an eyebrow. “So…you’re just gonna pretend this little tantrum didn’t happen?”
I glared at him.
“And you better buy me a new computer. I’m not kidding around about that.”
“If you care about your shit, don’t go sniffing around my wife.”
He grinned.
“What?”
His smile only grew. “Ex-wife.”
Most of my meetings took place in bars because rich and powerful men liked to show off just how rich and powerful they were. Their wives already knew what they were worth and were entitled to it, so they wanted to impress somebody new.
John was dull and stupid. He handed his money over for other people to manage, but he did it blindly, which was incredibly dumb. Good news for him, I was actually an honorable man when it came to business. But he hadn’t realized I was one of the few.
When we stopped talking and he became distracted by an admirer, I excused myself to the bar and got another drink.
I kept thinking about what Damien said.
Ex-wife.
I’d called Sofia my wife when she hadn’t been my wife in eight months.
Was that an honest mistake? Or was it an indication of my real feelings?
One thing was for sure—I was so fucking happy she hadn’t fucked Damien.
I probably would’ve killed him.
A brunette came my way and placed a drink in front of me. “Hi, I’m Veronica.” She was young and perky, with a high-pitched voice and a bubbly personality. She was the talkative type. You could tell just by looking at her.
“Hey.”
She pushed the drink toward me, a vodka cranberry. “I thought I’d buy you a drink before someone else does.”
I’d stopped being flattered by advances because they’d stopped meaning anything. They were just another person, another stranger. I knew there were women I’d slept with whom I wouldn’t recognize if I came face-to-face with them again. I wasn’t ashamed of my decisions, but now I found them pointless.
The best sex of my life had happened with one person.
I started to feel like shit, to feel ashamed of what I’d done.
Veronica began to talk about herself, her hobbies, like reading and rock-climbing.
I faced her head on, but I didn’t really pay attention to anything she said. I kept thinking about the way I’d screamed at Damien. I kept thinking about the way Sofia had told me off when I’d tried to kick her out of my bed. I thought of the way she’d fucked me the next morning.
My imagination must’ve run wild because Sofia appeared right before me.
In a tight purple dress, she placed herself in front of Veronica so she blocked her from view. She looked up at me with confidence, not anger or jealousy.
It took me a second to realize my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me.
Sofia grabbed the front of my shirt and pulled my lips to hers to kiss me.
As if I was under a spell, I didn’t resist at all. I kissed her back and closed my eyes like we were alone.
When she pulled away, she spoke so only I could hear her. “Do you want to go home with one of these dumb girls? Or go home with the only woman you actually want?” She stared at me possessively with those beautiful eyes, her hand still gripping the front of my t-shirt.
I didn’t want to cave. I didn’t want to lose. “We just slept together. I’m sorry if I misled you.”
Her confidence didn’t wane. “I think you only misled yourself. At least that’s how Damien made it sound when he told me you ransacked his office today…” She looked at me with victory in her eyes, like she knew she’d beaten me. “Do you usually call me your wife by accident?”
That fucking rat.
She smiled slightly before her fingers relaxed on my shirt. “Let’s go home.”
Veronica didn’t take her loss with grace. “Bitch, I was here first. Move.”
Sofia ignored her. “Come on.”
I wanted to fight my way out of this, but I knew there was no escape. She had me by the throat, and she knew it. We both knew I didn’t want to go home with anyone else. She knew I felt all those old emotions every time we were together. She knew she was the only woman I wanted to fuck.
Veronica didn’t give up. “Bitch, don’t make me ask again.” She grabbed Sofia by the wrist.
My reflexes were quicker than a striking cobra. I grabbed her hand before she could make contact. “Don’t touch my wife.”
All Sofia did was give me a smile, but that smile said everything.
It was the middle of the night.
I’d ended up exactly where I didn’t want to be, but I wasn’t surprised by it either. Fighting got me nowhere, and it sucked to lose over and over again. I went outside on the terrace and sat at the table. The end of summer was here, but it was still hot and humid like fall was nowhere in sight. In just my sweatpants, I sat there and looked at the lights from the city. A slight breeze moved through my short hair, and I rubbed the scruff on my jaw and realized I hadn’t shaved in days.
Sofia was right… I hadn’t wanted to go home with that girl.
Any girl.
But I didn’t want to be here either. I sat there for a long time and reflected on how much my life had changed. My biggest adversary was gone, and I was a man running the streets once again. But everything was different because everyone in the shadows knew I was the one who’d overthrown Maddox.
The terrace doors opened behind me, and Sofia joined me in the darkness. “Can’t sleep?”
No. I just didn’t want to sleep.
She moved to the seat across from me, wearing one of my oversized shirts. Since there was a slight breeze, her nipples hardened through the thin fabric of my t-shirt. When she sat down, her long legs stretched out before her, beautiful and tanned from the long summer. There was no baby monitor because Andrew was with his grandmother.
Her hands rested together on the table as she looked at me. Her hair was a mess, like a hurricane had passed directly through it
I was that hurricane.
Her brown strands were scattered across her shoulders, and her eyes had a sleepy look. Her skin was such a beautiful color because she was well rested and satisfied. With no makeup and nothing fancy to wear, she was still the most provocative thing in the world to look at. It was obvious she didn’t grasp just how truly stunning she was.
She gave me the opportunity to respond, but when that clearly wasn’t going to happen, she broke the silence with her feminine voice. “It’s ironic. I haven’t slept so well in a long time.”
Just a few months ago, I would’ve said I hated her. There was so much rage and resentment in my heart that I didn’t think I could feel anything positive for her. But now, my heart softened when she said those romantic words.
“And the second you leave the bed…I just know.”
It was exactly the way it used to be when we were married. She knew the instant I was gone. That was why I could never sneak out in the middle of the night. That was why I woke her up every time I came home, no matter how quiet I was.
Her eyes reflected the lights from the buildings behind me, giving them a special glow. I hated the way I felt about this woman, and no matter what I did, feelings always came rushing back. It didn’t matter what she did to hurt me…I always bounced back to her.
“You’re angry.” She could read my silence like my mood was words on a page. She kept her voice steady so she wouldn’t provoke me.
My eyes narrowed on her face.
“Why?”
“Because no matter what I do, I always end up here.” I always ended up on my knees for this one woman, so infatuated that I couldn’t see straight. My heart grew to three times its size, and I felt emotions I thought were impossible to feel.
“I know you want to end up here, Hades.”
My eyelids twitched in anger. “Trust me, I don’t. Since the day we met, I worked my ass off to be with a woman like you. I was honest, loyal, the most committed guy there ever was. And you treated me like shit.”
She didn’t overtly react. She seemed to digest the harsh insult I’d just thrown at her, but she did it with grace. “When we first met, you rushed me into something I wasn’t ready for. We’d only been hooking up for a few months when you asked me to be your wife. Then when we did get married, I wasn’t ready for that either. My experience with marriage had always been negative, borderline depressing…”
“You said all that already.”
Her eyes flashed with annoyance. “But I haven’t told you that you’ve completely changed my opinion about marriage. You made me believe in it, made me want to be your wife until death took me. You made me fall in love when I didn’t think that was possible. You made me trust a man when I didn’t think that was an option either. You opened my eyes to a whole new world I could never see. Now I want that life back more than anything in the world. I loved being married to you…and I would do anything to be married again.” She paused to take a breath, to gather her emotions. “I admit that I didn’t appreciate you as much as I should’ve. I admit I wasn’t the wife you deserve. I understand that I hurt you and now you don’t trust me…” Her eyes started to cloud with tears. “But I would spend the rest of my life trying to earn that trust back. I would be the wife I should’ve been before. I would bust my ass, work every day to make you happy. Hades, give me another chance.”
That speech should’ve meant nothing to me, but it tugged on my heart and made me bleed.
“I haven’t been seeing anybody.”
My chest stopped rising mid-breath.
“It wasn’t a coincidence that we were at the same bar. And all those men buying me drinks…they never had a chance. Damien and I never had any type of flirtatious relationship. I made all that up because I thought it was the only way to get your attention. Begging you to take me back wasn’t getting me anywhere. I’ve never given up on you… I’ll never give up on you.”
She’d played me like a fool. “You lied to me.”
She took a deep breath. “Yeah…I did. And I don’t regret it.”
I was relieved she hadn’t been screwing all those random guys for the last few months. She’d only been with me.
“Please give me another chance…”
My eyes diverted to the scenery around us, the dark buildings with little spots of light. Seconds passed before I looked at her again. I didn’t know what to say. I wanted to tell her it was never going to happen, that she had no chance, but I knew I would end up in bed with her over and over again. I was in this relationship even if I didn’t want to be. “You aren’t moving back in here, and we aren’t getting remarried.”
Her face relaxed when she understood what I said. “That’s fine.”
I’d gone to the gypsy so I could be free of this woman forever, but there was no spell strong enough to erase my feelings for her. I’d wiped them away once, but they grew back overnight.
“Thank you.” Her eyes started to gloss over with moisture.
“No one else…just the two of us.” I didn’t owe her my fidelity, but I didn’t want to be with anyone else anyway. And I definitely didn’t want her to be with anyone else either. I was slightly annoyed with myself for caving, but there was also this huge weight that lifted off my chest.
She left her chair and came toward me until she lowered herself into my lap. She used to sit like this all the time, keeping me company while I suffered one of my moods. She rested her forehead against mine and laid her palm against my chest.
My hand moved into her hair, and I held her close. My heart had already softened for this woman. This was exactly where I wanted to be…because it was the only place I ever felt happy.