Sighing, I saved my work and shut my laptop. It was time for me to get ready for Jill and Damon’s barbecue anyway. Or should I say engagement party? That’s what it was, but they had wanted to keep it casual, which I loved.
I smiled as I thought of the happy couple. Although their relationship had developed quickly, it was easy to see they were made for each other. Just watching how Jill lit up whenever Damon walked into a room was enough to make anyone believe in happily-ever-afters.
Putting my laptop to the side, I made my way to my room to get dressed for the evening. Mentally going over what I wanted to wear while still mulling over happily-ever-afters.
I was a faithful believer that everybody deserved to find true love, no matter how dark their past was. An image of Chris flashed in my mind’s eye and I frowned.
I had been so young and stupid when I had decided he was the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Like Jill and Damon, Chris and I had a fast start at marriage, but I was at fault for that. Maybe if I had dated him longer than three months before asking him to marry me, things would’ve been different. Yeah, that’s right, I asked him.
I was desperate to get out of my parents’ house, enough to all but beg the first guy who showed me any type of affection to marry me. Pathetic, I know.
Looking back, I should have just moved out on my own, maybe gone to college. Relied on myself to find my own self-worth and not look for confirmation in someone else’s arms.
I would have saved myself a lot of mental scars if I had. I didn’t have any physical scars, thank goodness. But, sometimes I think the mental ones hurt more than the physical ones anyway. Chris may have been an abusive prick, but he was always smart enough not to inflict too much damage. No, he liked to make sure his rough treatment could always be covered by a long-sleeved shirt or a little bit of makeup.
I closed my eyes as shame washed over me. The same shame that always accompanied thoughts of my lack of courage when referring to my marriage. It had taken a long time for me to stop blaming myself for his actions.
Chris didn’t show his abusive side until after we married, otherwise, I never would have married him in the first place. Even after we got married he took a long time to show me that side of himself. Our marriage was fine for almost five years before he ever showed me the monster that lurked beneath his skin.
It had started small at first. We would go from having an insignificant argument to him ultimately blowing up and throwing things at the nearest wall. Of course, that scared the shit out of me, but he always apologized and blamed it on the stress he was feeling at work. He would ply me with gifts for weeks after the incident to make it up to me. I had been so desperate for the love he showed me I would always forgive him.
Things slowly escalated as the years went by. He went from breaking things by throwing them at the wall to throwing them at me. Never at my face, though. He always made sure to aim low so I could cover up the damage. He didn’t start laying hands on me until we had been married for seven years. That ranged from yanking me to him hard enough to bruise my wrists and upper arms, to slapping me with such force that it rattled my teeth.
I had become so used to his sick treatment of me I’d sunk into my old ways of hiding inside of myself and staying out of the way. The only time I showed any kind of life within was when I wrote my books. Each story had been my vise to escape my brutal reality.
We were married for another four years before I decided enough was enough and tried to divorce him. He declined immediately and what he did after that was so bad, I couldn’t even leave the house for a week. No amount of makeup was able to cover the damage he inflicted that time.
After that, I shut down completely. I refused to go anywhere or see anyone at all. If it hadn’t been for Tanner dragging me out of that house, I would’ve sunk into a depression so deep I would have never climbed back out again. He had helped me find the courage enough to talk about what was happening. A lot of good it did me, though.
When I say Tanner was the only one who believed me, I mean just that. Although, at first when I told my parents what was happening, they said they believed me. My father told me they would take care of everything and I didn’t need to worry about it any longer. I was to act as though nothing had been said, go on with my normal life, and just stay out of the way. So, that’s what I did. I went back home, kept out of Chris’s way, and waited.
I didn’t know at the time my parents had hired a PI to look into some of the dirtier deeds that Chris took part in. It was a closely kept family secret that Chris embezzled money from his company to line his own pockets. I had just wanted a divorce, but my parents were maniacal enough they had other ploys they wanted to cash in on.
I was truly a fool to ever think it was their love for me that drove them to help me in the first place. I found out after everything that dear ol’ Dad had wanted to absorb Chris’s company for a long time, and my predicament only proved to work in his favor.
The private investigator they hired was commissioned to follow Chris around for months and find a way into his inner circle. He needed to find hard evidence to put Chris away and open the door for my father to step in.
That PI had been none other than Leonardo Cruz. The bane of my existence and the only man that made me feel truly cherished for the first time in my life. He was also the first man to betray me so completely.
Thoughts of Leo plagued me as I entered my big walk-in closet and thumbed through my sundresses. Jill wasn’t wrong when she said I could rival her collection of designer dresses. I had more money in my wardrobe than I did in kitchen appliances. The sad thing was, I didn’t care about any of it. It may be childish, but spending huge amounts of money on unnecessary things was just another way I could somehow punish the people who paid the bill each month. Even if I knew my shopping habit barely made a dent in their staggering wealth.
I could wear a dress I bought from Target just as easily as I could wear one from Neiman Marcus.
I grabbed a canary-yellow midi dress with a knee-length scalloped, lace-trimmed skirt. The deep V dipped low, almost to my belly button. I didn’t remember the name of the designer but it didn’t matter. It looked good on me and that’s all I cared about.
As I stood in front of the mirror and stripped out of my graphic t-shirt and cotton shorts that clung to my curves, I couldn’t halt the thoughts of Leo as they assaulted my mind.
Up until recently, it had been three years since the last time I’d seen him. Three years to get over the man that had fully consumed every waking thought and every unconscious dream. But three years had not been enough time to forgive him for what he’d done. Seeing him at Jill’s all those months ago had proven just that.
But God, he looked good standing there in my friend’s living room. He’d seemed to fill out even more since the last time I’d seen him in New York. Those honey-colored eyes had looked at me and I’d watched as they registered surprise then turned molten as they raked me from my head all the way to my toes. His hair was longer and his short beard looked softer. His tattoos were just as alluring on his creamy skin. How I secretly wanted him to take his shirt off so I could again see that tattoo-covered broad chest and ripped abdomen I knew lingered underneath. Would his muscles still flex the way they had all those years ago when I’d grazed my fingers along them? Would his thick cock still jump at the sight of me nude and splayed for his ministrations?
I clenched my thighs together as I felt the familiar coiling in my core. “Don’t go there, Em,” I mumbled to myself as I slipped my dress past my feet and pulled it up into place. I smoothed the cotton material down my curves and bent to put on my sandals. Straightening, I looked over the image I made in the mirror.
I used to bemoan my overly curvy physique, but as my time away from my abusive ex lengthened, I’d learned to love every inch of my body. It may have blemishes, including a little extra cellulite in some places, but it was mine and I owned that. My thicker frame was complementary to my height so that helped a lot.
I fluffed my curly strawberry-blonde hair and then applied a little gloss to my plump lips. The same lips Leo had worshiped those years ago. I shook my head to try to ward off further thoughts of him. He and I had our chance three years ago but that was over now. I couldn’t still be having these lusty thoughts about the man that had so wholly betrayed me.
If it weren’t for his lies, I wouldn’t be considered a vapid liar and maybe my family and I could have some sort of relationship.
When I was still in the dark about my family’s activities regarding Chris, I met Leo at a work function at Chris’s company. I remembered how miserable I’d been. It had been months since I’d revealed what was happening behind closed doors and still, nothing had changed.
I’d been in the middle of getting blindly drunk when Leo approached me at the open bar. If he’d known who I was he hadn’t let on to it. I just knew I didn’t know him at all. But I do know he was the only person to make me truly laugh for the first time in years.
He had been hired to become close to my husband, but in turn, he became close to me. Showing up at the house with Chris, coming to family functions, always finding a way into the inner circle. Always finding a way to get closer to me, it seemed.
Months of casual flirting when Chris was nowhere in sight had led to a short affair. Although brief, he still made me feel better than anyone ever had. He had taught me so much in our short time together. Like how to give over to someone so completely that they could make you feel ways you never thought possible.
When shit hit the fan, Chris revealed to me that he had known all along about my plan to have him tailed by a PI. When I claimed to have no idea what he was talking about, he slapped me across the face so hard I instantly tasted blood as I crashed to the floor. When I held my cheek and looked up at my husband, he threw a pile of pictures at me.
I had laid on the floor in our bedroom and thumbed through the photos with blurry eyes and dread in my stomach. For there was the evidence of my infidelity laid out for me. Candid shots of me and Leo in the throes of blinding passion. The moment I had felt the safest and most cherished was tarnished in just a few moments while my husband towered over me.
“Did you really think I wouldn’t find out about everything, Emily? I knew you hired Cruz the moment it happened. You think you can fuck with me?” he had shouted at me like I was the gum beneath his shoe.
I was too blindsided to respond as he continued. “I wasn’t about to let you ruin everything I’ve worked for. It took me no time at all to discover who exactly you hired and change his mind about who he was truly loyal to. If you pay someone enough money, they’ll do just about anything. Even fuck your pathetic excuse for a wife to prove she was a cheating whore the whole time,” he spat.
Shame washed over me. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about, Chris. Leo—” I tried before Chris brought his loafer-clad foot back and kicked me in the gut. All my breath left me in a rush and I was left gasping for air before he gripped my cheeks so hard my teeth sang.
“Leo,” he gritted in my face, “has a price tag it seems, honey. I know you hired him to get proof of my less-than-legal activities. Do you know how I know?” he crooned cruelly.
Tears streamed down my cheeks unabashedly as I openly sobbed at the realization of Leo’s betrayal that sank into my bones.
Chris smiled down at me but it was a nasty thing. “When I received the tip that someone was looking into me, I confronted your parents. They admitted you told them I was being a little rough with you. Don’t look so shocked, you know they’ve always had a hard-on for me. They sang like caged birds. They told me all about your little scheme to ruin me. So, I decided to turn the tables on you.” He squeezed my jaw one more time, dragging a whimper from me before pushing my face back down roughly.
“Here’s what’s going to happen.” He stood to his full height over me and fixed the cuffs of his designer jacket. He picked up a stack of papers from the bed and tossed them down to me. They hit the floor and scattered around me like some sort of sick confetti surprise.
“I’ve already signed every place required. You sign under my name and we’re done. You are also signing that you get nothing of mine. You leave here the way you came in, with nothing but a good name. If you don’t agree to the terms, then I’ll release all these photos of you and my employee for everyone to see. Then, I take your infidelity to court and take you for your whole inheritance, leaving you with absolutely nothing.” He sneered down at me before crouching to my level.
I watched his striking features through tear-blurred eyes. He was handsome in every traditional sense of the word. With his short, blond, elegantly styled hair and strong, clean-shaven jaw, he was a catch. His build was athletic but not overly muscular. Everything about him drew me in when we first met. But if you looked long enough into his dark-green eyes, you were sure to see the monster in his soul. He was the person who proved to me that some of the most beautiful creatures in this world were the most vicious of predators.
He started to drag the back of his knuckles against my busted lip before I flinched away from him. He smirked before dropping his hand. “It’s a real pity, you know. Someone so beautiful has to stoop so low to get someone to fuck her.”
It took everything in my being to not spit in his face at that moment. But, I’d been so hurt by everything I’d learned, I just wanted him to leave. I’d called Tanner right after and he came to help me get my things and get out. I hadn’t looked back either. Until now.
I had to keep reminding myself that I was doing this for Tanner. Only for him would I face those leeches again.
I tore myself from my thoughts long enough to finish getting ready for the engagement party. I would not let my treacherous memories ruin what should be a happy occasion for everyone. I just had to hope I wouldn’t be seeing Leo again tonight.
It had become obvious that he and Damon were friendly. I told myself that maybe it was just a work relationship, though, and he wouldn’t be involved in any wedding activities.
Shaking off all thoughts of him, I grabbed my things as well as my gift for the happy couple and left my house. I would let myself dwell in misery later. There was no place for it here at this moment.