Chapter 19 #3
Tiffany didn’t step onto the back deck because Maddie had suggested Blaine might follow her. No, she needed some fresh air and a moment alone. She’d give everything she had for a cigarette, but she’d given them up a couple of months ago and was sticking to her resolve for Ashleigh’s sake.
But honestly, if she had to spend one more second surrounded by newly in love couples who couldn’t keep their hands to themselves, she was going to scream.
They were all so freaking happy. It made her want to barf.
She’d once been exactly like Grace and Stephanie and Laura and Sydney and even Maddie, smug in her conviction that she’d found the love of her life.
She’d married Jim when she was twenty and had been so certain their love affair would last a lifetime.
But at some point it had all gone wrong, and she still had no idea why.
She wanted to warn her friends to be careful. She wanted to tell them that sometimes things didn’t work out the way they were supposed to. She wanted to tell them that they could devote their whole heart and soul to a man only to be rebuffed for no good reason.
However, she doubted any of them would want to hear it. Hell, she hadn’t wanted to hear it, even when it became obvious that her husband had checked out of their marriage. It had taken him moving all the furniture out of their house for her to finally get a clue that it was over between them.
Deep-seated loneliness pierced through the layer of cynicism and bitterness she hid behind.
As much as she wanted to disdain the outbreak of happiness in her circle of friends, she couldn’t deny that she was envious.
When would she get her happily ever after?
Even her mother was stupid in love with Ned and happier than Tiffany had ever seen her.
No one deserved it more after what Francine had endured raising two kids on her own after her husband abandoned the family, but Tiffany was jealous of her own mother!
Shaking her head with disgust, she was about to return to the party when a dark shadow fell over her.
Tingling awareness had her entire body standing up to take notice.
He didn’t have to say a word. She knew who he was by the way her body reacted to his nearness.
Her nipples pebbled, and the ache between her legs reminded her of the incendiary incident in her kitchen and the single most amazing orgasm of her life.
“I’ve thought of you,” he said without preamble. The rough, sexy texture of his voice sent shivers dancing down her spine. “A lot.”
Tiffany cleared her throat and jammed trembling hands into the pockets of her jeans to ensure she wouldn’t do anything stupid like grab him and kiss him. “I’ve thought of you, too.”
Memories of that night came flooding back—handcuffing herself to Jim in a desperate attempt to get him to talk to her.
Her body burned with the mortification of remembering him calling the police and how Blaine responded to find her naked and handcuffed to her husband. Had any plan ever gone so wrong?
“Are you still married to the douchebag?”
The question drew an unsteady laugh from her. Jim’s histrionics that night had earned him no favor with Blaine. “Unfortunately, yes. But not for much longer.”
“Good.”
Her brain froze on the single gruffly spoken word. “Why is that good?”
He moved closer, and Tiffany stepped back, encountering the rail that encircled the deck.
In the dark, she could barely make out his chiseled features.
Her heart pounded with excitement and anticipation and a tiny bit of fear.
She barely knew this man and already understood that he had the power to demolish her in a way that Jim never could have.
Blaine’s work-callused finger landed on her chin and slid down over her neck and throat, leaving a trail of fire between her breasts, and hooking on the waistband of her jeans.
Tiffany was so startled and aroused she’d all but stopped breathing, until he tugged on her jeans, shocking her out of the stupor.
“The minute you’re free of him, the very same second it’s final, you’re going to call me.”
“Oh, I—”
He brought his face in so close to hers that the hint of his whiskers against her cheek and the mild, masculine scent of his cologne made her tremble madly. “You’re going to call me, and we’re going to pick up where we left off. Are we clear on how this is going to go?”
Tiffany didn’t know whether to be relieved to know there’d be more with him or outraged over his dominant tone. No one told her what to do!
When she didn’t answer him, he gave the waistband of her jeans a firmer tug that threw off her balance and caused her breasts to mash against his chest.
She gasped when her sensitized nipples made contact with hard muscle.
“I said, are we clear?”
While she wanted to protest his high-handedness, she was so aroused all she could manage was the briefest of nods. It was a shock to realize high-handedness turned her on.
“I didn’t hear you,” he growled in her ear.
“Yes,” she whispered. “We’re clear.”
“Good.” He released her so suddenly she nearly stumbled. Only his hands on her shoulders kept her from falling. And then his palm was on her face in a tender caress that stole the breath from her lungs.
She tipped her chin in invitation, needing his kiss more than she’d ever needed anything.
But then he dropped his hand and stepped back. Before she could register her disappointment, he was gone.
For a long time afterward, Tiffany stood on the deck taking deep, gulping breaths of cool autumn air. When the trembling finally subsided, she went inside to find Dan Torrington. It was time to get this divorce finalized.