Chapter 9
The days flew by, but that didn’t mean that she wasn’t on his mind. She was in his head more frequently than he wanted her there, especially as days passed with no contact.
They lost to Alabama on the road, but they’d fought hard and kept it a close game. The defense in particular had played their hearts out.
He spoke to Rosalie, his ex-wife, three days in a row.
She’d tried to talk him into letting her meet him in Birmingham, but he’d put her off.
The break-up had been bad, but they’d eventually managed to get on better terms, mostly because she still sought his advice on a lot of things.
That connection had turned into a few one-night stands.
It seemed strange to call them that, but it’s exactly what they were because he knew he would never remarry her.
The trouble was that other one-night stands didn’t work for him anymore.
Somewhere along the way, Rosalie’s idea that he should dominate her in the bedroom and discipline her when she broke his rules had turned into his thing, too.
He knew that taking charge was in his nature.
He’d always been the leader among his friends.
He’d run various student organizations, got involved in mentoring and coaching early on.
He hadn’t really tried to dominate the girls he’d dated in high school or college, but there had been urges.
He’d once flung a belligerent, drunk girlfriend over his shoulder and dumped her in a swimming pool.
She’d been furious and hysterical when she got out.
Her plan to walk four miles home wasn’t put to rest until he’d pinned her down on the grass and said he wasn’t letting her go anywhere while she was so drunk.
It was too big of a risk because she was so beautiful.
Any guy might grab her. The combination of physical strength and his contrived protective possessiveness won her over.
Soon they’d had the best sex of their relationship in the back of his car.
Nice and polite never got the job done the way a Tarzan of the Jungle routine could.
And honestly, the main reason he’d starting working out as a freshman in high school had been to impress girls.
It was the same reason he’d played sports.
It wasn’t until college that he’d become obsessed with football.
He’d met Rosalie in his senior year in college. While she’d been understanding about his practice schedule when he was a student athlete, she’d been less understanding when he spent even longer hours with the team as a coach.
He didn’t realize the marriage was in trouble for a long time.
They were still having sex all the time when he was home.
She was still constantly calling and texting for advice and to provoke him with a variety of bad behaviors designed to get his attention and to cause him to punish her.
Everything seemed to be sailing along. She’d even started to hang out with some female friends, which he’d thought was a good thing since he was on the road a lot.
When she started suggesting that she bring one of her girlfriends home for a threesome, the red flags had finally become apparent.
They still might have weathered it, except that he and the girlfriend had hated each other on sight, probably because they were too much alike.
Dean had immediately laid down the law, but it was tough to enforce when he was on the road for away games.
The battles has been intense, undermining his trust. Then the ultimate betrayal had happened, and everything he’d felt and had been fighting for was lost.
Rosalie’s lesbian affair hadn’t been a deal-breaker.
Somehow Dean hadn’t seen it as a threat the way an affair with a man would’ve been.
How could Hannah compete with him? He was a hundred and eighty pounds of muscle with a stiff cock that his wife loved.
To be satisfied, Rosalie needed her ass reddened every few days before sex.
Hannah certainly couldn’t deliver that the way he could.
Despite the fact that Rosalie and countless women before her had shown themselves to be excellent manipulators, he’d underestimated the power games Hannah could play.
New and different games than the ones he knew.
And she had the advantage of being constantly available and attentive while Dean frequently ignored minor texts from Rosalie when he was busy.
Rosalie, enjoying the competition between Hannah and Dean, had promised both that she’d stopped sleeping with the other.
The problem was that Rosalie took things farther.
She’d gone to a swingers party, got high and had had unprotected sex with two men that Hannah selected.
Dean was never meant to find out, but someone, presumably Hannah, made sure that he did.
The proof came in the form of two manila envelopes mailed to him at work.
The first were the negative results for STD testing that Rosalie had had done after the night.
The second envelope held printed pictures of the acts with the faces cropped out.
Dean hadn’t needed to see Rosalie’s face.
He knew his wife’s body and would’ve known it even without the careful inclusion of the small mole at the top of her right breast.
The fight had been surprisingly quiet from Dean’s end of things.
Rosalie had lied at first, but then when confronted with the clinic results, she cried and begged for forgiveness.
Dean had felt angry and betrayed, but eventually went numb.
She was not the woman he’d thought she was.
She definitely wasn’t the wife he wanted.
It had taken time to end the marriage. She’d initially tried to force him into marriage counseling and to drag things out.
He’d even had to pay someone to gather proof that she was still seeing Hannah to get the leverage to bring things to closure.
In the end, Rosalie finally admitted to him and herself that she didn’t know what she wanted.
He’d moved on, though not as completely as he wanted to. Casual hookups weren’t all that satisfying. Meghan was the first woman he’d forgone condoms with. She’d said she was taking birth control pills, which usually didn’t stop him from wearing a condom, but she was different.
He’d been more lax because Meghan wasn’t supposed to be a one-night stand. And yet, it seemed that that was just what she was turning out to be.