Chapter 19 #2
Those easygoing eyes seemed far off again. “Not sure if the things I do are better or worse but they’re necessary.”
“Seems we’re all doing a lot of necessary things lately.” I grumbled.
He shook his head as if he was shaking away whatever he was thinking about and then said, “I’m not sitting outside your room just for telling you the truth. And the truth is, most people, including her, don’t really have it out to get you.”
“Is that so?” I gave him a side-eye. “Did you ask her and get that answer directly?”
“Well, no, but—”
“Then you can’t know. Because, maybe most people don’t, but she does. She does because she is in love with Callahan.”
“I don’t think … you think she loves him?” That had him reconsidering. “They’ve been sleeping together for a few years.”
“Years?” I choked on that information. “And you think she doesn’t love him?”
“Well, shit, I don’t know. I don’t get anything about any of you.”
“Any of us being women?”
“Mia was willing to risk her whole life for her plants.”
“Did she save them?”
“The fact that you want to know that …”
“Well, I might risk a thing or two for my crochet supplies.” I shrugged and looked over at them.
He sighed. “What are you making, anyway?”
At first, I was making another axolotl stuffed animal for the orphanage I always donated to, but I had an idea. “I’m making you a sweater, of course.”
“Me? I don’t wear—”
“And I’ll need you at your post tomorrow to make sure it fits. So don’t forget. What’s your favorite color?”
“I don’t need—”
“What’s your favorite color?”
“Black,” he muttered. “Mia with her plants and now you with your crocheting.”
I chuckled. “The plants and Mia don’t seem so bad,” I admitted. “I’m surprised she’s with Jameson.”
Archer said, “She risked a lot staying here. She wanted to make sure her sister would be able to get out of a bad situation, and Jameson wanted the only teacher Franny trusted. He made it lucrative enough that Mia couldn’t say no … for her sister, mostly.”
“Is her sister okay?”
“Marian?” Archer stiffened at how the topic was suddenly on her, and I saw immediately that he was uncomfortable. “I think she’s … well, she’s … She doesn’t say much, but, I mean, she’s a beautiful girl, and it’s fine she doesn’t say much. Not that she’s my type or anything.”
“So, I’m going to stop you. Put you out of your misery and cut you off so that you stop making a fool of yourself.”
We both starting chuckling at that and were full-out laughing until I heard a woman’s laugh outside my door.
And I knew exactly who it was coming from.
He wouldn’t have. I mean, sure, I’d let Archer in here, but Callahan had to know Archer and I would never progress to relations.
With Demi, it was a given.
He’d called my bluff and raised it.
I stood immediately, ready for freaking war.
And, I admit, it wasn’t warranted. I’d told Callahan we could have an open marriage, but this was freaking disrespectful while I was home, in the house he told me would be mine also.
He wanted a viper, and he would get one. I strode toward the door, ready to rain hell down on him.
Archer stepped in front of my path, though. “Can I put you out of your misery and tell you not to go out there so you don’t make a fool of yourself?”
“Touché.” I walked over to yank my knife off the target. “Have I earned enough of your respect tonight that you’ll let me go to his room?”
“I don’t think you want to do that.” Archer shook his head at me, his eyes full of pity. That only fueled me more.
“Oh, I definitely do. You can either fight me and tell Callahan how you hurt his future wife, or let me go hurt him instead.”
He sucked on his teeth, weighing his options.
Then he smiled for real. I saw Archer as a man who wasn’t just trusted by Cal—I saw the mischievousness and maybe a bit of the need for chaos, like he’d enjoy knowing he allowed this to happen.
Then, he stepped to the side and said, “His room is the last one at the end of the hall. Do your worst, Ms. Ruiz.”
I padded down to the end of the hallway only to give myself a moment to listen to them. Maybe I was a masochist, or maybe I needed a reminder that Callahan would always be a man I should hate rather than fall for.
And hearing Demi say “I was nervous you wouldn’t call because of her, Cally baby” was all the reminder I needed. “Are you sure it’s fine we’re here?”
Still, I leaned in to hear what he would say back.
“Why wouldn’t it be fine?”
“Well, isn’t your fiancée living here with you?”
“Yes, she’s down the hall.”
“How can you stand living with a Ruiz? They’re all trash.”
He better say something—defend my name, tell her it wasn’t true.
Yet, he didn’t.
“Her last name doesn’t matter.”
“She’ll only be a contract wife though, right? Nothing more? This is a business transaction.”
He’d told her all that? That asshole.
“Demi, it doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter that she’s here either. I can do what I want when I want.”
She laughed, then murmured, “I love that about you. Taking what you want always.”
“And tonight, you’ll give me what I want. On your knees.”
“Cally, kiss me first. I missed you.”
I had to steady myself with a hand to the doorframe as silence stretched enough that I knew that’s what he was doing.
And then the masochist in me truly did come out, because I cracked the door so I could see.
So, I could see the man I was falling for, my soon-to-be husband, kissing another woman in the house he told me was going to be ours.
The bastard was kissing her when just that afternoon he’d made out with me against his freaking car.
I saw red, black, vivid and angry. I focused on that color and that rage rather than the hurt that sliced through my heart.
I heard Callahan say, “Knees.” And I gave myself two seconds to steady my hand from shaking with emotion before I flung the door the rest of the way open.
She didn’t turn around. Maybe she didn’t even hear me while she feverishly unbuckled his belt and got to the button.
But Callahan saw me. His blue-green eyes looked bored until they met mine. I saw how they changed right before me, how they grew with fire and fight.
My knife was at Demi’s throat before she could move, and she jumped at the feeling as I kneeled down beside her and said, “Go ahead, you whore. Suck my husband’s cock.”