Cursing My Cheating Husband (Grovel For Me #1)

Chapter 1

CALLIE

As I assessed my reflection, it was hard not to feel like this was the night that had to save my marriage. Or at least, my sex life.

It was a lot of pressure to put on one evening, but I was running out of ideas.

But I was feeling optimistic about my plan.

The weather was certainly cooperating. After a long winter, it was the first gorgeous night of the year.

A warm spring breeze drifted in the open bedroom windows.

It felt like the universe giving me a helping hand, sending me the most perfectly romantic evening.

Which was exactly what Maddox and I needed.

We were still intimate sometimes, but we were down to once every few weeks, and that wasn’t nearly enough.

Especially for only three years into our marriage.

Our sex life had recently been a casualty of Maddox’s overwork, but I was determined to bring back that spark we’d lost. Because that was all this was.

Maddox still loved me. Maddox still wanted to start a family with me.

It was just that his job was burning him out.

He was climbing the ladder at one of the most prestigious financial firms in the country.

He worked hard and came home late and exhausted almost every night.

But tonight, I was going to overcome his exhaustion.

I’d been trying everything lately. Elaborate dinners that took me hours to prepare, only for him to pick at them while checking emails. Surprise date nights at the wine bar where we had our first kiss, where he’d spend the whole time texting Duke about work.

But at last I’d figured out what I needed to do: meet him on his own turf.

Tonight was the first game of the playoffs.

If there was one thing I knew for sure about my husband, it was that he never missed the final basketball games of the season, even if he was too busy to watch them at home with me.

I admired the outfit I’d assembled. I was decked out in his team colors. The fitted jersey hugged my curves perfectly, cropped just above my waist to show a hint of skin. The matching cheerleader-style skirt was shorter than anything I’d worn in years.

He always said he loved a woman who could appreciate sports.

Well, here I was, ready to cheer alongside him, ready to make this night about us connecting over something he was passionate about.

There was no way this wouldn’t work. I’d even spent the last week reading sports news so I could really talk to him about it.

Even better, his team was the favorite to win.

Nothing would put him in a mood to celebrate with me like a victory from them.

The door opened downstairs. He was home!

I arranged myself just so in front of the TV, the pre-game playing behind me. I struck a playfully seductive pose and put on a bright smile.

“I’m upstairs, babe! I have a surprise for you!”

Ugh, that had sounded way more eager than I wanted. Get it together, Callie. You’re going for fun and flirty. The cool wife who gets it. Ready to be his biggest fan in every way.

I checked my reflection one final time to confirm I was giving off the right vibe, and I was. Well, almost. My mascara had smudged just slightly.

Without thinking, I whispered a quick beauty spell under my breath, letting just the tiniest bit of magic flow through my fingertips as I touched the corner of my eye. The smudge vanished, leaving my makeup flawless.

Witches didn’t marry, so I had abandoned my magic for Maddox. Except little beauty spells. They were just too much of a timesaver to give up entirely.

The sound of his footsteps pounding up the stairs sent my heart into overdrive.

There were two hundred thirty pounds of pure muscle on that towering six foot four frame of his, and you could hear every ounce of that in those heavy steps.

Anticipation melted through me. My body remembered what it felt like to be desired by him, to be wanted. I craved that feeling again.

The bedroom door opened. Maddox strode in, and…

damn, he was beautiful. Still, years in, it struck me every single time I saw him.

His broad shoulders filled the doorway, the fabric of his dress shirt straining against his powerful biceps.

Dark stubble highlighted his sharp jaw. His thick, black hair was slightly mussed from the day. I wanted my hands in it.

And those eyes. Those hazel eyes, flecked with gold and green. I could get lost for hours in his commanding gaze.

He reached up to pull off his tie, the movement causing his shirt to pull taut across his pecs, and lust and hope surged within me. This gorgeous man was my husband. He was about to see me, really see me, and remember what we had.

But then his eyes landed on me. Annoyance sparkled darkly in them.

“Oh. What’s this?”

The dismissive disinterest in his tone knifed through me. All the confidence I had been brimming with a moment ago was gone instantly, nothing but vapor.

“I know you’ve been working so hard.” I hated how pleading I sounded. “The playoffs start in twenty minutes. I got your favorite wings. We could watch together. I even learned about the lineup changes so we could talk about…” The complete boredom on his face sent me trailing off weakly.

“Oh. Huh.”

He couldn’t care less. He couldn’t care less! I wanted to crawl into a hole and die. This was supposed to be his thing. His passion. I’d made myself into the perfect sports wife, and it didn’t tempt him even a little.

“Another night, maybe.” He dropped his keys and phone on the nightstand and brushed past me toward our master bathroom, undressing. “I just came back for a quick shower. Duke and I have to do client drinks tonight.”

“But the game—” I started.

“I’ll catch the highlights tomorrow,” he said, without even looking back.

And at that, he closed the bathroom door, leaving me standing there in a cheerleader costume that felt suddenly pathetic, surrounded by congealing chicken wings.

First, the hiss of the shower came through the door, quickly followed by harsh, grinding music. Maddox loved to blast angry metal when he showered.

He loved it much more than the thought of a night with me, apparently.

I wanted to cry. We were twenty-nine years old!

We’d only been married for three years and together for four!

Our anniversary had been last month, and he hadn’t acknowledged it with anything but a quick peck on the lips that morning!

We hadn’t had sex for a month! I had spent all week learning about offensive strategies and player statistics so he’d actually talk to me about something, and it had taken him one second to decide he had no interest in any of it!

Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Just hold on until he leaves.

I dropped onto the bed, the cheerleader skirt riding up ridiculously.

How had we gotten here? He used to text me all the time during the day with random thoughts...

a song that reminded him of me, or something funny a coworker said.

During movie nights, he’d pull me into his lap just because he wanted me close.

That had been our life. Until our first anniversary.

And then, this slow drift had started. He always reassured me it didn’t mean anything.

It was just a consequence of how demanding his career was.

And I knew his responsibilities were real.

He had to fight for promotions, and he had to put the hours in.

But I needed consideration too. How could he stand the distance that had crept into our marriage?

His phone dinged with an incoming text notification. I didn’t bother to look. His incoming messages didn’t display on the lock screen, and you had to unlock it with his passcode to see anything.

Not that I’d ever felt the need to search his devices before. I trusted Maddox. I didn’t need to sift through his private communications to know there was nothing to worry about.

Right?

I didn’t want to believe Maddox could be cheating on me. Our declining sex life didn’t have to mean that. And I couldn’t point to anything else suspicious.

But when I remembered his libido at the beginning… that man had struggled to be satisfied with sex once a day. He had never needed lingerie or costumes or elaborate setups to want me. That man had pounced on me when I was unshowered and hungover, or when I’d been sick for days.

I took in my reflection again. I looked good! Or good enough, anyway. The man I married would have taken one look at me in this outfit and forgotten all about client drinks. He would have said Duke could handle it himself.

I was staring at his phone. I had seen Maddox enter his passcode once, and I’d memorized it. Just in case of emergencies. But I had never used it.

I had never even thought of using it.

Because I trusted him completely.

Or I had. Until that moment.

I grabbed the phone before I could have second thoughts. My trembling fingers hastily pounded in the code.

And as his messaging app opened, my world fell apart. The tears I’d been trying to hold back tore out of me like I was being gutted with an inversion spell.

The text that had just come in was a nude selfie of a woman I’d never seen before. She was younger than me, more attractive, and infinitely more enticing than my sad cheerleader imitation.

I might throw up.

I didn’t want to look at any more of this.

Yet as I thought that, I was simultaneously scrolling back through their message thread.

Her name was Gwen. The conversation was months long, at least. I couldn’t bring myself to scroll back far enough to see if it had been years. Their message thread was filled with nudes of her from every possible angle.

And from Maddox to her, pic after pic of his enormous dick. So much exposed skin, mixed in with confirmations of the times and places for their meetups.

It was too much. I clicked back onto the main message screen.

Where I immediately spotted another text thread a few below the one with Gwen. This one with someone named Chelsea.

He’d never mentioned a Chelsea to me.

Knowing I’d regret it, I clicked on that thread as well. It opened with a nude of Chelsea, as provocative and alluring as the one from Gwen.

Maddox wasn’t just cheating on me. He was cheating on me with multiple women.

Through the tears and shattering pain, rage ignited.

My Maddox, the man I wanted to start a family with, the man I had given all of myself to, the man I had spent the last four years of my life trying to keep happy, the man I had set aside my magic for, had been betraying me with multiple women! I wanted to scream at him! I wanted to rip him apart!

As this rage boiled inside me, something else surged through my body: magic.

“No, not now,” I gasped. I didn’t have anywhere near the focus or the practice to channel this. I tried to suppress it, to push the magic back down, and the effort sent pain burning through me. If I lost control, there was no predicting the results.

This pain was all Maddox’s fault. How could he betray me like this? I wanted him to feel this. Our marriage was my whole life, and in a second, it was gone. He was the one who deserved to feel this. He was the one who should lose what matters most to him.

Indulging that vengeful thought sent me over the edge. My last efforts to maintain control crumbled as the magic surged past the tipping point and exploded out of me.

The room shook violently. I heaved with sobs, screaming as white light burst from my body.