Zander took confident steps into the room, each of them making his heart swell a little more, until there was a monster in his chest, hungry for his touch. The look on his face alone engorged Elvie’s clitory senses. She squeezed her thighs together, her underwear damp between them.“Whose idea was this room?”“Mine.” Zander smirked.“Why?”“Because I like beautiful, lifeless things.” His finger hovered over her face, making minimal contact with a lock of her hair and moving it behind my ear. “They can’t talk back. They can’t screw you over. They can’t fuck your future.”“Is this where you take all your women?”“Jealous, wife.” His slight smirk made my chest hurt. “If you were my woman, you wouldn’t be standing here. You are my wife, and no, I don’t make a habit of fucking women against these replicas. They’re worth over $100,000 apiece and hard to come by. Pick a favourite,” he ordered—not asked—gesturing to the vast room.Elvie resumed her stroll among the marble statues, feeling his
Elvie tried to rub herself against Zander, but that resulted in him moving away. He continued to tongue her, all the way down to her stomach, screwing his tongue into her navel and groaning, his nose paving its way down to her panties. Zander used his teeth to lower her underwear to her knees and stared at her for a few seconds, burying his nose in her slit and taking a lungful of air, breathing it in.She nearly burst out of her skin, every nerve in her body dancing to the rhythm of his heartbeat.“This is mine no less than it is yours.” He kissed the slit, flicking his tongue over it and teasing her clit. “Spread them wide, wifey.”WifeyShe didn’t have to be asked twice. She threw one leg over each of the statue’s thighs, spreading herself so wide that her inner thighs burned. Zander licked her crack to slit before plunging deeper.Every once in a while, he brushed his thumb or forefinger against her leaking center and pressed it between her butt cheeks, wetting the area. Elvie had
Zander had never believed in miracles.His experience with life had been that it was pragmatic, uncontrollable, and unpredictable—with a royal introduction to all three when he’d caught his lawyer with Kristal’s mouth wrapped around his dick when or when he caught Matheo with Kristal in the same compromising situations.Needless to say, Zander was not impressed with the way his ex-wife handled both men as they conducted their spontaneous playdates. It triggered the same loathing he had with Elvie and her brother, and he thought Kristal was different. And boy, was he wrong.Zander divorced her after a huge fight, and from that point forward, he couldn't remember a time when he was happy with a woman—not until Elvie came back into his life with Thea in tow.He was just happy.He had a family.For all the shit he had been through together, for all the affairs and infidelities and fighting through lawyers and stooping so low, they made him wonder just how bad, exactly, humans could be; th
The next day, Elvie was bouncing on the balls of her feet, staring at Zander’s locked office door.Happiness and fear tasted weird in her mouth—not unpleasant, but surprising all the same. She was so used to worrying that she’d forgotten how it felt to simply be. But this morning had started off with Thea dashing out to her little tantrums about not seeing her father all the time, to which Zander agreed to visit them often, grabbing the bag with the lunch and snacks she’d made for her on her way to the car waiting for her downstairs. Elvie had asked her daughter a thousand times if she was sure she wasn't keeping cookies under her little bed in her room, which she knew Zander had sneaked the day before, and Thea said yes.It made no sense that Thea started siding with her father over her and calling her daddy often, and Elvie couldn't help but fear that she was being spoiled too much by Zander, but she let it slide. It had filled her heart with hope, even before she got the text messa
“It was my fault. I took our marriage for granted. I was blinded by something deeper. Emotionally, I thought I was capable of handling it on my own.” He cleared his throat, flipping his wrist to check his Rolex."What do you mean?" Elvie asked. She had never seen him like this before—opening up while completely shutting down. His eyes were anywhere but on her, but the rest of his face was tense and strong.He didn’t want to break.But something told her the version of him she knew was already beyond cracked."I can't tell you yet, Elvie. I can't and I won't. Not yet.""Is this about your parents?""You don't have to know.""Why, Zander? Don't you think I deserve to know?""Now now."“Why?” she whispered, trying to coax him with her eyes, which he couldn’t even meet.“That’s why everything is a complete clusterfuck, Elvie. It was someone else's fault. My parents' deaths are the end of me. Suffice it to say I think I know who killed them—much like I killed my emotions and my relationshi
Zander looked at her with the same hooded look he always had when he was with Elvie. He turned around and headed for the building silently, and she followed suit. The entire elevator ride upstairs, she thought about Patrick. What must it be like for Zander to see him around after what happened? About the tattoo on Patrick’s forearm of the smiling girl. Of Kristal. Now, Elvie wondered why those tattoos seemed familiar—it was her number one nemesis, and her guy friend was in love with Zander’s ex-wife. How ironic, she thought. And how he, too, was still dealing with the aftermath of her betrayal. Damn! The woman was amazingly bad. Thanos-kind of bad. Elvie almost wanted to shake her head and admire Kristal for making the men of her life dance on her hands like puppets. However, she was sad about how it must feel for Zander to spend time with his father’s best friend here in the SBS every day or even look at his ex-wife’s face. Elvie’s mind reeled. Ironic, indeed. The elevator dinged
“Say it,” Zander spat. “Say it, say that it was my fault and I was too naive to even have this loyalty towards you.”“You did what you thought was right. You are a good man, Zan. I owe you!”“Fuck you, Patrick!” he yelled, “Fuck you!” He wanted to have that piece of positive vibe from him, but he couldn't for the love of God. He couldn't! The pain of losing his parents was too massive! Too—painful! Their deaths were his nightmare! Was it even his fault? Or was he just blaming someone with a new piece that would make him feel alive, even if just for a second?Patrick sat forward on the couch, his elbows propped on his knees. He clutched his head, staring down at the floor.“At that time, I told Kristal I was clean, that I’d changed, and that I was crazy about her and that I wanted her back. Damn! I know I love her, and she loves me back. She believed me. We talked about Thailand, and she said she was going to wait for me until I came back, no matter when it was. Do you know what I said
“Look, I get it, okay? I screwed up, Zander. Do you think I don’t know that? Do you think I don’t understand the gravity of my mistake? Of messing with Patrick while you were grieving your parents? Of messing up with his father before our divorce? Of messing with our contract? And messing with Elvie?”Elvie and Kristal were the same age—three years his junior—and had attended the same private schools. They weren’t friends. Barely acquaintances. Elvie’s brother, Joey, and he were the best of friends, while Elvie wrote journals, went to poetry nights, and was obsessed with autobiographies about high-end math geniuses, numbers, and math olympiads, while Kristal was focused on partying, boys, and diets. They had nothing in common, and even though Elvie had never said it in so many words, when he and Joey partied, Zander knew that before he came into the picture, Kristal had been harassing Elvie, bullying her to set them up when she wasn’t mini-bullying her in the high school halls for her