Days passed. She tried to pretend nothing was wrong to the children, but she knew they could see beneath the surface, could see the tension that had suddenly appeared between their parents. And that was because Steve had refused to leave. He was smart enough to sleep on the couch in his study, but he was still in the house, still pushing himself into their daily lives.There was a time when she desperately wanted him to be home as often as possible. Now she wished he would just disappear.Every time she looked at him, she imagined him with another woman, kissing another woman, touching another woman. She wanted to ask what she had looked like, if she was a redhead, like her, or a brunette, or a blond. The one face Emma most often saw in the dark moments when she couldn't help but imagine the woman he had chosen was Liz's. His assistant had always been so possessive of Steve. It had occurred to Emma more than once that she would have jumped at the chance to be with him.Was it Liz?
It didn't occur to Emma to ask which spa they were going to until they had been on the road for nearly twenty minutes. As realization dawned, she leaned back in her seat and stared out the window, telling herself she should demand Jen turn the car around. She had signed on to get her nails done, not to have some compensated Lothario grope her.As though she could hear Emma's thoughts, Jen said, "They are nothing but discreet, Emma.""That's not the point.""You need this. You need to be treated like a woman."Emma shook her head. She couldn't argue with that, either. "But fighting a cheater by cheating seems counterproductive.""Don't think of it as cheating. It's not like you're in love with these guys. Though," she said with a chuckle, "you might certainly fall in love with their perfect bodies and perfectly huge cocks."Emma couldn't help but laugh. Leave it to Jen to twist things around and make the immoral seem mundane.Jen reached over and took her hand. "Listen, you don't
Emma followed Jen down the hallway some time later, her clothes, cellphone, and other personal items locked away in a room that seemed too luxurious to call a locker room. It was more like a suite in an ultra-expensive hotel. Her hands shook as she pulled the edges of the robe closer together. A group of three men headed their way, each dressed like a Roman slave. Their feet were encased in ropy sandals that looked ridiculously uncomfortable, their bodies hairless from their foreheads down, their hips wrapped in thick, white lengths of cloth that barely contained what hid beneath. Each one winked as they passed.Emma thought she might fall over from the rush of blood to her face."Unbelievable, right?" Jen whispered in her ear."Definitely," she replied.Jen grabbed her hand and led her down another corridor. They walked into a small room where another of the pretty French maids was waiting."Ladies," she said with a smile, gesturing for them to take a seat on a long couch covere
It was like no massage cubicle she had ever seen. To begin with, it wasn't a cubicle. It was a full room. And there wasn't just a massage table in sight.The room was filled with an array of things, some Emma had never seen. There were shelves along one wall that held every possible sex toy one could imagine. Emma found herself staring at dildos and vibrators in every shape and size, most of them reflecting the blues and purples of the room. There was a rack that had every type of whip imaginable draped over the pegs like winter coats. There were steel rings attached to the opposite wall at multiple heights and a few braced to the ceiling above. Off to one side was a contraption that looked nothing like the swing that hung from a tree in Emma's backyard. And it had what looked like a series of belts, as though a person needed to be seat belted in to use it.There was a settee off to one side, not unlike the one in Mrs. Hartley's office. But this one was missing the back, had straps o
Her cheeks felt as though they were still burning as she walked into her house several hours later. Jen had tried to get her to talk about it, had even offered more detail about her encounter with Ares than Emma could ever have wanted to know. But she couldn't.How could she talk about something she didn't even understand?How could she let him touch her like that?Emma's body still ached from Dante's touch. She could still feel the probing of his fingers, the thrust of his tongue. She licked her lips and she could taste sweet and spicy. She ran her hands over her breasts and could still feel her nipples puckered in anticipation of his touch.What was wrong with her?"Where were you?"Emma jumped as Steve's voice suddenly exploded behind her. She pushed the door closed before she turned. And wished she hadn't.He was drunk.His eyes were glassed over, his face flushed. He was holding on to the door jamb between the kitchen and foyer, his grip nearly white knuckled, clearly unst
"I want to go back."Jen studied Emma over the top of her coffee cup. "Emma, I don't""I want to go back. I want to know more about the things they do there.""Why?"Emma took a sip of her own coffee before glancing over her shoulder for eavesdroppers, even though she knew Steve and the boys were safely on their way to their appropriate Wednesday morning destinations. Then her eyes moved to the tightly closed door that opened into her recently completed studio. No one to worry about over there, either. They guys had taken the day off to wait for more supplies. Or something like that.But, somehow, she still felt like she was revealing a secret that had the power to destroy her."I just-" she bit her lip, annoyed that yet another blush was burning across her cheeks. "I just want to try it one more time."Jen put down her cup and sat back, her eyes moving slowly over Emma's face. "Did you tell Steve?"She nearly laughed at the thought. They might coexist in the same house, but it
Emma shouldered her way through the growing crowd, her camera clutched tight against her chest to protect it from an accidental jab from someone's elbow. She caught her mother's eye and offered a slight smile, as though to say, what can you expect?The smile faltered when Steve moved up behind her mother, tapping her shoulder to let her know he was there. Of all the school programs he had ever made it to since Seth had started school, he had to make it to this one. She wanted to scream with frustration. The last thing she needed today was Steve.But he was their father.Emma found a blank spot against a far wall. She lifted the camera to her eye, focusing the lens on the stage where Justin's class would soon appear. They had worked on this play for weeks. Emma knew Justin's part better than she suspected he knew it. He was so nervous this morning that he almost talked her into letting him stay home. She hoped he was better now that he was around his friends. But she suspected not.
The glass of wine tasted like sweet nectar on her tongue. It wasn't even five o'clock in the afternoon. She had just picked up the boys from school, should be in the dining room helping them with their homework. But she so needed the oblivion the wine offered. She wasn't sure how much longer she could do this.It took so much more effort to pretend that everything was okay than it did to accept defeat. Her marriage was over. She could say it to herself. Why couldn't she say it to him?Speaking of the devil. Steve walked into the room, tugging at the tie around his neck as he spotted the bottle of wine on the table. He went to a cabinet and pulled down a glass. "What are you doing here?" she asked as he made his way to the table."I still live here," he said, helping himself to the wine.Emma let the comment slide, not really in the mood to argue with him. Instead, she swallowed the last of the wine in her glass and held it out for a refill. He obliged, filling it to the rim
Emma managed to stay ahead of the truck for a few miles, speeding dangerously on the little back roads that led to Pilot Point. Just as she came around the bend that would take her into the tiny hamlet of downtown, the truck gained on her and swerved around her. Emma slammed on the breaks and tried to move around him as she had before. However, the truck anticipated her movements and slammed his transmission into reverse, cutting off her escape. She swerved, the car stuttering to a stop in a shallow ditch at the side of the road."All you had to do was pull over," a voice said as her door was wrenched open. Rough hands grabbed her upper arm and yanked her from the car.Emma stumbled, her sore ankle felt wrong, as though she had hurt it even more in the attempts to control the car."What do you want?" she demanded."Just doing what I'm told, lady."He dragged her to the truck, pushing her in through the driver's side door before climbing in after her. Emma slid over to the passenge
She dialed Jen's cell number as she navigated the still dense late evening traffic on the interstate just outside of Denton. Jen answered on the first ring."Steve, I've been trying to get through to you all day.""It's Emma, Jen.""Oh." There was a long silence on the other end. And then, as though a switch had been flipped, her voice filled with concern and caring. "Is everything okay, sweetie?""Fine," Emma lied. "I wanted to apologize for the way I was with you the other day.""Don't worry about it. I understand.""Do you?""Losing Tommy like that must have been difficult.""It was. Especially the way he died.""Suicide, right?" Jen asked, an undercurrent of cruelty in her voice. "Such a pity."Emma maneuvered the car around a curve, nearly dropping the phone as she tried to hold it in the crook of her shoulder."Where are you?" Jen asked. "I went by the house earlier, but there was no one home.""We took the kids to the airport." Emma grabbed the phone with her right h
Emma lay on her back, her bruises aching, her muscles popping along her back, her sides, as she tried to find a comfortable position. Steve lay on his side next to her, his fingers moving lazily along her belly, playing a game of their own making around the scar of childbirth. She watched him, her thoughts swirling in a dozen different directions.Guilt lay heavy on her shoulders. She couldn't help but think of Tommy now that the heat of passion was done. She missed his easy smile, the way he looked at her as though she was the center of his world. She wanted to run her fingers through his thick, dark hair, wanted to feel his heavy hands on her breasts, her belly.It hurt, how much she had in such a short time and how much she would never know.Was it possible to love two men so completely?She ran her fingers through Steve's hair, traced the curve of his ear. He looked up at her and smiled. It was a beautiful smile.She wished she could return it.She closed her eyes, her mind s
It was a slow, gentle kiss. But it touched her in places that had forgotten what it felt like to with the one she loved.She stepped into him, felt the tip of his tongue just brush against her bottom lip. She opened to him, and was rewarded with a sigh of such power that she could feel it as though it had issued from her own lungs, her own lips.She ran her hand slowly over his chest, could feel his heart pounding against her fingers. His hand moved from her jaw to the back of her head, buried its fingers in her hair to pull her closer, always closer. And then he buried himself inside of her, moaning against her lips with more pleasure than she had thought possible from such a simple touch.Her breath stuttered in her chest as he ran his hand over her back, slipped his palm over the curve of her hip, the roundness of her bottom. He pulled her to him until she could feel his need hard against her hip. She slid her hand around his back, drawing him so close that there was nothing but
Emma handed Steve the lists she had made on the hotel stationary after they finished eating. The DVDs were back in their bag, waiting to be destroyed. That had been her promise to Tommy. If anything happened to him, she was to take the DVDs and destroy them. He had no desire to hurt anyone else.Steve just glanced at the lists at first, but when he began to recognize name after name, he slowed and began to read the lists again."You're kidding me, right?" he asked.Emma shook her head."Some of these people are worth billions. And he slept with all of them?"Emma paled slightly. She had been trying not to think about that aspect of the situation. "I don't know. I didn't watch any of them."He nodded absently, as though it didn't really matter. Finally, he put the lists down and sat back. "There are a lot of important people on those lists," he said after a moment's thought, "but I don't see a single one who might want to hurt us or hurt you specifically. Except for maybe the incu
Steve arranged it all.After arranging for a garage to pick up Steve's car and for a rental car, they picked up the boys and Emma's parents. They boarded a plane for Florida three hours later. Her mother was a little concerned by the rush, but was thrilled for the chance to get out of town. It had been such a long winter, she kept telling Emma on the ride to the airport. They would stay at a resort down there near Universal Studios in Orlando. The boys had wanted to go back there since a trip they made as a family two years ago. A trip Steve had abandoned them to when he was called back to his office three days early.Funny how she and the boys remembered that time so differently.Instead of driving home, Steve pointed the rental car toward downtown Fort Worth."We are we going?" Emma asked."A hotel."She turned in her seat. "Do you really think that's necessary?""Someone slashed the tires on my car, Emma. In the middle of downtown." He glanced at her. "Someone ran you off the
Emma slid the key into the small lock and took a deep breath. She wasn't sure it would open. He had told her it would, but some little piece of her was still uncertain about this, about all of it. What if he had lied to her?It did turn.Steve stood behind her close enough that she could feel the heat of his body. She had expected him to argue, to insist they drop the whole thing and go home, back to their broken lives. But he didn't say a word when she told him what she wanted to do. Simply drove them to the bank like it was something they did every day.She flipped the little door open and reached inside for the safety deposit box. Steve grabbed it as it began to fall into her hands, lifting it away from her and carrying it to the small table. She hobbled over, her ankle still causing her a great deal of pain. Her knee, too, had gotten stiff where the stitches pulled and tugged with every step. Between the two injuries, her sore ribs and constant headache, it was a miracle she was
They drove to the house together in Ray's Escalade. A police car sat in Tommy's front yard, the driver's side door open. Emma had a flash, imagined a large number of police cars sitting here, their lights flashing as the uniformed cops walked in and out of the house. She imagined a hearse, imagined them rolling a gurney out of the house with a big, black body bag lying on top.She shivered despite the warmth of the day.Ray climbed out of the car and went to speak to the cop. Steve glanced back at Emma from his place in the front passenger seat. "You don't have to go inside. You could just tell us what you need."Emma shook her head. "I have to do this."He looked at her for a long minute and then nodded, turning his attention to the windshield and the two men just a few feet in front of them.Emma looked out the window at the front door. Again she imagined him as he had been the last time she saw him. Monday morning. He stood on the little porch, his hand lifted in a gesture of f
"I talked to McWhorter, the contractor, this morning," Steve was saying around a bite of Danish. "He said that he turned in all the keys he and his men had.""Do you believe him?" Ray asked.Steve shook his head. "I keep the spare keys in a locked drawer in my office. There was one missing."Emma sipped at the hot vanilla latte the waitress had just brought her. "Who else has a key to our house?"Steve looked over at her, his eyes so dark from a restless night's sleep that they looked almost as bruised as hers. "Just your parents. And Liz."Emma's eyebrows rose. "Why would Liz have a spare key to our house?"He sat back, pushing his thumb into a corner of his Danish. "She ran by the house a few weeks ago to get some paperwork I had forgotten. You weren't there, so I had to give her my keys. I gave her a spare the next day in case it happened again."Emma glanced at Ray. He was watching the two of them like a child waiting for World War III to break out between his parents. She b