“Come back to my house with me. It will be a long drive to Tyler, but you don’t know how many times I’ve fantasized about having you in my bed.” Caleb kissed her neck.
Carlotta very much liked the idea of being with the strong man in his big bed, feeling like she belonged with him, beside him. To him. She could handle him now. She was stronger, and he understood. Caleb would not run over her and neglect her feelings as Gordon had.
“Yes,” she breathed.
He pressed a hard, breathless kiss to her lips, then slid out of the booth. A moment later, he returned with two boxes and a receipt.
“Are you finished with your wine?” he asked as he scooped their dinner into the little Styrofoam containers.
“I do not care about it.”
“Me, either. Let’s go.” He took her arm and tugged her from the booth. She tottered to her feet and let him usher her to the door.
“Well, if it isn’t the ex-ball and chain,” a terribly familiar voice drawled from behind her as they neared the exit.
Gordon. His voice dripped with reprisal. Carlotta froze.
She had not actually seen him since Hunter had carried her out his door. The little bit of speaking they had done had been conducted through attorneys. Now, standing mere feet in front of him, she could not bring herself to turn and face him and found the familiar anxiety knotting her up inside.
Carlotta dug her fingers into Caleb’s arm, her mind racing, grasping for something to say to diffuse Gordon’s anger. Then she paused. They were divorced. No longer did she owe him so much as a polite hello. No longer was she obligated to try to make his life comfortable or happy. She could waltz out the door without a word.
“We have nothing to say, Gordon.” She tugged on Caleb’s arm, urging him again toward the door.
He wasn’t budging. In fact, she would probably have more luck moving a brick wall. Still, Carlotta tugged harder, before this confrontation turned ugly.
“Sure we do,” Gordon corrected. “Or I do. Your hair is longer. It seems your clothes are sexier. But you’re still fat. Does he know yet what a cold, uptight bitch you are?”
Her ex-husband wanted a fight, probably because she had left him and his dented pride could not tolerate it. After nearly fourteen years of marriage to the selfish bastard, she refused to give him anything he wanted ever again. Putting him in his place was not worth the heads that would turn or the tongues that would wag. He was not worth another moment of her time.
Carlotta pulled Caleb toward the door again. “Please, I want to leave.”
He didn’t listen. Instead, he tugged free of her grip and whirled on Gordon. Dread sliding through her veins like ice, she forced herself to face her ex-husband, too. He looked the same as always, short salt-and-pepper hair cut like a banker’s. He stared up at Caleb with faded blue eyes, looking slightly panicked, as if he had finally realized that Caleb stood at least six inches taller and outweighed him by fifty pounds of muscle.
But she wasn’t shocked when Gordon whipped out his bravado and flashed an insolent smirk.
Caleb stabbed a finger in Gordon’s chest. “If you’d still like to be breathing in the next ten seconds, I suggest you shut your vile mouth before I squash you like a f**king bug.”
She slapped a hand over her mouth and grabbed desperately at Caleb’s sleeve with the other. He could not know the havoc Gordon was capable of dishing out, but she did—all too well. He would twist words and call in favors. He manipulated and lied like no other.
“Are you threatening me?” Gordon smiled as if he relished the idea.
His small ego and his small penis probably could not stand the idea that someone he found as contemptible as her had left him. That she had not pined and regretted her decision each and every day. That she had, in fact, landed someone more wonderful and manly. Not that he would ever admit that last bit, even to himself.
“I’m telling you the consequences of failing to shut up,” Caleb replied. “Carlotta divorced you for being a cruel, neglectful, cheating douche. If you ever speak to her like that again, I will rip off your head and piss down your neck. I spent twenty-four years in the U.S. Army as a trained sniper. Want to try me?”
Gordon swallowed and paled a bit, looking pastier than usual. Then he ripped his gaze from Caleb’s face to glare at her. “This one looks and sounds like the ass**le who carted you out of my house like some damsel in distress. He was your son-in-law, right? So I’m guessing this Neanderthal is his father. You’re f**king the family now?” Gordon shook his head. “I gave you a roof and raised your brats. After using you, this jackass will probably kill you in your sleep. Enjoy that.”
Gordon bypassed Caleb and brushed past her before he darted out the door. Caleb flung the doors wide and stomped after him, a man on a mission with thunder in his eyes. But her ex-husband ran to his convertible and hopped in, peeling out of the parking lot before Caleb could catch him.
Carlotta rushed out the restaurant’s door, balancing their leftover dinner cartons. She stopped short when she heard Caleb curse.
“The ass**le got away.”
Yes, and despite what Caleb thought, that was for the best.
“Let it go. He is not worth it.”
He turned to her as if he suddenly didn’t understand what language she was speaking. “There’s no way I was going to let him or anyone else speak to you like that. Not ever, Lottie.”