notice.”
“Martin wasn’t concerned.”
“Well I am,” I snap. “I won’t do this. And I don’t appreciate you making these kinds of decisions for me.”
His nostrils flare. “These are decisions necessary for your father, Chelsea. Necessary for the family. You will do this and you won’t fucking argue about it.”
I take a step towards him. Dumb. With the way he’s looking at me, I should be taking a step away from him. “I will fucking argue about it. I’m not taking a week off work.”
He turns silent for a moment.
Just watching me.
Preparing to strike.
“Remember why you entered this marriage,” he says, so low and menacingly that it makes me pay attention.
His veiled threat snakes through my veins.
I feel sick.
He means every word of what he’s not saying.
My silence is my answer, and he knows it.
“You have a new wardrobe of clothes to try on. Confirm they fit and then choose one of the dresses to wear tonight.” He pauses, working his jaw. “The next time you decide to leave when we’re in the middle of something, don’t. I don’t appreciate being walked out on.” He bends his mouth to my ear. “And if I want to touch you or kiss you or fuck you in front of your ex, I fucking will.”
He stalks out of the library, the power he’s just claimed radiating from every pore of him.
I double over after he’s gone, grabbing the chair to hold myself up.
When will this all end?
And will I even survive it?
13
Gunnar
“You look even more pissed off than the last time I saw you, and that’s saying something,” Louise says on Saturday night when I see her at Scott’s place. Scott invited a few of us over for poker. Harlow invited the old ladies and Louise, something she’s done a few times over the last month since that first barbecue where we met.
She’s sitting next to me on Scott’s back deck, and I look at her, taking a moment to let my eyes run down her body. Damn, she’s hot, but fuck if I can get my dick interested. I’ve tried. My sex life is fucking ruined after Chelsea. After that night I fucked her in her library. “Nothing a few drinks won’t fix,” I say, not believing a word of it. The mood I’m in is gonna take more than a few drinks to shift. Seeing Chelsea with Hearst by their pool today ensured that. If I ever have to fucking watch him with his hand down her pants again, I’ll fucking make it so his hands are broken and unable to fucking work.
Louise looks at me knowingly. “I think we both know a few drinks isn’t going to do it, Gunnar. You might not have told me about her, but I know what it looks like when a guy’s trying to forget a girl.”
I scrub a hand over my face. “It’s that fucking obvious?”
She smiles. “Yeah.”
I shake my shoulders and arms, trying like fuck to rid myself of the shitty energy pulsing through me. “Okay, well maybe I underestimated how many drinks it’s gonna take.”
She leans in close, that smile teasing me and making me wish like hell I could get my dick on board with her. “I’ve had a crappy day, too. Let’s get fucked up together.”
I jerk my chin at her. “What’s your poison?”
“I’m a bourbon girl. You?”
“I fucking knew I liked you. We can start with the bottle I brought.”
“And when we run out?” she says suggestively.
Fuck, this may not be my best idea. Her eyes are telling me she doesn’t give a fuck if I’m still getting over another chick. I like Louise; I don’t want to fuck with her, and right now, I’d be fucking with her if I took this any further.
I’m saved from answering that when Blade and Layla arrive, drawing everyone’s attention.
“Hot damn, woman,” Madison says to her sister-in-law. “Pregnancy suits you. You’re glowing.”
They announced their pregnancy last month. From memory, they were three months then.
Layla smiles, her hand going to her stomach. “I feel like I’m glowing. If this is what pregnancy is like, I’ll happily do it again.”
Blade watches her silently. I don’t know him well, but from what I’ve seen, he fucking adores her.
“I didn’t glow,” Madison says. “I was irritable for nine straight months and felt like a whale.”
“You weren’t a whale,” Harlow says. And then with a cheeky smile, she says, “But you were a little snappy.”
“A little?” J says, earning him a smack from his old lady.
Madison looks at