Holden's Resurrection (Gemini Group #6) - Riley Edwards Page 0,51

woman didn’t care her husband was cheating on her?

“He didn’t have to tell me. I didn’t miss the perfume, the lipstick, the scratch marks on his back. You think he was taunting you? You’re wrong. That was him punishing me. He had a woman in his bed who loved another man and wouldn’t go there with him. So he’d go out and find it elsewhere, then the next day make sure he was up and walking around shirtless before I left for work so I could see the evidence of his cheating. I never said a word, so he did it more and more. Hickeys, bite marks, you name it. It didn’t faze me because all I was thinking about was you and who you were with.”

Holden’s world tilted. All the fucked-up things Paul had done to Charleigh flitted from his head until his thoughts zeroed in on one thing—she wouldn’t go there with him. What the hell did that mean?

“You wouldn’t go there with him?”

Charleigh reared back and shook her head.

“None of that matters. Faith and I are going to—”

“It matters a helluva lot. Are you telling me that you never fucked that asshole?”

“Obviously I did, Holden, the evidence of that encounter is sleeping upstairs,” she sneered.

A deep growl emanated from his soul, the sound so feral, Charleigh took a giant step back as Holden advanced.

“You know what I’m asking, baby.”

“That’s none of your business.”

Something ugly started to blossom in his chest. An ugly, selfish happiness he should’ve been ashamed to feel, yet he couldn’t bring himself to feel anything but warmth at the knowledge. Holden didn’t need her to admit it, but he still wanted to hear the words come out of her mouth.

“Tell me, Leigh-Leigh, did you marry that prick then keep yourself from him? You said marital bed, so I assume you slept next to him. So you shared a bed but not your body?”

They were standing close, so close Holden could smell the faint scent of her lotion, so close all he had to do was lean in a few inches and he could take her mouth. Yet, he controlled his urges and stayed perfectly still. She, however, didn’t. Her hands were shaking, her chest was rising and falling, and her lips were trembling.

“You’re an asshole,” she whispered. “I see that makes you happy. That I married him but never consummated my vows. That I slept next to him but cried over you. Yeah, I can see how that’d make a dick like you happy. Does it make you feel good to know that he held me on our wedding night while I mourned the loss of you? My face was buried in his neck, his arms were around me, and I cried all night long.”

Holden ignored the vision of Paul holding Charleigh. Further, he tried and failed to stop his hands from reaching out and cradling her face. His palms were met with wetness. She tried to pull away but he held her still.

“I am a dick,” he admitted. “A Grade A asshole. But not one thing you’ve said makes me feel good. I haven’t felt good since the night before I rolled out of our bed and left you. I haven’t felt alive, I haven’t felt happy, I haven’t felt anything but anger and pain.”

“Why’d you leave me?”

Charleigh’s question turned Holden into a ball of remorse.

“I told you why,” he deflected, not wanting to talk about anymore of his failures.

“No, you didn’t. You gave me some excuse.”

“Excuse?”

“Yes, Holden, an excuse. So why’d you really leave me?”

His hands dropped from her face and he stepped back.

“Right,” she snickered. “You’re quick to talk about all things me and Paul, but when we get down to you and the real reason you left me, you close down. Wanna know what I think? I think you left me because you didn’t love me, and when I started talking about our future you got cold feet so you bolted.”

Anger flashed and Holden lashed out. “Right. That’s why I couldn’t let you go and kept coming back trying to sort my head.”

“No, you came back to fuck me. Tell the truth. For once tell the goddamn truth, Holden. Stop being such a coward and come clean. I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life with you. I gave you everything, you owe me. Put me out of my misery and—”

“I was scared!” he shouted. “I was paralyzed with fear that once you found out I