Rock Wedding (Rock Kiss #4) - Nalini Singh Page 0,3
far as he was aware, she had the same level of education as him and she’d been born in a normal, boring suburb, her equally normal parents killed in a car crash at the end of her high school years.
He couldn’t know how much the words he’d spoken in anger hurt her.
Holding on tight to that thought, she said, “You shouldn’t be alone tonight.” She moved to him, reaching out to lay a hand on the muscled heat of his forearm, his skin appearing exquisitely darker in this light. “Why don’t we talk about Tessie?” she said gently. “Think of all the good memories, the fun times you had with her. I’d like to know her too.”
Shrugging off her hand, Abe strode to stand just outside the open doors, his eyes on the landscape beyond. “Get out.”
“Abe—”
He turned, shoulders bunched and hands fisted. “You don’t get it, do you, Sarah?” Shoving aside the curtains so there was no barrier between them, he said, “You’re a hot piece of ass who managed to get into my head and into my pants while I was out of it. I married you because you told me you were pregnant—”
The sneer in his voice broke something inside her. “I was pregnant!” The miscarriage had devastated her. Abe had been so tender then, had held her as she cried. He’d even stayed home for an entire week, and she’d fallen asleep in his arms.
She’d almost felt loved.
Tonight he shrugged in a way that made it clear he saw her as a scheming liar. “The point is I don’t love you. I don’t want to share things with you.” Hard, staccato words. “Your job is to keep looking like a hot piece of ass and to hang on my arm when I need you to. Otherwise, stay the fuck out of my life.”
Fighting tears, Sarah tried to remember this was grief and rage talking. “You don’t mean that.”
“Jesus, Sarah.” He stalked toward her, grabbed her upper arms, almost lifted her off the floor. “How much clearer can I make it? You’re a groupie like countless others I’ve fucked. You just lucked out that I was stupid enough to fuck you without a condom.”
She’d felt so needed that night when Abe had first taken her to his bed, so wanted. Afterward, as he’d slept in her arms, the lines of pain erased from his face, she’d felt useful for the first time in her life. “It was more than that.” She refused to let him destroy her memories. “We stayed together all night.” Limbs entwined, hearts beating in time. “We began a relationship.”
Abe put his face an inch from hers. “I was high and you were available.”
Sarah flinched, feeling cheap and trashy and… like nothing.
Abe continued before she could respond. “So if you want to keep this nice life you’ve managed to con out of me, stay the fuck out of my sight unless I want you there.” He released her. “You just have to spread your legs when I ask and smile for the cameras when necessary. That’s our relationship.”
Sarah shattered inside, spiderweb cracks spreading out from her heart to create jagged shards in every corner of her. Trembling and with her tears starting to fall despite her attempts to hold them back, she looked into Abe’s eyes and couldn’t tell if he was sober or not. “You’ve been drinking.” The words came out shaky, a plea.
“Do I sound drunk?”
No, he didn’t. But his body was so used to the alcohol and the drugs that it was often hard to judge his sobriety. He could well be under the influence. Sarah tried to hold onto that… and couldn’t. Not in the face of the ugly things he’d said to her.
Never had he spoken to her that way.
And she knew.
Abe didn’t just not love her. He didn’t even like her.
He definitely didn’t need her.
She was worthless.
Again.
Turning on her heel, she ran from the music room. Her tears threatened to blind her, but she managed to make it up to their bedroom and pull out a small suitcase. It was a fancy Louis Vuitton one. She didn’t really like the colors or the design. Left to her own tastes, she would’ve bought the much cheaper one that looked as if it had travel stickers all over it. But this was the kind Abe’s mother used, and Sarah had copied her because then she could be sure of not making a mistake and embarrassing Abe.