Page 55 of Tempted By the Bosshole

“Shut up. You can’t defend this. I haven’t been a great father, but I’m here for Izzy now.” He opens his phone and shoves the image in her face. “He doesn’t care about you. Stop being his whore.”

I grab the phone from his hand. “You don’t get to show up on Christmas night with your righteous indignation and call your daughter names. I fucked up, and I deserve her anger. But you’ll have to come through me if you want to say that kind of shit to Isabella and crush her again. I will beat the fuck out of you if you don’t treat her with respect.”

“You sent my dad pictures of us? In bed?” Isabella sounds shocked. Betrayal pinches her expression. “I knew you married me for revenge but?—”

“You knew?” Doug narrow his eyes at me. “Then you must have forced her to marry you. How? Does she owe you money? I’ll pay it.”

Before I can answer, Isabella sucks in a sharp sob and lurches away from me. “I-I can’t believe you sent him a picture of us…and hurt me intentionally.”

Her choked voice crushes me. I ignore Doug; I don’t owe him a damn thing. But my wife deserves an explanation. “I was always going to tell your father we were married. You must have known that.”

“Tell him, yes. But a picture of us in bed? You took it while I was sleeping, didn’t you?” She shakes her head as if she’s stunned by the depths of my betrayal. “I was vulnerable, and I trusted you. And you trampled on my privacy and chose revenge at my expense.”

I curse under my breath. I didn’t stop to consider that photo would upset Isabella. I never meant to hurt her, much less burn a bridge between us.

What a shitty time to realize I only want her by my side forever.

“I’m sorry, baby girl. That wasn’t my intention.”

“That’s not true. You thought you had me under your thumb, so how you treated me didn’t matter. You almost had me convinced. I believed in you, especially after you rescued Mom’s pendant from Eric and?—”

“I love you.” I take Isabella by the shoulders. “I know you have no reason to believe me, and I’m sure it sounds convenient that I’m saying those three words now, but I swear it. I. Love. You.”

“Take your hands off her,” Doug growls.

As far as I’m concerned, no one exists except my wife, and the tears that fill her eyes almost destroy me. “You don’t mean that.”

“I do. I didn’t intend to fall for you—ever. When I hunted you down at the Christmas party, you were nothing but an attractive means to my vengeance. Then you slipped under my skin with your goodness and kindness. You were fun to be with. You were sweet. I could be myself around you. While I was in Tokyo, all I thought about was you. Your smile and your sassiness. The way you looked and smelled and felt. I was consumed by you. I wanted you more than I should; I knew that. Once I had you in my arms again, I didn’t care much about revenge. After we married, I snapped that pic, and I intended that to be the end of it. Because I only wanted you.”

“No, that’s not true.” She cradles her stomach protectively. “You turned me inside out, over and over. You tried to get me pregnant to get back at Dad and Julia.”

“What the fuck?” Doug cuts in.

I ignore him again and implore Isabella. “I wasn’t trying to get you pregnant to get back at them. I was trying to cement you to me. I knew if you were having my baby, you wouldn’t walk away.”

“Never mind how I felt.” Tears fall down Isabella’s face. “What you did was wrong. And hurtful. I let myself get caught up in the moment, and that’s on me. But I don’t know how to forgive you. Or if I can.”

“Isabella…” I grip her tighter, panic filling me as my world falls apart. “Baby girl, I love you. All I want to do is spend the rest of my life loving you.”

She swipes her tears away with a sniffle. “You have a terrible way of showing it.”

“Let me take you somewhere else.” Doug tries to tug Isabella from me.

Everything inside me stands ready to fight. If he takes my wife now, will she ever speak to me again? Will she ever let me make it right?

“No. You stay here,” I offer. “I’ll leave.”

She frowns. “It’s your house.”

“Do you really want to stay with your dad and my ex-wife?”

Isabella recoils. “No.”

It takes every ounce of my will not to pull her close, coax her to kiss me, and beg her not to let this come between us. But I miscalculated. I fucked up. This is out of my hands until she decides whether she can find it in her heart to give me a second chance.

“Then stay here. Think about us, about what you want for your future, about how I put you on a pedestal and how I made you feel. All of that was real and from my heart.” I dig the keys from my pocket. “I’ll be back.”

“She’ll be gone, asshole!” Doug shouts to my back. “I’m taking her far from you.”

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