Page 45 of Master Debater

“In fact, we’ve been dancing around this all night, and I’m just going to say it. I’m not satisfied being just your next door neighbor-with-benefits anymore. In case all the possessive talk didn’t clue you off, I’ve decided I want more.”

Chapter 25

Willa

It’d been such a beautiful moment, only for the shrill ring of my phone to cut through and ruin it.

“Sorry,” I said, my heart taking off on a high-speed chase without a pursuer or a destination. “Just ignore it. You’re right. It’s been on my mind all night as well, but I was terrified you didn’t feel it as strongly as I did.”

“I’ve never felt as strongly about anyone else as I?—”

My phone took up its ringing again, and I was about to threaten whoever it was with the same thing Nate had used on the aggressive honker. I reached over, frowned at Eric’s name, and hit the button to silence it.

I was returning it to the nightstand when my ex texted to say that my lawyer had been in touch, and that if I wanted to keep things amicable, I’d call him back, “RIGHT NOW!!!!”

Since there wasn’t a better way to explain than to let Nate read the message for himself, and naturally, Eric called again, I declared timing as big a bitch as my whiny ex.

“Here,” Nate said, extending an open palm. “I’ll answer it.”

The growl in the words caused the spot between my legs to clench, but as I’d already had a couple of orgasms tonight, my brain remained at the wheel. “That’s a bad idea, and we both know it.”

I scooted toward the edge of the bed, tossing out another apology. “I can just go back to my place to deal with it.”

Nate lunged across the bed and caught hold of my wrist. “Don’t go. We need to finish our discussion, and I’d rather you be here where I can hold you if you need it.”

All the strings in my heart tugged, towing toward this amazing man I’d been so lucky to find. While I could be firm, I had no doubt I’d be taking him up on that offer.

As soon as my ex answered, I launched right into it. “We both know this could wait till morning, Eric. If not next weekend, as the entire point of the mediation is so that we have someone there to, you know, mediate.”

He accused me of throwing me a curveball, when so far, I’d just been doing my best to dodge or catch his.

Finally, I said, “You’ve got five minutes to throw your tantrum, and then I’m going to bed, and if I have to, I’ll block your number.” If things hadn’t turned uglier and uglier since he pulled the stunt with my mom’s car, I would’ve been more diplomatic.

The offended noise he made only fueled me, a reminder to the both of us I wasn’t the peacemaking pushover anymore.

He gave me a sob story about how much higher his overhead was without me, and I bit back a comment about how he should’ve just kept paying the temp who’d filled in for me so at least he wouldn’t have to outsource his sex.

“Two more minutes.” It was the first thing I’d said to him in about that long, choosing to let him get it all out.

At the gentle tug on my shoulder, I allowed myself to fall back into Nate’s embrace. In the recesses of my mind, there’d been a vague worry about him witnessing part of the fall-out of my former relationship, and if it’d scare him away and make him redact his earlier statement. I should’ve known Nathan Fox didn’t scare easily.

“Are you hearing me at all, Willa?” Eric asked. “This entire changeover has been really stressful on me.”

“I hear you. It’s just the same thing I heard during most of our marriage. You focus on yourself, without another thought to anyone else. I put my dreams on hold for you for six years, and you took for granted that I’d always be there to dig you out of your messes. Now you’re basically demanding I fix the business like I used to, only so I can then walk away penniless, nothing to show for that time, while you reap all the benefits.”

“What if I offer to pay off your car?”

“You mean the car I lent to my mom so she could get around after hip surgery? And then you called the bank behind my back to try to force the loan onto me or my mom instead?”

“I’ll pay it off if you’ll just leave the dental practice alone. No more payments every month. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

If smoke unfurled from my nostrils, it wouldn’t surprise me, but I worked to keep my temper in check. “It’d be nice not to get nickeled and dimed after being cheated on. I’m not asking for anything unfair. My advice is to get ready to compromise during the mediation so we can both get on with our lives, because I’m not going to be the one constantly backing down anymore.”

He used some colorful language that had Nate reaching for the phone.

As tempting as it’d be to let him unleash his tyranny on Eric, it’d only make things worse when we attempted to settle everything with a mediator present. So, I pivoted away and quickly said, “Goodbye, Eric. I’ll see you next weekend.”

The instant I hung up, I fell back to the bed next to Nate. It was sort of odd to speak to my almost-ex-husband while naked, especially while a much sexier and more generous naked man had remained at my side. I could only imagine how weird it was for Nate, and I hoped again he hadn’t changed his mind about us. Eric had ruined a lot of things, but I swore to God, if he ruined this thing between me and Nate, vengeance would be mine.

---