Page 40 of Hotwife

“Are you going to tell me what’s happening?” my sister whispered in my ear.

Cora grabbed my arm before I could attempt an answer and dragged me around the table. “You just have to meet Simon. I’ve told him all about you. Well, not all.” She winked as I watched the seven shades of realization fall over Kenneth, well, Simon.

He cleared his throat and reached out a sheepish hand. “Ruby, nice to meet you.”

I blanched, making eyes with Cedric as he looked from me to Ken- Simon. Cedric knew my fake name, and it took him less than five seconds to piece it together. His face turned red.

“Dolly, babe, not Ruby,” Cora corrected with a giggle.

That’s when Des appeared beside me and Simon reached out a hand. “You must be Ru- I mean, Dolly’s husband. Nice to meet you. Though I suppose I sort of met you the other day when we all ran into each other at the cafe.”

“You what?” Cedric grumbled in our direction.

“You heard the man,” Desmond replied, straightening and leveling my husband with a deathly glare. “I’ll gladly be her husband when you decide to fuck off, Cedric-”

WHAM.

Cora shrieked. My sister ran over by my side and put an arm around me, pulling me out of the way.

Desmond stumbled back, rubbing a hand over his jaw. “I’ve been waiting for this, old man,” he said before rearing back a fist and punching my husband in the face.

“Stop it!” I screamed, lunging for the brawling men but being caught by Simon.

“Ruby, you can’t say anything-”

“Can’t say what, Simon?” Cora asked, looking between her husband and I. “Oh my god…” She breathed when she put it together.

“It was one time, Cora, I didn’t know.”

“Are you fucking kidding me!?” she yelped, shoving his chest away from me. “You little slut,” she screeched returning her attention to me. The rumbling of fists halted. Eva still sat at the table, wide-eyed. My sister stood in the corner, while Dr. Gregory had two hands pulling Cedric and Desmond off each other.

Everyone looked at me.

“Does everyone here know how Dolly fucks every man in Seattle? Even the married ones, apparently,” Cora accused, red finger nail pointed bluntly at my nose.

“Cora, I had no idea. He said his name was Kenneth, and he was a pilot-”

She cut me off with venom. “She’s a hotwife, everybody. It’s another word for a fucking home wrecking whore.”

“That’s enough of that,” Cedric boomed, pulling out of Dr. Gregory’s grip and smoothing his tie.

“I agree,” Desmond rumbled, staring me down.

“You can get the fuck out of my house,” Cedric replied to Desmond.

“What the hell is going on here?” Dr. Gregory asked, stepping back, clearly afraid of being caught in the crossfire again.

“You asked for this, Cedric. You asked me to keep an eye on your wife and I did it. You asked me to…” he shot me a gentle look before continuing, “Take care of her because you couldn’t, and I did. Now you’re drawing the line at me falling in love with her? That’s where you get pissed off? Yeah, I’m going to need you to fuck all the way off.”

I covered my mouth in a gasp, feeling my sister and Caroline’s presence beside me. “You-you set this up, Cedric?”

His jaw tensed as he tore his blue eyes from me and glared daggers at Desmond. “I wanted you to be happy. But I didn’t sign up for losing you to another man.”

“Let’s get out of here,” Des said softly, walking over. I took an instinctive step back.

“My wife is staying here, in our home,” Cedric grumbled.

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” I replied. “And I’m not staying here either.” I shot at Cedric’s short-lived but smug expression. “I may be a whore, but you two are liars. I tried to follow the rules,” I shot at Cedric. “But you set me up to fail, and you just watched it happen. That’s not a marriage, Ced, that’s a sick joke.”

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