Page 45 of Dirty Rotten Cheating Husband

“Damn! Come on, over something like that?”

But that was it, and I didn’t even particularly feel angry. Just kind of tired and sad.

Why had I hung on so long? Just because he was safe. Boring but safe.

I already felt gone.

“Can you grab those cupcakes I ordered for my crew?” I choked out to Grayson, and he immediately nodded, the rough tips of his fingers holding my elbow for a moment.

Then I pushed out the door and headed down the street to my car.

We hadn’t gotten a very good parking spot and my SUV was all the way at the end, down a dark side street.

I heard the slap of sneakers on concrete and I turned to see Liam following me.

“Stop!” he called. “I was just joking!”

“I don’t care!” I said hotly. “You think I want you watching fucking YouTube clips of the worst time in my life and laughing? You’re a fucking asshole!”

“C’mon, Clementine,” Liam whined, putting a hand on my arm. “Don’t be a bitch. . .”

That was all he had a chance to say when, moving strangely soundlessly for such a big man, Grayson came up beside me and grabbed Liam by the arm. One hand holding the box of cupcakes carefully, with the other he shoved Liam face first into the hood of my car, yanking his arm up painfully behind him.

“You better get the fuck away from her, you little shit,” Grayson snarled at Liam.

“What. . . the. . .hell,” Liam said, although it was difficult to hear him with his face smashed against the hard metal of the car.

“God, Grayson!” I gasped, although my heart was hammering hard. “Let him go!”

“What he said was not ok,” Grayson growled, raising Liam’s face from the car only to slam it painfully down again. “He’s lucky I don’t fucking kill him for calling you a bitch.”

“Kill him?” I shrieked, darting forward, to yank on Grayson’s waist, trying to drag him off Liam. “Stop it, you’re acting like a psycho!”

Liam began to cry in noisy drunken sobs, and Grayson slammed his face down once more, then stood back and let him go.

“Just get the fuck out of here,” he said.

His torso under my hands was rock-hard and rigid, and I dropped my hands like they burned me as we watched Liam scuttle off into the darkness.

“I’d rather beat myself the fuck up,” Grayson said, putting the box of cupcakes carefully down on the car hood and running his hands through his short salt-and-pepper crew cut.

I had never seen him look so distressed.

“How he can watch that video and think it’s funny is fucking insane. I can’t even look at it without wanting to vomit. It’s sickening.”

My heart was pounding painfully hard in my chest.

I should move.

I should get in the car.

Do anything but stay where I was, right in front of him.

When Liam was a safe distance away, I heard his reedy tenor from three blocks away, “Fuccckkk youuuuuuuu!”

Grayson turned like he was going to go after him again, and I acted on pure instinct, grabbing him around the waist and tugging at him. Of course it was like trying to move a two-ton granite boulder.

He grunted as I fell into him, then suddenly twisted and pulled me feverishly into his arms.

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