Page 63 of Dark & Deceitful

Getting from California to home is a three-day trip unless he plans to drive a day and a half without stopping.

“I’m good, Sweets. Just need to get ya home.”

This man is far too sweet for his own good. He calls me sweets when he’s the sweet one. Maybe I should be the one calling him that.

Not moving from my cozy spot, I address Dark. “What are you doing?”

“Going home with you.”

Right. So I won’t get all the radio play time unless Sunshine forces him to sit in the back seat. Sticking Dark in the back of a car, where his legs are cramped, for days on end isn’t… polite. Then again, neither is lying, cheating, or all the other shit he does. He can suffer with leg cramps. See if I care. Well, I do. Because I’m an idiot. But I’ll pretend not to.

“You don’t need to tidy up any Maxim Drake loose ends?” Keeping my hands busy, I lift the hem of Sunshine’s shirt to touch his stomach. Just a sliver. Nothing inappropriate.

He shivers.

“No. I need to get my wife home,” Dark replies.

Doing my best not to roll my eyes, even though he couldn’t see them if I did, I heave a sigh. When will this man stop with the wife stuff? That part of us isn’t real anymore. It’s a label. One I’ve repeatedly asked him to stop using. Yet here we are, in a hotel room, God knows where, and I’m having to hear it all over again.

Twisting in Sunshine’s embrace, I swing my legs off his lap and set my feet on the floor. My butt nestles against his lower part, but I don’t bother moving as I stare at Dark across the room, where he lounges on the other bed, his back against the old wooden headboard, ankles crossed, wearing nothing but a pair of boxer shorts. No shirt. Nothing more than muscles, ink, and our wedding band on his finger, where it doesn’t belong. His hair’s wet as if he just showered.

Those gray eyes bore into me from across the space.

I open my mouth to comment on the wife part, but that’s not what comes out. “Did you feel bad when you cheated on me with Abby?” I ask instead, shocking the hell out of us both, and also Sunshine if his body stiffening beneath me is any indication.

“What?” Dark’s jaw all but falls into his lap.

“You heard me.” I didn’t stutter.

“Kali.” He crosses his arms beneath his pecs.

“Answer the question, Dark.”

“Abby was a…” Dark drags a palm down his face and expels a pained groan as if he’d rather die than answer the question. “Listen…”

“I am listening. You’re stalling.”

“Why the question?” he volleys, half smug, half about to shit his pants.

Why the stalling?I want to retort but think of a better response instead. “Because you fucked me and stuck your dick in my mouth this week, and you didn’t seem to care you were cheating on your woman with your ex. That’s why I want to know.”

Sunshine wraps his arms protectively around my middle, but I’m undeterred. Before anything else, I need to know. We can’t move on from this.Ican’t move on from this without the truth. The real truth. Not some fabricated bullshit I’ve been fed for fucking years.

“Kali.” My ex’s eyes squeeze shut as if he’s in physical pain. The gall of this man. Him in pain. He cheated on us both—me and Abby. He doesn’t get to be in pain.

“Answer the question,” I snip.

“Abby was a job, okay?” He throws his hands into the air with far more dramatics than necessary, then re-tucks them beneath his pecs andharrumphsas if I’m the asshole for asking.

“What do you mean, Abby was a job?” I press.

“You know how we had to have sex for this job?”

“Yesss.” My eyes widen in horror as a light bulb clicks on in my head. “Abby was a… job. Oh. Ohhhh.” He was assigned to her. To fuck her. To do whatever… ick. Just… ick.

Dark stares at the wall, refusing to look directly at me. “I was ordered to do some shit I can’t tell you about. She was part of it.”

“For how long?”

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