Page 12 of Illicit Temptation

CHAPTER SIX

Trace

“I’ll say we need to talk since you apparently have been sleeping with another man while marriedto me,” I rough out a blistering objection to her being with that dosser—whowillbe bleeding at my feet in a minute.

Just the idea of him touching her scrapes my insides.

“Married? Ha,” Shea snaps at me, weaving around exquisitely decorated tables filled with flowers and candles. “That wasthreeyears ago! Where have you been?”

“An undercover assignment. I told you that in a message, one you never bothered responding to.” I stay close on her heels.

“You said you’d be away for a couple of months.” She stops and glares at me. “When I didn’t hear from you, I figured you moved on.”

“You don’t just clock out of those jobs, love.” I do owe her a break since I’d been gone way longer than I intended. “And this one took three years.”

“Look...” She leans across a table and whispers, “I was already seeing Archer when I met you in Vegas. I... I don’t recallusgetting married, and I don’t remember us having sex.”

“Pity. It was fucking amazing.Youwere amazing, princess.” For three long years I’ve been waiting to come face to face with the woman I took to wife, fucked, and then never saw again.

When I got my phone back after the Algeria assignment that kept getting extended, I was crushed to see she hadn’t reached out to me. Not once. Now I know why. To her, the marriage wasn’t real, something she could ignore.

Her complete and utter silence onlyfueled me to bide my time and strike at the perfect moment. And that moment is finally here.

My body tenses and a wicked smile breaks across my lips. I can’t believe I get to watch her eyes flutter, feeling my cock for what she thinks is the first time. I get it twice in this lifetime. Relish in that thrill again. A thrill that got me through all these years.

“Since you’ve brokenourwedding vow, let’s get out of here so I can lay a proper punishment on you. Refresh that damaged memory of sex with your husband.”

“Sex? Oh no. We can’t. You’remy bodyguard.” Just the way she says that tells me she’s never crossed that forbidden line.

That night went beyond getting married. I got to know her. The fun side of her. She’s no spoiled princess. She’s mouthy and strong.

Fuck, I loved that. I got one clear vibe from that lush body, she needed some serious fucking to blow her mind.

I’d been drinking when I suggested we get married. She agreed by kissing me. That first taste of her lips sobered me and then drowned me in a different kind of intoxication. A thrill that sets my heart pounding to this day whenever the memory flashes back to me. Mission Accomplished.

With the rustling of voices from the vestibule getting closer, signaling this party room will soon be filled with guests, Shea speaks in a shaky voice that rattles my nerves. “Now that you’re here, can I please have a divorce?”

The request cuts an ache into my chest that I wasn’t expecting. “A divorce? Why?”

“That’s a stupid question. We got married one wild night in Vegas. That’s not a marriage. I haven’t seen you in three years, Trace. I want a divorce. As soon as humanly possible.” She holds up two fingers to someone on theother side of the double French doors. “I did some Googling and apparently, we can go back to the chapel where we got married and ask for it to be invalidated. Like an annulment. It’s something their city council enacted recently since people keep getting drunk, married, then regretting it.”

My heart erupts with crushing rejection, her wanting to divorce me. “You looked that up on your phone, knowing your brother tracks your search history?”

“I’m one step ahead of you. I posed it as a question for a client.” She winks, looking quite the clever girl. “There’s one hitch.”

“Interesting choice of words,” I scoff, and run a hand through my hair.

“They mention a three-year time limit for Nevada to accept a no-fault invalidation. We’re a few months over, but sometimes these things go by calendar years.” She swallows.

I expected her to be angry for me being gone so long. Angry for not calling her all this time. And I can forgive her for using that billionaire douchebag to satisfy herself while I was away. But divorce? Unacceptable. I need to stall.

“We’d have to fly there, do it in person.” I cross my arms. “I can’t have these calls recorded. But I also can’t leave New York right now. Don’t ask why.”

Because I haven’t come up with a fucking good excuse yet.

“Damn it.” She bites her lip. “The timing’s bad for me, too. It’s August inEast Hampton. I’m busy with back-to-back events.”

“Must not want to be rid of me that badly.”

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