Page 37 of The Butcher

We stepped into the cold night, and I texted my driver to get us. I slid my arm around the small of her back, and I pulled her into me as we stood on the curb, keeping her warm against me. She’d put on her coat, but the bumps on her chest told me she was cold.

She melted into me like a piece of chocolate, her cheek against my chest, her arms around my waist like a little girl with her teddy bear.

I looked down the street and saw the SUV turn the corner and approach us where we stood on the sidewalk. The driver didn’t open the door for me since I’d specifically told him not to because I could open my own fucking door. I got her in the back seat, and then we headed to my place in the 7th arrondissement.

She looked out the back window, her coat tight around her to keep warm.

I reached for the heater in the center and cranked it up for her.

When she saw what I did, a little smile moved over her face and she gave me this look…like she appreciated the small things.

I wondered if Adrien was ever as thoughtful. Probably not.

Fifteen minutes later, we entered the gates of my property and walked into the house.

“Hungry?” I asked.

“I don’t know.” She walked beside me as we headed to the stairs. “It’s late.”

I texted my butler and asked him to prepare dinner. “It’s not late—at least not for me.” We entered my bedroom, the lights low on the dimmer, a fire roaring in the fireplace because I’d told my butler to prepare it before I arrived.

She looked around the room, taking it in like she’d never seen it before, but she didn’t issue a comment. She seemed to be warm before she took off her coat and purse and set them over one ofthe armchairs in the sitting room. “You have a beautiful home. I don’t think I said that before.”

“Thank you.” She hadn’t asked me about my wealth or mentioned it at all. She was either too classy or she really didn’t care. “The building used to have several different apartments, but I renovated it into a single home.”

She gave a slight nod. “That’s an ambitious endeavor.”

“I’m an ambitious man.” My butler had left a silver platter on the table, a bottle of wine and two glasses. I uncorked it and filled both glasses before I took a seat in front of the fire. Then I looked at her and patted the spot beside me.

She smiled before she walked over to me in that little skirt with her tight shirt tucked in, showing all the right curves in all the right places, a woman with hips and tits and an ass I could grab on to. She took the spot beside me and crossed her legs, her hand moving to my thigh in my jeans, her face close to my chest.

I moved my arm over her shoulders and scooped her into me, keeping her close, her hair brushing my lips.

She snuggled into me and looked at the fire. “This is nice.”

I’d be all over her right now, but dinner was on the way and I didn’t want her naked on my couch when Gerard came to the door. So I held her, glancing down her top even though I already knew how her tits looked because I’d sucked on her nipples until they were raw. “How was work?”

“Shit,” she said. “Until you walked in. I need to find something else.”

“What kind of experience do you have?”

“Not much. I was at university when I met Adrien, but I never finished,” she said. “Stupid on my part.”

“Why is that stupid?”

“Because I believed him when he said he would take care of me—like a fucking idiot.”

“That’s not stupid.”

She released a sheathed chuckle. “Never trust a man to take care of you.”

“That’s not the lesson,” I said. “Never trust thewrongman to take care of you. And you are entitled to the community assets of your marriage in the divorce.”

“Sure, but I don’t want that.”

“Why?” Most women would want to bleed their husbands dry as punishment for their infidelity. Would want to hurt him where it hurt most—his bank account.

“Because I loved him for him, not his money, and one day when he realizes women only want him because of the fancy dinners and the nice cars and the big house…he’ll realize he threw away a woman who actually gave a damn about him.”

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