Page 12 of Dangerously Yours

“And that is great for you two, but don’t expect me to fall into some false sense of domestic bliss because I intend to stay single as long as I can. Monogamy works great for guys like you and Callum, but not so much for Daxon, Romeo, and me.”

“The time is coming for all of you, so don’t worry about that. Once it gets here, I just suggest you don’t waste precious time fighting it. Accept your lot, then enjoy the hell out of that life. It’s a hell of a lot better than you will have ever thought it would be.”

I huffed at that. “I’ll keep that in mind, but don’t worry about me and Lulu. I’m only trying to be helpful, and nothing more.”

Gabriel seemed to accept it because after responding with a shrug, he started to walk toward the nearby parking garage where his car was. I had ridden to the gym with him, so I followed closely behind him. The very idea that I would bed Lulu was preposterous, or maybe it wasn’t. My cock hardened at the vision of the blonde on her knees in front of me wearing nothing more than a sexy set of black lingerie like the type one might buy from Mitchells. Charlie was fine as hell, especially when modeling some of the designs that came into her store, but I could now very easily see Lulu wearing something similar, and it affected me more than it should have.

Lulu was married, and while that hadn’t stopped me before from bedding a woman, I doubted the blonde was the type who would have salacious affairs while married, even if her husband was a womanizing jerk. He had to have been doing something right because the two of them had three kids, and the son was someone I had mentored last summer for a few weeks.

No, I was simply just doing a few good deeds as I had tried to explain to Gabriel a few minutes ago. There was nothing more to it. I forced my mind away from the older woman, and onto the upcoming trip I was about to take. My friends and I were all headed back to New York City, only this time, it was strictly for fun. Well, outside of the interviews that Romeo and I needed to give for an ESPN show. Gabriel was also going to join us on set,then we would have the rest of the week to hang out in a city that was like a second home to me.

The last real amount of time that I had spent there had been when Callum’s cousin had gotten married to his long-time love. Mason Steele was a legend on the national nightlife scene, and I planned to party hard once my professional obligations were over and done with this week. I got into the passenger side of Gabe’s car, then we headed back to our respective places to finish packing for the trip.

LULU

The event for John and Cheryl Waters had gone off without any further hitches, and the matriarch had even been so impressed that she planned to recommend me to all of her friends. Word of mouth was important in this business, and the sooner I could compile a professional portfolio, the sooner I could relax when it came to my pending divorce. Both of us had reviewed the papers, and while I wanted to just sign my portion and be done with everything, my attorney was strongly against that. In fact, he had his legal secretary pouring over all the terms Cade had put in there, as well as the pre-nuptial agreement I had been made to sign almost two decades ago.

I understood his hesitation, and I appreciated his attention to detail, so I had allowed him more time to review everything. I wouldn’t put it past Cade to insert damning terms into the papers, all in hopes that I would miss it and sign away something I wanted. He had already told me that he intended to sell the penthouse we had lived in together. I had no true attachment to the place, but our children did. They grew up there, and I would be damned if I would let him just uproot the kids as some sort of punishment to me.

Yes, I did wonder once or twice whether his infidelity was the worst thing that could happen to me. A lot of men with money and power did similar things to their wives, so why was I trying to be so different? I would then realize it was because I had pride, and if I couldn’t be his one and only, I didn’t want to be anything at all to him. Unlike those others who stayed for the security their men provided, I deserved better than to settle. Unfortunately, my entire world had been wrapped up in him and I had no idea where to even start when trying to find myself.

“I won’t let you win,” I told Cade’s smiling face in the photograph.

This particular one had been taken back in better times. I think it was not long after I had Zachary. The two of us were on a quasi vacation to Fuji, which had been a place I had always wanted to go. I could remember that day like it was only yesterday, except it had been over a decade earlier, and the same magic was no longer here. There were no recent photos of us, especially not with him looking at me so reverently like he was in this one. I kept it in my hand, then grabbed the others of him and moved them to the nearly empty box.

The sooner I got rid of visual reminders of him, the sooner I could rediscover myself, and the things that made me feel alive. The latter would likely be something that took me a lot longer to accomplish, and it didn’t matter whether it was here in this place, or wherever I was able to find for me and my children. They were the only people that mattered to me.

I returned to the mantle and I was tempted to remove the pictures of them with their father, but I finally decided to leave those up. My life with my soon-to-be ex was over, but not theirs. He would always be their father, and as such, he would always be in our lives whether I wanted him to be or not.

I moved on to some of the other things I needed to pack up, mostly the books and other items he cared so much about. Cade collected cigar boxes, and in the study, he had a shelf lined with all of those he found on our travels. I picked up one from a trip to Cuba, and opened the wooden box. The scent of stale cigars remained even though the box was empty. It wasn’t a smell I would miss.

Deciding to pack all of those up, I brought another box into the study, then proceeded to pack each one of them in it. Afterward, I skimmed through all of the books on the one shelf. Our tastes in reading were completely opposite. He preferred science fiction while I was a fan of romance. I packed up each of his books, then picked up one of mine. This particular one was from a series I had started, but had not yet finished reading. It was the third book in the series, and feeling as if a break was needed, I took it with me into my bedroom.

We had a sitting area in the far corner of the room, and after settling onto the recliner and tossing the fleece throw blanket over me, I glanced at the front cover model. The man was gorgeous, and his dark hair and eyes were a complete contradiction to the man I married.

No wonder why I gravitate toward these books.

It wasn’t the only reason, but it was a big one. I continued to stare at the man on the book, and his rippling abs resembled someone else I knew. I had tried to put that man out of my head because there was no way he would ever be interested in someone like me. He was much younger and could have any woman he wanted. A soon-to-be divorcee with three children and no financial future wasn’t one of those. Alas, I still kept his face in my mind as I opened the book and started with the first chapter.

The hero in this book was a carpenter, and he was there in the heroine’s mansion to repair a hole in the wall, and it made me immediately think back to Noah and the roof leak the night of the party. He had stepped right in and fixed everything for me. No one had a clue that the running fountain was also concealing a leak, and it was something I had actually gotten credit for once I told the building owner about the issue. He had been very apologetic, and he promised to have the entire roof checked out as soon as possible. With a twenty five percent discount on the next rental I might do from him, I made sure to get it in writing. Cutting costs would help ensure that I would be more competitive compared to other party planners, which would hopefully help me land more customers.

Still, the highlight of the entire evening had been Noah’s arrival. I let out a groan, then closed my eyes as I relived the moment he had taken off his shirt. The man was a star quarterback on a professional sports team, so of course he was toned, but the actual sight of his bare chest caused my heart to skip a beat. It also made me wet, especially as my thoughts turned from the book to the man who could easily fill the pages of anyone out there.

“Chuck won’t be home for several hours,”the heroine had told the hero when she had come up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist.

“Fuck, Amy,”he had responded, then spun her around.“We don’t have much time then.”

The hero in this particular one had been Abram, and having stopped right at that part, I already knew what was about to happen. I would read a few pages of sex between the two main characters, only I was no longer picturing the two characters anymore. In fact, when I closed my eyes, I saw Noah, and I hadjust led him inside to look at the leaky roof. The caterer was nowhere to be found, and Gabriel had not been waiting in the wings. It was the two of us, and as he looked up at the ceiling, I did what Amy had done to Abram, only there was no threat of a husband to ruin things between us.

There was only my own insecurity. As I imagined wrapping my own arms around him, I peppered his exposed shoulders with kisses.“Noah—”I would begin before he would untangle himself from me.

“Lulu,”he would say to me.“What are you doing?”

“Nothing that we both don’t want.”

“You’re married,”he would say, and I would laugh.

“Some marriage it was. Cade wanted everyone but me, but not you. I see the way you look at me. It’s as if you’re devouring me, and I want that, maybe even more than you do.”

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