Page 64 of Mad Love

I shake my head, floored she’s willing to side with a prick like Cillian McCabe. “I won’t allow it.”

Cillian tsks. “How about I make this easy for you both?”

He pulls out his cell, and swiping his fingers over the screen, he finds what he’s looking for and sets the phone in front of us.

“She’s not loyal to you, Maddox. Blaise will always be loyal to the one who’s been there from the beginning.”

On his phone is an image of the front door of my penthouse. Blaise has her gloved hand on Granger’s face, and from the angle, it looks like he’s nuzzling the curve of my wife’s neck. I see red. Grabbing her hand that’s still on my thigh, I set it on hers.

Blaise doesn’t refute what is obvious in the picture. Her silence is her admission of guilt. But what is she guilty of? The proposal was clear. Either of us can go outside the marriage for sex. Except what Blaise and Granger have goes beyond the physical. He completes and knows her in a way I never could. Not in the short amount of time we have together.

“And here, my dear, is proof Maddox isn’t the doting husband you’d wish him to be.”

Cillian swipes his finger over the screen. The next image is of me holding Kris in my arms.

“This is his old flame, Kristine Holland. Beautiful, isn’t she? She’s a creature more to Maddox’s liking, a schoolteacher at one of the most impoverished neighborhoods. She has a master’s degree in mathematics. Smart and beautiful.”

He whistles. Blaise looks down at her plate of vegetables. I dig my nails into the underside of the chair. Otherwise, I’ll lurch across the table and pummel him into a bloody mess.

“Is tomorrow night okay?” Blaise mumbles.

“So long as you spend the next day with me too, beautiful.”

Friday night and Saturday day?

“That’s too much time,” I point out.

She tips her damn cute chin at me. “It’s not your decision to make.”

“I have a say in this. You’re my wife.”

“A business arrangement.”

Laughter bursts from Cillian. The scarred skin on the left side of his face moves as though it has a life of its own.

“This gets more and more interesting.”

He rises from his chair.

“I will send a car to pick you up tomorrow at five. Make contact with her at all during her time with me and I will rescind the offer, Maddox. Understood?”

Do I have a choice in the matter?

“Understood, but if any harm comes to her, there’ll be hell to pay.”

“I prefer my dick be attached to my body. You have my promise.” He flicks his attention to Blaise. “Good night, sweetheart.”

He leaves, and my appetite gone, I head for the door too.

“Where are you going?” Blaise calls after me.

“Out. I need fresh air.”

“Okay. I’ll be in the pool in an hour if you want to join me,” she says in this soft, pleading voice that has my gut clenching.

I close the door behind me, not glancing back. If I did, the sadness in her eyes would have me rushing to her. Yet, it’s not me she wants. She’s after something far more dangerous. Cillian.

Damn her.

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