Page 12 of The Devil's Spawn

“I’m sorry, Simone.”

I didn’t have a choice.

She’d disagree. Everyone had a choice, she’d say in that indignant tone of hers. The rational part of my brain—the part that wasn’t led around by Gage’s cock—would agree with her.

“That’s all you’re going to say after giving me radio silence for so long?”

The waitress arrived with our orders, which gave me a few moments to figure out how to go forward with this tricky conversation. Spilling my guts to her used to be easy, but now tension simmered between us, and I hated every second of it.

“You know I have certain…rules to follow. Things got complicated after…”

After Ian.

So much to discuss, but I couldn’t even bring myself to say his name. She shifted, tilted her head, and I recognized the signs. Go on, she silently told me.

“After everything that happened, Gage and I had a lot of issues to work through.” What a fucking understatement. She didn’t know the half of it. She knew more than most people did about my fucked up arrangement with my husband, but I wasn’t about to speak of those torturous months spent in his cage, bound and gagged for my sins. If I opened that can ofdisturbingly wrong, I’d have to justify his actions, and somehow, they only sounded justifiable in my poisoned mind. There was just no way of explaining that to her. “I didn’t mean to shut you out, Simone.”

She took in a breath, then blew it out, ruffling her blond hair. “I get it. You obviously have baggage you don’t want to get into. I’m just glad you’re finally back.” Her brows furrowed over deep brown eyes. “You are back, right? No more disappearing on me for months at a time?”

A weak smile took hold of my lips. “I think things are starting to settle down again.”

“So you worked shit out?”

I heard so much more in that question—all the ones she didn’t ask. The ones she would probably never ask because she respected my boundaries too much to pry. Hell, she respected my boundaries better than my husband did.

“We’re getting there,” I hedged.

“I’ve got a nosy ear, you know.” She fit her palm behind her right ear, and I had to laugh. But then the image of Gage and Katherine whirled through my head and blew that small amount of joy to the next county over.

“I’m scared he’s fucking her.” The words tore from my mouth before I could stop them. And damn, they weren’t even true…entirely. I believed him when he said he wouldn’t touch her…didn’t I?

“Who?” Simone bit into her BLT sandwich.

“Katherine.”

She halted her chewing long enough to raise a brow, then a few moments later, she wiped her mouth with a napkin. “She’s still an issue?”

Hell, Katherine had been an issue since the day Gage had first hired me on as his personal assistant. She was the weed that refused to go away. Her presence just spread and spread until the bitch sprang up in the cracks of our marriage.

“I don’t know. He swears nothing is going on with her.”

“You think he’s lying?”

“I…” I replayed his words in my mind, and deep down I knew he’d meant them. “No. Not really. But she just has a way of getting to me. She touches him every chance she gets, shows up at his hotel room—”

“Shewhat?”

I nodded, feeling even more miserable. “He said he slammed the door in her face.” I wondered what Simone’s reaction would be if I told her the rest—how he’d jacked off while imagining his cock in my throat. I parted my lips and drew in a thready breath.

“It really boils down to one thing. Do you trust him?”

She made it sound so easy, but as I examined my feelings and tore apart his words, dissected his actions, I realized that I did. Mostly. There were plenty of thingsnotto trust him about—anytime he came near me with his cock at the ready and a belt or whip in his fist, for instance—but on a fundamental level, I did trust him.

If I didn’t, why would I keep putting myself through this? Why keep bending and bending and bending?

“I do trust him,” I said, swiping my bangs to the side. “I love him. More than I could ever say. More than even makes sense.”

“Then I’d put the baby mama out of your head. He marriedyou, and though I won’t begin to understand or approve of your…weird relationship, he has always come across as pretty fucking whipped.”

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