Page 24 of Strange Seduction
Carmen and I were solid. We had history. Love.Commitment. The kind of loyalty people prayed for.
We didn’t need constant sex or surface-level validation to prove what we had.
…Right?
I stepped into the shower, letting the hot water beat against my skin, hoping it would wash away the bullshit. But the second my eyes closed, the questions started again.
What did we have in common anymore?
She’s completely focused on her career, absorbed in the cases she’s working on, and those were things she shares with Marcus. Things they discuss over lunch and in texts. Conversations that she’d leave me at restaurant tables to have.
I exhaled hard, tilting my face into the stream.
She’s with me. She chose me. That should’ve been enough.
It should be enough.
I shut off the water, heart pounding now for a different reason. The echo of Vince’s voice cut through the quiet.
People settle when they’re too busy chasing their own shit to see they’re miserable.
Carmen wasn’t miserable.
Was she?
I dragged a towel off the rack and scrubbed it over my face, frustration coiling in my chest. The thought lingered, gnawing at the edges of my mind.Because what if she was miserable? And what if she did settle? And what if she wanted Marcus?
The little voice in the back of my head reminds me of the conversation in the car. She and Marcus couldn’t be together because he was married.
But what if they both want more?
Carmen would never break up a happy marriage, and she wouldn’t cheat on me.
But was she just here for the sex while her mind was getting what she wanted but couldn’t have from Marcus?
Was it worse to be cheated on physically or emotionally?
What if I was just the comfort?
The consistent warm body while her mind stayed busy somewhere else—with someone else?
I wrapped a towel around my waist and caught my reflection in the mirror. My jaw was tight, my chest rising like I’d just run a marathon.
I needed to pull it together.
She came to Italy for me. Flew across the world to see me. If she didn’t want this, or didn’t want us, she wouldn’t have shown up. Carmen wasn’t cruel—if she wanted to end it, she would’ve broken it off without coming here.
She would’ve called and let me down gently. She’d think she was sparing me.
Instead, she was here.
In my hotel suite.
In my bed.
I tightened the towel around my waist and opened the door.
And all the breath left my body.
