Page 27 of Reclaiming My Wife

“That cowboy from yesterday is your husband?” He sneered. “Your judgment needs to be questioned, Jill. I assume you regret your decision to rashly marry that Neanderthal.”

I bristled, and my nails bit into my skin. “Look, I would divorce Brendan right now if I could, but he’s threatening to make it public, and we both know that might not reflect well on me.”

An eyebrow arched straight up. “You’re worried about your reputation now? Perhaps you should have thought of that before you foolishly married him. Jill, there are more important things at stake than your inflated ideas about your career. Divorce him. Now. If things get messy, I will do my best to clean it up, and I hope that this is the last bit of trouble that you get into, because I need a mature and sophisticated wife and not some trashy and disastrous drama queen.”

Stunned, I stared at him. How long had I been berating myself for my choice in ex-husbands when I should have been questioning my choice in boyfriends?

“Excuse me? You chose me to be your mature and sophisticated wife? Did you expect that I was going to be some decoration on your arm? That I would give up my dreams and tend to you while you did everything you wanted?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You’re still welcome to work.”

“Wow.” Shooting up from the chair, I kicked it away and started to pace. “You already have us married, and we haven’t even had a proper kiss. We haven’t gotten intimate. We haven’t even discussed how we feel about each other. You’re not mature or stable. You’re a user.”

“Jill—”

I faced him. “I swear to god, if you call me Jill one more time, I’ll scream so loud that I will bring the whole building here. I’ve told you a thousand times to call me Jillian. We’re done, Don. In fact, I’m not sure that we were ever together, so you really don’t need to concern yourself about the decisions that I made when I was eighteen or the decisions I’m going to make in the next hour. And I hope you realize that all of those guys last night have no intentions of offering you that seat. They’re just stringing you along so you’ll keep kissing their asses.”

Grabbing my purse, I stormed out of the office and slammed the door shut. It wasn’t until I was halfway down the hall that I realized what I’d done. It wasn’t the break-up. I didn’t feel any pain over that, but Don was just one person who had judged me for the decisions I’d made when I was young.

He’d judged me harshly. Almost as harshly as I blamed myself.

If this came to light, I’d be facing Don’s reaction tenfold.

Damn, damn, damn. I needed to accept Brendan’s offer.

Cursing the whole way, I grabbed a taxi to the coffee shop. Seeing him lounging in the booth only made me angrier, but my racing heart had nothing to do with my annoyance and everything to do with my reaction to him.

This was probably the most dangerous decision I’d ever made.

“Hello, sweetheart. How was your date last night?”

I dumped my purse on the table and grabbed my wallet. “I’m getting coffee.”

Just then, the barista called my name. Brendan smiled. “I remember what a complete and terrifying monster you are in the morning. I ordered your usual.”

I was too happy to have coffee to be upset. Picking up my extra-dirty chai latte, I took that first hot sip, let the liquid slide down my throat, and closed my eyes and sighed. I was already starting to feel better.

“The last time I saw that look on your face was right after I slipped my hand up your skirt.”

“No.” Holding up my hand, I glared at him as I slid in the booth. “If we’re going to do this, then we need to establish some ground rules, and the first rule is that we’re not walking down memory lane. I mean it, Brendan.”

“So, you’ve decided to take me up on my offer.” There was a twinkle in his eyes as he sipped his coffee. “Excellent decision. How did your boyfriend take it?”

I lifted my chin. “Don and I are no longer together, and that is rule number two. No questions about my personal life.”

“Should I be writing these down?” he teased. “Did Don break up with you when he discovered that you were more than two-dimensional?”

“That is a question about my personal life,” I muttered as I shifted in my seat. It irked me to know that he was right. “And it brings me to my final rule. There will be no more intimate moments between us.”

“Intimate moments,” he mused, those blue eyes almost piercing right through me. “You may have to elaborate on that. We will have to play a couple, Jillian. In front of people, I expect you to act like I’m the man who makes all your dreams come true at night. That shouldn’t be too hard, should it? Based on your reaction yesterday, I’d say that you still enjoy my touch.” He leaned closer to me and lowered his voice. “Did you spend the night with that purple toy I bought you?”

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