Page 12 of Faithless

I can’t think about that right now.

I lift my hand to caress her soft earlobe between my thumb and forefinger. I lower my mouth to the side of her face. “Want to get out of here soon, darling girl?”

Her head jerks in my direction, and what almost looks like panic fills her eyes. I have to fight the urge to smile.

Darling girl.

My old pet name for her. I used to call her that when I worshiped her in the bedroom. When I had my cock deep inside her and thought I’d never be closer to heaven. I called her darling girl because I meant it. Because she was the most precious, sweet, darling girl in the world, and I would have committed murder to keep her close to me. I haven’t called her that in fifteen years.

You’d almost think I planned it.

Her jaw sets. “People are watching us,” she whispers. “What are you doing?”

“No one’s watching,” I whisper. “Laura’s looking at her phone.”

Whitney’s nostrils flare, and oh God, I want to kiss that little button nose of hers. “Because we’re making her uncomfortable.” The quiet words are delivered through clenched teeth.

I grin. My darling girl is doing everything she can to resist me.

It won’t work.

“Let’s make a few rounds of conversation and then get out of here. They’re lucky we made an appearance anyway, and I’ll have Lily arrange for someone to bid for us.”

Whitney stares at me for a moment, her eyes filling with something I can’t quite figure out… Then a hardness settles in them. “I’ll fuck you tonight, and that’s it.”

My mouth drops open. I’ll fuck you? Who is this woman? I don’t think I’ve ever heard her say “fuck” even during the thousands of times I’ve fucked her.

My cock grows stiff while a coldness settles in my gut. Oh God, what if this marriage ends and she becomes this bold woman out in the world? Someone who will tell other men she’ll fuck them. Heat pulses through my veins at the thought.

It won’t happen.

I won’t let it.

“Consider it a goodbye fuck,” she says.

The coldness in my gut turns to ice, and I stop breathing for a moment.

A goodbye fuck.

It’s such a perfunctory word—goodbye—and yet in this case, it will be the end of the world for me.

Oh God, just the idea of her belonging to someone else… Of someone else having the right to kiss and touch and…

Fuck no.

It won’t happen.

It can’t.

I lean in, smiling as I kiss her cheek. My mouth travels to her ear. “Guess I’ll have to make it extra memorable, huh?”

* * *

Whitney

* * *

The group conversation fades into murmurs as Mark’s warm hand caresses the back of my neck. He hasn’t stopped touching me for the last half hour. I have to steel myself against his warmth.

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