Page 1 of Separate Lives

ChapterOne

SEPTEMBER

“Fact is, yesterday you became my wife.”

“You must be joking.”

“Never been more serious.”

A long, pensive pause followed the announcement. Jess looked at Reece. Each muscle in his large body was tense, as if ready to pounce. The tendons along his neck were stiff. His lips looked like two thin, horizontal lines drawn on his face. His dark eyes were studying her with such intensity they pierced her to the core. But she just met his stare.

He passed her a piece of paper, their marriage license.

Jess scanned it, and there, for all to see were their names, yesterday’s date, and both of their signatures, plus a third by a Cook County judge. Jess recognized hers, but this was the first time she was seeing Reece’s. The sharp, bold lines of his handwriting looked so different next to her flowing, round signature.

“Is this thing valid?” She didn’t look at Reece, but kept her eyes fixed to the paper in her hands, wanting to hear the hideous truth in his words, rather than seeing it in his eyes.

“It is, starting from today.”

Though her mind refused to acknowledge his words her blood was starting to simmer. Determined to get to the bottom of the matter, Jess reined in her mounting rage and the need to scratch his face. “How come I don’t remember any of this?”

“You were drunk.”

“And you weren’t?”

“I was, but not as much as you.”

Slowly, she folded the license. Rose from the chair. Curbed the sudden light-headed feeling that made her sway and the taste of bile in her mouth –both souvenirs of yesterday’s birthday party at the Jenkins’, and using her harms to steady her as she went, left the kitchen.

The strained expression on his face, the grave timber of his voice, his body language had all told her he’d been downright serious about what he’d said.

“Where’re you going?” Reece thundered, strutting after her, imprisoning Jess’s arm in a dead grip that successfully stopped her flight.

“To get an attorney.”

“So you believe me.”

“Sure I do. You can be called many things, Reece Hilton, but liar is not one of them.” With that, Jess shook her arm free from his confining grip, and on wobbly feet, kept making her progress towards the front door.

“You can’t divorce me,” Reece challenged, clearly affronted, though he didn’t attempt to close the distance between them. Judging from the pasty color of the skin on her face and her unsteady walk, the last thing she needed was to have him physically shake some sense into her.

“Just wait and see.”

“Move away from that door,” Reece ordered, needing to stop Jess and try to reason with her.

“Not a snowball’s chance in hell,” she rebuked in tone.

A six-foot-two, two-hundred-pound angry male was quite a challenge for a five-foot-seven, one-hundred-and-thirty-pound woman to overcome. Nonetheless, her own anger made her feel primed to conquer Mount Everest singlehanded, and not in the least afraid of his physical superiority.

“Move away from that door, I said.” Three giant steps took him right in front of her. This time, without any consideration for her hangover, Reece grabbed firm hold of both of her shoulders. His eyes clashed with hers, cold and determined. Defiantly, she lifted her chin and stared unwaveringly back at him.

“Short of killing me, you won’t be able to stop me.”

Reece suddenly released her shoulders. Jess flinched and instinctively drew back, unsure what his next move would be. A self-satisfied grin broke across his full lips as Jess condemned herself for her own susceptibility. Her instinctive reaction had just invalidated her proud words. She wasn’t as self-assured as she had willed him to think.

Spreading his palms against the door and leaning on them, he successfully trapped her between his large body and the wood frame. His breath fanned her face, while coal-black eyes drilled into clear-blue pools of stream water. Stiffening her back, Jess silently let him know she was prepared to stand her ground –if she didn’t throw up first. His manhandling was making her stomach queasy. Reece took advantage of this and pressed on.

“Drop the melodramatic act. It won’t wash. Last week, I overheard you talk with LeeHanne. I know you ‘love me deeply, like never before,’” Reece quoted, wearing the arrogant, self-confident smile of a man playing his trump card. “You also said you’re addicted to me, ‘your demon lover’ because every time my body touches yours, you feel like an ‘earthquake is shaking the very ground under your feet.’ Isn’t it correct?” His uncompromising stare dared Jess to deny the truth.

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