Page 2 of Separate Lives

She kept her mouth stubbornly closed, but her eyes never wavered from his.

“So I figured I’d download and fill in a marriage license, book an officiant, and give to you more of this remarkable time in my company by marrying you.”

And what about you, Reece?she silently asked him.How do you feel about me? Do you love me? Does the ground shake under your feet when we’re together? Are you as hooked on me, as I am on you?

His stance was unquestionably possessive. His black eyes bored into hers with the same keenness of a hunter with his prey, and whenever they touched, they sparkled quicker than a fireworks display on the fourth of July. But was it the same with him? His eyes were missing that particular light that made a woman sure her man saw her and her alone, that his happiness depended exclusively on hers, that he worshipped the very ground she walked upon. No, the light in his eyes revealed that old-fashioned lust was all there was on his side. Jess was disappointed and a fresh bout of anger surged through her veins.

“Is it that easy? Can you secure a marriage license simply by downloading it?”

“You can, if you have the right connections.”

“And I guess you do?”

“Of course.”

The arrogance the man possessed.

“Let me go.”

“No.”

“Let. Me. Go.” She cracked, pushing both hands against his chest so hard that he was forced to release her. “Just because I told LeeHanne those things, doesn’t mean I’m prepared to spend the rest of my life with a man I met three measly weeks ago,” she spat.

His only reaction was to smile knowingly at what he considered a childish outburst. “You know, Jess, I believe half of what you said is crap. And so do you.”

“Crap?”

“I’m there, together with you, whenever we make love. I know how mind blowing it is between us. Nothing this powerful has ever happened to me, and I must admit that at times the fierceness, the intensity of my feelings for you, scares me. But I need you in my life, and I’m man enough to recognize this. You, on the other hand, have no idea how to deal with this powerful attraction between us, and let your pride, and your fears, do the thinking for you.”

Jess opened her mouth to speak, but he went on.

“You’re afraid that by living with me twenty-four-seven you’ll come to love me so much that you’ll feel lost without me at your side, or in your bed. It’s hurting your pride to realize that you’re not, after all, the independent, carefree woman you value yourself to be, and you need a man, me, by your side to feel complete. I, on the other hand, don’t need any excuse to know we are a perfect match. I prefer to waste no time obeying silly rules that declare a man and a woman in love should wait months, if not years, to get married.”

Jess was simmering with rage, shocked by the extent of his conceit. Who was he to throw around words like ‘need’ and ‘love’ when he didn’t even know what they meant? As far as memory went, she could not recall a single episode during their short-lived relationship in which Reece had shown her love or need, other than physically.

“I also know something else about you,” he continued. Dropping one arm he straightened up and used the forefinger of his other hand, to play with a wayward strand of dark hair that had escaped Jess’s ponytail right behind her ear. “I know you like to tease me until I’m so hard I can’t walk without nearly coming in my pants. I know how to make you crazy with pleasure. I’ve got claw marks on my body to prove it. I also know you were sincere when you told LeeHanne you love me. Your face lit up when you spoke my name. So stop pretending to be outraged that I married you, because by being my wife, Jess, you’ve got it all –plenty of glorious sex and a lifetime of me.”

A bout of hysterical laughter, with a little sickness mixed in, made its way up to her throat. To avoid throwing up, Jess stifled both. Snatching her strand of hair away from his forefinger, she put it back behind her ear, annoyed by the weakening effect the simple gesture was having on her knees, then looked him squarely in the eyes.

“So you’re saying I should thank you, because by marrying me –without me even remembering the ceremony, you’ve done me a great favor?”

“Right.”

“Wrong. I don’t need, nor do I want any such favors from you or anyone else. I’m not some charity case or a poor spinster in dire need of a husband. But you’re right. To a certain extent. I’m not afraid to admit that I love you and want you in my life. I’d be a hypocrite to deny that this mad attraction we share doesn’t scare me too. It’s so intense, so wild, so mind-blowing, I’m overwhelmed by it. But I’m also selfish.”

Jess paused to put her wayward strand of hair back behind her ear. Again. Her hair today seemed bent on annoying her more than Reece.

“I’m selfish because I want all you can possibly give to another human being. I want your affection, which, right now, I don’t think is there for me. And your respect, that after this,” she said, showing him the folded marriage license, “I know for a fact you find me most unworthy of. What you don’t get,darling, is that I value my freedom, as in the control over my life and its course, more than anything else in the whole universe –you included, and I’m prepared to fight to the bitter end to retain it.”

“I want to divorce you Reece Hilton, because for you I’m merely a hot body you can use to slake your lust when you’re in the mood. I want to divorce you because in all your arrogance, you think you know what’s going on in my mind, and make lots of harebrained assumptions on what is good or bad for me. I want to divorce you because you never share what goes on inyourmind the very few times we’re not having sex. I want to divorce you because yesterday, before I got so drunk I could hardly remember my name, you never once considered asking me if I wanted to commit myself to you for life. You never thought I might need time to sort out my feelings about us and what’s happening. In other words, you never, for a single moment, considered I have a mind and opinions like everybody else, and I might like to use them to make a life-changing decision like getting married. No, sir, convinced you knew all there is to know about me after overhearing some girl-talk, you went ahead and made a mess out of our lives. And after all this, you think I should thank you? Just out of curio, do you know what I believe a lasting relationship between a man and a woman should be based upon?”

Jess gave Reece the time to answer. None came.

“I believe a sound relationship is possible only if both parties involved give and take an equal amount of love and respect. But how could you know this? You never thought of asking me or sharing your thoughts with me. No, sir, you took the coward’s way out, bullying your way into my life, pretending to take it over without even attempting to coax my consent. And there, is where you blew it. Never,everdare to take me for granted again. Don’t evendreamabout imposing your will on me, without first giving me a sound reason why I should submit. I’m so angry with you right now, so very angry with you forallof this,” Jess spat, dangling the marriage license under his nose again. “And I’m more determined than ever, to divorce a presumptuous ass like you.”

Seeing he was about to speak, Jess cut him off with a sharp lash of her wrist before Reece had time to challenge her verbal slap to his ego. She wasn’t finished with him yet. Her wayward strand of hair fell free from behind her ear, and brushed her cheek. Jess this time ignored it.

“I’m prepared to go to any length to regain my freedom immediately. And I warn you, I’m dead serious about it. I want an uncontested divorce, and I’m quite eager to go public to get it. I bet your clients would love to hear all the saucy details on how you got me so drunk I can’t even remember when you took me in front of a Cook County judge. And no matter how fervently you’ll deny my words, your integrity will inevitably be damaged, and your job will suffer a serious drawback.”

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