Tags:
Fiction,
General,
Romance,
Contemporary,
Domestic Fiction,
Love Stories,
Contemporary Women,
Adultery,
African American,
African American women,
Married Women,
Triangles (Interpersonal relations)
the aching in my private area, but his hands felt a lot better to me than mine did.
âI donât trust J.R. I know he said he wouldnât call the cops or tell anybody, but what if he does?â
âLook, if he calls the cops and we find out about it in time, we split,â Wade answered, pulling his hands away from my crotch. âI got a Mexican buddy down in Mexico City that owes me some favors. We could hole up with him from now on if it comes to that. The law ainât too fond of him, so we wouldnât never have to worry about him blabbing. Mexico is full of folks running away from something, so weâll feel right at home. And if it comes to that, Jesse Ray will get to keep his money, but he wonât have you no more. As long as you donât slip up, he wonât never find you or find out what happened to you. For all heâll ever know, you laying dead somewhere in the mountains. Now do you think that the man you married would want to spend the rest of his life with that on his mind? Do you think heâd let something happen to you that he could have prevented?â
âMy husband loves me,â I insisted. But I had to wonder just how much Jesse Ray loved me after the way heâd hemmed and hawed when Wade called him up. I wasnât so sure anymore.
Wade rotated his neck and brought his lips together with such a quick move, they snapped shut like a coin purse. With his eyes on my faceâand with a look on his face so lifeless, youâd have thought that he was watching this yearâs most boring movieâhe slid his tongue out and moistened his lips before he spoke again. âYour husband loves you? Uh-huh,â he muttered, nodding. âAnd is that why you are trying to cheat him out of half a million dollars?â Wade laughed.
CHAPTER 5
âI donât like it when people laugh at me, Wade.â I pushed his hands away and gave him the dirtiest look I could manage, but that didnât even seem to faze him. He kept laughing. âI wish youâd stop that!â I snarled, pinching the side of his arm. The two pillows that had been on the mattress were now on the floor, too flat and flimsy to be of any use, anyhow, so it didnât matter where they were. I propped my head up on my arm, with my cheek pressed against my elbow, breathing out of the side of my mouth. Wade had eaten the day-old sardines and oysters, but there was such a foul taste in my mouth, it seemed like Iâd eaten some, too.
âThen stop humoring me,â he said, looking serious now.
âI signed a prenup,â I said in a low, hollow voice, holding back a belch of my own.
âYou did what?â
One of the few things that I didnât like about this man was that I often had to tell him the same thing more than once. I couldnât remember how many times I had already told Wade that Iâd signed a prenuptial agreement. But I told him again, anyway.
âI signed a prenuptial agreement. If I divorce Jesse Ray, I get next to nothing. Iâve already told you that.â For some mysterious reason, I had a feeling that this would be the last time Iâd have to tell him this. I gave Wade a pleading look. âI canât stay on with him the way things are.â I cleared my throat, but it was still hard for me to continue speaking. âJesse Ray has changed. His work, his family, they all come before me now. It wasnât always like that,â I said hoarsely.
âChristine, will you get mad if I say something I probably shouldnât say?â
âYou are too late for that, so you can say whatever you want to say now,â I said firmly, giving him a guarded look. âIâm listening.â
Wade took a deep breath and then let it out. He held his hands out toward me, palms up, like he was about to do something Iâd like. He was one of the few men I knew who was good with his hands. But he didnât use them to do anything
Marc Nager, Clint Nelsen, Franck Nouyrigat