Sally Berneathy - Death by Chocolate 01 - Death by Chocolate Read Online Free PDF Page B

him. “The doughnuts were to give you the energy to perform again with me.”
    He ducked his head and looked repentant. Well, as close to repentant as it was possible for him to look. “Lindsay, I’m sorry. I made a mistake, a lot of mistakes. I love you and I’ve missed you.”
    I’m sorry. I made a mistake, a lot of mistakes. I love you and I’ve missed you. I knew they were just empty words, a sales spiel. I knew he wasn’t going to change. Still, I’d been waiting six weeks to hear him say that…and he did know how to press all the right buttons. I knew I needed to shove him away, check out the storm sewer, run for my life and sanity. But I remained standing there, inches away from my tormentor.
    He could see I was vacillating. He moved closer and put his arms around my waist, his forehead against mine. Affectionate and familiar rather than seductive. He really was a good salesman. “Remember when we first got married and we were so broke we had to sleep on the floor? The ironing board doubled as our table. A big night for us was a picnic in the park. I’d take that old guitar I got at a pawn shop and sing to you. For our first anniversary, I climbed a tree and sang Mariah .” He began to sing softly in a voice that matched his smile.
    This trip down Memory Lane was much more seductive than all the caresses of the night before.
    Behind us something thudded and made a hideous rowring noise.
    We both whirled around. The cat stood on the coffee table, tail in the air, back arched, his blue eyes looking suddenly demonic with their black vertical slits. He opened his mouth to make that noise again, and his fangs looked half an inch long. He seemed twice as big as I remembered. I had one instant of panic, wondering if he was rabid or something, but his glare was focused solely on Rick.
    “Something’s wrong with that cat,” Rick said, backing away. “We better call Animal Control.”
    The cat in question dipped his head and peered into the mug Rick had been drinking from, then gave a cat sneeze or maybe a snort of disgust. He was acting strange, but he’d given me the diversion I needed to find some of my common sense and maybe a smidgen of pride. I pulled away from Rick and went over to the cat who now looked as docile as ever though he still had that I am cat; I am your superior expression.
    I leaned down to pet him in order to give myself a few more seconds to recover from the Invasion of Rick. As I did, I peered idly at the dark liquid in the cup, curious as to what Rick might be drinking that the cat found so disgusting. It had to be either Coke, tea, or water. That’s all I had in the house.
    It didn’t look like any of those. There was a remote possibility he could have made hot chocolate, but it didn’t look like that, either. What it did look like was—
    “What are you drinking?” I demanded. “I don’t have any coffee in the house.”
    “I had a jar of instant in my briefcase.”
    He’d brought his own coffee.
    I could feel the steam suddenly pouring from my ears, just like in one of those cartoons.
    Obviously the arrogant man had intended to spend the night all along!
    I looked around for a blunt weapon.
    That’s what comes from having a clean house. There wasn’t a weapon in sight.
    I stomped to the end of the sofa, grabbed his briefcase, and tossed it at him with as much force as I could muster.
    It hit smack in his stomach, a bit higher than I’d been aiming. Too bad.
    “Ow! That hurt!”
    “Good. Now get out.” I glared at him and pointed toward the door.
    “Calm down, babe. I’ll go get some chocolate doughnuts and we’ll talk about this —”
    That final reminder of his deceptions was what it took to send me over the edge. I went ballistic. “If you call me babe one more time or remain in my house one more minute, I’m going to get my brand new double-barreled shotgun and change you from a bull to a steer right here in my living room, and that’s one mess I won’t mind