Total pages in book: 190
Estimated words: 181992 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 181992 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
Grayden pressed his lips together for a long moment. “Mimi is confused. Hurting.” He shook his head slightly, adding, “She doesn’t understand why you would marry someone out of the blue the way you did. Maybe if you explained, maybe if you sat her down and told her about the pact, she’d feel better.”
A line appeared between Dax’s brows. “I don’t need to explain anything to Mimi.” He paused, looking Grayden up and down. “I don’t know what it is with you and her, but both of you seem to believe that my marriage is somehow your business. It isn’t.”
Amen.
Grayden’s eyes flared, and he looked as though he’d bark a retort. But then he pulled in a steadying breath and unclenched his jaw. “Have a heart, Dax. Mimi would have been your sister-in-law had fate not been such a bitch. She’s not asking for anything other than maybe a few minutes of your time. She just wants to mend things.”
Dax very slowly cocked his head. “Do you know what she said to Addison?”
Grayden averted his eyes. “Mimi gave me a rundown of it, yes.”
“Then why would you think I’d feel inclined to pander to her feelings?”
A good question for sure.
Grayden shot him a sardonic look. “Let’s be fair here, neither you nor Addison are all that wounded. The things Mimi said would have hurt a couple deeply in love, but that’s not the situation we have here. You simply wish to make a silent but firm statement that you won’t tolerate certain behavior toward your …” He trailed off.
Dax lifted a taunting brow. “My, what?”
Hesitating, Grayden coughed into his fist. “Look, I appreciate that you and Addison are married—”
“Do you, though? Because that’s not the impression I get from you.” Dax took a single step toward him. “Nor do I get the impression that you’ve acknowledged to yourself that you no longer have any rights to her. No contact—that was what you promised her when you left her. Correct?”
“Yes,” Grayden gritted out.
“But you didn’t stick to that promise, did you? You kept finding excuses to see or contact her, because you didn’t want her to forget you and move on too fast. Even when I later entered the picture, you didn’t do the smart thing and fully drop off her radar. And now here you are, yet again involving yourself in business regarding her.”
Grayden’s head flinched back as his eyes widened. “Whoa, I’m here on behalf of my client—nothing more.”
Dax’s expression called him a liar. “You’re not truly here for Mimi’s sake. The truth is that you don’t like being on the outside of Addison’s life. You’ll use any excuse to somehow touch it; to remind her that you exist. And I have to tell you, Grayden, I’m fucking done with it.”
“That’s not—”
“It’s time you let her go,” Dax stated, his tone nonnegotiable. “I get that you’ll struggle with it—maybe even for a while. But you’re going to need to push past that. Some men might get off on others coveting their woman, but I don’t.”
A dark spite surged to life behind Grayden’s eyes. His cheeks reddened, his jaw hardened, his breaths came faster. “Well, you know what I don’t like? I don’t like when a guy I once considered a friend marries my ex.”
“She was mine first.”
“Yours?” An ugly scoff came from Grayden. “You two had a fling years ago. That hardly counts. And you might now be her legal spouse, but that’s just paperwork. It doesn’t equal a relationship. She’s no more yours now than she was back then. She’s not in any way important you. No. You might have married her, but I love her.”
I gaped at the sheer nerve of this motherfucker. He’d broken his promises to me. Walked away. Reconciled with his ex. Defended said ex and her son when they recently screwed with me. And now he was claiming he loved me? Honest to God?
“Don’t give me that shit.” Dax shot him a look that was a perfect blend of impatience and disgust. “You don’t love her.”
Grayden’s brows snapped together. “Fuck that, Dax, I—”
“In fact, I don’t think you ever did.”
His mouth dropping open, Grayden jabbed a finger at him. “That is not true.” His gaze cut to me. “You know that is not true.”
“If you honestly cared so much about Addison, you wouldn’t have given her up.”
His eyes flying back to Dax, Grayden dropped his hand to his side. “I went back to Felicity for my kids’ sake. Nothing else could have made me leave Addison. Only my girls.”
“So you say. And maybe that’s true. But you share Felicity’s bed, don’t you? Share the bed of a woman you know made a play to destroy the happiness you had with another.”
Grayden spluttered. “It wasn’t like that.”
“It was exactly like that,” Dax asserted. “If you loved Addison, you’d be hating Felicity for what she did. You’d loathe her for making that play; loathe that it worked; resent every minute you spent with her. You wouldn’t be able to kiss her, touch her, sleep with her.”