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“You were straight up rude out there, Riggs Bates,” Winnie persisted, power walking to keep up with my stride. “Why’d you kiss the poor child if you don’t have feelings for her?”
“I do have feelings for her,” I protested, slapping the door to the pub open. “I feel strongly that she’s a pain in the ass.”
My friends wobbled behind me like baby geese. I fell on a stool at the bar and rapped the wood three times. “Redbreast, neat. Make it a double.”
A triple might have been a better idea, actually. How much did I have to drink to rid myself of the taste of my wife? Her sweetness lingered on my mouth, and I had to remind myself she was over a decade younger. Not to mention, she’d married me so she wouldn’t get deported. Not to mention, she’d thought I couldn’t afford her.
The fact she had a price tag at all should’ve made her undesirable to me.
I’d tried to be good. A week ago, when we’d almost kissed in her apartment, I’d put a stop to it before we did something stupid. But today, when the clerk gave me the green light, and Duffy stood there with her little frown and surly pout and posh outfit and purple eyes, I couldn’t help myself. I indulged.
Indulged? You scorched every boundary you’ve ever agreed to by kissing her.
Confusion and horniness gave way to anger. Did I just sexually harass my own wife? Ten seconds into our marriage?
“Seems that way.” Arsène slithered to a seat next to mine on the bar like a dark shadow.
Shit. I said that out loud.
“You did.” Christian perched on the other side of me. “And that last sentence too.”
I knocked back the whiskey in front of me, then motioned for a refill. Christian chuckled, shaking his head. Arya and Winnie disappeared to the restroom, probably to plot my execution.
“Back to the topic. You didn’t sexually harass your wife,” Arsène murmured, then ordered a whiskey as well. “The tongue-thrusting was mutual,” he reflected. “Anduncalled for. I was planning to eat today.”
The women joined us and ordered fruity schnapps and truffle fries.
“You have to go back to her.” Arya put a hand on my shoulder. “What you did today was lame for a thirteen-year-old, and disastrous for a thirty-seven-year-old.”
“She’ll get over it,” I said. Duffy didn’t give two shits about me. She was still full-fledged obsessed with the idiot who left her behind.
Just in case, I pulled out my phone to check if I had any missed calls or texts from her. I didn’t. She was probably vomiting into a trash can this very moment, brushing her teeth with hot coal and hoping she didn’t catch anything deadly.
“Why did you run off, anyway?” Christian tilted his head sideways.
“Because he likes her,” Arsène supplied.
“As a friend,” I corrected, though I wasn’t sure that was true anymore. I did like Duffy, weirdly enough. But I also wanted to fuck her. What would that be called?
Marriage, you moron.
“Sure!” Winnie said brightly. “And I only liked Arsène as a boss.”
ShehatedArsène when he was her boss. In fact, she ran all the way back to Tennessee when she’d worked as an actress at his theater.
“No, I actually do only like her as a friend.” I tapered my eyes, shooting Arsène a don’t-be-a-dick glare. “You know my thoughts on monogamy.”
“What I know is you’ve never stayed in a place long enough to get attached to anything.” Arsène draped an arm over Winnie’s shoulder.“Now that’s changing, and so are you. If this is how you kiss your friends ...” He trailed off, his gaze drifting to the woman tucked under his arm. “Stay the fuck away from my wife.”
An infinite number of drinks later, I decided to face the music.
I was about to open the door to Duffy’s building when my phone rang. It was Emmett, the world-class douchebag. Not normally my conversation partner of choice, but this was the one time I wanted to speak to him. I swiped the screen, taking the stairs two at a time.
“Emmett.” I said his name in the same tone I would the worddouchebag.
“Fine. So the weddingdidhappen,” he huffed on the other side of the line. “I’ll give you that.”
“Hello to you too. And what do we say when we wrongly accuse our employees of faking a wedding ...?”
