He wanted me, and there was lust, but there was also control.I accepted all of that, grateful for the opportunity to escape my fate.From facing homelessness and having to return to Arizona with my tail between my legs.To a future where I was trapped supporting my parents with no way out.
I don’t regret marrying Adam and never will.
But I’m starting to see, even after my short affair with John, that there is a big wide world just waiting for me to explore.
I’m not going to lie, if Zander wasn’t my attorney—and a jerk most of the time—I’d likely be very keen toexplorehim.
Mostly his body...if that needed spelling out.
And that’s fair.It sure isn’t his personality.Zander Sterling is a very handsome and influential man whom few women would say no to.
I mean,Lord,when he placed his hand on my thigh and I felt the heat through my skirt, I almost climbed on his lap and begged him to fuck me.
Not really.
Okay, maybe really.
Gosh, I raised my voice at him earlier.If we aren’t battling in the boardroom, we are fighting this sizzling chemistry between us.
One, clearly neither of us can act on, and thank goodness!I appreciate the legal boundaries between us; Zander knows almost everything about my life after our working session tonight.
I shared how we met and the unfolding of our marriage.I left out the real reason I left Adam, that when he laid his hands on me (and boot) I had to leave.That he’d found my infertility unacceptable.I would never share that.
Adam’s claims that I had an affair with John are absurd.He won’t have proof because there isn’t any.
“Perhaps the campus would have cameras we can search,” I’d asked Zander tonight.
“If they still have the recording, it will only show the two of you speaking.They won’t prove it was the first time you met.”
Ugh.
“Well, it was.I thought I was happily married.”I snapped without thinking.
“Until?”
Oh shit.
“Until I wasn’t.It became clear that we both wanted different things.It happens.”I said, instead of explaining, my husband struck me for not producing a child.
I had photos if it came down to it, but I didn’t want to be the woman who’d had that happen to her.I wanted to be happy.To feel secure.
To not have my husband treat me like I was a baby machine.
To be loved.
I grew up in a world where those things happen on a regular basis, so I knew keeping a record was a smart thing to do.But I didn’t file a police report.It would’ve been leaked to the media before I drove home.
Where Adam could hurt me again.
They call that being street-smart.
“It does happen but there’s usually more to it.Can I be frank?”Zander sat back, his arms relaxing at his sides.He’d been wearing reading glasses and propped them up on his head.
God, he looked sexy.
“Okay,” I reluctantly responded.
“Usually, when two people grow apart as you say happened, the settlement is quick and agreeable.That’s not what is happening here.Adam has gone public with a claim that you were unfaithful.”
