Page 4 of Cursing My Cheating Husband

“Baby, you know I’m sorry. If tonight wasn’t such an important work thing…” I stepped into my boxer briefs and moved past her to get the rest of my clothes.

“Important work thing.” Callie repeated my words bitterly.

That threw me a little. Not a tone I was used to hearing from her.

I turned to her as I pulled on a crisp shirt. “Come on, babe, don’t be like that.” I gestured at the high-priced furnishings that surrounded us. “This doesn’t pay for itself.”

She lifted her head and looked at me evenly, her expression oddly unreadable. I didn’t know what to make of it. There was none of the usual adoration in her eyes.

I turned away to grab my cellphone… and it was on the bed. Hadn’t I left it on the nightstand?

I quickly unlocked it to check incoming messages and saw Gwen had just sexted me. The image would have been a turn-on, if not for the freaky energy coming off Callie two feet away from me.

If I didn’t have my security settings so tight, I’d be worried she had seen this sext. But there was no way she had my passcode.

Plus, if Callie had seen anything, she would be a much bigger mess. Obviously, she was sad to not be getting my dick tonight, but if she had learned of my affair with Gwen, she would have been on the floor screaming and ripping her hair out and kissing my feet as she begged me to choose her.

Dressed and ready, I checked my reflection and liked what I saw. No more time to dawdle. Gwen was already nude and waiting for me.

But Callie still looked so upset.

And I knew just how to cheer her up.

“Don’t worry. I can be a little late to work tomorrow. We can have a quickie in the morning.”

She didn’t immediately smile, and only continued to regard me with that piercing stare.

Best to leave her to handle all these feelings herself. As I headed for the door, I tossed out a quick “love you,” and moments later I was speeding out of our neighborhood in my SUV. Callie’s weirdness had thrown me, but I was sure I’d have my bearings again in a minute or two.

I was going to have to drive like a maniac to get to Gwen in time, but I was determined. Tonight might be the most intense sex marathon of my life. With Gwen’s unquenchable appetite, we could be at it all night long.

This was truly going to be a night to remember.

CHAPTER 3

CALLIE

What do you do with yourself after a discovery like this?

I’d changed into sweats, I’d managed that much. The tattered remnants of my cheerleader outfit were in the trash. When I’d put it on, I’d imagined Maddox tearing it off me in a passionate frenzy. Instead, I had ripped it off myself in a sobbing fit of humiliation and rage.

There would never be another use for the seduction costume I was wearing when I learned my husband was a serial cheater. I couldn’t get it off fast enough.

Somehow, I had then decided to torture myself by learning every little detail. While visions of Maddox on his way to his mistress’s house danced through my mind, I sat at the desk in his home office, where I had logged into his messages via his laptop. It was even worse than it had looked at first glance. Gwen and Chelsea were just the tip of the infidelity iceberg. It had been one woman after another.

I was so thankful that the coven’s healer had placed the standard protection enchantment on me as a teen, which would have blocked me from contracting any STDs Maddox may have picked up. At least I was spared that one source of stress.

Scrolling through the conversations, it was infuriating to discover I couldn’t even be mad at most of the other women. Big surprise, Maddox had been lying to all of them and presenting himself as single. The pattern was clear. He hooked up with these women a handful of times, then ghosted them the minute they proposed an actual date. Or expressed any thoughts or feelings more substantial than a wish for another no-strings-attached hookup.

The sole exception to this pattern was Gwen. Unlike the quick flash-in-the-pan of all the others, his texts with Gwen went back almost two years. She seemed to be the only one who knew Maddox was married. And not only did she know about me, she mentioned me in texts all the time.

Where does the wife think you’ll be tonight?

Can’t you send the wife out of town for a weekend? I want to do it in your bed.

He’d never sent me out of town. That was what passed for good news.

And he didn’t talk badly about me back. He didn’t mimic Gwen’s cruelty toward me. Just let it sit there, unchallenged and unremarked upon.