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“The war is still going on, Alexandra. But trust me, it will end.” His voice resonated a resolve that held not only me but the whole room captive.
I shuddered anew. I couldn’t stay in that room a moment longer. Frantically grabbing for my clothes, I ran toward the exit door.
Thankfully, he didn’t try to stop me. We both knew the night had ended, not because I ran but because he was finished with me.
Chapter Nineteen
Reggie had laid out a long red gown for me to wear, but I returned it to the closet and pulled out a short, strapless green one I preferred instead. It was much more revealing. Slutty, I think his words were when he showed it to me the fir
st time. I hadn’t worn it yet, and was itching to see what kind of reaction I’d get – mostly from Reggie. But for a formal dinner?
I’d been setting up my own little drama since the night he dared to humiliate me in front of his crowd of friends. Little pieces of the scene I planned had been falling into place for several days, while Reggie virtually ignored me. I was hardly conscious of what I was doing, but I knew that on the next available occasion, I’d come up with something decidedly outrageous.
I made my plans while lying in the warm sun by the pool, a perfect time to let my mind roam free.
“Well, Alex,” Heidi gushed, as she approached me one afternoon, “how delightful it is to see you.” Mockery oozed from every bronze pore.
“It’s good to see you too, Heidi.” I smiled. I detested her, but had learned to skillfully manage myself around the woman.
She sat on the lounge beside me. “So, now that you have Reggie thoroughly smitten with you, what is your next aspiration?”
“Smitten?” I nearly laughed. I hardly considered his treatment of me a sign that he was smitten.
“No, I suppose you’re not aware how much he’s taken with you. I sometimes think he’d give up all of this just to have you.”
“I don’t understand, he hasn’t given me any reason to believe that I’m any more than an occupation.”
“Oh, my god!” she retorted. “You’re blind if you can’t see the place you’ve carved within him. And if I sound spiteful, it’s because I’m not there.” Finished with what she had to say, she got up and sashayed away. If nothing else she’d aroused me with her resentfulness; apparently she was privy to knowledge about Reggie’s feelings that I knew nothing about. I pursued it further with Ann.
“What’s the matter with her?” I asked the bubbly brunette who was sitting on the other side of me reading a book.
“Jealousy. She’s jealous of any woman Reggie has, and you can imagine that makes her jealous most of her life.”
“But I thought, I mean I assumed that both you and she have been with him.”
“You assume too much. You probably think he has had a long string of women, hundreds?”
“Well yes.”
“That’s far from the truth,” she explained. “He plays with many, but few find their way into his bed.”
“Well I haven’t gotten that far. But all this, this place, the way he brings people together—”
“That’s his passion, to explore sensuality any way he can.”
“Well, isn’t Heidi here hoping that someday she’ll make it to his bed?”
“Heidi had her chance.”
“Really?”
Ann contemplated her response carefully, as if she wasn’t exactly sure how much she should divulge. “She’s his ex-wife.”
“What!”
“They were married to each other about eight years ago.”
“You’re kidding!”
