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On second thought, fuck her.
He had the document that Howard Bancroft had drawn up for him. Unless he was given no other choice, he would rather not use it. From a legal standpoint, that document could make things sticky, and he would rather avoid any legal stickiness. But it was there in his safe-deposit box, an insurance policy, an emergency measure to be used if it became necessary.
Feeling confident and unconquerable again, he arrived at Nadia’s Chelsea apartment shortly after six o’clock. He was in the mood for a cold drink and a cool shower, topped off by hot, aggressive sex.
He was whistling as he jogged up the staircase. But when he let himself into the apartment, his whistling abruptly died.
A beefy young man dressed in a tight-fitting black T-shirt and black slacks was emerging from the bedroom, strapping on his wristwatch. He then shouldered his gym bag and casually eased past Noah on his way out the door. His only acknowledgment of Noah was a negligent nod.
For minutes after the young man left, Noah remained on the threshold in a slow burn. A burn so hot that he was a combustion chamber, well decked out in Hugo Boss. He shot his monogrammed cuffs, smoothed down his hair, wiped the perspiration from his upper lip. These were conscious gestures, activities for his hands so he wouldn’t use them to rip, bash, or otherwise destroy something, animate or otherwise, he wasn’t particular at the moment.
When he was finally under moderate control, he moved toward the bedroom and gave the door a gentle push. It swung back on silent hinges. Nadia was sprawled naked on the wide bed amid rumpled silk sheets. Her hair was damp and tangled. Her skin merely damp.
Seeing him, she stirred and smiled drowsily. “Noah, darling, is it six o’clock already? I lost all track of time.”
The blood vessels in his temples were pounding to the point of pain, but his voice remained calm. “Who was that man?”
“Oh, you met Frankie? He’s a personal trainer at my health club.”
r /> “What was he doing here?”
She levered herself up onto one elbow and looked at him with malice, mitigated only slightly by a sly smile. “That is an incredibly stupid question, Noah.”
* * *
Daniel Matherly finished reading the last page of the manuscript. As he lined up the edges and stacked the pages, he said, “That’s all you’ve got so far?”
Maris nodded. “I haven’t received anything from him since I returned. I’ve called several times to give him a pep talk, but I’ve spoken only to Mike, his aide. According to him, P… the author isn’t writing much these days.”
“I wonder why.”
“He’s sulking.”
“His muse has flown.”
“Nothing that mystical. He’s being his stubborn and mule-headed self. Like any mule, he requires prodding.” She hesitated before adding, “So I’m going back.”
“Really? When?”
“I’m on my way to the airport now.”
“I see.”
“I only stopped by to check on you, tell you good-bye, and to hear your opinion of what you’ve read so far.”
She had postponed her departure for a week. After catching Noah in Nadia Schuller’s apartment, it was a foregone conclusion that she would return to Georgia and see Parker again.
Her husband’s affair had given her a green light to examine her ambiguous and conflicting feelings for Parker. But in order to be fair to him, and to herself, she had delayed going until she had thought it through from every angle. She didn’t want her return to be a knee-jerk reaction to a rapid series of shocking developments in her life. She didn’t want it to be the reaction of an angry and vindictive wife. Rather, she wanted it to be an action taken after days of careful consideration.
For the past seven days, she had thought of little else.
She had been terribly angry at Parker the morning she left, but the truth of the matter was she hadn’t wanted to leave. She could admit that now. And every moment since her leaving, she had wanted to be with him again.
Initially, guilt had burned inside her like a live coal. She was married. She had made a commitment at the wedding altar, and she had regarded it a lifetime pledge. All her marriage vows she had taken seriously.
But apparently she had been the only one standing at the altar that day who had. Noah had broken his vows. For all she knew, Nadia wasn’t the first woman with whom he had cheated. He had certainly had no shortage of girlfriends prior to his marriage. It was possible he had never changed his pattern of behavior from that of a bachelor to that of a married man. He had willfully chosen to be unfaithful to her. She would just as willfully choose to end the marriage. By taking a lover, he had squandered the right and the privilege to be her husband.
But even if she hadn’t caught him with Nadia, she would be leaving him. That night on the sidewalk in Chelsea, Noah had revealed an aspect of himself that appalled, repelled, and frightened her. She would not live another day with a man who hinted at violence so effectively that she believed him capable of it. Their marriage was over. Noah Reed was her past.
