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A moment later, he walks out of the room and shuts the door quietly behind him.
CHAPTER10
Present Day
Mark
Whitney’swide eyes are fixed on my face, her lips parted. I’m addicted to this expression of hers—the sign of her rapt attention.
My honesty pledge turned out better than I could have hoped. We’ve been so absorbed in conversation these last few hours that the Christmas Ball passed in a dreamy haze. Who knows how long we’ve been sitting here in my parked car, with our family home looming on the hill in the distance.
“And then he walked over to my desk,” I say, “leaned down so he could really look me in the eyes, and said something like, ‘I promise I’ll fuck your wife if you don’t stay away from Lauren.’”
Her doe eyes grow somehow wider.
“You’ll never guess what I did,” I say.
“What?”
I smile slowly. “I punched him in the face.”
She scowls. “No, you didn’t.”
“I did.”
She shakes her head. “This story has Mark Walker glory days written all over it. Like your baseball stories.”
“Glory days? It was three years ago. And it was far from glorious. I was an old man and this young celebrity kid was threatening to steal my wife from me.”
Her expression remains skeptical. “Why doesn’t anyone know about it if it happened in your office?”
“Only Lily knew, and I think she was so terrified, she never told anyone else.”
She turns away, adjusting her position in her seat. “Well, even if it has a kernel of truth to it—and knowing you it would only be a small kernel—it’s not flattering to me. He was just trying to piss you off because you slept with his girlfriend.”
“Oh, believe me, he meant it. He said you were gorgeous. It terrified me.”
She rolls her eyes. “Mark, don’t patronize me. I would have been almost forty when it happened. I hate how you always pretend like I’m just as attractive as the young women you slept with. You didn’t just do it to punish me. You enjoyed it. Any man would.”
I lean forward—not close enough to spook her. “I hardly paid attention. I was only thinking of you.”
She raises her brows. “For fifteen years? You fucked countless women and only thought about me?”
I shrug. “I’m obsessed with you. I always have been.”
She leans back into her seat, crossing her arms over her chest. “That’s not flattering.”
“I’m not trying to flatter you. This is our honesty night. I’m confessing.”
She doesn’t look convinced, so I lean a little closer. “Do you want me to tell you something twisted?”
Her eyes grow wide again—that expression I adore. “What?”
“This one might hurt. I’ll only tell you if you think you can handle it.”
She snorts. “If it’s about your affairs, tell away. They don’t hurt anymore.”
A slice of pain shoots into my heart at her dismissiveness, but I do my best not to flinch. “I used to think about you when I fucked them. I imagined you watching us. I pictured you horrified and hurt. God, it turned me on like nothing else.”
