Chapter 2

He knew I wasn't asleep. Seven years married, I'd long since gotten used to having him there when I slept, and eventually I couldn't drift off at all unless he was beside me.

He knew it too, so no matter how busy work got, he always came home to sleep next to me.

But these past few months he'd come home later and later, and some nights he didn't show up at all.

I'd wait for him, from dark until dawn.

I got worse and worse, until the only way I could sleep was with pills.

And now, with him right beside me, I felt like we were miles apart. The Adrian who only had to be near me for me to rest easy didn't exist anymore.

I turned my head and saw the small set of teeth marks at his throat, the woman's lipstick at his collar.

Adrian leaned in. “What's wrong? Isn't this your favorite cake?”

I pushed him away. “It's late. Cake will just make me fat.”

He grinned and bent down to wrap his arms around me, his low voice in my ear. “I want to fatten you up, soft and round, so you're nice to hold. Not like those other skinny women, all sharp angles.”

My body went stiff. “Other women?” I asked before I could stop myself.

Realizing his slip, Adrian changed the subject at once. “Why aren't you wearing our wedding ring?”

“I took it off.”

“That's our wedding ring. Why would you take it off?”

I brushed it aside. “It's too valuable. I was scared I'd scratch it.”

Adrian laughed. “Even if you ruined it, I'd just buy you a more expensive one. You're my wife, after all.”

It would be a lie to say none of it moved me. He was still so good to me, so gentle and thoughtful.

It was as if his cheating were nothing but a dream I'd had.

He stroked my hair. “I'm going to shower. Get some sleep.”

I shot upright and stared at him, holding on to one last thread of hope. “Today is our anniversary.”

I regretted it the second it left my mouth. The way it suddenly came back to him turned my heart to ice.

His face fell. “I'm sorry, Penny. Work's been so hectic I forgot. Let me make it up to you tomorrow, okay?”

“No need.”

“Are you angry with me?”

“No. You're busy. I understand.”

Adrian came back to my side and circled my waist. “Penny, when you're this cold it makes me wonder if you've stopped loving me.”

Was it me who stopped loving you?

You were the one whose heart wandered first.

“I'll make it up to you tomorrow. Don't be upset.”

Then he got up and left, and the moment the door shut, the dark closed over me completely.

I didn't want him to make it up to me. Not everything in this world could be set right after the fact, good as new.

For instance, an anniversary that had already missed, or a heart that had already turned.

The rush of water in the bathroom kept me awake. I rolled over, and my fingers brushed something sharp.

I lifted the mattress. It was an earring.

I never wear earrings like that, and the few strands of white fox fur caught on it told me exactly whose it was.

My heart clenched. I thought of the time I'd been away on a work trip, of coming home to find a few of my nightgowns mysteriously gone.

When I'd asked Adrian, he just brushed it off, said the clothes were old so he'd thrown them out, and bought me a few new ones.

So in the days I was gone, the two of them had already been in my room, in my bed, wearing my nightgowns.

My stomach heaved.

I got up and searched the room, and sure enough, tucked in corners that weren't easy to spot, I found fox fur.

A beastkin's senses were far sharper than a human's. He had to be able to smell the fox all over this room, and still he wouldn't clean it.

Was he clinging to something?

My hand tightened without my noticing, and I never felt the man closing in behind me.

He caught me from behind, his hands roaming where they shouldn't, his face buried in the curve of my neck, his voice low and rough. “Were you staying up to wait for me?”

He lifted me off my feet and threw me onto the bed. He'd just come from the shower, no clothes, only a towel at his waist.

His bare chest pressed against me, and those greedy eyes looked ready to devour me whole.

He made love to his wife in a room that reeked of his mistress. What kind of twisted, sick mind would have done that?

Nausea rolled through me. I shoved him off, ran to the bathroom, and threw up.