LOGINHis friend broke free of his grip. Not that he'd been putting much effort into holding him back; there was nothing he wanted more than to see that smile wiped off the guy's face.The more he listened to Bastian talk, the more reasonable it sounded to toss him into the ocean with an enormous rock tied around his neck.The flea dodged his friend's right hook—he was fast—but he ended up flat on his back on the ground, looking around as if he expected somebody to come save him.Roger was done. He wasn't going to be the one to help him. That little man had earned himself a beating, and Roger was going to sit down, get nice and comfortable, and watch it happen."Need a hand?" he asked Alexander. "I think you've got this on your own, but if you want, I'll finish him off. You go ahead and get started."His friend smiled with that look that said exactly how much he was going to enjoy this and pounded his fist into his palm, a preview of what he was about to do to Bastian's face."So much aggre
“Eli, I seriously can’t believe Alexander is mixed up in something like this,” Diana said as they watched Roger, Alexander, and Bastian on the beach.The night before, their friend had shown up acting all mysterious and pulled the two of them aside at the exact moment their husbands disappeared together.Both men had been ashen-faced, with worry written all over them, but they’d refused to say a word and had shut themselves up together in Roger’s study.The explanation for that behavior had come from Bastian.Once he’d filled them in on what those two orangutans were willing to do to get information out of him, they’d decided to push them to the limit.“I still say the best thing would’ve been to just tell him the truth. If he’s willing to hear it and believe it, no matter how much it hurts, then I don’t want to keep secrets from Roger,” Elizabeth said.At the end of the day, she couldn’t go on protecting him forever. She would have liked for him never to have to know; she didn’t live
“What do you want?” Alexander growled, in a fouler mood by the minute and unable to hide how uncomfortable the whole situation made him.Not that Roger felt any better.Operation “Seduce the Flea” was not going the way they’d wanted.He’d figured the little man would be easier, but they’d already wasted the whole morning and that demon spawn hadn’t let slip a single useful thing.“I would just love some ice cream, with chocolate chips,” Bastian said, as if they hadn’t taken him out to breakfast and he hadn’t wolfed down half of what was on the menu.“Going out for ice cream could be a nice plan for three friends who want to sit down and have a relaxed chat,” Roger said, trying to keep Alexander’s discomfort from being quite so obvious.“I’m on cloud nine. I never expected to be wined and dined like this, and not by one man—by two! But are you sure all you want to do is talk? The three of us could eat the ice cream… off my naked body.” Roger felt a shiver run through him and couldn’t h
Roger came back brimming with happiness, his wife at his side.If this was how the important conversations were going to go, he was more than willing to spend the rest of his life fighting with Elizabeth and talking it out afterward.He felt lucky; it seemed like that had been only the first step toward fixing his marriage.When they got home, they were met with the sad news that the Turners had to go back to New York. Alexander needed to review some projects, and he couldn’t do it from a distance.For Roger, his friend leaving, and not knowing when he’d see him again, brought on a sadness he tried to hide.He knew that, unluckily for him, their paths had drifted apart, even though he missed his life in New York way too much.His wife couldn’t hide her sadness the way he did. Apparently she’d grown far too attached to Diana and wasn’t about to let her go that easily.“Did we do something wrong? Were you uncomfortable here with us? Please, don’t leave so soon,” his wife begged, throwin
Elizabeth stared at her husband, trying to make sense of what he was telling her.Neither of them said a word while he waited, sadness written all over his face, for whatever answer she was going to give him."You heard the conversation? You're telling me you didn't go get the first aid kit I asked you for, and you stood behind the door listening instead?" she asked, just to be sure.Her husband nodded, looking more ashamed and guilty by the second."I didn't want to leave you alone with Anderson, so I asked Rosaur… Rosmari to go get it while I stayed right there to look out for you. I swear I was trying to protect you, not spy on you, but it cost me dearly."Elizabeth frowned and kept the questions coming."Is that why you disappeared without leaving a message, without saying where you were going, and left me worried sick?" Roger nodded, as if he'd rather not say a word and risk making things worse, but he ended up saying:"I did leave a message, though, with my assistant. Apparently
What finally snapped Roger out of it was the sight of Elizabeth frowning and rubbing her backside, because there was a rock underneath her."That's going to leave more marks on me than you do when—" She went quiet when he crouched down to help her and their faces ended up way too close.Roger wasn't going to fall for that game; he'd heard her perfectly.Her words, her plans for revenge—and now here she was, looking at him all flushed, pretending to be remembering the times the two of them had sex."You never complain about the marks I leave on you, 'Chubs.'" The pet name came out through gritted teeth.He'd decided he wasn't going to start yelling like a lunatic or throw accusations at her; he wanted to see just how far she was willing to go with her lies.She broke into a smile that lit up her whole face, and he cursed himself for wanting to kiss her.Elizabeth grabbed him by the shoulders and sat up in the sand. Without warning, she yanked him toward her, forcing him to plant a knee







