جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 50

ANN“I will stay here tonight, right in your arms. If this is a dream, then I don’t ever want to wake up. You were incredible.” Duke whispered softly into my ear, his tongue tracing a gentle path along my earlobe. Ann from months ago would have believed every word he whispered. Yes, the sex had been absolutely mind-blowing, multiple orgasms, my body trembling with pleasure, limbs shaky and content afterward. But this is different for me now. Sex, and nothing more. I see him as a lying, cheating husband, someone who hides truth after truth behind a fake smile. Only he knows the depths of the lies he piles on his wife’s shoulders.“You have a wife now. She’ll be worried about you. That crazy bitch is exhausting, and I have no energy left for her," I muttered with a weak voice. He let out a deep breath against my neck.“No, what I have with Lisa is just to keep up appearances. We'll be fine," he replied with a deep, hot breath, his tone strained. “I'm sorry I married Lisa; things got

ANNNobody moved for a full second.Then the table came back to life slowly, but my fork was still on the plate where it had fallen, and my hand had not moved to pick it up.Daniel stood at the entrance of the dining room, completely at ease in the way that people are when they know exactly what their presence does to a room. He smiled at Lisa, greeted the table with a casual wave, and pulled out the empty chair across from her.I finally forced my eyes away.I reached for my fork slowly, set it back between my fingers, and stared at my plate.Duke had gone very still at the other end of the table. I did not need to look directly at him to feel it. The temperature around him had dropped so quietly that only someone paying attention would notice. He did not look at Daniel. He looked at his wine glass, then at the table, then at nothing in particular.Two minutes later, he pushed back his chair."Excuse me," he said to no one in particular.Lisa looked up immediately. "Duke…"But he was

ANN"Shit."I grabbed my bag from the floor in one motion and slipped into his bathroom, pulling the door almost fully closed behind me. Just enough of a gap to hear everything, not enough for anyone walking in to see me without looking directly for me.I stood with my back against the cold tile wall and pressed my eyes shut for a second.Is this what my life has become? Hiding in a married man's bathroom while his wife stood on the other side of the door. The bedroom door opened.My heartbeat became so loud inside my own ears I was genuinely concerned it could be heard through the wall."What happened?" Duke's voice came unhurried, that same deep baritone completely unbothered. I had to give him that. Nothing in his tone wobbled even slightly. "Shouldn't you be in Los Angeles?""That stupid assistant of mine forgot to tell me the shoot was cancelled." Lisa's voice carried the tone of someone who had been angry the entire drive back. "Could you imagine? She had the nerve to say I s

ANN"Look, Harry, you are forgetting one very important thing." I turned to face him properly. "I am a widow. My brother-in-law is probably still looking for me somewhere. I told you all of this. I cannot just go and get married to somebody, real or fake, without that becoming a problem."My body was running hot from everything piling on top of everything else. If I had been given any kind of supernatural ability at that moment, Duke, Louis, and everyone attached to either of them would have been reduced to clean ash."Listen to me, Ann." Harry's voice lost its playfulness and became serious. "This family has played you more than anyone deserved to be played. Today it is the Carters. Tomorrow it will be somebody else entirely, because that is how it works when you keep allowing people to find the soft parts of you." He held my gaze. "You need to be tougher than this. The world isn't nice to weak humans."Nothing about it felt clean or simple, but I kept listening."I know you still

CHAPTER 50ANN"Why won't I?" I turned to Duk. "With all due respect, I do not appreciate you speaking about me as though I am not standing right here."My nose twitched. He was doing it again, that particular thing where he assumed proximity to me gave him authority over my movements, my choices, my time.Daniel stood a few feet away with both arms crossed, watching the whole thing unfold in front of him with the expression of someone who had paid for a show and found it better than expected."Ann." Duke's jaw tightened. "Can we talk privately?"Daniel straightened slightly, a funny grin passing across his face before it went back into its usual ease."I will be in the room," he said. "Take your time." He glanced at me once before heading back up the stairs.I stood in the living room after his footsteps disappeared.I had not let myself do this when I first walked in, but now, standing here with Duke a few feet away and nowhere immediately to look, the memories of the time spent in