“I think I’d know if I was cheating on you. Newsflash, I’m not. What the hell kind of person do you think I am? How could you think that?”
“So, what have you been doing all these nights?” he asked suspiciously. “If you’re not cheating on me where have you been?”
She let out a deep breath, trying to calm herself. She might not have been cheating on him, but she hadn’t been honest with him either.
“I’ve got a second job. I’ve been working as a cleaner at nights. That’s why I’ve been so busy. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”
A second job. She wasn’t cheating on him.
His head spun. He’d convinced himself there had to be someone else. She’d been acting so oddly. Guilty. Because she had another job. One she hadn’t told him about. But why? Did she think he’d be angry? He would have been concerned, not angry. It didn’t make sense.
He sighed. He really preferred when people were upfront. Made things a lot easier and left less room for confusion.
“A second job? I thought that job you did the other night when you were late to the club was a one-off.”
“Well, I might have misled you a little there. I’ve got a job cleaning in the evenings. I go from my job at Foley’s to my new job.”
Which is why she looked so exhausted and why she was always busy. Not because she was sleeping with someone else.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
She bit her lip, looking worried. They were getting to the heart of things now.
“Because then I would have had to explain why I needed another job.”
Why did she need another job? This shithole she lived in couldn’t cost much. He looked around him, downgrading that “much” to “anything at all.” This place was so dilapidated, it was a wonder it hadn’t been torn down. He’d only been here once that he could remember. He wondered why he hadn’t thought that weird?
Because you like having her in your territory. It might make him a bit of a caveman, but he liked having her under his roof. In his care.
It had suited him that she never wanted to go back to her place. So, he’d never questioned her. She’d always been happy to drive over to his house before they went out to dinner, then she’d come back with him and stay the night.
Hmm. Seemed he should have been paying more attention to his sub. She might not have been cheating, but she had been keeping things from him, and lying to him. That was something he wouldn’t accept.
Lies would tear a relationship apart. He’d experienced that before. Never again.
“Why do you need another job?”
She stared up at him, wincing a little, and he realized he was scowling, but he didn’t make any apologies for being angry. She’d lied to him.
“I owe money. A lot of money, and I needed more cash. This job fits around my other one, so I can do both.”
He still didn’t understand why she’d felt she had to keep that from him.
“How much money and to whom?”
She licked her lips, looking nervous.
“Do you have a drug habit I don’t know about?” He knew she didn’t, but he was growing impatient with her reluctance to tell him what was really going on.
“No, of course not.”
“Gambling? Alcohol?”
“No.” she frowned at him. “It’s nothing like that.”
“Then why won’t you tell me?”
“Because it’s embarrassing, and I’m ashamed, and you’re weird about money!”