I yanked myself free of his hold and walked inside, leaving the door open.
He shadowed me in a slow stride.
I sat down at the kitchen table. He sat down across from me. I studied every line and contour of the man who sat in my face and lied to me all the way up to the day we married.
“Talk Jacob! You only have a short time to say what you have to say and get out of here.”
“You don’t have to be so mean spirited when talking to me. That’s not you, and this is definitely not who we are to each other.”
"Okay, so you came in here to be the morality police? No thank you,” I stood from my seat. “I won’t sit here and listen to you tell me how I should respond to your actions. If that’s all you have to say, then you can leave now.”
Anxiety ran across his face. Hurt entered his eyes. "Justine has been a problem for us from day one. I understand why you don’t believe me when I say that I didn’t intentionally have sex with her.”
“Ha, it’s such bullshit,” I murmured.
“See, what I don’t get is how, even if I did have sex with her, you would sit here and judge me to be a low-down, dirty cheater. When you stepped out on me with Montie, I fought for you back. I accepted you and your reasoning for giving away what was rightfully mine. I trusted you with him after you slept with him, too. I have full faith in you, because I know you and your heart. You don’t even know who I am.”
I struggled to process his perspective. Only because he had yet to understand mine. “You started off good. Most of our problems do stem from Justine and her deception. However, what has hurt me more than anything you mentioned is that you knew you had sex with her, whether before or afterwards, and you kept it a secret. And, you still would be keeping that secret had Montie not blurted it out, or Justine revealed her baby in the newspaper,” I yelled.
“Point taken. You are right. I didn’t want to see you hurt, but I should have told you. I don’t think you understand that I would rather walk over hot coals barefooted than to see you hurt.”
“Well, I’m hurt and I don’t think I’ll ever get over this. She’s having your baby,” I said in a weeping tone that made me upset. I didn’t want to fucking cry. I wanted to unleash the pint up wrath I felt onto Jacob like a hurricane. Instead, I broke down right in front of him.
He quickly stood and rounded the table. His strong arms encircled me as he peppered kisses all over my head and face.
"Let me go, Jacob! I don’t want you to touch me. Stop kissing me." I thrashed my way out of his arms.
"Destiny, stop it. You’re going to upset the baby.” He held my hands in his.
My heart broke all over again at the mention of our innocent baby. I took deep breaths and attempted to calm down. “My baby will be fine. You just make plans to take care of Justine’s.”
Jacob crooked his head to the side and glared at me as if the thought of her child being his responsibility had never crossed his mind.
“You are my only concern,” he said in a tone that brooked no argument.
"It's over between us, Jacob," I said.
"No. It’s not over between us. We hav
e years to spend together, memories to make, and love to share.” His eyes bored holes into me. “What we have is real. I don’t know about you but I can’t stop being real, Destiny."
I took a long look at him. Too many lies had been told, and my heart was starting to wonder if trying to sort out truth from fiction was worth it.
"I want you to leave my house. We can talk another time.”
"No. There’s an emergency in the Utah that I’m flying out to handle tomorrow. However, I’m not leaving here while you’re this upset.” His head dipped and we were eye to eye. “So, if you want to get rid of me, and I know you do, you’d better get that painful look off your face or talk to me, preferably both.”
“You’re not in control anymore. You’re in my house and I talk to you on my terms!” I said.
His hazel orbs glazed over with aggravation. His lips covered mine. His tongue slid into my mouth and caressed me before I could even think to gripe.
I closed my eyes and melted into his embrace. Unwanted feelings of love and security that exuded from my husband rushed over me as he ran his hands over my back.
Damn, I may be cursed with loving this man forever. This is not fair.
"Make love to me," he muttered against our deep and passionate kiss.
"No,” I whispered back.