Her voice was like whiskey and lemonade, sultry, with a thick Southern drawl.
My heart drummed hard in my chest.
“He stepped out for a moment,” I said. “I can tell him you called.”
“Oh, thanks, sugar. I’d appreciate that. Nothing urgent. I just wanted to call and say hi.”
At ten-thirty at night?Yeah, right, Vixen. I know this game.
I hung up the phone and set it aside, my heart racing.
Slash has another woman, in another town.
Oh, God, what have I done? I let this man into my life, into my bed, into my heart…
Was he really cheating on me? There was no way in hell he was planning a life with me, talking about buying a home and settling down in one place, getting my name inked on him, but that somehow he had another woman in another city…
Unlesshe was one of those men that fucked around and said whatever a woman wanted to hear. He’d been so damn perfect from the very beginning.Of coursethere was another shoe to drop.
The front door opened, and he called out, “Well, we’ve got a bit of a problem.”
No shit, we have a bit of a problem.
“We’ve got raccoons,” Slash said as he came to the doorway of the bedroom. His frown was immediate. “What’s wrong?”
I met his gaze. “Millie called.”
Slash went still.
“She wants you to call her. Nothing urgent, she said.”
A flash of pain crossed his face. “So, you spoke to her.”
“Who is she, Slash?” I asked. “Because my mind is going to that obvious place and it’s really dark, but my stupid heart doesn’t want to listen. Is she…do you have another woman? Have you been lying to me this entire time?”
He didn’t move. He was frozen, except for the rapid rise and fall of his chest. With a deep breath, he finally said, “Millie’s my mother-in-law.”
It was like someone had pushed me off the top of the Empire State Building and I was falling in slow motion. I knew I’d hit the ground at some point, and when I did it would be instantaneous death…but in that moment, everything seemed to stop in time. My breath, my heartbeat, even my mind went blank. I just couldn’t process what he had said.
“Mother-in-law?” I whispered. “That means—oh God. You’re married.”
He finally came to me and sank down to his knees in front of me. I tried to move, I tried to get up off the bed, but his arms and body blocked me.
“I’m not married,” he said, his tone bleak. “I’m a widower, Brooklyn.”
The hits just kept coming. It was a punch to my heart and stomach at the same time. I suddenly couldn’t breathe.
“Woman, look at me,” he whispered.
I shook my head, fighting tears, but they fell anyway. Slash had been married before.
He’d lost his wife, and he’d kept it a secret.
“Why didn’t you tell me? Why did you—why did you keep this from me?”
“I’ll tell you now. I’ll tell you everything.”
“Not of your own free will. But because she called. And now you’re backed into a corner.”