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It’s hate that makes me break.
Brew Madison is my wife’s favorite place in this whole damn city. My shoes smack on the wet pavement and rain spits from the sky as I close the door a block down and stride down the sidewalk to the coffee shop.
For years she’s come here. She and Jules used to write together in the corner. Jules was her first client here in New York. It’s how she met her now close friend. I huff and my breath turns to steam as I peek in through the glass window.
It used to be a habit of mine to stop here before going home when I landed. Nine times out of ten, she’d be in the same back corner, immersed in a book or a contract. Half the time she was in a meeting.
But then things changed. She stopped going out with too much work piling up as her business grew, and I stopped searching for her when I left the airport. I knew she’d be home, stuck in her office and working no matter what time of day it was.
Work will take as much time as you give it. And Kat gives it all her time and then some.
Today is a different day, though. Given I just told my boss to fuck off knowing he has evidence that could get me locked up, I need to find Kat. I have to see her.
Just before I get to the glass door, I spot my wife. But more importantly, I see who she’s with.
Some asshole is with her. I’m sure he’s only a client, but as they walk toward the exit, Kat’s eyes on her purse as she rummages through it, looking for her keys I’d think, his eyes are all over her body.
The bastard licks his lower lip, and his gaze flickers to Kat’s breasts and then to her eyes as she peeks up at him.
She smiles so naively and tucks her hair behind her ear, but what lights up the anger and the possessiveness running through me, is the blush that rises to her cheeks. My body goes cold and my feet turn to cement standing outside of the shop, watching the two of them unknowingly walk toward me.
She knows he’s looking. She knows he likes what he sees. And she’s letting him.
The chill that runs through my body fuels something deep inside of me. Something primal and raw. The rain that crashes down on me as the clouds roll in and the sky turns darker by the second does nothing to calm the rage growing inside of me.
I open the door just as the two of them are leaving. My grip on the handle is tight and unforgiving as I wait for them to look up at me.
Kat doesn’t stop talking, her sweet voice rattling off something about a signing and who needs to be called to schedule some event.
The dick with a hard-on for my wife sees me first, his eyes widening slightly as he takes in my expression. His first instinct is to angle his body, putting himself between me and Kat. It pisses me off even more and I force my body to stay still, keeping myself from shoving him away from her.
My teeth grind against one another as I stare at his hand, still on her lower back as if he has any right to touch her.
“Evan.” Kat looks up at me surprised at first, without a hint of anything other than shock, but instantly her expression changes. “What are you doing? You’re getting soaked!” she admonishes me in front of the fucker still standing far too close.
Pride flows through me as she pulls me into the coffee shop, even if she’s doing it out of frustration.
She looks from my wet shoulders and the rain dripping down my hair to my forehead and back and then glances outside the shop. She hasn’t even acknowledged the man she’s with. The demon inside me is at least appeased by that small fact. Her small hands focus on wiping off as much water as she can as she positions me over the large welcome mat at the front of the store.
“Nice to meet you,” I say to the man eyeing the two of us. “I’m Kat’s husband.”
Kat looks up at me and it’s obvious she bites her tongue from how her expression scrunches.
“Didn’t know she was married,” the fucker says and I read him loud and clear. I knew there was a crack in my marriage. But this shit isn’t something I’m going to let ruin us. It takes everything in me not to be aggressive toward this shithead.
Kat turns a bright shade of red, but instead of defending us and our relationship, instead of taking my side, she says the worst thing she could to me right now.
“I don’t know what we are right now,” she states more to me than to him as she looks me in the eyes, daring me to say another word. When I’m quiet, she turns to him.
“I’m sorry for the interruption, Jacob.”
“Jake, you can call me Jake,” he answers and doesn’t even bother to look at me. The awkward tension heats. The thumping of blood rushing in my ears is accompanied with an uncomfortable heat. It was between us. Our problem was only between us. And she made it known to him?
“I’ll touch base with you after I get the schedule drawn up, and make sure you get me those summaries as soon as you’re able to.”
Jake nods his head at Kat and then looks at me to say, “Nice to meet you.” He takes his time leaving, glancing over his shoulder more than once, with the rain now coming down in sheets.
“You don’t know what we are?” I ask her, feeling the rage wane as the door closes and the sound of the rain is muffled again.