Page 3

Pain raked her insides raw.“That’s what I thought.Goodbye, Zach.”
She yanked her bag off the bed and stalked past him.
At the last moment, he grabbed her arms, lifted her clean off her feet and pressed her against the bedroom wall.His large body imprinted hers from head to toe, reminding her how powerful he was, how overwhelmingly male, even as his strong hands gently cradled her face.
A fierce, indomitable light burned in his eyes as he stared deep into hers.
“You’re seriously deluded if you think that, baby.We’re not over.Not by a long shot.”
2
NEW YORK, ONE WEEK LATER
“He killed her.He actually said that?”
“Yes.He did.”
“But… I don’t understand.”Keely looked at a loss, the way she had since Bethany had finally broken down and blurted out the scalding, condemning words screeching through her brain.
Bethany’s fingers convulsed around the cushion in her hand.Forcing herself to relax, she hugged the velvet square to her chest, blinked hard and concentrated on just breathing.Her eyes were gritty and aching with the tears she’d shed over the last seven days.Her ass was numb from being permanently glued to the living room sofa, and her heart thudded every now and then—normally when her phone rang—with some mocking semblance of beating.
All because of Zachary Savage.
Keely made another incoherent sound of disbelief and shook her head.She started to speak, but Bethany interrupted.
“Well, he said, quote: ‘Farrah was my wife.We were married for one day.Then I killed her.’”
Keely flinched, then reached for the bottle of red she’d brought with her.“Jesus.”She poured and took a huge gulp.“I can’t believe you kept this to yourself for a fucking week before you told me.”
“I didn’t… I couldn’t…” She heaved in a huge breath.“The way he was with me, Keel.No one’s ever taken care of me like that.I couldn’t cope with the fact that he could do anything like that… That he could… Oh God!”
Keely patted her knee.“I’m sorry, baby girl,” she said softly.
“Please don’t do that.It’ll make me cry, and I sure as hell have no fucking tears left.”Even as she spoke, her eyes brimmed.“Shit.I hate myself for doing this.I feel so pathetic.So fucking weak.After what he said, I still want him.I can’t stop thinking about him.”She realized her whole body was trembling, and she breathed in deep.The damn pain just grew larger.“God, how did I end up here?”
“You took a chance.”
“And it backfired horribly.”
For once, her friend didn’t have a quick comeback.She just nodded and drank some more.But Bethany could see the questions in her eyes, the puzzlement in the slight shake of her head every now and then.
Yeah, join the fucking club.
Angrily, she brushed away the tears and reached for her glass of wine.With a defiant toss of her head, she drained the full glass and set it down to find Keely watching her, one perfectly plucked eyebrow cocked.
“Umm… atta girl?”
“Yeah.Go me.”
“Bethany, maybe he didn’t mean it literally?Maybe?—”
“You weren’t there.You didn’t see the guilt on his face.The anguish.He looked as though his heart had been ripped out.He didn’t just blurt it out, he confessed it.Trust me, he meant it.And you know what that said about me?That I’d been sleeping with a man I had no clue about.”
“But you don’t really think he did that, do you?Killed someone?”
Bethany jumped up, her insides roiling with pain and heartache.“I don’t know!I’ve asked myself that same question a thousand times.And yes, I asked him.He told me he couldn’t talk about it!”
“Why the fuck not?”