Friction(61)

“It’s not what you think,” I say softly.

But her brown eyes crinkle at the corners and her short hair bounces around her face as she moves her head to either side. “Why didn't you tell me what you were doing?” She sounds hurt, and I feel a violent pain jabbing the center of my chest. Oh god, why the hell would Tom do this to me? Why couldn’t he just accept no and let me move on?

And the answer is as clear as day: Because Tom Duncan likes to get his way. He got his way with me, and with Shane, and even with a company that should have failed months ago.

“What’s happened to you, Lucy?” he speaks up, and I see red. I see red because not only did he make it difficult for me to secure any other job aside from EXtreme, he’s gone out of his way to belittle me for the choices I made to fix my situation.

Filtering in a harsh breath, I whirl on him. “Me telling you to go away hurt your ego so much that you had to run here to tell my mother?”

He widens his eyes in surprise, but that look doesn’t fool me for a second. Tom knows how conservative my mother is—on the weekend of our wedding four years ago, she had been adamant that he stay in a nearby hotel. I hadn't had the heart to tell her that I hadn't been a virgin since my freshman year of college, so I had forced Tom to comply with her wishes.

When he came here today, he knew exactly what he was doing. He knew how disapproving she would be of my work with Jace, and once again he has screwed me over out of spite.

“Mom,” I whisper, taking a step toward where she’s huddled in one corner of the couch. “I’m sorry.”

She moves her head, then releases a sharp curse in Vietnamese. “I don’t want to hear you say sorry,” she says, the disappointment dripping from her voice. “I want to know why you lied. You can tell me anything, Lucy, you know that.”

Letting out a breath that rips apart my lungs, I drop my eyes to the floor and shake my head. “I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to worry about me. I didn't want you to say that you were disappointed in me. I didn't tell you because—”

Tom’s melodic voice cutting me off snaps my head back up. “She didn't tell you because she’s sleeping with her boss.” He must not have already revealed that to her, because Mom’s head snaps in my direction, and she looks at me like this is the first time she’s ever laid eyes on me.

“I see.” Mom’s hands are shaking as she stands and runs them over the front of her slacks, and the stare she shoots my way makes me wilt even more inside. I’ve spent most of my life being an overachiever, desperate to please my mother and father and, later, Tom. The fact that I’ve managed to shatter Mom’s faith in me in a matter of minutes nearly brings me to my knees.

“I’m so sorry,” I say again, folding my arms tightly over my stomach.

Mom moves from the couch, her shoulders bowed as she heads into the hallway. She doesn’t even look at me when she mutters, “You should have told me the truth, Lucy. I would have gotten over it. And Tom?”

“Yes, Susie?”

“Please leave my home, I think you've done enough damage.”

Then she disappears toward her bedroom without so much as another word, leaving me alone with the man who’s become my biggest regret.





Twenty-Three





Lucy





Although my mother’s wish for Tom to fuck off is apparent, he doesn’t make any effort to leave. He just stays there, on the couch. We stare each other down for a long time. Finally, he offers me a self-indulgent grin, and my face catches fire. “All you had to do was come back to California, and you wouldn't be in this situation,” he says calmly. Standing, he presses his lips together and jerks at the hem of his suit jacket. It's immaculate, like always, and I hate him for the fa?ade. I wish Jace had ruined it when he had the chance earlier today.

And I’m so ashamed of myself for admitting that.

I rush over to him until the toes of my pumps bump against his perfectly polished shoes. “Come back to California?” I demand in a hushed voice. “For what? To work for you? To have your relationship with Shane thrown up in my face every time I stepped into that office with the douchebags you hired? And do you know what they said about me behind my back? Do you know how it made me feel that everyone in that office knew what you were doing but me?”

“How it made you feel?” He cups my face, but none of the warmth that radiates from Jace’s touch is there. Instead, everything is cold, from his eyes to his body language. When I recoil, it doesn’t even seem to bother him. “The Lucy I married cared more about getting things done than feelings.”

Is he kidding me? Does he honestly believe that I was so driven that love and happiness hadn’t mattered to me? Apparently, he does, and it’s tragic that, had I not found out about his affair, I might have spent the rest of my life with a man who thought I valued my career and achievements over the welfare of my heart.

“You’re wrong,” I say shakily. “The Lucy you married thought she was in love. She thought she was in love and then she found out he loved someone else. I don’t know any woman who would be able to get shit done with that kind of clusterfuck happening all around her.”

Bending his head close to mine, he sneers. “You could have at least fulfilled your obligations.”