Confetti Hearts (Confetti Hitched, #1)(44)
“I do not favour that option.”
“Okay, then.” I put my hands on my hips and take a deep breath. “We’ll have to pretend to be still together.”
He gapes at me, looking as if he’s been hit over the head. “What?”
“It’s the only option. It’ll save face and make things easier and it’s only for the day anyway. I’m leaving tonight.”
“Tonight?” he echoes, looking upset.
“Yes, I’m staying at an airport hotel tonight and flying to Thailand in the morning.”
His eyes narrow. “Alone?”
“No. With the entire scrum half of the All Blacks. What the fuck has that got to do with you?”
“We’re still married.”
“And that is purely because you kept signing your name as characters from BBC children’s programmes. We’d have been done ages ago, if it was up to me.”
“Oh, I’m very well aware of that,” he says silkily.
I raise my eyebrow. “Well?”
He folds his arms. “I thought you favoured shrubbery murder.”
“I never said it was my favourite plan.”
For some reason that seems to amuse him. Then he leans back in his chair, and I get a glimpse of the feared negotiator he is. “And why would I want to do this?”
“Why wouldn’t you want to help me?” My voice rises and for a second, I can’t think because the anger is so strong in me. Then I finally snap. “Well, let’s see. How about because you fucked around on me, Lachlan.” I wave my finger in his face. “And you fucking definitely owe me for that.”
He jerks. Face becoming pale, he slowly rises from the chair. “I did what?” His voice is like thunder, but it doesn’t make me quail. Lachlan would never hurt me. Cheating aside.
“You. Cheated. On. Me,” I say very slowly, enunciating the words as if he’s hard of hearing.
His eyes flare.
I’m fully expecting him to apologise. We’re finally discussing the major part he played to end our marriage, and he’s nothing if not the supreme upholder of truth.
His face is now sheet white. “No, I fucking didn’t,” he snaps, outraged.
“What?”
“I’ve never cheated on you.” He shakes his head. “What the hell is the matter with you? I’m married. Of course, I didn’t cheat.”
I gape at him, feeling like the earth is dipping underneath me. I want to laugh in his face but the utter incomprehension in his eyes is making me uneasy. Lachlan isn’t a liar. He’s alarmingly forthright and has no patience for falsehoods. He’d lectured me a fair few times on the white lies I tell in my job. But you try telling a bride that her dress is hideous and see where it gets you.
“Yes, you did,” I snap. “You fucking cheated on me. I saw you.”
He shakes his head. “What the hell are you on about?”
“I saw you. With your own assistant.” I roll my eyes. “If you could be any more cliché, I really don’t want to know.”
He sucks in a breath and sinks into the chair as if his legs have suddenly failed him.
“I saw you,” I repeat. “He was kissing you.”
“Oh god,” he says faintly. “How?”
The slight hope that his earlier denials gave me fades away, leaving me feeling sick, and abruptly all my anger leaves. I slide onto the seat opposite him.
“At your office on the day I left,” I whisper. “I came to bring your passport.”
He licks his lips nervously. “I found it on the floor. I thought I’d dropped it.”
“No, I did. I saw you together.” My voice falters.
I still in surprise as he slides off his chair and kneels at my feet. “Lachlan?”
“It isn’t true,” he says passionately. “Joe, you’ve got to believe me. Nothing happened.”
“I saw you.” My throat feels like broken glass.
He shakes his head, grabbing my legs. “You saw Elliott kiss me, yes, but you obviously didn’t see me push him away.”
“What?”
He sits back on his heels, keeping his hands on me. They’re warm and solid, but his eyes are wild. “I shoved him away. I was fucking horrified.”
“Oh please. He’d fancied you for ages.”
“So?” In keeping with Lachlan’s nature, he doesn’t deny it. “I never thought that was any of my business. People’s feelings are their own personal business, but Elliott had no right to force them on me.”
“Well, it definitely was your business when he shoved his tongue down your throat.”
“I never returned his feelings. You have to believe me. He was just a good assistant.” His tone carries a note of finality.
“Was?”
He nods frantically. “I sacked him.”
“You did what?”
“Straight away. I couldn’t work with him after that. I was fucking furious, and how could I have him in our house again after what he did? That would have been the utmost disrespect towards you.”
I begin to say something to dispute the “our house” comment, but he brandishes his hand and I’m stunned to see the platinum band I bought him still on his ring finger.