Phoenix Rising(60)

“Wait!” she yelped. “What are you doing?”

“Taking you home!”

Connor shot to his feet, fists clenched at his sides. “I don’t think you have any right to come in here and give orders after filing for divorce.”

“Divorce? Is that what she told you?” Will straightened. “I’ve got no intention of divorcing my wife. I’ve tried to give her some space. But I can’t let her destroy herself with some ex-con like you! A little over a month in your company, and look what I have to bail her out of!”

The color drained from Jessa’s face. The arm she’d been stretching out toward Connor dropped abruptly. Her hand curled and fisted as she emitted a high sound of protest. Her hazel eyes frantically locked with his hell-black gaze, trying desperately to reach him. But Connor had drawn inward the instant he heard Will’s fevered words.

Jessa had lied? How could she have lied about everything? Every touch, every look, every word from her sweet mouth was a lie!

“Then get her the fuck out of here,” Connor snarled, his tone the only evidence of his internal agony.



* * *



“Wow, Jessa, you really know how to pick them.”

The naked derision in Will’s voice barely penetrated Jessa’s dissociative retreat into her mind. She huddled in the front of Will’s luxury sedan with her arms locked around her knees, rocking back and forth in the bucket seat.

“Kitty told Chase he looked dangerous.” Will whistled. “I had no idea how right she was. You’re lucky he didn’t rape and kill you before dumping your body in the river.”

Jessa remained silent. She couldn’t speak. The picture of Connor’s face was too fresh in her memory. Will had made her seem like such a liar. How could Connor have reacted any differently? After Melanie had betrayed him all those years ago, it was no wonder he didn’t seem to believe Jessa would be any different.

“Where the hell did you get these clothes you’re wearing? Did you rob some hooker’s apartment? God, I was embarrassed to walk out of there with you!”

Apparently, he only liked wild mistresses. His wife was supposed to be boring as hell. An odd development since he’d listed bedroom boredom as a reason for leaving her.

Will’s behavior still baffled Jessa. He hadn’t wanted her. He’d made that obvious when he’d carefully laid out the final arrangements for the demise of their nineteen-year marriage. He hadn’t once said he wanted to keep her on the shelf in case things with Ginny didn’t work out although that had evidently been his intention.

“I’m sorry I left you, Jessa doll. You knew it wasn’t for good.” Will peered into her face. “You knew that, right?”

She wanted to spit on him. She wanted to reach over and strangle him. To make him crash the car so both of them would die in the twisted mass of metal.

What about Connor?

Would he ever let her explain? Would he ever believe her? How could he when there had been so much withholding and miscommunication between them?

It seemed only minutes from the police station to their driveway. The massive house was lit up like Christmas. Jessa didn’t want to get out. Didn’t want to go inside and face that house.

“Go on inside to the bedroom. Marissa has a bath drawn for you.”

Marissa, the housekeeper Will had fired right before leaving Jessa so he wouldn’t have to pay her salary. It was as if Will wanted to pretend nothing had ever happened.

It would be easier to sink back into that life. Simpler to forget Connor and Alex and all of her ridiculous pipe dreams about a man who more than likely hated her now, anyway. With Connor seemingly unattainable, wasn’t it better just to retreat to her old life?

She trudged to the top of the steps and into the master suite. Jessa’s favorite combat boots took forever to unlace and kick aside. The remnants of her stockings made no noise as she slid them off and dropped them to the posh carpet. Jessa slid her short black skirt down over her hips and then reached over her head to remove Alex’s shirt.

She held the pinstriped white and blue material tightly in her hands before lifting it to her face and inhaling deeply. If Jessa closed her eyes, she could picture Phoenix Rising. The shirt smelled of whisky, smoke, and Alex’s personal musk. A scent she’d come to know second only to Connor’s dominating male fragrance.

Tears prickled her eyes.

“Ms. Jessa?” Marissa waddled in and began tsking as she hustled Jessa toward the enormous tub overfilled with hot water and scented bubbles.

Jessa sank into the welcome heat and let it soothe away the physical aches and pains of the night. Nothing could fix the throbbing space in her heart where Connor was still firmly lodged.