The Billionaire's Wife(45)

“Oh…” And that final piece of the puzzle fell in to place.



“Over the past three years I’ve had stand in after stand in playing the role of my wife, keeping up appearances. These people are so focused on their portfolios and retirement accounts that not a single one of them noticed the subtle changes in each of the Mrs. Lamberts I had escort me to events. Of course, I tried to avoid as many as possible, I was always afraid that one of them would slip up, give me away.”



“But… you’re so successful… what does it matter if she left you?” He turns his head and looks at me briefly before looking away again.



“There’s a certain something that comes with the territory. The rich corporate magnate with the beautiful wife on his arm… how often do you read about the poor sap of a magnate whose wife ran off with another man?”



“I understand but it sounds like an awful lot of work to hide something that wasn’t your fault to begin with.” He lets out a laugh, a quiet and forced whisper of a laugh.



“I’ve thought the same thing so many times before. I guess I’m just scared. I’m scared of disappointing everyone who has helped me to build my success. I’m scared of failing at one more thing and watching it all fall apart.” There’s a few seconds of silence before he starts to speak again. “That’s why I love being Ricky, no chains, no obligations, no success to maintain…just a normal guy with a normal job, running the rat race along with everyone else.” I can’t help but laugh and he turns to me, a puzzled look on his face.



“It’s just funny. Everyone else in the rat race is struggling to get ahead. They’re struggling to achieve exactly what you have and here you are struggling to get away from it.” His eyes look tired and he manages half a smile as if to let me know that the irony of it hadn’t slipped by him.



“Anyway…” Gideon sits up and scoots himself to the end of the bed. He reaches down and begins to dress himself in silence.



“Then why not be Ricky? I mean you have the means to do it, right? Why not get yourself a place somewhere, get a regular job and live a regular life if that’s what you want? I could even come with you… if you wanted me to, I mean.” I give him a full beaming smile. “We could live in a whole new town, a whole new state…a whole new country. You go to work at the office every day, me in a small café. I’m pretty experienced in living the simple life, you know, I could probably teach you a thing or two.” He turns to me and chuckles.



“Is that so?” he kisses my ankle, trailing kisses up to my thigh, over my belly, over my chest and up to my lips. “If only it were that simple.” With one last kiss on my lips he stands and buttons his pants. “I hate to run but I need to go in to the office and sort out a few things.” Disappointment falls heavily in the pit of my stomach and I sit up, reaching for my pajamas off the end of the bed.#p#分页标题#e#



“Back to real life, huh?” He looks hurt but I feel hurt and I want to make sure that he knows it.



“I’ll call you, okay?” He goes to the bedroom door, pulling his cell phone out of his pants pocket. “I can see myself out.”



I hear the front door close and pull the blankets over me, wrapping myself up like a burrito. I wonder if he realizes just how much he is treating me like an escort. He shows up when he feels like it for a quick fuck and despite the fact that he swears there is more to it than that, he almost always finds an excuse to walk out of the door once we’ve finished. I pull the blanket up to my face and wonder if life with Gideon Lambert would always be this way. Perhaps that’s why his wife left in the first place; perhaps he treated her like a hooker too. I hate myself for even thinking this last thought and as I try to come up with a reasonable excuse as to why he treated me like one I begin to nod off.





Chapter Twenty-Five





“Anything new this morning?” Allison sets my coffee mug down in front of me as I scour through the job ads.



“Nothing I haven’t already applied for.” Since Gideon walked out for the last time last week I took it upon myself to get my shit straightened out. I started applying for every job under the sun, qualified or not. I need a change and unlike Gideon I’m not afraid to go and get what I want because of what other people might think. “I do have that stewardess interview this afternoon though so fingers crossed!” I cross my fingers and smile when Allison does the same. “I’m not hopeful but it could be a pretty awesome job at least for a little while until I find something better.”