Just when I thought he was done, I felt a jet of something warm and sharp-smelling hit me where the semen had landed earlier, soaking into my hair. Water? I opened my eyes just in time to see him urinating on me. Horrified, I gagged and cried and tried to scramble away from him.
“You stink,” he said when he was done. “Looks like you need another shower.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The marinated tiger prawns made my stomach queasy, and the oriental noodles looked like neglected yarn left out in the rain. From the way he dissected his steak, Jude’s appetite was just fine. I gritted my teeth as his knife scraped the porcelain plate.
Breakfast wound up being lunch because I’d spent an hour locked up in the bathroom weeping.
Even after what he’d done to me, he still insisted we celebrate our anniversary. At first I refused, but his palm connected with my cheek, quickly reminding me I did not have the power to make decisions anymore. I wore heavy concealer on my face and a silk scarf around my neck, to cover the signs of his abuse.
As I sat across from him, I thought of the options I had to escape this hell. Whatever I decided to do, it had to work the first time. I only hoped he didn’t kill me before I had the chance to try. I needed time, money, and courage.
He didn’t say a word to me until his food was gone, and I had hardly touched mine.
Finally, he dabbed a napkin on his mouth and waved for the waiter. Without asking if I was finished, he said, “We’re done.”
The waiter nodded and scuttled over to remove our plates.
Jude drank his wine and watched me from under his thick lashes. He looked sexy and distinguished, the kind of man women swooned over. In the past forty-five minutes I’d already caught a few gazing in our direction. Those women had no idea he was a pig, a coward who abused women to make himself powerful.
“Put a damn smile on your face. It’s our anniversary. Why do you look so fuckin’ miserable all the time?” His words were a hiss through his teeth, but he smiled as he spoke.
I pasted a smile on my face, my right cheek aching from the movement.
“I love you so much,” he said, reaching for my hands. I flinched and he tightened his grip. “When you turn your back on me, when you act as if you don’t love me, you stab my heart.” His eyes bore a genuine broken look. “We were happy once, remember?”
I nodded. He was telling the truth. He did love me, no doubt about that. But his love had become poisonous, twisted.
“The night I met you, the first time I gazed into your eyes, I was gone. I fell in love instantly. That’s why I did everything in my power to hide you from what you did, to protect you. You’re mine now. The sooner you accept that, the better. You belong to me and me alone. No one will ever love you as much as I do.”
“Then why?” I blinked away the moisture in my eyes. “Why are you hurting me?”
He shoved my hands away and leaned forward. “Because you can be such a bitch sometimes. But you’re my bitch.”
I looked away from him. The sight of him disgusted me.
Breaking the pain-filled moment, his phone vibrated on the table next to the bottle of wine. He stood and walked out of the restaurant to take the call.
As I watched his back disappear through the sliding doors, a thought crossed my mind, and I turned my gaze to the floor-to-ceiling glass windows, observed the balcony beyond. What would he do if he came into the room and found me gone? Not gone in a way that he could hunt me down, but dead.
It would be so easy to step out onto the balcony under the pretense of wanting to enjoy the view of the lush garden below, so easy to step onto the ledge and jump before anyone had time to stop me. The chance of surviving a fall from the eighth floor of the building would be slim. And I’d be free of Jude forever. How would he react to losing one of his valued possessions? But I wasn’t that stupid. Even with everything I was going through, I’d never kill myself, not before I exhausted all options first.
“My day has just gotten that much more interesting.”
My neck almost snapped when I turned my face up to look at the man towering over me.
Dustin wore jeans and a sky blue polo shirt.
My heart lifted for a beat and then panic took over. Jude would be back any second.
My panicked gaze drifted to the door. “I’m here with my husband.” The words came flooding out. Under the table, I clutched my knees to stop my hands from shaking.
“I saw.” He leaned down and lowered his voice. “But you can say hello to an old friend, can’t you?”
“Hi,” I said quickly. Sweat trickled down my temples. “Please … Please go, Dustin. He’ll be back soon.”