Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 68688 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68688 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
“Her husband?” he asked with his eyebrows raised.
“Yep.”
“I’ll back you up.”
“I don’t need backup, Luca.” I put out the cigar and rose to my feet.
“He’s got a lot of balls coming here,” Luca said. “Are you sure—”
“I’m fine.” I gestured to the door. “I’ll talk to you later.”
“Alright.” He let Gerard escort him out of the room. He might have passed Adrien on the way.
I stood there and waited for Adrien to join me, surprised he had the spine to face me, unless he didn’t understand who I was. Well, if he didn’t, he was about to. I stood in my sweatpants and t-shirt, not afraid to do business in casual attire. My real uniform was my knife anyway.
Footsteps sounded, and then he rounded the corner—in trousers and a blazer like a fucking pussy. He had short brown hair with matching eyes, tall and lean, not packed with muscle the way I was. In hand-to-hand combat, he’d be dead.
He stilled as he sized me up, looking me over as his opponent. He was outmatched if we were in the ring with boxing gloves—and he was outmatched as a lover too. I might have a pretty face, but I was packed and tatted.
The standoff lasted for a solid minute, Adrien coming to terms with the fact that I was the man bedding his wife.
Soon-to-be ex-wife, I hoped.
He finally took a breath like he needed to steel his nerves before he approached me. He didn’t fire off with threats and bullshit right off the bat, so he was smarter than I’d assumed. “Of all the men in Paris, she had to pick you.”
“I think she has great taste.”
An explosion of rage flashed across his eyes, but he didn’t act on it. “She has no idea who you are.”
“Separation of church and state.”
He came closer, the table between us. “I think she’d feel much differently if she had all the facts.”
“I don’t know. She seems pretty tough to me.” Handled those handprints beautifully. Didn’t mind my thumb up her ass. Didn’t scream when some asshole came at her with a machete. The girl had a backbone—and I liked that.
“Tell her, or I will.”
I smirked. “Is that what your mistress said to you?”
His eyes narrowed once again. “I’m sure someone like you doesn’t give a shit about marriage—”
“Quite the contrary, actually. Assholes like you are the ones who shit all over it.”
He bypassed what I said. “I know I fucked up. I admit that. But that doesn’t mean I don’t love her. I know we could work it out if you would just go the fuck away.”
I couldn’t wipe the smirk off my face, not when it pissed him off so much.
“She said she would consider a reconciliation—and then you showed up.”
“I tend to do that.”
“You think this is a joke?” he snapped.
“You thought it was a joke first when you pissed all over your wedding vows. Or should I say came all over your wedding vows?”
“Fuck you, Butcher.”
This was the part where I bragged about all the fucking I did with his wife, but I had too much respect for her to say a word. I wouldn’t rub my conquest in his face, not when I had to drag her name through the mud to accomplish that.
“She doesn’t mean shit to you—and I love her. So stay the fuck out of my relationship, alright? You claim to be the Justice of Paris, but you’re bedding another man’s wife when he’s trying to put that marriage back together. Fucking hypocritical.”
“You would have been divorced if you hadn’t stopped her paperwork—to be fair.”
With a burning anger in his eyes, he clenched his jaw. “Are you going to step off or not?”
I barely knew the woman. I’d had good sex, some that I paid for and others that were free, but with her, it was different. Couldn’t explain it. But her situation was complicated, and the timing just wasn’t right. “I’ll bow out. But if she comes to me, she’s fair game.”
The restaurant had closed to the public, but I walked inside like I owned the place—because I did. All the tables were crammed together, but they were empty of plates and already wiped down for the night.
Manuel stood at the bar, and he greeted me with a nod before he headed to the back. The kitchen staff was still working after the rush they’d had. From what I’d been told, reservations started a month out.
Guess the place was good.
There was a lone table in the middle, the only one that was easily accessible and not pushed up against others. I made myself a drink at the bar then sat down. The street outside was a one-way road, and sometimes people passed the window. It was a cold evening, but I got warm as I walked, so I hardly ever wore a jacket, not unless it snowed.