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"Wait here please," I told Zac, closing the door in his face. His eyes bulged on the other side of the glass.
I turned to find Juliet hovering in the butler's pantry between the kitchen and the dining rooms. "Zac is here?" she said, her mossy eyes wide and frightened.
My heart softened immediately, seeing her looking scared. I wanted to hold her, but of course I couldn’t. "He would like to see you."
Her eyes became even wider, if that was possible, and they searched my face. "Why?"
I didn’t want to let the guy in, but technically they were married. I probably owed it to Juliet to let her try to repair things with him if she wanted to. God, I hoped she didn’t want to. I sighed. "Not sure. I guess you can let him tell you."
"I'm not taking him back, obviously. My lawyer's already working on the divorce papers." She sighed. "I mean, he's trying to blackmail me. Why would he show up here?"
I thought about that. No man in his right mind would leave Juliet. Maybe he realized what he'd lost. That idea only made me want to run him off the property even more. "If you want to talk to him, find out, I’ll be right here."
Her eyes squeezed shut and her shoulders sagged, and if Chad and Zac hadn't been just a few feet away, I would have caught her in my arms and held her right then, she looked so vulnerable and sad.
“I can just send him away.”
She shook her head. “No. I should be strong. Talk to him if I have to." Her big eyes found mine again as her hand pressed against my chest, sending warmth flooding me. "But you stay with me."
"Of course," I said. "I'll bring him in, okay?"
"We'll do it in the dining room." She turned and I watched her sit at the head of the table. I was glad she'd put herself there—it signaled that she was in charge. Elvis took that moment to totter into the room and jumped into her lap. Despite the silly dog's affliction, he had a good radar for when Juliet needed support, and that made me love him. Even if he was kind of a mess. Elvis made a snarfing sound as if to signal that he too, was ready.
I escorted a sputtering Zac from the kitchen door and then stood at one end of the dining room with my arms crossed as he sat to Juliet's side. "Aren't you going to call off your fucking gorilla?" He shot a look my way.
"That's Jace. And he stays. I can trust him." She said this in a way that made it clear she saw a difference between people she couldn't trust and me.
"I see that silly excuse for a dog hasn't died yet." Zac glared at Elvis, tucked into Juliet's arms, and I swear the dog grinned at him.
Good boy, Elvis.
"What do you want, Zac? You're already suing me, making accusations, threatening me. My lawyer would tell me even letting you in was a mistake." Juliet sounded exhausted and my fingers itched to touch her, to soothe her.
"Can't we just talk, sweetheart?" He reached toward her and Juliet stiffened. I dropped my arms, took a step closer, and Zac let out a frustrated huff and leaned back in his chair. "Fine. We can do this your way."
Juliet waited, saying nothing.
"Is this the guy?" He threw a thumb my way. "Is this the guy you've been fucking?" It took every ounce of restraint I had not to dive at him, tackle him to the ground and pound those words back into his mouth.
Juliet's face went slack. "Excuse me?"
"While we were married? I should have known."
I realized he was just grasping at straws. For a minute I worried Juliet was about to cave, to sigh in defeat and walk away, but pride and a quiet respect flooded me when her shoulders stiffened and her eyes turned hard. "I find you face down in my personal chef and you have the nerve to come back here and accuse me of cheating? You have the nerve to ask if I was fucking my bodyguard while we were married, while you were busily sticking your dick in everything that moved? And you have the nerve to try to blackmail me for my money? My estate?"
Zac didn’t even flinch. "This was joint property while we were together. Everything you earned while we were married is fair game."
"Listen to yourself," she said, her voice practically a hiss. "You're a snake."
"It was no picnic, being married to you," he said, clearly trying to make her feel sorry for him. "You were never home, always on location, with movie stars like that last guy, that Ryan whatever. I was supposed to believe you weren't fucking them while you were away for months at a time? Leaving me here with this bag of narcoleptic slobber?" He jerked a thumb at Elvis, who made a snarfling noise in response.
Juliet passed a hand over her face, as if this conversation was testing her last nerve. "Zac," she said quietly. "I didn't have sex with any of my co-stars. And I didn't have sex with Jace or any of my other security. In fact, I didn't have sex with anyone except you. Because we. Were. Married." She stared at him pointedly for a minute. "It was a vow I made. A promise. And I honored it."
"But now?" Zac seethed, glancing my way again. I clenched my jaw.
"What I do now is none of your business."
"Unless you're just continuing an affair that's been going on for years." Zac stood. "My lawyer thinks we have a good shot."
