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Leander and I exchanged an irritated look before I rolled my eyes in the opposite direction so hard she probably heard them rattling. I should have listened to Olivia — I should have killed her instead of trying to take the high road. It would have been a lot less aggravating. Explaining the nuances of sexuality to a fuckingdoctorwas not on my list of things to do today, or ever. Guess it was a good practice run for Leander, though, since now he’d be facing his fair share of ignorant assumptions.
Forcing a smile to his lips, Leander turned back to Lorelei, answering through his teeth. “No, I’m not. But that is hardly the point.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” She crossed her arms over her chest, glowering at him in earnest. “Maybe I should be more pissed about the fact you’re married!” She spat the last word and gave me a dose of her wrath, like I was the one entirely at fault.
Sure, I’d asked the question, but Leander was the one who arranged everything less than two hours after he said “Yes” —afterwe saw Lorelei’s fucking news conference, I might add. I never imagined when I proposed that night we’d come home married.Hewas the one who said he didn’t want to wait, that he wanted to commemorate our time in Puerto Rico. According to him, what better way than by promising eternity to one another?
Rejuvenated by the warm, fuzzy feeling I got every time I thought about the fact Leander was my husband —myhusband — I smiled smugly in return.
I know in the dream I stabbed her, but at the moment, I was happily imagining what she would look like if I slit her throat. I’d have to make sure I kept it on the porch. It’d be so much easier to clean the mat outside. Plus, I didn’t want to run the risk of ruining the inlaid floor in the foyer.
“Or maybe,” she ground out, turning her ire back to Leander, “it’s the fact you’ve been gone for a month and didn’t have the decency to let me know you were alive!”
“That was an oversight,” he replied evenly.
She barked a short, bitter laugh. “An oversight? And your marital status? Was that another ‘oversight?’ Have you been married this whole goddamn time?”
Unfolding my arms, I straightened my spine, my right hand drifting nonchalantly to the waistband behind my hip. I was two seconds away from putting a permanent end to this little reunion. But… I didn’t have anything pointy on me. Damn it. I’d have to strangle her after all.
A muscle along Leander’s jaw twitched. If he knew I was plotting his ex-lover’s death, he didn’t seem concerned. His eyes were narrowed on hers, as still and silent as a statute. I knew that look. It meant he was in the process of taking whatever positive feelings he ever had for her and warping them, fueling his rising anger with it. Ooo, maybehe’dstrangle her. I couldn’t ask for a better wedding present than that.
“Was it all a lie?” she asked, her voice brittle.
“No.” Ouch. Ok. I knew that one was coming. He’d all but told me the same thing on the plane. I wouldn’t let it spoil the anticipation of seeing him kill her.
Lorelei scoffed and looked away. “I don’t even know why I asked. I can’t believe anything you say. I can’t believe I ever did.”
“For what it’s worth, I never meant to hurt you,” he said quietly.
That wasn’t exactly what I pictured someone saying before strangling their mistress to death… I slid him a curious glance out of the corner of my eye. His expression hadn’t softened in the slightest, despite his verbal reassurance.
She dashed a tear away from her face. “No. You just used me for your own sick, twisted game.”
And I’d heard about enough of that. I took a step forward, already fantasizing about wrapping my hands around her throat. Her neck was so slim, I could probably do it with just one hand. Two would make it faster. But then again, I wanted her to suffer.
Leander threw his forearm out across my chest, stopping me from crossing the threshold. I looked down sharply before shooting him a quizzical look.
He shook his head and lowered his hand, holding my gaze for a moment. I registered an apology in his eyes before he turned to Lorelei again. His voice was quiet, but rigid. His sympathy was for me, then, not her, a sign of his building anger. “I thought I could love you, eventually, but—”
“Psychopaths don’t know how to love,” she interrupted, her chin tipping up.
Game on, bitch.
My fists clenched so hard, my knuckles cracked on their own as I took a step toward her.
A dark smile curled the edge of Leander’s mouth. He shifted forward as well so the two of us were shoulder-to-shoulder, fixed on the stupid,stupidwoman in front of us.
“And what does that say about you?” Leander asked, cocking his head to the side. “Professionally speaking? To allow yourself to beusedby apsychopath? To knowyoucame tome, begging for me to do it all over again?”
The iciness in his voice sent a happy shiver down my spine. Now I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, there weren’t any residual feelings for this broad. At least not after this doozy of a conversation, which was thankfully coming to an end based on the subtle change to his demeanor.
“You’re sick. You know that right? You needserious, long-term help.” Lorelei’s glare snapped from Leander to me. “Do you even know about the severity of his mental health? All of the disorders he has? Do you think you can handle it when he has another breakdown?”
“I know all I need to,” I replied in a clipped tone, leaning forward to brace one forearm against the doorframe. “Just like I know you’re dancing pretty fucking close to a HIPAA violation. But by all means, keep talking. What else should concern me?”
“The fact that he’s a murderer?” A second too late she realized what, exactly, came out of her mouth. Her gaze flashed to Leander and she swallowed visibly.
His dark smile returned, accompanied with a dangerous glint in his eye. “You have ten seconds to produce my cat, Lorelei, or I assure you you will not like how this conversation ends.”
