Page 2
“Nyx!” Rae yelled after me.
I ignored her. Stalking up the steps to the front door, I raised my fist and knocked loudly.
“If I had known we were going to jump his ass, I would have changed shoes,” Raelynn grumbled.
Without bothering to respond, I knocked on the door again, this time a bit harder.
“Who is it?” I heard a woman call, incensing me further.
“Open the fucking door!” I snarled, banging an open palm against it.
It swung open, and though my heart couldn’t take another hit, seeing her up close was a bigger dagger. She was even more breathtaking face to face. Inspecting her from head to toe, I took note of how elegantly she carried herself.
Her petite frame was wrapped in high-dollar fashion labels, but that had nothing, nothing on the huge, glistening wedding ring and band combo resting on the ring finger of her left hand.
Shane was married. The nigga was fucking married. The idea of him playing house with someone was one thing, but a wife? It was all I could do not to empty the contents of my stomach all over their porch.
As my mind raced to process what was happening, the asshole in question appeared behind her, his eyes widening the moment they landed on me.
“Can I help you?” His wife questioned. Confusion was written all over her face.
“Shit,” Shane hissed, rubbing his head.
“Babe,” she glanced back at him. “Do you know her?”
“Oh, he knows me very well,” I sneered, releasing a bout of maniacal laughter. “I’m the mistress he’s been hiding for the past year.” The word felt disgusting as it rolled off of my tongue. “Isn’t that right, babe?”
A few of Shane’s neighbors began peeking from the doors of their homes, likely wondering what all the commotion was about since I was carrying on like a madwoman.
“Nyx,” he hissed, glaring at me as if he wanted to wring my neck. “Seriously?”
“Shane?” His wife’s eyes bulged as she looked back at him. “What the hell is going on?”
“Nina, I can explain,” he placed his hand on the small of her back, circling in a soothing motion. The act of reassurance was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Without thinking twice, I lunged toward him.
“You muthafucker!”
Chapter One
The Present
NYX
Valentine’s Day
A glass of wine flying past my face pulled me from the horrid thoughts of my past back to reality. My body jolted back to the present as if I’d been doused in a bucket of cold water.
Anxiety nearly paralyzed me as alarm bells pinged in my head.
There was no way in hell this was happening to me again.
I knew better than to put even the tiniest sliver of trust in a man. Especially after only being three months removed from my disastrous relationship with Shane.
When my co-worker approached me about a blind date with someone she knew, everything inside me screamed no. But, the idea of sitting home on Valentine’s Day, alone and miserable, overrode my original judgment.
I should have stuck with my first mind.
Maybe then, I wouldn’t be sitting in the middle of Le Bouchon, one of the nicest restaurants in the city, watching my date be assaulted by his girlfriend. The one I had no knowledge of, again. Yet, there I was, ducking dinner plates and glasses as she called him every name in the book.
