Page 6 of Hotwife
The cling-click of the old grandfather clock in our dining room had become my dinner companion since moving to Seattle. Cedric had a two-hour break and had come home, not bothering to change out of his sickly green scrubs. Taking a bite of the lemon salmon and wild rice I’d whipped up, he glanced up from his tablet. “How was your luncheon with your friends today?”
Unexpectedly sexy.
“Fine. Nothing exciting.” I drummed my fingers on the table, not bothering to hide my slouch.
Cedric’s gaze remained fixed to me instead of flicking back to his work.
“Eva didn’t mention Henry, or your promotion, sorry,” I mumbled, assuming that’s what he was asking with his eyes.
“I don’t care about that right now. I care about you.” He reached over and put his palm over my knuckles with a light squeeze. “Are you okay, Dot?”
Straightening slightly, my eyebrows rose in surprise at his questioning. “I don’t know, honestly, Ced. I feel so…”
“Bored?” he supplied, somehow with no trace of judgement in his tone. My husband was good at that. I was sure I could tell him I’d developed a wolf-shifter kink from my paranormal romance novels and he wouldn’t bat an eye. Instead, he’d ask me to describe the characters and plotline to him. His superhuman lack of criticism was one of the many reasons I fell in love with him. It was another reason why me sleeping with other men didn’t bother him. He truly wanted me to be happy. I could be wholly myself with Cedric and, as young as I was, I recognized how rare that was in any relationship.
His question rolled around like an eight ball in my mind. Was I bored? Bored seemed like such a trivial emotion. If I were bored, I’d dye my hair black or go see a movie. Whatever emotion that had burrowed its way into my psyche was deeper, a dull, nameless little creature.
Tears prickled behind my eyelids. “I miss you,” I breathed.
Care flashed across his expression before he tensed his jaw and blinked. “I’m right here, Dotty. I love you, you know that? There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you.”
I nodded. I knew that. His sincerity twisted my heart and painted “selfish bitch” on the walls of my soul. Why couldn’t he be enough for me? “I love you, too.” I hesitated a moment, but his hand was still on mine. The physical touch felt so nice. His icy grey hair was combed back with a Clark Kent stray piece of hair over his forehead. My husband may have been twenty-six years older and coming up on his fiftieth birthday, but he looked finer than most men my age. He had this smart, timeless, old Hollywood sexiness about him. I loved it and hated it at the same time. It would be much easier to have a repulsive husband whom I never wanted to sleep with. Unfortunately, I was twenty-five, horny, and unbelievably attracted to the man I married.
“Hey, we have about an hour… want to jump in the shower with me?” I asked, holding my breath. It had been a while since I’d made a bid for intimacy. And I loved bathroom sex. The cold tiles, the echoes…
Cedric let go of my hand and sat up, taking a quick sip of his iced tea. “I have to shower at the hospital before my emergency room shift tonight,” he shot me a tight smile. “Sorry, Dotty. Raincheck.”
Liar.
Ignoring the stab of rejection, I gathered our plates and sat them in the sink. Looking out the kitchen window into our soggy backyard, my fingers tinkered with the gold pendant on the end of my necklace. Yanking the chain slightly, the metal pressed into my skin. Closing my eyes, I replayed Desmond’s bite for the one hundredth time since the drive home.
One moment with a stranger had sent me into an absolute frenzy. Silk panties were a mistake, the wetness taunting me. And I wasn’t a stranger to encounters with strangers. This man was different. There was something dark and dangerous about him. Desmond wasn’t the typical Seattle button-up, craft brewery enthusiast, bland finance man. His presence was threatening… I wanted a taste, too.
But I couldn’t.
He knew my name. My real name. One of Cedric’s rules was to use a fake name. And honestly, it helped me keep my distance. Ruby was a mask, or a suit of armor, a character in a play I was playing with myself and whoever swiped right. I couldn’t be Ruby Knight with Desmond Gregory. Eva’s stepson. Doctor Gregory’s son. Doctor Gregory, my husband’s boss and the one holding the keys to his much sought after promotion. Our rules were iron clad, and I couldn’t break them and risk ruining our arrangement, or worse, hurting my generous and loving husband.
The rules kept me safe, physically and emotionally. They guarded my heart, leaving emotions out, and taking out the risk factor of being found out and the personal and professional embarrassment that would ensue. I didn’t mind. I liked that Cedric at least exercised enough protectiveness to keep a few parts of me all to himself. My old-fashioned husband had gone out on a limb in agreeing to me becoming a hotwife. And I respected that. I’d never felt tempted to break his rules. Hell, I’d never even felt the urge to do any of the off-limit things, regardless of the boundaries we’d set.
Until now.
The thought sent a jolt to my wet panties. Maybe I could dance close to the edge of the rules a little bit…
“I’m taking your car to be serviced in the morning, so take mine if you need,” Cedric interrupted my fantasies with a jolt.
“Oh, thank you.”
I’d never even filled my own gas tank. Cedric always made sure he did it for me because gas stations creeped me out. At least back home in Georgia they did.
“Can I wash the dishes for you before I leave?” he asked, shimmying up to me and looking down at me with that boyish smile. My own grin appeared at the sight of it. “There she is. There’s my Dotty,” he said, cupping my jaw in his hand. “I love these dimples,” he said, pressing a thumb into the dip in my cheek.
“I love you,” I replied, standing on my tiptoes and stealing a quick peck. “I got the dishes, go save the world.”
Digging in the pantry, he pulled out a box of granola bars. “Sure thing. Oh, and I want to hear all about the book you're reading when I get back from my shift tomorrow. What did Foxlove think when Ricardo shifted into a polar bear?”
“Spoiler alert, she was into it,” I grinned, throwing a dish towel at him.
He chuckled, tucking the box of snacks under his arm and grabbing his keys. “I expect a full recap. Bye Dotty.”