Total pages in book: 190
Estimated words: 181992 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 181992 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
Maybe. Maybe not.
When she’d first insinuated there was something Dax didn’t know, I’d thought that she would have surely told him anything that would break his connection to Gracie. But … I had two sisters who I loved with everything in me. Sisters I’d do anything for. Sisters whose secrets I’d protect.
Mimi might be a tool, but she had loved her twin dearly; she would surely keep a secret for her. Especially if exposing it would taint others’ memories of her.
I could push for more information, but it wasn’t my right to do that. And the last thing I wanted was to learn something about Gracie that had the potential to hurt Dax. We’d promised each other honesty, so I’d feel obliged to tell him, and it would suck large to have to do it.
As such, I let the matter drop and instead asked, “Why are you here?”
Mimi poked her tongue into the inside of her cheek. “I figured you of all people would understand how it is for me. We’re in the same boat. We love Dax. Love a man who doesn’t, and never will, love us back.”
Oh, she just relished taking any opportunity possible to drum the idea into my head that he felt nothing for me.
Her head very slowly tilted to the side as she studied me. “Or are you thinking that will change for you some day? It won’t, you know. Others held that same hope. It was crushed every time.” She paused. “There was one woman I thought he might grow to care for. She was technically a bed-buddy, but they had something. Emotionally, I mean.”
And I was apparently supposed to feel upset and jealous on hearing this—that was the reaction Mimi was so obviously looking for. She craved that response from me because it was how I made her feel—she wanted to level the playing field.
The thing was … yes, it stung hearing he’d cared for others. But at the same time, I would never wish he’d been alone all these years feeling nothing for no one.
“I don’t know if her name is really Angel or if that’s a stage name,” Mimi continued. “She works as a stripper in the club he used to own. That’s how they met.” A sly smirk pulled at one corner of her mouth. “I heard he was like a sex addict with her. It was as if he just couldn’t stay away from the girl. Some said he was obsessed with her.”
Okay, yeah, that made my gut twist painfully.
“But what they had wasn’t just physical. He was very protective of Angel. Possessive, too. He put a stop to the lap dances because he didn’t like her being that close to other men. I could see she meant something to him.”
“You must have hated her, then.”
Mimi’s smirk faltered. “No. I want him to be happy. She made him happy.”
Uh, no, Mimi wanted him to be happy with her, no one else. As for Angel … if she really had been so important to him it was weird that they’d had nothing more than a bed-buddy arrangement. “Just to be clear … you feel that all this is relevant because, what?”
Her face reddened as her taunting expression morphed into a resentful glower. So much scorn and bitterness whirled in her gaze it was a wonder she wasn’t shaking with the force of the emotions.
“It’s relevant because obsession never dies,” she retorted. “His sure didn’t. He’s still in contact with Angel; still heads to the club to check on her; still fixes all her problems for her, like he’s her own personal white knight. He even gives her money if she needs it.”
Hurt tried to bubble up, but I mentally shook it off, sure he wouldn’t keep from me that he played such a strong part in one of his ex’s lives that way.
“You don’t believe me?” Mimi dug her phone out of her purse, tapped the screen several times, and then held it up for me to see. “Look. Look.”
I cut my gaze to the screen, and the bottom fell out of my stomach. It was a photo of Dax and an incredibly beautiful blonde. They stood intimately close on a sidewalk outside the strip club, their bodies mere inches apart as they faced each other. His head was tilted down toward hers, and she was grinning up at him.
My body went stiff as so many emotions blindsided me. Shock. Hurt. Betrayal. Fury. Disillusionment. Every single one of those emotions was a sharp, crippling stab to my tightening chest.
Unlinking my fingers, I fisted my hands and ground my teeth against the primitive drive to punch something; to snatch her phone and throw it across the room; to ream Dax’s ass for taking a shit on my trust and … and … But that didn’t sound like him.