by Sam Crescent
EVERNIGHT PUBLISHING ®
www.evernightpublishing.com
Copyright© 2019 Sam Crescent
ISBN: 978-0-3695-0079-3
Cover Artist: Jay Aheer
Editor: Karyn White
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
ASSHOLE HUSBAND
Sam Crescent
Copyright © 2019
Prologue
Rachel Parker, no, Rachel Montgomery smiled as she stared up at the ring. She couldn’t believe she was married. Yesterday had been the best day of her life. One she would never forget. Her husband, Wolfe Montgomery, was ten years her senior, but he’d been so kind, gentle, sweet, and tender.
She’d come to his bed a virgin last night, and now, she was … a woman.
It was so strange to be a married woman. It wasn’t yet morning, but the bed was empty. She put her hand out to touch where Wolfe should have been, but the sheets were cold. He must have left the room a while ago, but she’d not even felt him leave. She’d been so exhausted.
Getting to her feet, she wrapped the blanket around herself, until she spotted a robe. She tied the belt, covering her naked body and untucking her hair from the back of the robe. She opened the bedroom door and began to make her way downstairs toward the kitchen. Wolfe had been persistent in the reception being held in his home. He had a large, lavish home, more of a mansion than a house, but she didn’t mind. Her parents came from wealth that had been passed down by her grandparents. She had grown up with everything a young woman could ask for, apart from the one thing she always wanted, love.
It was a rather silly, naive notion of what she always wanted. Her two older sisters often teased her about what she wanted out of life and how ridiculous and childish it sounded. Love wasn’t accepted in their world. They married for money and power.
She’d defied the odds and married for love.
Wolfe was everything.
She couldn’t wait to start a family with him, and they had talked about doing so immediately so she hadn’t been taking her pill, nor had he worn a condom last night.
Thinking about last night made her ache. She wanted him again.
Walking downstairs, she marveled at how quiet his house was. She lived in a much older house with creaking staircases that made it impossible to go anywhere without someone noticing.
She saw a light coming from Wolfe’s office. When he gave her the tour a couple of weeks ago, he’d asked her not to just barge in, to always knock and wait as he often dealt with important business calls and didn’t wish to be distracted.
Stepping up to the room she was about to do that even though the door was partially ajar when she didn’t just hear her husband; no, another man.
“So, you’ve got the fortune you’ve been after and a wife out of it. Whatever next?” the man asked.
“I’ll keep Rachel happy. It’s not hard to do. Feed her a couple of lines and she’s like a fucking puppy dog in my hand.”
Rachel tensed. Wolfe sounded so … stern, angry, aggressive.
She frowned. In the past six months she’d never heard him speak like that before.
“Wow, tell me, Wolfe, do you love your wife or was this all about the money?”
The door was open enough to allow her to see Wolfe. He was leaning against his desk, and he wore a suit. His shirtsleeves were rolled up as he gripped the edge of the desk.
“Parker should have known not to mess with me. I told him the best way of securing his business venture was to give me a place on his board, and a percentage of his company. Denying me what I deserve, he should have known I’d find other methods. Marrying his daughter, well, it just got me closer to what I require.”
Rachel couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“The oldest daughter is a slut. The middle one, she’s too … aware. Rachel, the youngest, well, she was the easiest target. All I had to do was say a few nice things and I had her. She even thought our meetings were fate, not carefully crafted by me just so I could make her fall in love with me.”
“I’ve got to say, Wolfe, I know you’re a monster in the boardroom, but marrying to get what you want, I was shocked.”
“Please, you’ve known me for years. Besides, business will take me away a lot of the time, and I can have my fun then. She was such a fucking sensitive virgin.” Wolfe groaned. “Anyway, she’ll do as she’s told, and we’ll all be happy.”
“Do you love her?” the man asked.
“No. Why would I love her? She’s a means to an end.”
Rachel had heard enough. Stepping away from the door, she rushed back up to their bedroom.
Closing the door, she leaned against it, her heart racing.
What the hell?
He didn’t love her?
The man she’d known for the past six months would never treat her like that. She couldn’t believe it. He’d never said a curse word in front of her, and the way he talked just now, that wasn’t the man she knew.
All of this was a lie?
Grabbing her cell phone, she quickly dialed her sister, Mary.
“Hello,” Mary said, groggily.
“It was all a lie, wasn’t it? That’s what you tried to warn me about?”
“Rachel?”
“Don’t try to spare my feelings. I heard him. I heard Wolfe.” The tears were falling now, and she swiped them away, wanting to not cry, to at least appear strong.
“Oh, honey.”
“Don’t do that. I’m twenty years old. You don’t need to treat me with kid gloves. Just tell me the truth,” she said. “Did you know?”
Mary sighed on the other end. “I knew he wasn’t all that he’d seemed. I first met him at a party. He wasn’t a nice guy then, and he isn’t one now. I did try to warn you.”
“But I didn’t listen. Have you ever … slept with him?”
“No. Like I said, I like my men to be less mean. Wolfe, he’s not a nice guy, but he seemed to make you happy and you wouldn’t listen. I wasn’t going to take that away from you.”
Rachel sniffled. “I made a big mistake.”
“Did he fuck you?”
“Mary!”
“Come on, you’ve been prudish for a long time. It doesn’t get you anywhere. You’ve got to wake up and realize the world is all about the sex and fucking. You’re being delusional if you think it is anything else. I’m trying to help you,” Mary said.
“Yes.”
“Then an annulment is out of the question. You’re going to have to divorce him.”
Rachel put a hand to her chest, hating the very word. She didn’t want to get an annulment or end her marriage.
Not after less than twenty-four hours.
Even after hearing all she had, she still loved him.
Wolfe had lied about his feelings, but she hadn’t. Hers were real, which made the pain of his betrayal even worse.
She sniffled. “I’ve got to leave. He’s with someone in his office. Can you come and pick me up? Please? I’m so sorry I didn’t listen to you.”
“You’re my sister. I love you. Of course I’ll come and pick you up. Be ready in half an hour. I’ll be there.”
Hanging up the phone, Rachel rushed toward the closet. She found her bag there. All of her clothes had already been taken out of it. While she’d been waiting for Wolfe to appear, she’d felt so happy se
eing her clothes beside his.
She couldn’t believe how stupid she’d been.
Removing her robe, she pulled on a pair of jeans and a shirt. Her parents had been wealthy, but she’d always been the down to earth sister who hadn’t been drawn into the latest fashion trends.
Much to her parents’ amusement, she loved to sew and create. She didn’t do fashion, but she did make her own clothes.
Wolfe had said it was a charming hobby.
Now, she couldn’t believe a word that had ever been said. He’d told her he loved her, how he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. The three kids he wanted? It had all been lies.
Manipulations to get her to be with him, not because he had to have her, but to take her inheritance and what came with her small fortune.
Throwing the bag to the bed, she grabbed most of her clothes, and as she was stuffing the last few items, Wolfe walked into the bedroom.
He’d rolled down his sleeves, hiding the ink he’d told her was a dare he’d been given in college to get.
Probably lies too.
The man she’d glimpsed wasn’t her Wolfe, and never would be.
“What is going on? Are you excited about our honeymoon already?” he asked.
He took a step toward her, and she moved back.
Wolfe paused. “Rachel, what is going on? I don’t understand. You were perfectly content when I left you to get a drink.”
She stared at him.
His voice was once again soft, and he spoke a little slower as well. Did he think she was so stupid she wouldn’t catch on?
“Drop the act,” she said.
“Excuse me?”
“I was the easiest sister. Not the slut, or the one who’d question your motives. I was the easy target for you to get what you want.”
She stared at him, and she saw the moment he realized she knew.
He took another step toward her.
“Don’t.”
“Rachel, what you heard, it was all lies. You don’t know the truth.”
“No, this right now, this is the lie. What you’re doing now, drop it. Drop the act. You don’t love me. You never have.” She shook her head. “You know, my parents warned me about men like you who’ll want to use me for what I’ve got. I never thought it would happen to me. I’m … me. I don’t stand out in a crowd. I don’t…” She shook her head, and went to her bag.
“You don’t understand what was going on. I had to say those things because I don’t want anyone to know the truth. Where the fuck do you think you’re going?” Wolfe asked.
Rachel stood up and looked at him. He’d taken a step closer toward her.
“I’m leaving. Mary’s coming to pick me up.”
“You’re my wife. You’re not leaving.”
“I am. I’m going. This was all a mistake. A stupid … mistake.” She couldn’t bring herself to hurl insults at him.
He grabbed her arms, and she gasped as he pressed her against the wall. “So you know the truth of what I really want. It doesn’t mean I can’t give you a good life. I didn’t need your money, Rachel. I needed your position.”
“And I wanted nothing but what you promised me. I want the man you pretended to be, but he doesn’t exist. You do. I don’t want him.”
“I’m not going to let you go.”
“Yes, you are because if you don’t, I’ll make sure every single newspaper knows about what happened tonight, and how you lied and manipulated to be married to me.”
“You mistake me for a man who gives a fuck, Rachel. You want to play this game we will. I will break that story, and change it so it looks like I was so desperate for you, I had no choice but to make you marry me.”
She hated him in that moment, and loved him at the same time.
She had never been so confused and hurt in all of her life.
“I loved you,” she said, letting the tears come back.
“Rachel, don’t cry.”
“And you promised to love me too, but it was all a lie. I was warned not to trust you, and I told them they were all wrong. You made me look like a fool.” She sobbed. He still held her hands above her head. “You don’t want to be with me, and I don’t want to be with you. Let me go.”
“No.”
“I won’t divorce you,” she said. She would agree to anything to be out of the house and away from him. “I’ll stay married and you can live your own life. We can be completely separate in all things. I don’t have to be with you. You can have the place on the board, and I can live alone, without you.”
“What if you’re pregnant?” he asked.
She felt a spark of hope as he considered her offer.
She would gladly do anything right about now.
“I doubt I am.”
“And if you are?”
“I’ll take care of it. I’ll love our child no matter what. You’ll never have to worry about her or him.” She didn’t want to be pregnant. “Just let me go. You don’t want me, not really. Let me go.”
Seconds passed, and he finally let her go, stepping away from her.
She didn’t linger as she grabbed her bags and ran downstairs.
Rushing out of the house, she found Mary waiting for her.
Shoving her bag into the backseat, she climbed into the passenger seat. “Get me away from here.”
When they were outside the gate, Rachel allowed herself the time to cry.
Pressing her hands to her face, she sobbed for everything she had hoped her fairy tale ending could be.
Chapter One
Five years later
Wolfe looked through the endless photographs he had his PI take. For the past five years this was how he got to see his wife, and his son, apart from the weekends when one of Rachel’s sisters dropped him off.
Their one time together had resulted in a son. He still had the photographs from her ultrasounds, and the months leading up to her giving birth. At any time, he could have demanded she let him see her and be with her during the appointments of their son’s birth. She had refused him at every turn, apart from when he asked she see a doctor of his choosing.
Melanie, an old friend from college, had agreed to help his wife during her pregnancy. She was the best in her field, and regardless of the state of his marriage, he wanted the best for Rachel. It was Melanie who told him of the dangers he could impose on his wife. The stress she was under already, if he pushed to force his presence on her, it could have devastating effects on the pregnancy.
He’d kept his distance, but he was there for the ultrasounds. Melanie had helped make sure he could be present without Rachel knowing. She’d installed a camera where he could see and hear so he could tune in to her visits.
It was a complete invasion of Rachel’s privacy and wishes, and he didn’t care. Their child would know his father.
Five years on, they had no chance of reconciling, even after her father had tried to have him thrown off the board. Wolfe had kept his distance, even as he had to listen to Benjamin talk about his mother all the time.
Running a hand down his face, he paused when he came to three images. They were of Rachel at the park, holding Benjamin’s hand, but there was someone else, a third person. A man.
He didn’t like this.
He dialed his PI, Marcus, for answers.
“Who is this fucker with my wife?” Wolfe asked.
“He’s a single dad. His name’s Ryan. He’s a good guy. Their sons play together.”
“Benjamin is my son.”
“I only know the facts, Wolfe.”
“I want a detailed file on Ryan by the end of the day.”
“For a husband who doesn’t care, you certainly don’t show it.”
“Just do it,” he said, slamming his phone down. Dropping the photographs to his desk, he stood up, angry. With his hands on his hips he stared down at the city.
He was the Wolfe Montgomery. Never in his life had he ever been jealous, and yet, looking at those fucking pictures, he w
as ready to hurt someone or something. Rachel wouldn’t even talk to him, and there she was, hanging out with a single dad who already had a kid.
She’d always sent her sisters, father, or lawyer to deal with him. Their current agreement, which wasn’t legally binding but was set between the two of them, meant he couldn’t force her to live with him or do other wifely things.
He’d not touched her since their wedding night.
That night he shouldn’t have left his bed to go and talk to Mike, his friend and lawyer who helped him a lot over the years.
Now as he glanced around his office, he had to wonder if it was all worth it.
“Of course it is.”
Only when he got the weekly pictures back did he begin to doubt what he’d done the past five years.
How he’d lived his life.
There had been speculation in the newspaper, but with his power and ability to steer the headlines, he’d been able to avoid any exposé on his marriage. Her family also worked to make sure it appeared they were still together, and he’d not seen her since that night.
Not smelled her lemony scent, or even got the chance to hold her.
He got impersonal photographs, and now he got to see her smiling with a man who wasn’t him.
He gathered up the pictures and placed them in the file, slamming his palm flat against the folder. This weekend was his with Benjamin. Would it really be bad for him to go and pick his son up from his mother’s? He knew where she lived.
Every little detail of her life had been laid out for him.
She’d escaped the city, and made a home for herself in a small town where she worked at a haberdashery. She also created gowns for weddings and social events, but she never took any of the credit for it either.
Rachel had cut herself off completely. He placed money in their joint bank account, but the funds had gathered, and she’d never taken anything from him.
A knock sounded at the door, and he called for them to enter. There was no stray photograph, and he put the file in his desk.