R Is for Richer

by Tara Hart

I watched the rise and fall of his chest, realizing for the first time that our breathing was in perfect sync.

  His eyes opened, a gorgeous smile upon his perfect lips. He rolled onto his side. “Good morning.”

  He exhaled heavily, pressing a gentle kiss to the crown of my head.

  “What is it?” I asked, sensing the heaviness in the air.

  “You’re like a dream,” he said softly. “This light that comes into my life and burns for years after you’re gone and just when I thought I imagined the whole thing, there you are again, in my arms, showing me that maybe for the slightest moment, it was real.”

  I looked up at his face, my chin resting on the comforter. He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to my lips.

  “It is real.” I felt tears pool in my eyes. “It is real and I traveled here every single year on the off chance that I might see you again, that I might be able to kiss your lips and be wrapped up in your arms. It feels like a dream for you, but for me it took a lifetime of wishes, waiting for the moment when I would see you again.”

  “Come here.” He breathed into my hair.

  I tilted my head and kissed his lips.

  His morning stubble brushed against my skin as he deepened the kiss. I lifted my leg over his body, moving to straddle him beneath the covers. His hard cock pressed against the inside of my thigh, causing me to smile.

  “Good morning.” I giggled.

  He bucked his hips, allowing me to feel just how hard he was. “With you, it’s always a good morning.”

  I bit the corner of my lip. This man was too much.

  My lips crashed against his as I rocked my hips against his hardness. I’d never been one for morning sex, but Theo always had me in the mood. I could feel my panties were wet already and we were barely getting started.

  I stretched over his body, the palms of my hands met his chest before traveling down his body and to his waiting cock. I slipped my panties to the side and guided his cock to my entrance.

  The air hissed between his teeth as I buried his cock inside of me.

  His hands came to cover my breasts as I rocked back and forth, letting him feel all of me.

  “Baby,” he droned as his thumb and forefinger pinched my nipples. “Tell me you’ll miss me.”

  He bucked his hips, letting me feel the full force of him inside of me.

  I moaned in delight. “I’ll miss you so much.”

  He bucked his hips again, this time holding the thrust high until I begged him for more.

  “Tell me you’ll touch yourself while thinking of me.”

  His thumb reached between us, applying pressure to my clit as I bounced on his cock.

  My back arched as I felt the pressure building within.

  “Tell me you’ll touch yourself and shout my name as you come.”

  He sat up, his hand resting on my hip as he pounded into me so hard that my tits bounced and my moans reverberated through my body.

  “Yes, Theo,” I cried.

  “Tell me.” He was about to explode, his face distorting as he pumped into me twice more.

  “I’ll touch myself and think of you.”

  We both moaned as the orgasm ripped through our bodies simultaneously.

  I collapsed on top of him, a heaving mess as he kissed my face a thousand times.

  He was everything I needed at that moment. The thing I had been craving all these years. The void in my life that had now been filled. I knew that I couldn’t lose him.

  I wrapped my hand around his neck and met his kisses with my lips. There was no way on Earth I was going to lose him again.

  Falling to his side, he spooned me, pressing kisses to my neck as he rocked us back and forth.

  When the rocking stopped and his breathing evened out, I knew he’d drifted off to sleep. I slipped out from beneath his arm, pressing a gentle kiss to his forehead as I grabbed his shirt from the end of the bed and wrapped it around my body.

  I needed coffee and air, in that order. I set the coffee press to brew and poured myself a generous portion before walking outside.

  The town looked so beautiful at this time of day. The trees were green and gold, starting to show signs of the fall and the coolness in the air was welcome against my skin. I didn’t want to leave France—I didn’t want to leave him and all I could think about was how fast I could get back here.

  Holding my cellphone in the palm of my hand, I sat on the grass and dialed her number. My heart raced as I waited for her to answer.

  She seemed breathless when she answered. “Hello.”

  “Hey, Sis. What’s up?”

  She paused. It was as if she was expecting someone else. “I’m good. How’s France?”

  I sighed into the phone. “It’s…amazing.”

  She sighed. “Are you ever coming back?”

  I raised the mug to my lips and breathed in the aroma of the fresh brew. Coffee tasted different in France—everything was different.

  “That’s actually why I’m calling,” I started. “It’s about Jared…”

  I swear I heard Savannah gulp into the phone. “Selina,” she said. “I need to tell you something.”

  My eyebrows reached up my forehead as my body rose to attention. Savannah well and truly had my attention.

  “What is it?” My voice was cold—stone cold.

  “We kissed.” Her voice was as quiet as a mouse. I had to strain to hear her confession and even when she’d said the words, I wasn’t sure I understood.

  “You what?”

  She sniffed. Oh God, Savannah was crying and I wasn’t sure I why.

  “We kissed. Me and Jared—we kissed.”

  I tried to process the information. After the week I’d had was I within my right to be upset? I thought so, but I wasn’t upset. Maybe it was the lack of sleep or perhaps it was the high I was on, but I had no negative feelings about Savannah’s confession whatsoever.

  “Selina?”

  “Just a kiss?” I asked.

  She hesitated and it should have caused alarm bells to ring in my ears, but I chose to ignore that feeling.

  “Yes,” she said after an uncomfortably long time had passed. “Just a kiss.”

  I took a long mouthful of my coffee, my eyes firmly fixed on the little town that Theo called home.

  “Selina, say something.”

  I’d forgotten she was on the other end of the phone. My mind was going in a million different directions. Mainly, how I could use this new piece of information to my advantage.

  “I need you to sleep with him.”

  Savannah choked into the phone. “What?”

  I kept my voice steady, reclining back onto the grass as I looked up at the blue sky. The wheels were in motion without me doing a single thing, now I just had to piece it all together.

  “Please, Savannah,” I pleaded. “I need you to sleep with him.”

  “What are you talking about?” Savannah’s voice always turned shrill when she was worked up. “Why?”

  Exhaling through my nose, I steadied myself to tell her everything.

  I told her about the man I’d met all those years ago. I filled her in on the prenuptial agreement that was in place. And finally, I exposed the affair I’d been having for the better part of a week that made me the happiest I’d ever been.

  “You’re a lunatic, Selina. There is no way I’m doing this. No way in hell.”

  “Please, Savannah,” I begged. Don’t make me do it, don’t make me remind of all the times I’ve been there for you when your life was falling apart.

  “I’m not doing it,” she said. “I won’t. No way.”

  I stood, walking to the lemon tree in the corner of the yard. I tipped the remnants of my coffee onto the ground and carried the mug in the palm of my hand.

  “After everything I’ve done for you, Savannah,” I said, pacing the length of the yard as I wrapped the sheet around my middle.

  I loved the solitude of being here. I could prance around buck naked and no one wou
ld even know.

  “What have you done for me?”

  With a shake of my head, I scoffed into the phone. “I took you under my wing. Dean would have killed you…”

  “Don’t say his name,” she seethed.

  Dean. Savannah’s ex-husband. He had always been her weakness.

  I sighed. “Please, Savannah. You owe me this.”

  She paused for the longest moment. She’d yet to agree to my plan and I wasn’t giving up hope. She would give in eventually, I knew it. I knew Savannah too well.

  “Savvy,” I pressed.

  “Okay,” she said. “I’ll do it.”

  Savannah ended the call without so much as a goodbye, but I knew she was on my side. She was my twin sister after all.

  And just like that, the plan was in motion. Savannah was my puppet and Jared was my pawn, together they would help me get the life I had dreamed of for what felt like an eternity. A life of purpose and meaning, a life of comfort and convenience.

  A life with him.

  Chapter 19

  When the plane bounced on the tarmac, my heart caught in my throat.

  I didn't want to be back where I started. I missed France, I missed Theo.

  Saying goodbye to him was the hardest thing I'd ever had to do. He wanted to travel with me to Paris and take me to the airport, but I couldn't do it. It would make the goodbye too real—too final.

  Instead, I said goodbye to him in his garden. I wore the yellow dress I bought from the bohemian shop he took me to. He said he loved me in it, and I had to admit, it had become my favorite dress, despite me looking like a giant daffodil. Maybe it was the memory of our road trip or maybe it was knowing that he loved me in it, but I never wanted to take it off.

  He wrapped his hands around my middle and pulled me flush against his body. I averted my gaze, I couldn’t look at him.

  Saying goodbye was impossible, and yet, it was necessary.

  “Look at me,” he said, pulling my chin in line with his face.

  My eyes trailed away.

  “Mon cheri, look at me.” I squared my face with his. When I finally had the courage to look at his face he was smiling at me.

  “My beautiful American girl,” he said.

  My heart ached. I wouldn’t see him tomorrow or next week, or maybe ever again. I couldn’t imagine what that would be like, but I knew it was going to be unbearable, no matter the outcome.

  “This isn’t goodbye.” His voice was gruff.

  I shook the fogginess from my brain. “I know.”

  Looking at his face, his eyes were as silver as the blade of a knife. He looked as though he was about to cry.

  “You will be back before you know it.” He reached between us and tucked my hair behind my ear.

  I nodded my head. I wasn't so sure.

  “Tidy up what you have to and then come straight back to me.”

  I leaned forward, pressing my cheek against his chest as my arms wrapped around his middle. I breathed him in. The tobacco and coffee would linger on my skin for hours after, and my favorite yellow dress would forever smell like him.

  I inhaled deeply as I waited to disembark the plane. There it was, that comforting, familiar smell.

  It was the only thing to calm me down when I thought about what was about to happen.

  I was about to rip Jared’s heart out through his throat and screw him over once and for all. He had been lusting after Savannah for far too long.

  I knew it, he knew it, the only person who was completely clueless in the equation was Savannah. She’d always been naive when it came to men.

  As I hopped in the back of the taxi, I sighed deeply.

  "Long flight?" The driver looked at my reflection in the mirror.

  "You don't know the half of it." My tone was deadpan. I wasn't in the mood to talk.

  "Where are you flying in from?"

  I rolled my eyes, knowing full well that he could see me, but I was too impolite to care.

  "France." I leaned my head against the window and closed my eyes hoping he'd take the hint.

  He didn't speak again, but the drive was still insufferable. Another dreary Seattle evening filled with rain made me miss France even more. I fiddled with my wedding rings, flicking them with my thumbnail. It was a habit I had that I was unaware of until I stopped wearing my rings in France. My finger used to feel naked without them, but now that I was wearing the three diamond rings again, it felt weird—it felt wrong.

  It was a sign. It was time to end my marriage.

  I asked the driver to stop at the top of the driveway, I didn’t want the headlights announcing my arrival. Everything had to go according to plan and one simple slip up could prove costly.

  After walking down the rocky pathway, I slipped off my heels and left them by the front door. I didn’t want to risk my heels announcing me before I was ready.

  All of the lights in the house were off, except for a small lamp in the master bedroom. I could see the light shining through into the hallway, her cries of pleasure also carrying through the otherwise silent house.

  My teeth clenched together as my bare feet met the beige carpet. With a shake of my head, I tried to remove the emotion from the situation, but it was proving more difficult than it should have been.

  She’s acting, I told myself. Savannah was acting, but Jared, every grunt and every moan to come from his mouth was real. The man I married was using my bed to fuck my sister and I was supposed to be okay with it.

  I pushed Theo’s face to the forefront of my mind. He was all I could see, him and dollar signs.

  “Let me fuck you,” I heard Savannah say.

  I closed my eyes and held back the urge to vomit.

  I heard Savannah’s ass slapping against Jared’s thighs as she bounced happily on his cock.

  “Fuck, Savannah,” Jared grunted.

  My hand came to cover my mouth as I tried to remain silent when all I wanted to do is burst into tears

  My eyes opened to find Jared staring back at me. My husband had seen me and the look on his face was priceless. His mouth fell open and his eyes practically bulged out of his head.

  I drew in a breath and leaned against the doorframe with a hand on my hip.

  “Hi, sweetheart.” I offered him a wave.

  Savannah jumped off of his lap, rushing around the room, trying to suppress her cries. I wanted to tell her to get a grip, but my focus was on Jared. My mind was made up. I wanted to destroy him.

  “This isn’t what you’re thinking Selina,” he said. “Let’s just talk this through.”

  Savannah walked into the bathroom and closed the door. I stepped inside my bedroom. The smell made the nausea surface again. It smelled like sweat and sex. I wanted to take a shower just from being in the same room as him.

  “Why her? Why my sister?” I asked and I genuinely wanted to know. I may have been cheating, but what he’d done was much worse.

  “I don’t know.” His answer was as pathetic as his limp cock that was now hanging between his legs.

  I paced the length of the room, my hands on my hips as I toyed with the idea of stringing him along for another hour or so, you know, just for shits-and-giggles.

  I questioned why he did it and he couldn’t answer me. I asked him again and again until he said the words that I’d known all along.

  “I love her.”

  The wind was knocked from my lungs as if I'd been punched in the gut.

  He loved her and not me. He all but confirmed the last eight years had been a lie for both of us.

  I told him I was going to bleed him dry. Every last cent he had, I was coming for it.

  “The prenup is null and void If you commit adultery, which you just did.”

  I took great pleasure in watching him squirm.

  “We have an agreement in place, Selina. Read the fine print.” He delivered the line with confidence, but I could see the cracks beginning to show. He knew he was fucked and he was clinging to every possible loophole he
could think of.

  I laughed connivingly. “The prenup is null and void If you commit adultery, which you just did." I breathed in. "You read the fine print, asshole.”

  I walked over to my vanity where my make-up and perfume sat, all meticulously lined up, their labels facing out, not an item out of place, except the small black camera that had been taping the whole charade.

  I held the camera in front of his face and giggled.

  The plan had been faultless—right down to the last detail. Part of me was surprised Savannah went through with it, but she'd never been one to rebel against me. Holding the camera in the palm of my hand, I’d all but ensured my share of Jared’s fortune. When his father requested I sign the prenup all those years ago, I thought nothing of it, but now looking back, his father had been right not to trust me and our relationship.

  I looked at Jared’s face. He was speechless. The veins were protruding from his neck as his heavy breathing was the only sound to fill the room—that and Savannah’s sobbing on the other side of the room. I hadn’t even seen her walk out of the bathroom.

  She looked devastated and I was beginning to wonder if it really was all an act or if her feelings were truly invested in her relationship with Jared.

  Jared spun abruptly and walked over to her. He grabbed her arms and squeezed them tightly. Tears streamed down Savannah’s cheeks as she struggled to look at him.

  “What the fuck have you done?” His voice was gruff and I almost didn’t recognize it as his.

  I wanted to step in, to tell him to let go of her, but my curiosity got the better of me. I wanted to see how this scene played out.

  “You were playing me,” he seethed between clenched teeth.

  I could hear the pain in his voice.

  “Please let go of me,” Savannah pleaded. “Please, Jared. Let me go.”

  I held my breath in anticipation, but he eventually let her go.

  Savannah stumbled to my side, black streaks down her face from the river of tears she’d shed.

  “Get out,” Jared shouted from behind me.

  “You’ll be hearing from my lawyer,” I told him as I waved the camera in the air.

  Jared didn’t often get angry. I’d seen it only a handful of times in our marriage and never had his anger been directed at me. Tonight he was different and it wasn’t the threat of taking his money that seemed to have him riled up. It was Savannah’s betrayal that shocked him the most.