Could she live the rest of her life like this? Waiting for the next best thing to happen? At twenty-two years old she still didn’t know the touch of a man, and she’d been married for over two years.
“Penny for your thoughts?” a voice asked from right next to her.
She turned and stared up.
“Charles, you scared me,” she said.
“I watched you leave the dance. It’s a bit of a farce, this charity event. Money has been spent hosting the damn thing when they could have sent it directly to the charity.”
Opal didn’t bother to argue with him.
“You look amazing,” he said.
“Thank you.”
He made her nervous, and she didn’t know why. Not only had she humiliated him by not going through with the wedding, she’d left him for an older man.
“How is married life treating you?” And there was the punishment.
“Don’t, Charles,” she said. Placing her empty glass on the hard surface she made to move away.
“No. Don’t go.” He reached out and caught her arm. “You left me for that man in there. He’s probably screwing the first thing he sees.”
“How can you say stuff like that?” She wanted to close her ears and not listen to a single thing anyone else had to say.
“I would have treated you well.” He grabbed both of her arms and shook her. She clenched her teeth to stop herself from crying out.
“How could you have treated me well? I know about you and everything you were doing.”
“What are you talking about?” His hands tightened on her.
“Let go of me. You’re hurting me.”
“Get your hands off my fucking wife, now,” Tony snarled.
****
He’d watched her leave the main hall followed by that fucking loser. Once, Tony had saved her from being Charles’s wife. What would happen if Tony didn’t make it on time?
“We’re just talking. We don’t need you breathing down her neck every time,” Charles said.
Tony had heard enough. Bringing her to the hall had been a mistake. He walked to her side, stood right behind her. “I said, get your hands off my wife, or I’ll fucking break them.” His temper rose with the warning he was delivering. If the guy didn’t back up, he wouldn’t be held responsible for what he did to him.
“I guess it runs in the family. Maybe you should warn Opal about your own past before you start dishing out threats. My dick may wander, but at least I keep my fists to myself.” Charles let her go with a shove. Tony caught her, his hands covering the place where Charles let go.
Tony kept an eye on Charles until he disappeared round the corner. With her back to his chest, he couldn’t see her face.
“Why did you leave the party?” he asked.
She tried to break his grip. He didn’t let her. “I wanted some fresh air.”
“Is that what you were doing with that jerk? Getting some fresh air?” he asked accusingly.
“What are you trying to say?” She went to turn toward him. He wouldn’t let her, his grip firm on her arms.
“Maybe you’re having doubts about not marrying him. Did you wish it was him touching you the other day?”
“Will you stop this? You had your hands full with whatever woman took your fancy in there. Charles and I were just talking. Nothing else. You brought me here and then left. I don’t belong here, Tony. I never have.”
He spun her around. “You’re worth more than all those people put together. Your parents and mine.”
“Who’s that woman you liked touching so much?” she asked. He detected a note of jealousy in her voice.
“Why, little Petal, are you jealous?”
“What do I have to be jealous about? You don’t touch me or come near me. It’s not like we’re really married, is it?” He detected the challenge in her voice. She didn’t know it, but it awakened him.
“You don’t think we’re married?” Tony moved her until her back pressed against the outside brick wall. “Do you let any man touch you like this?” He cupped one of her breasts in his hands, his finger grazing her hard nipples.
She moaned, and he tweaked her nipple. “These tits are mine,” he said. Taking hold of one of the straps, he pulled it down exposing her breast. In the darkness he couldn’t see her properly. Did she have large or small nipples? The weight of her breasts felt good in his hand.
“What are you doing? Someone might see,” she said. She tried to pull the strap up to cover her body from him.
“Do you think I’d let someone else see what’s mine?” he said.
She let her hand fall to her side.
“You want me, don’t you, Petal?” he asked.
“Don’t make me answer that.”
Licking his lips, he smiled. Opal was playing hard to get. She’d unleashed the animal in him, and now she’d have to pay the price. No one challenged him.
He pressed the palm of his hand against the apex of her thighs. When they’d been in Richard’s house he’d touched her through her jeans. With her dress, she was more open to him. She couldn’t hide what was his.
One hand at her cunt, he used his other to lift her dress from under his hold until he felt the fabric of the red, French lace knickers he’d told her to wear.
She gasped. “Tony, what are you doing?”
He loved hearing his name on her lips. “Claiming you.” He slammed his lips down on hers, taking possession of her mouth while his fingers moved the fabric of her panties aside. In seconds he was touching her wet slit.
Pulling away from the kiss he stared down into her eyes. They were open wide in shock.
“You’re touching me,” she said with a gasp.
“You’re fucking wet, Petal. Have you been holding out on me?” He wouldn’t go inside her. The pleasure would be for his dick when he finally took her sweet virginity. He wanted it all. Everything she had to offer. The time of debating was over. Opal Hunt was his wife, and from this day forth he was going to fucking have her. He no longer cared that she was his best friend’s sister. Opal was his, and that is the way it would remain.
“You want me, baby.”
She moaned as he fingered her clit. The swollen little nub responded to every touch. Her body shook. Inserting a leg between her thighs, he used his other hand to take hold of hers. “I want you to touch me.”
Pulling away from her hold, he unzipped his trousers and pulled his cock out. In the darkness she wouldn’t be able to see the length. He needed to have some form of relief by her hand, at least for a moment. If he didn’t shoot his load he would combust from the building desire to have her.
His balls were tight, and he knew with a few strokes he’d come. He moved her hand to cup him. “I’ll show you what to do,” he said. With his free hand, he began to stroke her clit. With the other wrapped around her hand, he showed her what he wanted, guiding her hand over his cock.
The pleasure of her untutored hands had the power to destroy him. He touched her as she touched him.
“What’s happening?” she asked.
“I’m going to make you come,” he said. The noise of the party grew louder, but he didn’t care. No way could he pull himself from the pleasure of her hand.
In moments she was fighting, her hips thrusting up to meet him, the grip on his cock growing tighter with every passing moment. She cried out, and to contain her screams he kissed her, absorbing every cry and moan.
She climaxed on his fingers. He touched as close to her entrance as he dared. No way would he take her up against the brick wall, even if he wanted to. He kept her hand on his shaft and pumped into her hand. In seconds he lost control, shooting his seed into her hand and onto her leg. He laid his head on her neck and took a second to catch his breath. “That was amazing,” he said.
She didn’t say anything, and he felt her instant withdrawal from him. He knew she wouldn’t completely understand what had happened. Pulling away, he pulled a napkin from his pocket. He cleaned his hand and dick before putt
ing himself away. Then he took her hand, washed his seed from her hand and leg. “Go to the bathroom when we go in.” She nodded her head and made to move.
“Hey,” he said. He took hold of her chin and kissed her on the lips. “This changes everything. Do you understand?”
She nodded her head and walked back. Tony gathered his bearings before he entered the hall.
Rita Brooke was turning into a thorn, a pain he couldn’t get rid of. He’d slept with her up until the point he’d married Opal. For two years he hadn’t touched another woman. In two years the only woman capable of firing the heat in his blood was Opal. He watched as she walked back out of the bathroom. Before anyone could approach her, he led her onto the dance floor.
The rest of the night passed by in a haze. Tony refused to let her out of his sight, even as his dad motioned to talk to him. Seeing his old man reminded him of the fear he still had. Wrapping Opal in his arms, he refused to believe he could hurt her. Just because he was the son of a bastard wife-beater didn’t mean he would become one.
Chapter Six
The following week she went out for a walk to try to catch some fresh air. Tony hadn’t been in touch, but from what she’d heard a new takeover bid was happening; and he needed to be there.
She thought about the way he had acted at the charity ball, about his possessive nature, which then led her to think about what they’d done up against the wall. Her insides clenched when she thought about his hands on her body.
Smiling, she passed a newspaper stand. Glancing over each paper and magazine her eyes were held by one in particular. Without much thought she paid the man and took the magazine. Across the road was a park. She took a seat on one of the secluded benches. On the front cover it had a huge spread of the charity ball with Tony being the main man of the event. As she turned the pages, her tummy dipped. She felt dizzy and sick. The centre fold was a comparison of her and Rita Brooke. One of the photographs was of Tony and Rita dancing. They looked like the true celebrity couple. The successful businessman and the model. On the opposite page was a picture of her dancing with Tony. She didn’t look mature or worldly like Miss Brooke.
The caption read, “Which one would you choose?”
Biting her lip she read the article which contained most of their past. The humiliation at the church and the subsequent scandal that followed, even down to certain rumours she’d gotten pregnant to trap Tony.
In the morning sunlight, her engagement ring and wedding band glinted in the light. He said he wouldn’t let her go. Did he have much of a choice? From the looks of the pictures in the magazine she hindered his career more than she helped it.
A couple of women passed, jogging. The tears fell as the enormity of her decision plagued her.
Getting up from her park, she dumped the magazine and her heart in the nearest trash bin. With nothing to do with her day than to twiddle her thumbs, she walked to Richard’s office building.
The walk took over an hour, but she didn’t mind. With Tony’s latest demands she couldn’t get a job, and she knew he’d find a way of stopping her.
Scarlet no longer worked for him, and so another woman made her sit out and wait. She heard him shouting down the phone seconds before he appeared in his doorway.
“I don’t want that man on my phone again. Get me some coffee,” he said and turned to go back in when he stopped and saw her. “Opal, what are you doing here?”
“I was told to wait.”
He turned to glare at his secretary. “From now on you send her straight into my office, do you understand me?”
The woman nodded and left with her tail between her legs. Opal followed him into his office.
“What brings the pleasure of your visit?” he asked.
“I take it the new secretary isn’t looking up?” she said instead.
“No. Practically useless. Scarlet would never keep you outside. She knows family come first.”
“Maybe you could get her to work for you again?” she said.
“In her condition she needs to rest. Enough about me and my life. What about yours?”
She took the seat in front of his desk. “I wanted to ask you a question.”
“Shoot.”
“Well, it’s not a question really. I was wondering if you knew a lawyer who would be willing to handle a divorce case.”
“On what grounds?”
“Mutual misunderstanding. A separation of sorts.”
“Opal, who’s this divorce for?” Richard asked.
“For me....and Tony,” she said.
“Does he know about your feelings? Haven’t you tried to work something out?”
Opal glanced around the room. This is why she didn’t want her brother handling the marriage. He asked too many questions, and she’d already caused a rift in their friendship.
“I don’t need to talk about it. I think it’s time I let Tony go his own way. We’re not compatible or anything, and I don’t want to bring him any further shame.” The tears were so close to the surface.
“What I saw last Friday would question the way you think,” he said.
“Last Friday we were playing happy couples for an event.”
“I don’t think that’s what it is.”
“Look, this is hard for me already, Richard. Could you please file the paperwork or whatever? I don’t want to do this anymore. He’ll be free to go and marry Rita Brooke or whomever he wanted. I’m not here to trap him.”
Silence met her outburst. She looked up to find Richard staring at her. “Do you love him?”
“What?”
“In all the years I’ve known Tony or you’ve known him, I never saw anything between you. I thought at one time you had a crush, and then you got married to him. Do you love him, Opal?”
Two years ago she had been a happy-go-lucky twenty-year-old who’d been talked into doing what her parents wanted. All of her life she’d wanted to be able to make her own choices. In her world, she hadn’t been allowed to. Every time she had to get permission from her parents.
“I don’t want to answer that,” she said. She knew in her heart she loved Tony. Always had and always would. Childish or stupid school-girl adoration wouldn’t force a man to suddenly change his mind. Tony would never see her as anything other than Richard’s little sister. She couldn’t live constantly loving a man who would never love her back. Or staring at magazine articles wondering if he saw the same flaws as other people.
“I think you need to think about it. When a divorce proceeding starts and goes through, pulling it back is the hardest thing.”
“I accept that.”
“Do you really?”
There he went, talking to her like a child. It was time she gave him the blunt truth.
“Two years ago your friend Tony helped keep me from marrying a man I would never love. Our parents bought about that wedding to strengthen the Shaw name. Out of every person I knew Tony found me and helped me.” She bit her lip and stared at her finger with the rings on. “I think it’s time I give him his freedom back.”
Opal stood and removed the rings. “When the papers get posted will you make sure he gets these? Tell him I said thank you.”
Before Richard had time to convince her otherwise, she left the building. She walked all the way back to her house. On the mantel piece, the one and only wedding photo she had of her day lay framed. She picked up the picture and placed it on the fire.
****
Tony stared down at the glossy magazine and then up at his secretary. “Why are you giving me this? I don’t read this shit,” he said.
“I think there is something interesting you might like to see,” she said, placing his coffee down on the desk beside him. When she disappeared, he took hold of the magazine. The main event was all about the charity ball last Friday with a large picture of him. Frowning, he opened the page and found what he was looking for. The centre fold disgusted him. Rita Brooke was becoming a thorn in his side. He just knew she had something t
o do with the horrid pictures. What he didn’t understand was why they viewed Opal with such a negative opinion. He thought she looked dazzling.
Throwing the article away, he hoped Opal wouldn’t see it. This type of trash would only serve to hinder his course. After the charity event, he’d hoped to continue with his promise. He no longer wanted a wife waiting in the wings. He wanted her to be his completely.
His secretary ran through. “Sir, Mr. Shaw is here to see you.”
“Send him in.”
The door opened, and all six feet of his best friend filled his door. Tony would be scared if he weren’t the same height as Richard.
“What brings you to my neck of the woods?”
“I got an interesting visit the other day.”
“Who from?”
“Opal.”
That got his attention. “Is she all right?” He stood ready to leave if something bad had happened to her.
“Yes. She wanted me to give you these.” Richard walked over and placed a file on his desk. Tony glanced down and knew immediately what it was.
“What the fuck is this?” Tony asked as he slammed it down on his desk.
“I’m sure you’re clever enough to work out and see that they’re divorce papers,” he said.
“I know what they are. I want to know why you’re giving them to me.”
“Before I forget,” Richard said. He went through his pockets and handed him two wedding rings. “She wanted me to say, thank you for helping her.”
Tony stared down at both rings. In the space of a few minutes his whole world had fallen out of whack. He knew that stupid article had something to do with this shit.
“I think you know.”
“Has Opal requested this?”
“I think it’s time you left my sister alone. You’ve been married two years, and nothing has happened. Leave her out of this. You’ve done enough damage,” Richard said.
“Does this have anything to do with Charles sniffing around?” Tony asked.
“How do you know about Charles?”
“Just because I’m not there doesn’t mean I don’t have means of taking care of what’s mine.”
“Opal is not yours. I’m taking care of my sister.”
Claiming His Wife (Unlikely Love) Page 4