Fractured Lines
Page 17
“Riley, don’t!” Sarah called out, sobbing. “Please. Don’t hurt him.”
I fisted my hands, my breathing coming out harsh. She’d cheated on me with this lowlife, and she was worried I’d hurt him? I whirled on her. “If you loved me, even if you weren’t in love with me, you wouldn’t have done this, Sarah. Not to me.”
She covered her face and cried. “I’m sorry.”
“Yeah.” I shook my head. “You made a big mistake, Sarah. I would have treated you right. I never would have…never…I wouldn’t have done this.”
“But you don’t love me,” she whispered. “You never have.”
“I care about you. I respect you.” I looked at her again. “I would have treated you right.”
“I know,” she said, shrugging hopelessly. “I wanted more, though.”
And she thought she’d find it with this guy? I looked at him again. He sat on the floor, butt-assed naked and shaking. Pathetic. Turning my attention back to her, I forced a calm smile. My lawyer smile, as I liked to call it.
The one that said: I have no problem with taking your ass to court and whooping it publicly, so you better enter a plea bargain. I’d never given it to her before.
“Well, then, I wish you the best of luck. Goodbye.”
Sarah stumbled after me, grabbing my arm. “Wait. What will we tell everyone?”
“Tell them whatever you want.” I shook off her hold. “I don’t care.”
She grabbed for me again, but I pulled back. “But—”
“I said I don’t fucking care, okay?” I held my hands up. “You were right about one thing—I never loved you. So, I don’t give a damn what you say to them.”
She covered her mouth and cried. I felt nothing. Not really.
But I didn’t want her touching me. Not anymore. This was the second time I’d found my significant other in bed with another man. The first time had been in college, and it had hurt like hell. I’d actually loved her…or I’d thought I had, anyway.
Now I was starting to think I was incapable of love.
I’d loved a girl once, but she hadn’t loved me. She’d been in love with her now-husband, and they were the only couple I knew that was actually in love. Like, the kind you see in movies. Finn and Carrie had it, but I never would. Not in this lifetime.
I stumbled out the door, tugging on my tie as I went. It felt tight. As if it had come to life and decided to choke what little life I had left out of me. I was tempted to let it.
I was stuck in a job I hated, in a firm my father owned, and now I was single, too. And for the second time in my life, I’d been duplicitously cheated on.
Was it something I’d done? Something that was missing in me that made my women look elsewhere for something? Maybe I was broken. Maybe I should stop trying to find a partner and just accept the fact that I was better off alone.
Maybe I should just stop trying.
But first? I’d call off my meeting that I was already late to…and I’d get drunk as hell as quickly as possible. I’d get so drunk that I’d forget all about Sarah and the naked man on my couch. So drunk that I’d forget all about how broken I was…
And how I should really be more upset about this whole fucking mess.
Watch for Blurred Lines, out January 26th, 2015.
Read other books by Jen McLaughlin
Jen McLaughlin is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of sexy New Adult books. Under her pen name Diane Alberts, she is a multi-published, bestselling author of Contemporary Romance with Entangled Publishing. Her first release as Jen McLaughlin, Out of Line, released September 6 2013, and hit the New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal lists. She was mentioned in Forbes alongside E. L. James as one of the breakout independent authors to dominate the bestselling lists. She is represented by Louise Fury at The Bent Agency.
Though she lives in the mountains, she really wishes she was surrounded by a hot, sunny beach with crystal-clear water. She lives in Northeast Pennsylvania with her four kids, a husband, a schnauzer mutt, and a cat. Her goal is to write so many well-crafted romance books that even a non-romance reader will know her name.
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Copyright © 2014 by Jen McLaughlin
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and events are fictitious in every regard. Any similarities to actual events and persons, living or dead, are purely coincidental. Any trademarks, service marks, product names, or named features are assumed to be the property of their respective owners and are used only for reference. There is no implied endorsement if any of these terms are used.
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Books by Jen McLaughlin
Preview
Excerpt
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Epilogue
Blurred Lines Sneak Peek
About the Author
About the Book Designer
Copyright Notice