With Every Breath (23 page)

She concentrated on the rich brown of his eyes, the dark of his lashes, and the tension in her shoulders eased. There was nothing wrong in living in the moment. All that mattered was the two of them, right here, right now.

You’re playing with fire. But she ignored the whispered warning, and let it fade to the background.

“I didn’t go anywhere.” She took his nipple by the fingertips and squeezed, then rolled off his lap and to her feet. Running to the dock, she called back, “If you can catch me, I’ll make it worth your while.”

His laugh sent shivers of anticipation down her spine. “If you let me catch you, I’ll make it worth your while.”

As if she’d turn down that offer...

The house was dark by the time Jaden returned to Mia’s. She used the key from under the gnome to let herself in. She made her way down the hall to the stairs and the guest room when the sound of glass breaking jerked her to a stop in her tracks. Another crash of something hitting a hard surface snapped her back to the present. She almost turned back to the front door, but the idea of Mia being in the house alone with an intruder had her creeping down the hallway, a hand trailing along the wall as she went.

She peeked her head around the doorway to the family room. Only the corner lamp was on, but it was enough light to see the mess on the floor in front of the mantle. Mia stood with her back to Jaden, a photograph in her hand. She threw it into the fireplace.

“Mia?”

She glanced back at Jaden over her shoulder, her face devoid of emotion. “Oh, hey. How was your date?”

“What’s going on?” Jaden took a tentative step forward.

“Oh, this?” she glanced around the room.

Is that her wedding album? It was ripped apart and strewn over the floor.

“I’m purging.” She turned back to the mantle and reached for another framed photograph. There were three more up there; one of them was of Jaden and Cole together.

Jaden inched closer, her plan to rescue it before it ended up in the fireplace with the rest of the photos.

“What happened? Where’s David?” It was a safe guess that David was what Mia had decided to purge. Jaden snatched the photograph of her and Cole off the mantle and hid it behind her back. She took a step back. Then another. Mia had crazy eyes right now.

“Probably fucking his secretary on his office desk. That’s what he was doing earlier when I went to surprise him with dinner. My client had to cancel last minute, and I thought maybe my husband would like to spend time with me.” Her voice was calm, but her hand shook as she gripped a frame and stared into the fireplace. She threw the photograph then picked up the remote off the mantle. The flames flickered on and the photographs shriveled and blackened in the heat.

The smell of burning plastic and photograph paper filled the room, but Jaden crossed to her friend and took her in her arms. Mia’s body shook with silent tears, wetting Jaden’s bare shoulder. She patted and rubbed Mia’s back to soothe her.

“Shhh. It’s going to be okay, Mia.”

She wanted to tell her it would be okay because David wasn’t good enough for her anyway. He’d never been good enough. But it wasn’t the time. Mia needed comforted; it’s why she’d come.

“I don’t know what happened,” Mia whispered.

Jaden wrapped her arms around her tighter, the anger building. “I don’t know what happened, but I can tell you what will happen. First we need a drink.”

She wiped her fingers under her eyes, bright with tears. “I’m so glad you came, Jaden.”

Jaden took her hand. “Always, sweetie.”

Later, Jaden moved through the house, going from room to room, cleaning up the mess in the silence. She swept glass into a dustpan. The picture frame was in the trash beside her, along with the photograph of David and Mia feeding each other wedding cake. She stared down into the trash full of the shattered pieces of Mia’s marriage.

Nothing was forever; that was the only certain thing in this world.

Upstairs, Mia lay curled on her side in bed, facing the window. Her soft, steady breaths were the breathing of deep sleep. Jaden crawled into bed beside her.

Sleep didn’t come. Today, she’d taken things with Cole past platonic. She shouldn’t have shown up at his door, yet he was the first person she’d gone to. Not Mia, not Hillary. She’d heard somewhere that the heart wants what the heart wants. The saying only pissed her off. Her heart was supposed to stay in check and remain strong. Keep to the plan. Sleeping with Cole had complicated things. Her mind was supposed to stay in control. But no, first her body rebelled, and now her heart cried mutiny.

She needed to get a handle on the situation. There was no time in her life to be dangerous and reckless with her emotions. No time for complication. And there was no way in hell she would let Cole Brooks break her heart. If she kept this up with him, that’s exactly what would happen. There was no doubt of that. Even if he didn’t mean to, he would break her heart. Again.

Their lives were too different. He was in the middle of a messy divorce. She had no intention of being another complication in his life, a long distance woman who hadn’t ever settled down, not once.

And Jaden? Her life was perfect, simple, and she was free to do as she wanted when she wanted. There wasn’t anything missing before she came to River Bend, and there wouldn’t—couldn’t—be anything missing when she left. It was what she wanted, what made her happy. River Bend would never be more than a temporary stop on her roadmap.

Just sex. That’s what she wanted. That’s what she got. That’s where it ended.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“Why don’t we light his shit on fire?” Hillary tossed a pair of expensive leather shoes into the box at the bottom of the stairs. She looked like a warrior queen from another time, with her blonde hair disheveled and a wicked gleam in her eye. It didn’t help that Mia had begun mixing Bloody Mary’s at nine in the morning. Hillary had been halfway through her first drink by the time Jaden awoke.

Thinking about the pain David had caused made Jaden’s eyes twitch. If strangling were legal, she’d have hunted the bastard down.

“We can’t. We don’t have a burn permit.” Mia bent to heft up the box in her arms with a grunt. She carried it to the front door and dropped it in the entryway with a thud. Mia had gone to sleep heartbroken, and awoken on fire, driven by anger and betrayal. An alcohol induced haze couldn’t slow her down.

Hillary trotted down the stairs. “Oh well, throwing his clothes out on the front lawn in the rain will be loads of fun.”

Jaden grabbed a handful of white undershirts from the box, then tugged the front door open. “I can’t wait to see his face when he gets here and finds his clothes in puddles.”

“Then we better hurry.” Her tone rang bitter. “He’s on his way right now.”

They didn’t get through half the box before David’s luxury sedan squealed to a stop in the driveway. He didn’t pull all the way in, but parked at the end of the drive. He jumped from the vehicle, leaving the door open behind him.

“Mia! What are you doing?” He stooped to pick up a shoe. “Have you lost your mind?”

“No, but clearly you have.” She crossed her arms and glared at him while he ran around the yard picking up scattered socks. “Are you a fucking idiot? Why the fuck did you bring your whore to my house?”

David gaped at her, his hair beginning to mat to his head under the sprinkling rain. “Why are you talking like that?”

“Why are you a cheating asshole? That’s the million-dollar question.”

His mouth was agape, horrified and startled that his wife stared at him as if he were nothing more than a bottom dweller—which he was.

To prove her disdain, she bent for another fistful of clothing from the box at her feet, and threw them out onto the front walk. A pair of his boxers landed on the gnome’s head.

“Jesus, Mia.” He snatched the boxers from the gnome, rolling them to tuck under his arm.

The passenger door to his car opened and out stepped his mistress. Mia bristled at Jaden’s side.

Clare was a tiny thing with Barbie doll proportions, and dressed in clothes that seemed too expensive for an insurance secretary fresh out of college. Her breasts strained against her blouse, and sex oozed from her with each step. She could see why David had fallen for the home wrecker—and he’d clearly digressed to the shallow, simple man she’d always known lurked deep inside.

What had possessed Clare to come along? Why had David thought it was a good idea? They deserved each other—idiots.

David glanced around and seemed to notice for the first time that they had an audience. The woman across the street pretended to check her mailbox, while another neighbor watched from her porch. David took a step toward the porch, but stopped at the hostile expression on Mia’s face.

“Mia, let’s just—”

She picked up another dress shoe and threw it at his head. He ducked just in time.

“Mia!”

Jaden pressed her fingertips over the smile erupting on her lips. “Holy crap,” she breathed.

“Can I throw the other shoe at his cheating balls?” Hillary asked with the shoe poised.

Mia placed her hands on her hips and her robe loosened at the front. “I don’t care. Go for it.”

“No wonder he left you. You’re crazy!” Clare clicked the button on her umbrella handle. It popped open and she lifted the purple nylon over her head.

Mia’s turn was slow and purposeful. She stared at the woman fully for the first time. “What did you say?”

“I said, no wonder he left you.” Clare whipped her head to swish her blonde hair around her shoulders. Jutting the hip under her black pencil skirt, she glared up at Mia defiantly.

“Get off my property.” Mia’s jaw clenched and her hands fisted at her sides.

Clare lifted her chin. “This is David’s house.”

“No,” Mia said slowly, as if she were speaking to a dimwit. “This is not his house.”

“It’s his, just like everything is his. You should leave,” Clare insisted.

“Is that what he told you?” Mia’s laugh lacked humor, and if Clare had any sense at all, she’d be worried. Jaden was. “Of course he did. You are one stupid woman, you know that?”

Clare jerked like she’d been slapped. “Just because your ovaries are dried up like prunes, doesn’t mean you can talk to me like some bitter old hag.”

When Mia lurched down the porch steps, everyone froze but Jaden. She jumped off the porch and over the Stella D’Oras, and rushed to block Mia’s path. If she’d been a few seconds slower, she wouldn’t have made it. She almost slipped in the wet grass, but managed to grab Mia before she could lurch at the woman.

“Let me go!” Mia’s arms flailed around Jaden.

Hillary skidded to a stop behind Mia and placed her hands on Mia’s arms. “It’s okay,” she soothed.

“No, it’s not.” But the fight had already gone out of her. Her shoulders collapsed; her wet hair hung limp around her face. Hillary wrapped an arm around Mia and eased her back toward the house. The nightgown and slip robe clung to her legs, her slippers wet and ruined.

Jaden stood there, watching a version of her vibrant friend she’d never seen before, and it turned her stomach into knots. Mia had never been the type to get beaten down in anything, but in one evening, David had ripped that fire from her. Years of being his everything, only to have been betrayed by him—one single blow knockout.

Jaden clenched her jaw and turned to face Clare. The smirk on her face made Jaden’s blood rise from a slow simmer to a hard boil. “Get your slutty ass off this property.” She whipped to glare at David, and pointed an accusing finger. “And if I ever see you here again, I will rip the scrotum from your pathetic, washed up body.”

His face paled. She’d known the barb would hit him hard. All he’d ever wanted to be was a pro football player. Instead, he was an insurance salesman with the beginnings of a potbelly and a clueless, snotty, fresh out of college bimbo, on his arm.

“There’s no need for all of this.” David stepped backward, his hands raised.

“You’re not letting her kick us out of here!” Clare screeched, fury shaking her frame. “She called me a slut! Make them leave!”

“I—I—we—I can’t,” he stuttered to his girlfriend. He turned a pleading gaze on Jaden. “Just let me talk to her. For just a minute, please, Jaden.”