Just a Couple Ex's Blindsided (3 page)

She leaned closer, and murmured in his ear. “Just white wine. It’s so early and I can’t think of anything else to order.”

His eyes seemed to look over each of her features slowly, and she couldn’t guess what he was thinking, then he said, “I’ll be right back.”

She watched him straighten and walk toward the bar and she realized he had changed his clothes. She should be keeping a vigilant eye on Andrew’s sports car, but she didn’t. Instead she watched Axel. His broad shoulders bunched as he leaned on the bar to speak to the bartender, while his butt looked masculinely tight in the jeans he was wearing.

She sighed. He had on a blue collared shirt with a black vest and his shirt sleeves were rolled up his well-developed brown forearms. The bikers were eyeing him, but they stayed on their half of the bar. He just looked powerful; like a man that could take care of himself in any situation.

Her darn eyes got misty and she turned her gaze away from him. It should be her husband shoeing away men that were giving her unwanted attention and it should be him up there buying her drink and looking after her. And it
should
be her husband making her heartbeat flutter and her gaze drink up his masculine body.

“Liv, are you alright?”

Liv blinked back the telltale moisture in her eyes, looking up at Axel as he set a steaming mug in front of her. “I’m fine,” she replied automatically.

He nodded, pulling the chair out opposite her, and she saw he had a mug too. “I took the liberty of getting you coffee with some Baileys in it.”

It smelled so good. Her eyes lit with thanks and that brought a wicked smile to Axel’s full lips. Inside her, a small gasp sounded. It had been years since she’d sat with a man she barely knew in such an intimate situation. She couldn’t help feeling a little excited.

Axel watched Liv sip the drink he’d brought her. She obviously enjoyed it and her pretty eyes and curved lips showed her pleasure. The difference between Liv and Kiki was so plain, he couldn’t ignore it. Maybe being married for four years had dampened Kiki’s kindness toward him.

Kiki would never be so sweetly pleased at any drink he’d brought her, in fact she’d likely complain about something. No straw, no napkin, too hot, and didn’t he remember she drank only organic coffee now. But he pushed those thoughts aside to enjoy a lovely woman’s attention. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been alone with a woman like this that wasn’t his wife.

“You should have told me you were coming over here, Liv. It’s no place for a woman alone.” He kept his tone low and unaccusing.

“I didn’t know it when I left your store.” Her gaze looked out the window, as she said, “I just couldn’t leave without knowing.”

The hurt in her voice propelled his hand to touch hers sitting on the table. Her hand was cool and he covered it with his larger, warmer hand.

“I couldn’t either.”

It was the best comfort he could give and he realized he wanted to comfort her. Maybe it was their shared hurt that drew him closer, because he so intimately understood it. His gaze followed hers to the red sports car.

“This is the best spot to have eyes on the target,” he said.

Her gaze turned back to him, not moving her hand. “Is that military?”

The question puzzled him for a moment, then he realized what he’d said ... how he’d said it. “Yes, old habit.” He shrugged.

She smiled again and he had to admit he basked in it a bit. “I’m sure your expertise is going to help us.”

“I would have my binoculars in here, and my scope on its tripod, if I thought I could get away with it.” He squeezed her hand and grabbed his mug with the other hand.

Her smile grew. “What about your store?” she asked.

He nodded out the window and she looked across the street. “That’s my marine buddy Jax, pulling in. He’s going to back me up. Look after the store.”

Liv saw a tall, well-built man in khakis and a sleeveless tee shirt get out of a Jeep and walk up to the store. He had long brown hair in a ponytail and he looked partially Asian.

“Did you tell him?” she asked, and she heard the concern in her voice. If they told other people, that would make it real.

“No,” Axel answered quickly, and she sighed in relief. “On a need to know basis. And he won’t ask.”

Axel’s hand moved from the top of hers and she regretted its absence. Then she silently admonished herself. She was a married woman. Whose husband
was
likely cheating.

“It’s such a small town,” she murmured, looking at Axel’s profile as he looked out the window.

He didn’t turn to her as he studied the opposite side of the main street. “I love it here. Kind of unexpected, I wasn’t sure I would again.” His maple colored eyes turned back to her. “My aunt’s here at Vidas Home, it’s what brought us here to live.”

Liv took a sip of her drink, watching him over the rim, then she said, “I know Vidas, my grandmother spent her finally years there and they were wonderful with her.”

He nodded, briefly rubbing his hand over the short, inky black hair on his head, then his hand settled on the table between them. “They’re very good with the dignity thing. I see her several times a week, but sometimes ...” He halted on a sigh. Liv leaned forward with the gesture trying to encourage him to finish. “It’s just ...” His gaze looked hurt for a second. “Kiki. I think she feels trapped to be here. Her thing is the big city, shopping, and social gigs.”

Liv nodded, suddenly feeling commonness with him. “Andrew really loves Houston. He spends days on end there.” Then she realized what she’d said and she stiffened a bit with a blush heating her cheeks. Quickly, she looked out the window trying to hide it as she cleared her throat. “We ought to take turns.” She didn’t look at him, but nodded her head toward the street. “Looking and making sure we don’t miss them.”

“Liv, it’s okay.” His fingers brushed the top of her hand but didn’t linger.

She looked at him, thinking her face must be an open book. “I’ve thought something might be wrong,” she said slowly, seeing understanding in his eyes. “I just kept ignoring it, hoping I was wrong.”

Axel tightened his fingers into a fist on the tabletop. Why did he feel like wringing Kiki’s neck for hurting the attractive woman sitting across from him? Instead, he should want to take her husband out into the woods and deal him some military justice. But Darwin was faceless and practically nameless to him, while Kiki wasn’t. He knew how spiteful Kiki could get. She was great if you were following her agenda, but if not ... watch out. He used to think it gave her spunk, made her seem vibrant, but it had turned more biting as she’d gotten older.

“I hate to admit it,” he said, pinning Liv with his gaze. “I wouldn’t admit it if it wasn’t you. If this wasn’t happening, but I have wondered a few times ...” His eyes turned down to his fist as his voice fell away. He couldn't come out and say it.

“Axel.” Her hand was on his fist, and her voice was compassionate. “I get it. Details don’t matter. Both of us were avoiding ...” She paused as though searching for the right words, and then she said, “Problems in our marriages.”

Her soft hand squeezed his bigger hand and he loosened his fist studying the contrast of her pale skin to his light brown. “Alright, I’ll admit problems. Every marriage goes through them, but it doesn’t make this right.” His head inclined toward the Roadster. “If,” he emphasized the word. “She was that unhappy, she should have left me,
not
cheated.”

After he’d put into words what they’d both been thinking since Liv walked into his shop that morning, they fell silent. Maybe he shouldn't have said the word, “cheat” out loud like he had. It made it real ... as if it could really be happening.

Damn, he should have kept his mouth shut. Liv looked crushed. She took her hand away from his fist, which he regretted. Just such a simple touch, but it held comfort. He wished he could wipe away the creases between her brow and the haunted look in her gray eyes.

Helplessness, which he wasn’t use to feeling, left him feeling edgy and empty as he looked outside, watching that damn Roadster. He was beginning to hate that sports car.

He saw her car first.

Of course he would, it was his wife’s car. With an instinct born of being a husband, he could probably pick it out a mile away. This time he caught it coming down the main highway from the east and it instantly had him wondering what was in that direction. Where could Kiki have been? They lived west ... everything they did was west. Shopping, groceries, and gas ...

He hated saying the words before they were out of his mouth. “It’s coming.”

Liv’s gaze locked on him and her curvy lips pulled tight. It was if they communicated some unspoken resolve between them.

Then they slowly turned their eyes to watch.

L
iv felt as if she were in shock. Not the cold and mind-numbing kind but a searing hot, mind-exploding kind. One that ignited as she watched her husband kissing Axel’s wife, and bending her over the hood of his cherry-red Roadster to do it.

Axel made a disbelieving hiss across from her, but she dared not look that way. No, her eyes stayed glued on the horrible display of infidelity, as her breath caught. It felt as though she split inside and she forcibly had to hold back her moan of despair. Her hand clutched her chest above her heart as she watched Andrew liberally roamed his hands over Kiki Savvi’s body, dressed in a fashionable short sundress. It was a pornographic displayed across the hood of Andrew’s car.

“Christ!” Axel’s fist hit the table in front of Liv, startling her. He was oblivious that he’d done it, with his gaze riveted to the scene across the street.

Andrew was cheating on her.
The words screamed through Liv’s mind and she whimpered, pushing away from the table to flee.

“Liv.” Axel’s hand caught her fist, his tortured gaze pinned hers, then his features turned compassionate. It was nearly more than she could stand and she jerked her fist from beneath his hand, standing. She wasn’t going to watch anymore.

Axel seemed unable to stop, and his gaze jerked back. God, she wouldn't want to be either one of them, she thought, after seeing the raw fury on Axel’s face. Then she turned and headed blindly toward the bar.

Had she been that bad a wife? That bad a lover? Tears threatened to spill free and it made her so angry. She would
not
cry over that bastard.

“You need another Bailey’s and coffee?” The voice startled Liv and she realized she was leaning against the bar near the cash register.

“Later, Sam!”

Liv jerked at the booming voice and she saw the bikers leaving.

“Later,” the bartender called behind her. “So what can I get you, lady?”

Liv dropped her purse on the bar, dragging her gaze back to him, and she heard her harsh voice saying, “Tequila.” Then once she’d said it, she thought it sounded like a cure. “A shot,” she added. “No, two of them,” she added again as Sam the bartender turned to pour her two shots.

Her hand shook as she tossed backed the first shot, not bothering with salt or lime. It burned the back of her throat, and she had to internalize the snort wanting to break free. She wasn’t a drinker, but the biting burn matched her feelings.

She tossed her credit card onto the bar. “Run a tab on this,” she ordered Sam with her eyes watering a bit.

Sam nodded while looking bored, then he grabbed the credit card and wandered off. Liv tried to smirk like an arrogant man as her husband might do. That was one of Andrew’s credit cards. He kept them in his name — not both their names, and that always bothered her. One day she’d found that one in the pocket of his suit before she’d taken it to the dry cleaners. For some reason she’d forgotten to return it to him. It might have been spite, she thought as the Tequila failed to burn away the images of Andrew kissing Kiki so passionately.

She gripped the shot glass, curling her fingers around it as if she wished that she could crush it. Maybe she did. Maybe she wished she could throw it ... crash it against the wall.

“
How
could you,” she uttered beneath her breath, slamming the empty shot glass down on the bar top, and then reaching for the next full one.

Axel felt as if he’d been punched in the face by an iron fist as his gaze stayed riveted to his unfaithful wife. His eyes burned as he watched her being groped, stretched out, over the hood of Darwin’s expensive sports car. The bastard had his hands roaming all over Kiki’s body. And Kiki wasn’t protesting.
Not
one bit.

He knew what she was like when she was that hot ... rubbing back against the hard erection humping her.

“Christ!” He spat the curse like a pistol shot abruptly cut off.

He couldn’t believe what they were doing out in public. Cars drove by ... some people couldn’t help but notice. If he’d been inside his rental shop he’d have been completely clueless, while
this
went on just outside.

“Christ,” he hissed again. It was one thing to be cheated on, but another to be so blatantly cuckolded like this. How many times had this happen, while he was just on the other side of the rental building’s wall?

He watched with morbid fatalism, but he wanted the images burned into his retinas so he never wavered after that moment. The thing that had been his marriage was torn and ripped to shreds inside him with each moment he watched
his
wife making out. He scraped his hand over his jaw, and then dug his fingers into his scalp until it hurt.

Alright, their marriage was over, but this...
This?
Didn’t he deserve the respect of her saying, “It’s over.”

He watched Liv’s husband finish deep-throating Kiki, and then pull her up off the hood. Kiki smiled up at Darwin, giggling and flirting, tilting her head to the side like she did when she was being provocative. Axel’s gut hurt, his head ached, and his eyes felt so damn dry. Then the thought hit him like a baseball bat slammed over his head,
maybe she didn’t want to leave him
, maybe she just wanted to fool around.

A tiny bit of hope sparked in the glass forming around his heart. He’d heard of women just needing that extra spark of excitement — that reassurance they were still attractive. Maybe...