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  It took me only a second to realize that the sudden warmness behind me belonged to a person.

  “I’ve been looking all over for you,” I called out, not turning around. “Where have you been?

  There was no answer and before I could utter my next words, a biting wind whipped across my legs and my entire body shivered. I crossed my arms over my chest, hugging them around me tightly.

  A heavy, but soft garment fell onto my shoulders. Immediate warmth surrounded me and a subtle pine scent filled my senses. I forced myself to snapback to reality after recognizing that the scent did not belong to Rich, but to another man. Another man I knew…

  Trevor Stanley.

  His name danced along the tip of my tongue, but I didn’t dare speak it. I spun around and found myself face to face and eye to eye with the dark, sexy man I’d come to know as a stranger first, my husband’s co-worker, and then a frequent diner customer.

  “You really should be wearing something to protect your beautiful skin from the dry cold,” he whispered, his eyes dancing with something I’d come to recognize as adoration. Or was it lust? Or both?

  “Hi.”

  “Camille.” He eyed me with a knowing look and grin.

  Heat spread up along the column of my back, to my nape, and filled my cheeks. Why was I blushing? I was only supposed to feel this way for one man—the man I married.

  “What are you doing here?” I mumbled.

  He chuckled softly, sending his breath to mingle with mine. “I was invited. I still work at the company.”

  “Right.” I smiled and pulled his jacket tighter around me. “I was drinking earlier so I didn’t realize how cold it was when I stepped out here. It’s not as warm as I thought, needless to say. Thanks for the coat.”

  He smiled again, showing off his pearly whites. “I can help you with that anytime.”

  I fumbled with my pearl necklace and bit into my bottom lip trying to think of something to say. It was easier to speak with Trevor at the diner, where most times the topic of discussion was the menu or the newest brand of imported coffee. Now I was out of my element and my comfort zone with a man that made my legs turn to putty every time he walked into a room.

  He lifted my chin and I raised my gaze to meet his.

  “You’re very pretty tonight. The red becomes you,” he said.

  I shrugged, shyly. “Thanks for the compliment, but of course I look a bit different. You’re used to seeing me in an apron with powdered sugar all over me.”

  “Doesn’t matter either way. I bet you taste good with and without the help of sugar.”

  “Trevor…” My chest heated. I’m married. I’d said it before, and I felt I didn’t need to say it again. “My hus—“

  “What if I kissed you right now under the mistletoe?”

  I glanced up quickly and cursed to myself. Sure enough I was standing under the mistletoe, which had been strategically strung, from the corner beams on this side of the porch. Each corner was decorated with mistletoe, probably for the very purpose that Trevor had in mind. Yet, I hadn’t walked under the plant on purpose.

  A chill ran up my spine. “I…I shouldn’t be out here.”

  “I’ve wanted a moment with you alone for so long.” His palm brushed against the left side of my cheek. “One kiss. Our little secret.”

  My gaze shifted from him up to the mistletoe hanging above us. I exhaled and my breath billowed out visibly and mingled with the cold draft. I craved Trevor Stanley just like frequent customers craved my desserts.

  “One kiss,” I said on a ragged breath before I could stop myself.

  Not even a millisecond passed before he closed the gap completely and pressed his mouth sweetly to mine. His lips were velvet smooth and a little chilled from the temperature. It didn’t remain that way for long. Our bodies created enough friction to heat up the immediate space between us.

  His hand gripped me about the side of my waist and my lips parted on a gasp. Trevor took the opportunity and traced the tip of his tongue along my open mouth.

  I pressed into him and his eager tongue parted my lips completely. He kissed me deeply in a slow, but demanding tempo. Hot blood thundered behind my ears and my pulse quickened with each breath. I held onto his forearms to keep from slipping away and melting into a puddle of ecstasy.

  Music flowed from the banquet hall out onto the porch, slamming me back into the present.

  I tore away from him, confused by these mixed emotions. “Oh, my gosh. We didn’t just…”

  “Camille?” He raised his open palm out to me.

  I slipped out of the jacket and handed it to him. My body involuntarily shook as another gust of winter breeze engulfed me. I turned around and quickly retraced my steps to the main hall.

  It didn’t take me long to find Rich when I entered the building. He was conveniently located near the patio doors. I tried to will the memory of Trevor’s kiss away from me as I crossed the small distance to join him, but it wasn’t easy.

  No man had ever kissed me that way. It wasn’t just one innocent kiss. What Trevor and I shared was a kiss that rivaled all others. I knew that I would never forget this night.

  What would this one kiss—no matter how innocent—cost me?

  CHAPTER SIX

  Camille

  Present Day

  The day after Trevor officially revealed his online identity, I was still on edge. I clocked into work and felt like I was just going through the motions, preparing the desserts, serving them, and checking guests out. I was like a robot in a far away place. I was thankful and very lucky to have the help of an assistant today. My mind was on one thing only. How? Why?

  How could I have not known that the man I was talking to on the dating website had been Trevor?

  I was still at a loss for words today, with no sense of direction or guidance. Logging onto the site seemed strange now. I’d been caught in the act, just like I’d found out Rich was using the site to enjoy relations with multiple other women. I’d told Rich right to his face that two wrongs weren’t going to make a right, but this situation was really all of my doing, whether I wanted to admit it or not.

  Since my last sexting encounter where TEMPTED909 described what he wanted to do with me on the checkout counter, I hadn’t read any of my messages. Although I wanted to…

  More than anything else, I needed to talk to Trevor in person. It was clear that he wanted to consummate this passion between us, but to what end? TEMPTED909 wanted sex, but what did Trevor really want from me? Not knowing was killing me inside. Sure, we were attracted to each other, but this was precisely the reason why we—Rich, TEMPTED909, Trevor, and I—were in this situation.

  As I walked to my car after clocking out that evening, someone called me. I jumped since I was already a little frazzled before turning around completely.

  It was Rich walking toward me in his business suit, looking as though he’d just called it quits at work as well.

  I let out a rushed sigh. Not again. No way was I going to deal with another uncomfortable exchange with him and Trevor. I looked behind him, expecting to see Trevor to pop out from behind. I was that paranoid.

  I almost wondered if the two had somehow reconciled, but wouldn’t he or Trevor have mentioned this? Heck, they were good friends once. They’d known each other even before I met Rich. They were frat brothers in college and used to share women all the time.

  “Let’s talk.” Rich fell in step beside me. “Do you have some time to go grab dinner?”

  “No.” I started off again toward my car. “I have an exam tomorrow morning that I need to study for.”

  “Need help studying?” he asked.

  “Let’s save ourselves some time. Yesterday, you stopped by to have coffee and treats with Trevor…or so you said,” I recalled sarcastically. “You’ve never done that before, and now you’re here again today. Tell me the real reason you’re here.”

  Rich stopped just sho
rt of my car. When he locked gazes with me, I knew his reasons were serious and something other than the fact that he wanted to save face by reconciling with me.

  “Did you ever really love me, Camille?”

  I frowned, wondering why he chose today to ask me this. “Of course. What do you think? That I married you because I hated your guts?”

  “I just…” He sighed and shook his head. “I was thinking about how we first met and the way I pursued you because I needed your love so much. I loved you from day one, I really did. You were the only friend I had back then. You helped me through the deaths of both of my parents. You were all I had, and my life actually felt normal with you.”

  “Rich…” I swallowed as my heart sank into my belly.

  “You married me because you loved me, right?”

  I nodded, my throat suddenly dry.

  His forehead creased. “Not because you felt sorry for me?”

  “I cared about you.”

  “But as a friend…?”

  “Friends fall in love all the time,” I said, trying to convince myself more than I was trying to persuade him.

  “And whether you loved me as a friend or a husband, I betrayed your trust. I’m sorry.”

  “It doesn’t matter now. We can settle this, and then both of us can choose to live lives that suit us. Okay?”

  His lips parted, but no words came out. I moved silently past him. My hand was on my car door before he gently touched me on the shoulder, urging me to face him again.

  “But you married me knowing that I had never settled for a normal relationship before you.”

  I smiled nervously. “You were…you seemed to have changed. I understood your past relationships were open. You convinced me that you weren’t monogamous because that was a choice made between you and your partners, so when I married you, I went in thinking that if you ever—“ I paused and leaned back against the car. “—If you ever wanted an open relationship, you would tell me. You failed to do that, and I trusted you.”

  “But what if I had told you?” he urged, coming closer, nearly closing the distance between us.

  I shook my head. “I wouldn’t have accepted it under any circumstances. I told you that before we exchanged vows. Why are you asking me this again?”

  “But when I brought up the idea of having a threesome with Trevor—“ he frowned as he said Trevor’s name, “—you were willing to do it, weren’t you?”

  I tried to turn away, but Rich pressed his pelvis into mine. “Let me go,” I mumbled.

  “You’re in love with him, aren’t you?”

  I gulped dry air. I was sure he could feel my heart pumping wildly in my chest.

  When I didn’t say anything, he continued, “I’d just hired him to work for me, at least until the job market around here picked up. He and I were good friends…once, and I didn’t want to let him down. The first night when I invited him over for dinner, I saw it. The way he looked at you and how aroused you were by that.”

  “You’ve had threesomes in the past that involved him and other women, so wouldn’t it have occurred to you that he hadn’t forgotten about that?” I shot back.

  Rich pressed his lips against my ears. “But you were my wife.”

  “And you offered your wife to another man.” I balled my hand into a fist and pushed it against the center of Rich’s chest. “You wanted the sex to happen that night, didn’t you?”

  Rich bit down on his bottom lip. “I hinted to him about what I wanted to do, so he knew the deal before he arrived that night. He said he would…but apparently he changed his mind.”

  “He declined us. Both you and I.” I’d felt humiliated after learning why Trevor had been at our home in the first place.

  Rich raised an eyebrow. “And we all know the real reason he declined, don’t we? He wanted you to himself.”

  “It doesn’t matter now. Without talking it over with me first, you arranged to pimp me like a fucking whore. You were itching to revamp your swinger lifestyle, and that was just a way for you to do it.”

  “Yes, Camille. I’m not as strong as Trevor is, or maybe my urge is often stronger than Trevor’s,” he replied. “Two days later was when I gave in for the first time. My first encounter was with a woman I interviewed for a secretary position in my division. After that one time, I couldn’t stop myself. I didn’t always fuck them. I fucked maybe one or two after that. Then you found my profile on that site. That woman meant nothing to me. I just needed to relieve some stress and that filthy slut blowed me in my car. I—“

  This time, I pushed Rich away from me and slapped him hard in the face.

  He grinned and brought his palm up to his face.

  I shuddered. “You have serious, serious issues.”

  “Yeah, I know.” He closed the gap again, took my hand, and lifted it to his cheek where I’d slapped him. “I’m sorry that I’m going to lose you. I’d rather not. You were good for me and no matter how much I craved because of this urge, I always came back to you. I’d never done that in the past. Not with any woman. Just you.”

  I tried to avoid his touch, but he kept my hand pressed solidly against his face. “It’s not the kind of life I wanted.”

  “Of course. You deserve so much better, and I will do whatever is necessary to make you happy. Therapy, counseling…whatever you want,” he pleaded.

  “I want a divorce. You can be happy with your lifestyle and I can move on with my life. Understood?”

  “Do you want to know what led me to cheat? By cheating, I don’t mean the blowjobs that I pursued to control myself. Before you broke my heart, I had never slept with anyone during our relationship.”

  “I broke your heart?” I asked slowly, chuckling nervously. “You must be mistaken. I never did anything.”

  “You’re so innocent, Camille.” Rich laughed deeply. “Can you honestly say that you don’t remember kissing Trevor at our company’s holiday party last year?”

  I gasped, audibly. He’d known. Rich had known all along. “I…that was a mistake. He kissed me. We kissed just that one time.”

  I recalled vividly the first kiss I shared with Trevor. Our little secret. I shouldn’t have kept it a secret after all this time. But from the current situation here, it wasn’t a secret at all to Rich.

  “Let me guess. He used the excuse that you were under a mistletoe?”

  I nodded and swallowed. “We were…”

  “I saw you on the balcony with him.” Rich was so close to me, his lips nearly touching mine as my body remained rooted to the spot, recalling how I felt that night. So many emotions had coursed through me, just like they were coursing through me right now. “We all know that he kissed you there on purpose. He got a taste of you that night and he wanted to fuck my wife, and he wanted me to have nothing to do with it.”

  My body shivered.

  “Just admit that you were aroused by the thought of Trevor fucking you after I initiated it. You can’t deny pleasure and you know it. You let him kiss you,” he said between clenched teeth. “Now you tell me, who’s in the wrong here?”

  “Stop. It was the one time.”

  He sighed. “And you’re forgiven for that one time. I actually forgave you long ago. I can’t blame Trevor either. You’re fucking irresistible, Camille.”

  “Richard…”

  “If I wasn’t in the picture, I suspect you would’ve let him do more than just kiss you,” he replied.

  I shook my head. “You don’t know that.”

  “I care about you and I want that for you, if it makes you happy.” Rich pressed his lips against my forehead. “I enjoy playing the field now, but no matter how much I believe you betrayed me just as I betrayed you, I would never wish any harm on you.”

  I met his gaze. “Then, can we settle this now like adults?”

  He nodded once. “I’ll call my lawyer first thing in the morning.”

  “I—“

  Some tires
came to a screeching halt right next to us. Déjà vu hit me like a rock, and everything seemed to unravel around me.

  The driver of the car was Trevor. He rolled down the window and glared at Rich and me with unbelieving eyes. His mouth fell open and my breath gushed out of me.

  It dawned on me that Rich was still holding me in an illicit embrace. An embrace that I’d welcomed as a result of the relief I felt over Rich understanding why I wanted this divorce. We finally understood each other and for that, I was grateful.

  I backed out of Rich’s arms, but it was too late. The damage had been done.

  “Good evening, my friend,” Rich called out to Trevor, an impetuous grin marring his face.

  Trevor didn’t bother returning the greeting. He took one last look at me, rolled up his window, and exited the parking area.

  “I guess you’re happy now.” I bit my bottom lip, holding in my hurt and anger as I entered my car.

  I tore out of the parking lot without so much as a backward glance.

  I drove home in silence. There was no one to call, or text, or sext to substitute the discomfort overtaking me. We’d all gotten what we deserved—Rich, Trevor, and I. We all knew the truth, but Rich and Trevor’s untimely appearance caused us to face them that evening.

  All I really wanted to do now was drive off of the face of the planet. Maybe none of my happiness was meant to be.

  Today’s predicament was the price I paid for one kiss under the mistletoe with Trevor, just as the pending divorce was the price Rich paid for his continuous and reckless adulterous behavior.

  Rich couldn’t enjoy a picture perfect life with me and remain a playboy at the same time, but I couldn’t expect Trevor to linger as a bystander to my crumbling marriage for long.

  Trevor didn’t want to be a third wheel in the first place. Not now…and certainly not eight months ago when Rich invited him into our bedroom.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Camille

  Eight months ago –Valentine’s Night – 6:33pm