He walks into the lounge and stops dead when he enters the room. I glance down and see the shirt Carolina had been wearing discarded by the rug. The condom in the empty hearth isn’t obvious, but if he looks close enough, he’ll see it.

“Carolina,” I call out. “Someone's here to see you.”

Her footsteps echo on the stairs a few moments later, and she walks into the living room, stopping dead two steps inside the door.

“Joseph? What are you doing here?”

“Can we talk in private?” he asks, shooting me a disgusted glance. “Without your friend here?”

“This is Reaperman,” Carolina says, surprising me by using that name. “You can talk to me with him here. He’s my bodyguard.”

12. Carolina

Chapter 12

Carolina

Joseph stares at Samuel, and his disgust is slowly tinged by a look of nervousness as he takes in all Samuel is. Even if Joseph wasn’t a cheating sack of shit, he’d pale in comparison to the magnificence that is my bodyguard.

“Bodyguard? Why?”

“None of your business.”

“Is this why you aren’t at work? I thought it was because of me and Lexy. You’ve missed this week’s show.”

I laugh. “Oh, dear, you do have an inflated sense of your importance in my life, don’t you?”

“Don’t be a bitch, Carolina. It doesn’t suit you.”

Samuel takes two steps forward. “Call her a bitch again, and you’re leaving.”

“Only Carolina gets to tell me to leave.” Joseph stands up to Samuel, even though I know him well enough to tell he’s nervous.

“Call me a bitch again, and you can leave,” I say with a sickly-sweet smile. “Now, I’m really rather busy. What do you want?”

“Busy. I bet you are.” He narrows his eyes at me. “I want to talk, in private. Things with Lexy were a mistake. It wasn’t all my fault, though. You’d been so busy. We were neglecting one another. I should have talked to you. But instead, I took the easy way out of it all. The wrong way.”

“By burying your dick in another woman’s pussy? Yeah, I’d say it was the wrong way.” Samuel rolls his eyes.

Oh, boy, not helpful, hot bodyguard.

“Samuel, can you give us a moment, please?”

He gives me a disgusted look but nods. “I’ll be right across the way in the kitchen if you need me.”

Once he’s left the room, Joseph looks at me. “Close the damn door. I don’t want that fucking neanderthal listening in to what I have to say.”

“You’re awfully demanding for someone who has cheated on me, more than once, lied to me, humiliated me at work.”

He walks to the door and closes it with deliberate calm. “Yes, well, you got your revenge I see.”

He points to the fireplace, and I glance over to see the used condom.