Chapter One
Two years later
Opal Shaw stared down at her wedding ring.
No, Opal Hunt. She was a married woman.
She couldn’t believe she’d been married two years ago on this day. Biting her lip, she glanced around the room. Lily had her children with Wayne and Scarlet her children with Richard, while Opal sat in her brother’s house with a wedding ring and nothing else. She’d been married two years and didn’t know much about her husband other than the crap she read in the glossy magazines. He escorted her to events but never took the time to talk with her. He accomplished only the social graces that her brother Richard had required in an agreement for her and Tony to be married.
After the wedding, which had been in a registry office with her brother and his wife as witnesses, her parents had kicked her out. The scandal was so far-reaching that they couldn’t bear to look at their only daughter. The wedding night she’d dreamed about had been a disaster. She didn’t want to ask Lily and Scarlet about their wedding nights in case they asked her about hers.
“So, I wanted to tell you guys the news first,” Lily said. Opal stared at the beautiful dark-haired woman. Wayne and her brother had gone to talk business. The three women were alone with the children.
Tony hadn’t turned up yet. Probably another long night partying and doing nothing else but shagging the next model or something. She kept up to date with all of his conquests. He showed no interest in being with her. She didn’t blame him. The moment she left her parental home the weight had come back on. The diets they had kept her on had ended, and she ate what she liked when she liked.
“Wayne and I are going to have another baby.”
Opal smiled and congratulated Lily. Scarlet did the same, and she was already pregnant with Richard’s third child herself.
Would Opal be cursed to never have news of her own? What had she done in the last two years of being married to Tony? She spent most of her days cleaning the house he’d placed her in.
“I take it you’ve told them our good news?” Wayne asked as he entered the living room, carrying a tray of drinks.
“Yes. You know I can’t keep everything to myself for long.” The couple shared a smile. Opal yearned for what the two couples had. Richard walked over to Scarlet, kissed her on the lips and stroked her bulging belly.
“Have I missed the party?” Tony asked as he walked into the room.
Her brother scowled at him, but then turned and shook his friend’s hand.
“Sorry, I’m late.” Tony didn’t acknowledge her. Glancing at his finger she saw he still didn’t have a wedding ring. She twirled the modest diamond on her own finger.
Was it time to call it quits?
“Excuse me,” she said. Without looking at anyone she got up and left the room. Running up the stairs, she found the bathroom. She closed the door, going straight to the sink.
Dampening her wrists she splashed her face and neck. Her heart pounded. Tony always had the ability to disarm her. Out of the two men her brother came home with, Tony had been the one to make her head spin with crazy ideas. How quickly her ideals had changed. Her wedding night came to mind. His words and the way he’d spoken, scaring her. Brushing the memory off, she took some deep breaths before she felt in control.
She opened the bathroom door and hit a hard masculine chest. Staring up she looked up into his eyes. The dark brown, almost black, eyes stared back at her. She fisted her hands at her side and turned to look away. When they were alone she struggled to find the right words to say to him. It was like they got married, and everything changed. She became another person for him.
“What’s up, petal?” he asked. His voice went through her and made her lower body tighten. The warmth spread up until she knew a red blush would be staining her cheeks.
“I-I-I’m fine.” This was another thing. Why had she developed a stutter?
“I haven’t seen you for a while or heard from you. How have you been?” When they’d first gotten married he’d demanded a call from her every week to check in and make sure she was fine. As the months moved on, she simply stopped calling. Or more to the point, as soon as the glossy magazines had the latest kiss and tell story about him, she’d stopped calling.
“What do you want to know?” she asked.
“To make sure you’re okay.”
“I’m fine.” Talking to him without looking at him helped for her to speak.
His hand cupped her face, tilted her head back and forced her to look at him. Without her realising it he’d been budging her further into the bathroom. She gasped as the door closed.
They were alone together.
“I want to know why you stopped calling me.”
“You started to look busy.”
“Your lips are so full,” he said. Opal frowned as he stared down at her lips. His thumb running along her bottom lip. “You look so beautiful.”
His words hurt. He called her beautiful when he dated models and really pretty thin women.
“Don’t say stuff like that,” she said, pulling out of his touch. “I’m not pretty.”
“Who says you’re not pretty?”
“I don’t need someone to tell me. I’ve got a mirror, and I have to look in it every day. Besides, I could never compete with the women you date.”
She made to walk past him, but he caught her arm, the grip tight but not painful. Biting her lip she forced herself to turn and face him. At thirty-nine, he was still a good-looking man. His hair did have a few greys, but they didn’t make him look old, more of a mature man. A small number of wrinkles were near his eyes and along his forehead. If only he could look like an ogre then maybe she’d be able to leave him.
****
Tony held her arm and felt the electricity shoot up from his arm from the small touch. He wasn’t near bare skin. She wore a red cardigan over her shirt. He’d noticed she covered up her body whenever she got a chance to. Staring at her now, he saw the maturity in her. The two years had developed her significantly. She held that submissive pose he loved to see, and then she turned and stared him in the eye. He knew she trembled from his touch.
Staying away from her was becoming more difficult with every passing day. He didn’t want to be away from her. The calls she use to make had been the highlight of his week. The calls had stopped, and so to had her beautiful smiles. He’d fucked everything up on their wedding night.
She was so young, sweet and innocent, and he was harsh to the world. His life hadn’t been sunshine and roses. Part of him was fucked up, and letting Opal near him could expose her to the worst side of him. The side that needed to control. To be in charge. He hated himself, but most of his life he’d kept it hidden from everyone close to him. The whispers that accompanied him were only supplied by gossiping women.
Admitting he wanted Opal would be the worst thing he could ever do.
“I say you’re pretty, and that is all that matters,” he said.
“Could you please let go of my arm?” she asked.
Didn’t she know what she did to him? He hated himself for the way he craved her attention and her touch.
“I don’t want to let you go. You’re too young.”
“I’m not a child, Tony.”
With her admission hanging in the air, Tony lost it. Without thinking he pushed her up against the nearest wall. He heard her gasp and slammed his lips down on hers, acting on pure instinct rather than allowing himself time to think about what he was doing. She resisted him for the first few moments and then succumbed to the power of his kiss.
He didn’t let up, even as her hands pulled at the hair on the base of his neck. He wanted more, to feel her giving everything to him.
For two years he’d dreamt about her kisses and wondered what it would be like to have her as his own. But for two years he’d fought the burning desire within him. Opal was Richard’s younger sister. Being the bastard he was he wasn’t willing to fight anymore. He wanted her, and he intended to have her by any means possible.
“You’re on fire for me,” he said. He cupped her ass and lifted her. She wrapped her legs around him, and he settled his cock against the apex of her thighs. He felt the heat through the denim of her jeans. Tony knew if he touched her cunt she’d be soaking wet.
There was so much passion inside her bursting to break free.
“Give me everything.”
“I can’t.”
“Yes, you can,” he told her.
Moving one hand away from her ass, he travelled up her body, past her rounded stomach to cup one of her heavy tits in his hand.
Pulling away, he stared into her beautiful eyes. Her blonde hair fell all around her. He loved her hair, and he knew it was her natural colour. Never had she dyed it like some girls did. Her pale skin flushed with arousal. Her eyes were wide as she stared back at him.
This is how he had dreamed about her. Aroused and open for him.
“You look beautiful to me.” He touched her naked breast under her shirt and bra, the nipple small and tight as he grazed it with his fingers. She moaned and arched closer to his touch. The weight of her felt perfect in his arms.
He could hold her forever.
Suddenly, as it all started, Opal pulled away stopping it as abruptly. Withdrawing from him, she placed a hand on top of his over her breast.
“Stop,” she said.
Her words rolled over him, and he wanted to shake his head and demand for them to continue. Instead, he pulled his hand away.
“Let me down.” He placed her on the floor. “You told me this would never happen between us.”
Tony knew what he’d said to her.
“Things change.”
“You said you’d never touch me. I don’t want you to do something you’ll regret, and I won’t be a replacement for one of your women.”
With her words hanging in the air, she left the room. He watched her go, not even trying to stop her.
He stared at his reflection in the mirror and wondered why he’d even started something he knew he couldn’t finish. Shaking his head, he followed her down in time to see her leave. She didn’t look at him, but he knew his friends and their wives had taken note of the change within her.
Why couldn’t he leave her alone? Every time he promised himself he wouldn’t touch her, it would change the moment he saw her.
He congratulated Lily and Wayne before leaving. Once he got in his car he pulled out the small box in his pocket. He’d known today had been two years since they’d gotten married. To celebrate the event he’d spent the time looking for an engagement ring in the hope of giving it to her.
Staring down at the small ring he felt like a complete fool.