“Holy fucking shit!” Tiffany’s mouth fell open when she got home and I told her about my conversation with Phyllis Goode and what I’d seen an hour later in Sam’s office. She asked, “What did you do?”

“I backed out of there and came home,” I said. “I mean, what do you do when you walk in on the man you thought cared for you fucking another woman?”

“Well, they weren’t fucking,” Tiffany said.

“She was naked in his arms. And his cock was hard,” I said. “I saw the bulge. She had her hands all over it.”

“Maybe what you saw was not really what was going on,” she said. She went to the fridge and pulled out two bottles of water and sat down at the kitchen table across from me. She rolled one bottle toward me and kept the other for herself.

I picked up the water and rolled it between my hands. “What do you mean?”

She took a sip of water and gave me a little shrug. “Maybe she came on to him and he was fighting her off.”

“Please, he could have tossed her across the room if he wanted to.” I held the cold bottle between my hands and peeled at the label with my thumbnail like I was angry at it. “No, it’s like she said. When he was done with me, he would run back to her. That’s exactly what he did.”

“What makes you think he is done with you?” Tiff asked. “Or that he ran back to her.”

“I dunno.”

“Have y’all had a fight?”

“No.”

“Have y’all been fucking regularly?”

“Yes.”

“Is the sex still amazing?”

“Yes.”

“Did you give him a chance to explain what happened?”

“No.”

“Then you do not have all the facts, Miss Walsh,” she said with a slow nod. “You know what you think you saw, but is what you saw really what was going on?”

I smiled. “Jesus, you sound like Sam now with your Yoda bullshit.”

“Hey, don’t knock Yoda,” she said, holding up the bottle and giving me her version of a wise look. “That little motherfucker knows his shit. He would have made one hell of a lawyer.”

“So, what’s your point?” I asked with a heavy sigh, already knowing the answer.

“My point is, don’t be pissed at Sam until you’ve had a chance to talk to him. Phyllis Goode is a conniving bitch. And it sounds to me like she had this all worked out in advance. She tells you he’s gonna come crawling back to her and then you catch her naked in his office grabbing his cock? Seriously? Can you say setup?”

“Maybe.”

“There are no maybe’s in law,” she said. “But there is reasonable doubt and this reeks of it.”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe my ass. Listen, I’m meeting some folks downtown for drinks. You wanna join?”

“I think I’ll just stay in and…”

Before I could officially start my pity party, the doorbell clanged. Tiff and I looked at each other, then she said, “I’m pretty sure that’s for you.”

I went to the door and peeped through the hole. Sam was standing there with his hands in his pockets. When I didn’t open the door, he knocked and called out.

“Abbie, I know you’re in there. Come on, open the door and let me explain.”

I was about to tell him to go away when Tiffany pushed me out of the way and opened the door. Sam blinked at her in surprise, then glanced at me.

“Well, come on in,” she said, holding the door open for him. Sam didn’t move until I gave him the nod. Tiff pulled her purse strap over her shoulder and gave us both the eye. “You two work this shit out before I get back in the morning.”

“You’re not coming home tonight?” I asked.

She gave me a smile. “No, I have a date with an underwear model, if you know what I mean.”

I covered my smile with my hand and closed the door, then walked into the living room with Sam close behind. I glared at him. “What do you want, Sam?”

“Look, I know what you think you saw today,” he said, sitting on one end of the couch while I sat on the other. “But I had nothing to do with that.”

“It looked like you had lots to do with it,” I said.

“She came into my office and took off her dress,” he said helplessly. “I was trying to get her to put it back on and get the fuck out.”

“Before I caught you fucking,” I said, giving him the eye.

“What? Yes, no, I mean, goddammit, how can you have me so flustered?”

That made me smile. “Because I’ve had a good teacher,” I said. “Okay, tell me what happened and I’ll render my verdict.”

“She came into my office and took off her dress,” he said, hands cutting through the air. “She wanted to have sex and I told her no.”

“Why did you tell her no?” I asked.

He blinked at the question. “What?”

“You told her no. Had you ever told her no before?”

“No…”

“So why did you tell her no this time?”

“Because I want to be with you,” he said quietly, as if the answer was a revelation coming to him. “I’m… I mean…” He gazed into my eyes. “I don’t want her. I only want you.”

“Are you sure?” I softened my eyes to let him know that the fight was over, but there were still words that needed to be said. “You two have been together a long time, not as a couple, but in other ways. I think she sees me as a threat to that relationship. She wants you when she wants you, and I think she sees me as someone who might fuck that up.”

He pondered the thought for a moment, then blew out a long breath and rubbed his eyes. “Phyllis and I have always had a complicated relationship, based mostly on the fact that we were there for one another when our love lives hit the rocks. Or more accurately, her love life. I waited for her and always welcomed her back, even though I knew it wouldn’t last long. Now, that doesn’t interest me anymore. I want no part of her games.”

“What’s changed?” I asked.

“I met you,” he said quietly, glancing up to meet my eyes. “I only want to be there for you, Abbie, not for anyone else, at least not in that way.”

“It sounds like the teacher has learned a lesson,” I said, reaching for his hand. He took my hand and gave it a squeeze.

“How about that,” he said, bringing my fingers to his lips and kissing them gently. “The student becomes the teacher.”

“Come on, Mr. Collins,” I said, getting up and tugging him off the couch. “Let’s see what else we can teach each other.”

THE END

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Hey,

Don’t miss the bonus stories which are included in this book including “GLOVES OFF” which is a never before published Bad Boy Romance Novella and exclusive to this book.

Also included is the extended epilogue for Train Me.

Just look what you want to read next via the Table of Contents (TOC) and make yourself SO SO HORNY!!!

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