Honeymoon Phase By Amy Daws Read Free Chapter 29

Luke

“I thought you said you weren’t fucking her,” Calder yells to me over the loud band.

“I’m not,” I reply, not taking my eyes off my wife. She swivels her hips and holds her hands up, tossing her hair into her face. I feel desperate to walk out there and feel her body move against mine. Especially after that kiss.

“Could have fooled me.” Calder clinks his beer bottle with mine and I glance at the time on my phone, wondering if it’s too early to call it for the night. I need to get my wife in my bed and figure out what that kiss meant soon, or I am going to drive myself fucking nuts waiting.

She started that kiss, but I sure as fuck finished it. The confidence that surged through me knowing she clearly wanted it was too heady for me to ignore. I’d bet my life that my wife’s panties are soaked right now, and all I want to do is go home and see if I can find out for myself.

“As I live and breathe, it’s the Fletcher brothers,” a shrill, familiar voice coos, causing all the hairs on the back of my neck to stand.

With a pit in my stomach, I turn my head and feel stunned speechless at the woman standing before us.

Robyn Whitaker . . . here from beyond the fucking grave. Standing next to her, about two inches shorter, is her husband, Matt. It is mind-blowing that these two are still together after all the fucked-up shit that happened over a decade ago. And why does she think she can simply waltz in and say hi as if we’re all old friends?

All three of my brothers turn to stone as they stare up at the woman who nearly ripped our family apart. And she has the nerve to stand here with a cheery smile on her face, like she didn’t fuck with all of us.

“I’ll go find us a table and let you all catch up,” Matt says, tipping his chin up to kiss Robyn on the cheek. The bizarre act has my lips curling.

The guy can’t be right in the head. There’s no fucking way I could stay in the same bar as the three men who fucked my wife while I was still married to her. Neither of these two are right in the head. And whatever marital shit they get off on is none of my business. I just want to know why the hell they’re here.

Robyn darkened our doorstep a couple times throughout the years, but it’s been ages now. I thought she’d moved on. Found some other set of dudes to torment. Or maybe turned things around to be a good mother to her kids. One can hope, right?

My eyes can’t help but move over her body. Taking in her presence again after so many years is weird. She still has that same slender frame with the large tits she had before, but her face is thinner and more hollowed out. She’s got to be almost forty by now, if memory serves. Admittedly, she looks good for a forty-year-old. But there’s something in her heavily made-up eyes that has a beady, evil quality. I used to think her eyes were captivating.

Now . . . I see right through them.

Her straight brown hair hangs all the way down to her waist and shines in the lights from the band as she flips it over her shoulder and gestures up to the bar. “I was just passing through town and wanted to stop by to say hi to Judy. You guys remember I worked here for nearly six months.”

“That’s sure something to put on a résumé,” Max drawls, looking completely uninterested. He met Robyn once and made it very clear after everything blew over that he didn’t understand the appeal. I’m not sure I do either now.

Wyatt lifts his beer to his lips, looking completely disinterested. Calder, on the other hand, is shooting daggers at the woman, making no mistake she is not welcome here.

Me? I just feel uncomfortable.

My brothers have both moved on and are secure in their relationships. I, on the other hand, just got married and my relationship with Addison is tenuous at best. I don’t want the biggest mistake of my life walking in and fucking that all up.

Especially one that I haven’t told my best friend about.

God, we were fools back then.

How three men . . . three brothers . . . could all fall for the same woman still just seems like straight fiction.

And when I look back on that time in our lives, I don’t really know why we all were so enraptured with her. She was the shiny new toy in town, and we were the guys building up on the mountain. She lived in the barn for a bit and exuded confidence and sex appeal and knew how to party. She really was like a siren, and we were her ships she called in every night.

It’s disorienting because I look at her now and I don’t know what I saw in her. She pales in comparison to Addison and I’m not referencing looks. Just . . . her overall being.

Addison emotes real, raw, honest spirit whereas Robyn gives calculated, contrived hollowness. Even now, I look at her and I feel nothing. How did I let this woman consume me for any length of time?

I shift left to look for Addison and when I don’t see her on the dance floor, I scan the room and spot her at the bar with the girls. Thankfully, it looks like they haven’t noticed Robyn, and I’d like to keep it that way. I don’t want this part of my past to ever touch or taint what I have with Roe. She is too pure and good for the likes of this.

My chair scrapes loudly as I stand, preparing to extricate myself from this situation, but Robyn steps into my path, stopping me in my tracks.

Addison

“Judy, do you know who that woman is talking to the boys?” Trista asks, bracing her elbows on the bar as she glances over her shoulder and then back to the owner, who looks decidedly uncomfortable.

“Now, I don’t want any trouble,” Judy warns, splaying her hands out on the heavily lacquered wooden bar.

“Trouble? Why would there be trouble?” Dakota presses in closer so she can hear Judy.

“Maybe you should just go get your boys and head back up the peak, ladies.” Judy grabs a rag and wipes down the counter. “You’re such nice girls. You’re good for those boys.”

“But who is that?” I ask more firmly, because now I’m curious too.

Judy’s lips purse, her wrinkles stacking on top of each other. “That’s Robyn.”

“Robyn?” Cozy, Trista, and Dakota all repeat the name in unison.

“Robyn Robyn?” Trista asks, her entire body going still.

Judy nods. “You better get the boys out of there before things escalate. Her husband is sitting right over there.”

“Why would things escalate?” I ask, feeling like I’m the only asshole who doesn’t know who this Robyn chick is.

“Everyone just needs to calm down,” Cozy says, trying to be the voice of reason.

“Someone needs to tell me who the fuck Robyn is or I’m going to march over there and ask her myself.”

Dakota and Trista cut each other knowing looks, so I grab their shoulders and force them to look at me. “Spill it.”

Dakota sighs heavily. “She’s a woman who used to live in the apartment above the barn years and years ago.”

“Okay . . . and?”

Trista’s nose wrinkles as she cuts a mean glare toward the guys before returning her vengeful face to me. “And she fucked all three of them.”

Chills erupt over my skull as my lips part, my whole body feeling electrified with this sickening bit of information. “What do you mean ‘fucked all three of them’? Like they shared her?”

Dakota makes a strange noise and says, “They didn’t fuck her at the same time. It was all different times behind each other’s backs after they’d made a bet over her. It’s majorly fucked.”

“And she ended up pregnant, right?” Cozy asks, and I swear to God my eyes are going to pop out of my face.

“Pregnant?” I press my hands to my temples, unable to comprehend all of this. I don’t consider myself a prude. I grew up around lumberyard guys, but this story tops all of those by a mile.

“Yeah, it was a whole thing,” Dakota answers like she’s reading the daily weather report. “They didn’t know who the father was, and all had to take a paternity test. Turned out the baby belonged to Robyn’s husband back in Colorado Springs.”

“She was married?” I screech, my voice thankfully drowned out by the loud band. I shake my head in denial as I turn to look at Luke. My sweet Luke. The guy whose shoulders ache every day because he lets me sleep on his chest every night.

He fucked a married woman . . . with his brothers?

My lips curl up in disgust, feeling like I don’t know him at all. If that’s the kind of shit he’s into, no wonder he never made a move on me. I’m too boring for him. Too vanilla. Hell, he was mad at me for fucking a few lumberjacks, yet he failed to mention he fucked a married woman who was also fucking his brothers.

The fuck?

I look over at them and see that the woman is no longer standing where she was before. And neither is Luke. Jerking my head around, I find them in a corner, talking, just the two of them. My eyes drop down her body, noticing she has curves in all the right places. Not my tiny little nothing boobs or my dimply thighs or my stout, bottom-heavy frame. She’s long and lean and has way more than a handful of tit. She’s obviously beautiful.

Maybe she wants him back.

Maybe that’s what they’re discussing.

Clearly he must still have feelings for her or he would have told me about the fucked-up past he has with her and his brothers, because otherwise why would he hide it?

My God. What else is my supposed best friend hiding from me?

As I watch this Robyn chick move closer to Luke, a flash of possessiveness overcomes me. My chest heaves and my heart races while my hands turn to fists at my sides. Marriage of convenience or not, we are still fucking married, and it was my tongue shoved down his throat less than ten minutes ago. This simply will not do.

Luke

“Did I hear congratulations are in order, Lukey?” Robyn purrs, slithering up to me in the corner of the bar that she followed me to when I was trying to get the fuck away from her.

I eye my brothers, who are still at the table and doing nothing to help me out of this situation. They jerk their heads at me, clearly telling me to get the fuck away from her. I’m trying, damn it!

“Where did you hear that?” I shove a frustrated hand through my hair.

“Oh . . . around town. And Judy confirmed it of course.”

“What are you even doing in town?” I can’t help but ask.

Her shoulders lift. “Just had some meetings in Boulder. So? Married?” She shoots me a toothy smile that doesn’t feel genuine.

I roll my eyes and shake my head. “Yeah, I’m married. Take care, Robyn.”

I move to walk away from her, but her next words stop me dead in my tracks. “You married the daughter of John Monroe, right? Addison, is it?”

I turn slowly on my heel to eye the woman from my past who honestly never asks just an innocent question. My teeth clench as I tilt my head and shake a silent no at her. “Don’t speak her name,” I warn, my tone guttural.

“Testy, testy.” Her tongue darts out to swipe across her ruby lips as her nose wrinkles. “It’s interesting how protective you are of her considering the marriage is a total sham.”

My jaw cracks as I clench my teeth so hard, my jaw aches. “What are you talking about?”

“Matt and I do business with John and had lunch with him yesterday. He told us this marriage you’re in with his daughter isn’t real. It’s just so she can fulfill the trust requirement and the minute I laid eyes on her tonight, I knew he was telling the truth. She is so not your type.”

“You don’t even fucking know me anymore,” I growl, my body vibrating with protectiveness over this woman I hate talking about the woman I love.

“Oh, I think I know you a little.” Her gaze flashes down to my dick, causing me to jerk away from her. She snickers and I feel strangely violated.

“You don’t know shit about me, Robyn. I’m a different man today than I was ten years ago. I’ve grown. You clearly haven’t.”

She loses all humor on her face and pins me with a curious look. “Come on, Lukey.” She reaches out and drags her hand down my chest, causing my body to recoil. “Don’t be like that. I’ve missed you the most. I know things got messy, but what you and I had was always different than what I had with Calder and Wyatt.”

“What are you even saying to me right now?” I hook my thumb behind me. “You’re here with your fucking husband.”

“I know, but we’re in an open marriage.” She glances back to the table that her husband, Matt, is sitting at, and he’s observing her like a goddamn cuckhold. “I like to play, and he likes to watch, and I’d really like to play with you again, Luke. You look so good.”

“He’s not interested,” a shrill voice cuts in and I swerve my head to see my tiny wife standing near me with fire blazing in her eyes. She steps forward, backing Robyn into the wall, not even glancing at me as she adds, “Luke doesn’t play, and he never will, so you can take your fucking toys, and your box-dyed hair, and get the fuck out of Jamestown, or I will go up that mountain and start an avalanche to bury your ass here.”

Robyn looks mildly afraid before she sputters out a laugh. “Your wife must be a real firecracker in bed, Lukey.”

“Leave, Robyn,” I grind out through clenched teeth.

She wrinkles her nose as she looks down to Addison. “Does it bother you?”

“Does what bother me?” Addison asks, her eyes turn to slits as her jaw goes taut.

Robyn leans forward and whispers in her ear, “Does it bother you to know I had him first?”

A strange noise echoes from the woman beside me and before I realize it, Addison’s hands are on Robyn’s shirt, and she’s yanked her down to the floor and is straddling her while she grips Robyn by the hair and yanks her around like a rag doll.

The sound of chairs scraping echoes in the room as Wyatt, Calder, and Max appear beside me watching the fight take place in complete awe.

“Should I stop it?” I ask, my heart racing at the sight of Addison going completely feral on a woman from my past.

“No!” Dakota and Trista both say in unison, appearing out of nowhere.

“Addison is killing her!” Dakota adds with a gleeful smile as Robyn grips Addison’s wrists, screaming out for her to let go of her hair.

“What the hell?” Matt yells from across the bar and comes tearing over. The minute he presses his hand to Addison’s shoulder and shoves her onto her back, I see red.

“Get your fucking hands off my wife!” I roar, lunging for him.

I grab him by the collar of his suit coat and haul his ass away from the two women on the floor. My body trembles with rage as I nearly lift him up off the ground and march him halfway across the room, his toes racing to keep up with my clipped pace.

“Touch her again and I will break both of your fucking arms,” I grind, dropping him to his feet and pulling him close to my face so he can see how serious I am.

“She was attacking my wife!” Matt shouts back at me, his eyes wide with fear as I tower over him by several inches.

“Your wife started it,” I grind out before launching him away from me, desperate to get some space between us before I pull my fist back and punch him like I’ve always wanted to.

He crashes into the barstools, falling on his ass in the process, which feels almost as good as a punch. This man has been a fucker ever since him and my dad were bidding on the same project years ago until we beat his price and won the job. We had no idea Robyn was married to him until everything blew up, and the fact that these two slimeballs are still together, existing and causing chaos, makes me fucking see red.

“Out!” Judy barks, standing in front of me, her bony finger pointing toward the door.

“Judy,” I begin to argue, trying to soften my tone as I address her.

“Leave now!” she growls back and then points to something behind me. “And take her with you.”

I look back and see Addison standing there, panting heavily. Her hair is a tousled mess and her chest heaves with labored breaths. With a curse, I close the distance between us, frantically inspecting her face and hands to make sure she’s okay, but she refuses to look at me, jerking her hands from mine. My heart lurches when I see that her eyes are red-rimmed, and her chin is trembling. She’s not just angry. She’s hurt.

Fuck.

“You guys know the rules,” Judy continues, clapping her hands and gesturing to the door. “No fighting, damn it. It will kill me if I have to permanently ban you all.”

“She started it,” Addison bites, her tone visceral.

“And I’m ending it,” Judy snaps back. “Go outside and cool down.”

I crack my neck and glance over to see Robyn crying while she picks her hair extensions up off the bar floor. With a heavy sigh, I wrap my arm around Addison to pull her toward the door with me. She shudders under my touch and jerks away to walk herself out of the bar.

As we reach the doorway, Robyn’s voice screams out to us, “White trash cunt.”

And in a flash, Addison turns on her heel and lunges back in Robyn’s direction, but I manage to catch her at the waist, yanking her back against me as she fights with everything she has.

“Come outside with me,” Addison screams, still lunging for Robyn.

“Cool it,” I growl, grunting when her leg connects with my balls as she continues to try to squirm free. When she refuses to stop, I yank her around and bend over to toss her up over my shoulder as she’s kicking and screaming the whole way.

The harsh December air is cold and biting as I crunch my boots over the snow to carry my flailing wife deep into the parking lot. The quietness of the outdoors must bring some semblance of reason back into her mind as she finally stops beating on my back. I lower her to the ground and shove my hair back out of my face to look at her.

“Are you okay, babe?”

“Don’t you babe me!” Roe says, pressing the heels of her hand to my chest and giving me a hearty push. “Don’t you dare babe me. Not now. Not ever after that.”

“What are you so mad about?” I ask, glancing over my shoulder when I hear footsteps. Thankfully it’s just my family all coming out to witness the shit show taking place.

“What am I so mad about?” Addison’s eyes are wide as she barks out a hyenic laugh, looking damn near feral under the parking lot light. She glances around and notices we have an audience and hesitates before she replies, because this is an audience who doesn’t know about our secret. An audience who thinks, by all account, this is my real wife.

Her face twists in pain and she begins walking backward away from me, pushing her hair out of her face as she goes.

I move toward her, holding my hand out. “Come on . . . let’s get in the truck and we can talk about this at home.”

“No,” she croaks, a puff of cold air floating around her lips as her voice betrays her. It guts me to see her like this. She inhales deeply through her nose, her nostrils flaring with determination as she says, “I’m walking.”

My jaw drops. “It’s over two miles up the mountain. You’re not fucking walking.”

“I’m walking!” she screams, turning her back on me and making her way toward the highway, pausing as a semi goes squealing by.

“Damn it, Roe,” I growl, wishing I had my hat on so I could rip it off and chuck it to the ground.

My brothers, Dakota, Trista, and Cozy all stare at her stocky frame as she jogs across the blacktop and turns onto the gravel lane that winds up the mountain toward our cabins.

Dakota hands me Roe’s coat while Calder rests his hand on my shoulder. “Looks like you’re walking, bro.”

I sigh heavily and without a word, run across the highway to catch up to my wife.