Love, Honor, and Betray Roby, Lawson (best contemporary novels .TXT) 📖

Curtis knew she had a point, but he wasn’t going to give in. He wouldn’t let her control his emotions and make him do thingshe would regret in the end.

“I’m going to hang up now,” he told her.

“I wish you wouldn’t.”

“Well, I am. But you take care, okay?”

Sharon chuckled. “You’re afraid of me, aren’t you?”

Curtis raised his eyebrows, wondering how she knew. He tried leading her to believe otherwise, though. “Afraid? Are you kidding?”

“You are. You’re afraid because you know what I’m capable of. You can feel it all through your bones, and that’s why you won’tcome to me.”

She was right again, but there was no reason to confirm her thinking. “You’re wrong.”

“Say what you want, but I know what I know.”

“Like I said, I’m hanging up now, and you take care.”

“You take care as well, Curtis, and I’ll speak to you tomorrow.”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Of course, I will. Either that, or I’ll just plan on seeing you when you get here. Late afternoon or anytime in the eveningwould work best for me. But I also have no problem switching one of my appointments around if you wanna come by earlier.”

“Good-bye, Sharon,” he said.

“See you soon.”

Chapter 24

Beads of sweat lined Charlotte’s forehead and trickled down the sides of her face. Her chest, stomach, and back were soakingwet, too. She’d been on the treadmill for nearly fifty minutes, power walking at a speed of 4.7 miles per hour, and she’dnever felt better. Her brain had released a huge amount of endorphins, and she absolutely loved this feeling. There was onlyone other form of activity that could compare to this kind of natural high—that being sex—and it was the reason she workedout so religiously. As a matter of fact, she hadn’t felt this good since yesterday morning, the last time she and Michaelhad made love. They’d awakened bright and early, pleasured each other one last time, and then gotten dressed and headed tothe airport in separate cars. They’d even taken different flights as a precaution, even though they’d both flown back to O’Hare.

Charlotte glanced at the number of calories and carbohydrates she’d burned, watched the last five minutes of The Young and the Restless, and then thought about Curtis. He’d slept in the guest bedroom again, of course, but when he’d come into their room thismorning, he’d taken a shower, shaved, and gotten dressed, and he’d seemed very pleasant. He hadn’t said anything at all toher except, “Good morning,” but what puzzled her was how normal he acted. He hadn’t seemed annoyed by her presence, frustratedby what they were going through as a couple, or bothered by much of anything, for that matter, and she couldn’t help speculatingwhy that was. She wondered why his demeanor was noticeably calm when their marriage was in an uproar—admittedly a silent uproar,but an uproar none­theless. They were no longer screaming and yelling at each other, but they still had serious issues tocontend with. Yet now they connected more like roommates than they did as husband and wife.

But Charlotte decided this wasn’t the time to focus on Curtis. Not when she was overcome with such mesmeric euphoria. So,she upped the treadmill to 5.0 for the final two minutes of her sixty-minute session and then dropped it back to 4.0 for thestart of her cooldown period. She breathed heavily, wiping her face with a plush white towel, and when her cooldown ended,she read the final reading on the digital display, stepped off of the belt, stretched, and picked up two eight-pound handweights. She watched the news while toning her biceps and triceps, then sat on the Bowflex seat and worked her legs. Afterthat, she positioned herself on the floor and did two hundred crunches. Now she lay there with her eyes closed, resting.

Finally, she got herself up, went up to the main floor, and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. She had already downedone about thirty minutes into her workout, but she was still pretty thirsty.

“That whole Emily and Patty story line is really starting to get to me,” Agnes said, complaining about one of the currentY & R story lines.

Charlotte took a swig of her drink. “I know. I was watching it downstairs. What I wanna see play out, though, is this wholething with Adam. He’s gotten away with all his dirt for much too long, and it’s time he got what’s coming to him.”

“You got that right. I can’t wait,” Agnes said, laughing.

Charlotte smiled. She and Agnes rarely missed a day of their favorite soap opera, and they talked about the characters asif they were real. Even when she couldn’t be home at eleven, she never worried because the family room DVR was set to recordit like clockwork. She’d been watching Victor, Nikki, Jack, and the rest of them for years, and it was by far one of her guiltiestpleasures. Well, it used to be her guiltiest pleasure—that is, before Michael had come back into her life. Gosh. She justcouldn’t stop thinking about Florida, and she needed to talk to him. Needed to hear his voice. Wanted to know what he wasdoing at this very moment. So she quickly went up the stairs and called him.

“Michael Porter,” he said.

“Hey.”

“Hey, yourself. I was just thinking about you.”

“Oh yeah? What were you thinking?”

“How I haven’t felt this good about anything in a long while.”

“We did have a good time this weekend, didn’t we?”

“The best,” he said and then asked her to hold on for a second. She heard him talking to someone in the background, but thenhe was back with her.

“So have you had a busy morning?” Charlotte asked.

“Very. But it’s been good, though. One of my top clients who’s worth millions just decided to move his entire portfolio overto me. I’ve handled a good portion of his money for a few years, but a couple of hours ago he came in and said he couldn’tbe more happy with my services and saw no reason