Vengeful Desires

Chapter 8

Sitting lotus style on the soft carpet in the penthouse living room, Mirabelle chuckled softly. “I will make it up to you,” she said into the phone.

Kara’s displeased, huffing sound filled her ear. “At this point, I don’t believe you anymore,” her friend complained. “You have stood me up three times already.”

“I didn’t do it on purpose, Kara,” Mirabelle grumbled. She rubbed her palm over her face and sighed heavily. “It’s just been a crazy week. Dwayne wanted me to stay at the penthouse and ensure the renovations to the guest bathroom were done correctly and then he had me hunting down a specific wine he wanted for dinner. He wants everything to be perfect.”

But even as Mirabelle explained the events that had consumed her time for the past seven days, she knew she sounded pathetic, so she wasn’t shocked when Kara reached the same conclusion.

“The man is slowly molding you into a doormat, sweetie.”

Slowly? Mirabelle scoffed quietly. Dwayne wasn’t being slow about it. The man just made decrees and expected her to jump and follow them without question. It was grating on every one of her nerves and she wasn’t sure how she was supposed to survive a lifetime of it.

More than once in the past week, she had thought of just throwing in the towel and calling it quits. But then she remembered that Dwayne hadn’t always been so condescending toward her. This was the same man who had brought her lunch every day without fail while she had been completing her degree. He’d picked her up at the end of the day regardless of how busy he had been with work. Where the attentive, loving man had gone was a complete wonder to her, though.

The change in the man had certainly made her think a lot about where her life was headed. The future looked dim. Mirabelle shook her head and drew a deep breath. Maybe it was just cold feet like her mother had suggested last week.

“Where is your dearest husband-to-be right now?” Kara asked.

Snapping out of her thoughts, Mirabelle opened her eyes and stared at the stupidly expensive wall clock that was all gold-plated with blue and green stones in the shape of peacock feathers. “He must be leaving the office now. He will probably be home in the next two hours.”

Mirabelle’s eyes then promptly fell to the tablet on her lap and the website she had been reading for the past hour. She needed to close it and erase the history before Dwayne got home. But there was no hurry. She still had a little time, so Mirabelle put the tablet aside and focused on her phone call.

“So are you done sulking? Are you now going to tell me about your date?”

“I would have told you all about it if you hadn’t canceled. Again.”

“Okay. Still sulking, I guess,” Mirabelle deadpanned.

“Oh, shut up!” Kara huffed indignantly before breaking into a chuckle.

Mirabelle couldn’t help but laugh too. Damn. She wished she hadn’t had to cancel so many times on her friend. Meeting and spending time with Kara, even if they only hung out in her friend’s tattoo shop, was always like a cup of fresh water to her parched life.

“Anyway,” Kara said when she stopped laughing. “You are lucky I want to talk about the dweeb.”

“Dweeb? Oho. What did he do? I thought you said he was nice?”

“As dull as dishwater. He talked about himself for two hours. Sweetie, who does that on a date? And don’t get me wrong… If the man is interesting and has a full package, I don’t mind if he monopolizes the conversation and turns it into a political campaign talking about all his good attributes. But this guy…”

Mirabelle swallowed the laughter that was threatening to bubble out. “What? He didn’t even have the full package?” she asked.

Kara snorted. “He had on tight jeans. The front of my leather pants had more bulge than his.”

“What!” Mirabelle couldn’t hold back. Laughter blew passed her lips. “You can’t be serious.”

“Deadly,” Kara answered in a tone that said she still wasn’t ready to laugh about it. Which just made Mirabelle laugh more.

It took a few seconds before her laughter finally died down. Mirabelle wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes. “I take it you didn’t wait to see it unwrapped to confirm the size?”

“I don’t play with small boys.”

Mirabelle rolled her eyes. “Then stop-” The rest of that sentence died on her tongue as the front door of the penthouse suddenly opened and Dwayne walked in.

How? Confused, Mirabelle shot a glance at the wall clock, but it held no answer as to why Dwayne was home early. s**t! Her mind quickly jumped to why Dwayne’s sudden arrival was bad for her. The tablet was still on and sat on her lap.

“Mirabelle?” she heard Kara call over the phone. Mirabelle didn’t hesitate. Feeling the blood leave her face, she cut the call, knowing Kara would understand when she explained later. Hoping she wasn’t seen, she shoved both her phone and tablet under the pillow next to her.

Mirabelle then untangled her legs, stood, and forced a smile on her face to greet her fiancé. “Dwayne, you are home early.”

Grunting in response, Dwayne walked over to the couch and sat down, undoing his tie and the top buttons of his dress shirt with jerky movement. “Get me a drink,” he demanded.

The roughness in his voice made Mirabelle shudder with apprehension. She didn’t like Dwayne when he was in this mood. She glanced down at the pillow but knew she couldn’t risk picking up the gadgets without drawing attention to them. So, she kept her smile fixed in place and walked into the kitchen to fix his drink.

“Had a long day?” she asked softly by way of conversation to break the silence.

Another grunt met her ears. Mirabelle squeezed her eyes shut for a second. It was going to be a long night; she realized. Resigned, she made herself busy filling a glass with ice cubes while trying to steady the shake in her hands.

Of course, she was nervous and had every reason to be. But she had to hold herself together and act normal. If Dwayne even suspected something was wrong with her, then the night would be even worse. Hours of interrogation and rough, unsatisfying s*x wasn’t how she wanted to end her day today. No, thank you. So, she had to be calm and pretend all was fine.

A few minutes later, Mirabelle turned around with a glass of bourbon and a forced smile still fixed on her lips. Both dropped when she saw what Dwayne was holding in his hand.

For a moment, it seemed time froze. Then the sound of glass shattering on the tiled floor and liquor splashing everywhere had Dwayne’s eyes snap up. His furious gaze pinned Mirabelle on the spot.

For a beat, he didn’t say anything. Mirabelle couldn’t move despite the liquor and ice covering her bare feet. Then Dwayne lifted the tablet. “What do you think you are doing?”