Free The Unwanted Wife by Natasha Anders

another woman, you’re my wife ! You hold a position of great consequence in my life.”
    “A wife you’re ashamed of? I don’t think so!”
    “Whoever told you that I was ashamed of you?” He seemed outraged by the very notion.
    “ You did…”
    “Theresa, everything else that you’ve accused me of so far has had some element of truth to it. But this is just plain ludicrous! I have never , not once, told you that I am ashamed of you…”
    “You never said it; you didn’t have to…” she slid off the desk, making sure that her skirt was straight before looking up at him again. “You show me every day.”
    “ What ?”
    “I’ve never met your family, the large and extensive family that means the world to you, I know that you have two close friends, Rafael Dante and Gabriel Braddock, they’re university buddies if I’m not mistaken, you play football with them every week. You didn’t think I knew that, did you? I haven’t met any of those people of consequence in your life,” and there was Francesca, of course but Theresa wasn’t ready to confront him with that bit of knowledge yet. “They are the people who matter to you and if I’d been the wife you wanted, a wife you were not ashamed of, I would undoubtedly have met them by now!”
    “It’s not like that,” he denied, almost stumbling in his haste to reach for her but she stepped away before he could touch her.
    “Yes it is. Please don’t insult my intelligence by denying it…” she desperately looked around for her panties and finally saw them lying beside her drawing board. She very quickly swooped them up before turning back to face him.
    “I need a shower,” she whispered bitterly. “ You know what it’s like when you have an overwhelming urge to scrape the touch, the scent, the very essence of someone off of your skin, don’t you? After all, that’s what you usually do thirty seconds after your orgasm and I can finally relate to that” She turned and left the room before he had the opportunity to respond.
     

Chapter Four
    They barely spoke over the next week or so, merely co-existing in the same house. Sandro still insisted that they take breakfast and dinner together and that they sleep together but he never touched her in bed, maintaining the distance that she had insisted on. Some part of Theresa was relieved while another, even larger part, bemoaned the loss of the one bond they had shared. Still, she kept telling herself that it was just sex and it had never meant anything.
    Besides she had other, more immediate, concerns. Like the fact that she had thrown up every day for the last week and the fact that she was still stricken by dizzy spells at the most unexpected times… like the fact that her period was now than it had ever been before. She was relieved that the intimacies between her and Sandro had ceased, because he was as familiar with her cycle as she was and she would really prefer absolute certainty before telling him anything. She also wanted time to figure out what her next move would be.
    Yet another decision taken from her, she reflected bitterly but at least she could decide the time and place to tell him, if indeed she was pregnant, which she desperately hoped was not the case. She worried at her lower lip with her teeth, staring blindly at the design she had been working on for most of the week. It was supposed to be a necklace but it looked like no necklace she had ever seen before. She shook her head in disgust; she could not seem to get anything done. It was the equivalent of writer’s block and it was extremely frustrating. Her cellphone buzzed discreetly and she snatched it up, welcoming the distraction. She had been exchanging text messages with Lisa all day and was expecting the message to be from her cousin. She was rather unpleasantly surprised to see Sandro’s name in her inbox. He usually refrained from contacting her during the day. She frowned down at his name, not all that keen on reading