Free To Love, Honor and Betray by Jennie Lucas

have said it.”
    Eduardo gave her a hard smile. “You just told him the truth.” Reaching for his empty martini glass, he pulled the olive off the toothpick with his white teeth and slowly chewed. “I am all of those things. Just as you are secretive, naive and ridiculously sentimental.”
    Protestations rose to Callie’s lips then faded. After the way she’d acted, how could she argue with that—any of it?
    He came closer, his face silhouetted by the huge windows that sparkled with the lights of the city. “But we must endure it.”
    “Endure it?” she whispered.
    “Each other,” he said coldly. “For Marisol’s sake.”
    Pain cracked through her heart. Just a moment before, she’d been filled with hope. But now she saw she really was alone. No one was on her side. No one.
    Stiffening, she held out her hand. “Give me my phone.”
    “No.”
    “Fine,” she bit out. “I’ll find it myself.”
    Moving through the swinging door, she went into a large, luxurious kitchen, with top-of-the-line appliances, a wine fridge, and a pizza oven, overlooking the sparkle of the city and black void of the Hudson River. Her eyes widened as she saw her bag on a granite countertop. She snatched it up, digging all the way to the bottom.
    “It’s not in there,” Eduardo said, watching her.
    Still digging, she didn’t bother to look up. “Where is it?”
    “I threw it away.”
    Her hand stilled. “Are you kidding me?”
    His voice was like ice. “I won’t let you call him.”
    “You can’t stop me!” Her eyes were wide as she gasped with outraged fury. “You had no right!”
    “I’m your husband. I had every right.”
    “I’ll get a new phone!”
    His black eyes glittered. “Try it.”
    “This is ridiculous. I’m not your prisoner!”
    “For as long as we are married, I expect your loyalty.”
    “He’s my best friend!”
    “And you are my wife.”
    “You can’t possibly feel threatened by—”
    “No, why would I?” His voice was low and full of dislike. “Just because he is the man you
adore
, the man you
trust
, the man you wanted to be Marisol’s father. The man you tried to marry two days ago.”
    “Only because I was pregnant—”
    “You were engaged
years
ago, Callie,” he snapped. “Before I even met you!”
    Her mouth fell open. “What?”
    Eduardo leaned his hand on the kitchen countertop. “Last Christmas Eve, when we made love,” he ground out, “I couldn’t sleep with you in my bed—”
    “So why didn’t you kick me out?”
    He ground his teeth. “I went for a walk. I decided to stop at your apartment to collect a few of your things. I was going to ask you to stay. I never expected to find a man living there with you.”
    “You—what?”
    His jaw was hard as he shook his head. “After our years together, I’d actually thought I could trust you. But just hours after you gave me your virginity, I met your live-in love. Your longtime fiancé.”
    She gaped at him.
    “What, no witty comeback?” he jibed.
    “Brandon wasn’t my fiancé. Not back then!”
    His eyes grew wild. “Stop it, damn you! Will you never stop lying?
I met him!
”
    “But we only got engaged a few weeks ago!”
    Eduardo folded his arms, his expression as hard as the wooden floors. “Then how do you explain it? Either you are lying, or he was. Which is it?”
    She licked her lips. “Brandon wouldn’t lie,” she said weakly. “Unless—” She covered her mouth with her hand.
    If we’re not married by thirty
—Brandon had taken her hands in his own—
let’s marry each other
.
    Sure
, she’d laughed. On the night of their senior prom, thirty had seemed a million miles away.
Why not?
    She’d thought it was a joke. But could Brandon have taken it seriously? Could that be why, the day after Eduardo had gotten her an apartment, Brandon had suddenly shown up in New York with no job and a suitcase full of jeans? Because he’d heard in Callie’s voice that she was falling completely in love with