Free All Said and Undone by Angelita Gill

could speak. To her anguish, Grace whimpered at the onslaught of his desperate kiss, fighting her own natural impulse to cave in and let him have his way. Splaying her palms on his hard chest, she turned her head away with a sob, breaking the contact.
    His arms locked around her waist while she pushed. “Grace,” he pleaded, his voice husky with emotion and liquor, his hot lips on her cheek. “Don’t push me away. I ache for you. I need to feel you. I want you so much….”
    She turned her head the other way. “Jack, stop. Please! You promised.”
    He released her so fast she stumbled on her feet.
    “What?” he asked, his eyes glittering with hurt and rejection. “You only fuck actors now?”
    She slapped him.
    Jack didn’t recover right away. His profile stayed averted. His throat moved on a swallow; he squeezed eyes squeezed shut for a moment. Instantly, she could see he regretted what he’d said.
    Her hand stung, along with her eyes. When he shifted his gaze to face her, she couldn’t take it, and marched to the master bedroom. She closed the door and slid down the paneled back, her tears burning.
    Sighing, she put her face in her hands.
     
    ***
     
    Jack felt like crap the next morning and not just because he’d drunk the better half of his whiskey decanter last night.
    He didn’t know how to rationalize his conduct because rational thought and uncontrollable behavior were not in the same family. He’d allowed his jealousy to take over, fed it with some strong libations, and taken it all out on Grace with one jackass remark. That morning, he’d woken up and walked to her room to apologize, only to see she was already gone.
    He couldn’t blame her for avoiding him. He’d acted like a pig.
    Now he was sitting in a management meeting, completely uninterested in any topic, and thankful he could put on a good show by nodding once in a while when it seemed appropriate.
    All he could think about was that he needed to make it up to her. But how? Things like taking her out to dinner, buying her flowers….all seemed lame. In hindsight, he’d been wasting his time. Instead of trying to win her back, he had been picking fights and behaving immaturely. Not anymore….first thing he’d do—
    “Crandall.” A hand slapped down on his shoulder. It was his colleague, Tom Warner, Director of Marketing. “Meeting’s over.”
    Jack cleared his throat. “Yeah, I was just thinking about how to deal with the permit issue….” He stood up, buttoning his jacket.
    “Didn’t you hear? Pierson is handling it.”
    He’d heard squat. “Oh. Right.”
    Tom gave him a look, shaking his head as they stopped in the doorway. “Have you been moonlighting or something? You look like hell.”
    No, I’ve been losing my mind . “Thanks a lot for pointing it out,” Jack said with a sigh. “It’s just been a long week and it’s only Wednesday.”
    Tom was too busy looking down the hallway to pay attention to anything Jack was saying. His eyes widened with blatant interest. “Who’s the fox talking to Hughes?”
    Mr. Hughes was the company’s president and CEO, a man that Jack had come to admire almost like a father figure. They’d come from similar backgrounds and had great business chemistry from the get-go.
    He sent a quick glance down the hall, only to do a double take.
    The woman Tom had referred to seemed impossibly familiar. She wore sky-high heels, black hosiery with seams running up the back, a dark purple pencil dress, her hair in a messy knot….
    Jack’s throat went bone-dry.
    Tom gave a crooked, unmistakably predatory smile as he tightened the knot of his tie. “Think I’ll go over there and introduce myself—”
    He halted him with a firm grip on the man’s shoulder. His voice was clear with a trace of a warning. “That’s my wife.” Tom had come aboard after Jack and Grace’s separation, and therefore had never met her.
    Tom stopped, gaping, looking back and forth. “Say again? You’re screwing