Free Handcuffed in Housewares: Tulle and Tulips, Book 3 by Nikki Duncan Page A

good enough reason to mistreat someone. He should’ve known she was different.
    She was halfway to the front door, muttering something about knowing why he hadn’t called, when his brain and body had gotten on the same page and caught up with her. “Leigh, wait.”
    She stopped and pivoted slowly. Her eyes were colder than he’d thought capable given her generosity. He hadn’t thought he had the power to hurt her, either. She made making a liar out of him look easy.
    She’d been dead accurate in the comparison between them. She’d proven how good she was when she made the suggestion about turning the room upstairs into a media room instead of a guest bedroom. It was the kind of thing he’d have considered if he wasn’t more concerned with flipping the house, or if he’d been planning the job for a client.
    If she was guilty of leading people into debt then so was he. She was no more responsible for keeping people from overspending than he was.
    “I’m sorry.” He shrugged, knowing there weren’t enough words to convey how sorry he was. “For a minute I allowed your pleasure in shopping to mean you were a shopaholic who’d use people to get ahead. I should’ve known better. If you were like that you’d never have helped me.”
    Her brows popped up again in acknowledgement. “She really did a number on you.”
    “Who?”
    “Your shopaholic.” She crossed her arms, guarding herself. Her gaze met his, looked into his head and heart, saw the truths that made him tick. “I’m guessing an ex who tossed you over because she found someone with deeper pockets.”
    He bowed his head in agreement. “My ex-wife. The more money I made the more easily she allowed the definition of things like budget and delayed gratification to slip away.”
    “And the other man?”
    Leigh saw even deeper into him than he was entirely comfortable with, but she wasn’t giving him a reason to hide the truth. Hell, if anything her questions were making her more desirable. They showed an interest his wife had never managed.
    “We went to Disney World. Let’s just say the happiest place on Earth wasn’t so happy for me.”
    “What’d she do, wait until you were in line for Stitch’s Great Escape and ask for her own?”
    “Something like that, only I was holding our place, and her stuff, when her lover called her phone.”
    She winced. “So you took your escape before she asked for hers.”
    “Leaving her to find her own way home was… I’m not sure how I resisted.” His muscles tingled with the remembered rage. As he talked about the worst time in his life, he led the way to the bedroom where they could sit comfortably. Leigh followed and silently kicked off her dusty shoes to sit Indian style on his bed.
    “It was probably the hundreds of kids surrounding us that kept me from telling her what I really thought of her.”
    He mirrored her position, almost close enough for his knees to brush hers. The temptation of the touch shoved against the burn of the betrayal he spoke of. He wanted to reach out, yet at the same time he didn’t want the ugliness of his ex anywhere near Leigh.

Chapter Nine
    Leigh listened as Burton talked about his ex. Everyone had baggage. Some bags weighed more than others. She especially knew that, just as she knew how important it was to not hold the past against people. Logic didn’t stand a chance against the chokehold of jealousy, even jealousy that shouldn’t be hers to feel.
    The more Burton talked the more closely his words resembled a spewing release of old hurts. Paula had done a number on his ability to trust. She’d used him and cheated on him, and according to his version she barely blinked when he confronted her about the affair.
    “I’d thought about staying to get my money’s worth out of the trip. The fun was ruined though.”
    “You left early?”
    He nodded. “I waited until we got back to the hotel to say anything. She didn’t try to deny it and I couldn’t deny how pissed