Free THE GREAT BETRAYAL by Millenia Black

don’t want anyone else. And I’m still just really pissed off that I lost him. ” She gave a heavy sigh. “I still miss him. A lot.”
    Leslie’s head turned then, and she gazed out the kitchen window, staring out into the backyard. “Yeah…I know.”
    Dawn watched her. As usual, she felt the urge to ask about her husband Jeffrey. What was he like? How did he die? Those were questions she’d never gotten answers to, even now.
    There was a tacit understanding—Leslie did not talk about her past. And as the years went by, Dawn struggled to keep her curiosity under wraps, always reining it in out of respect for her friend’s feelings and privacy. But while Leslie’s life bloomed, Dawn’s languished. And she was finding it increasingly difficult to suppress the frustration.
    She needed more from Leslie. She needed everything.
     
    • 
     
    Later that evening, when Luke Cavanaugh pulled onto their street, he pushed off a touch of annoyance at seeing Dawn Chadwick’s car in the driveway yet again.
    Why didn’t the woman just get a life? he thought crossly. No man. No kids. No nothing. From the day he’d met Leslie, Dawn Chadwick had been glued to her like a hollow tick.
    Luke had no idea what upset him more: The fact that Dawn was always around, or the fact that she seemed to know his own wife better than he did.
    Five years of marriage, and he still felt as if he were living with a virtual stranger. His torment was festering daily, because he loved that stranger so much it hurt, but he couldn’t quite explain why. And at times it infuriated him.
    Over the years he’d waited—waited for time to strengthen her trust in him, and for the pieces of the puzzle to snap into place, finally.
    Well, he was still waiting.
    She was a wonderful mother to Kathryn. He loved the tenderness their baby had brought out in her. But a mysterious void still lingered, and showed no signs of disappearing with time.
    The odd behavior remained. Whenever he tried to express his feelings, Leslie would shut him down. Change the subject. Tell him she didn’t know what he was talking about, that he was imagining things.
    Well, his imagination was getting the best of him.
    He had married a woman he did not understand. He’d married a woman he wasn’t sure he ever really knew at all.
     

Chapter 18
     
    Palm Beach, Florida
    Early 2005
     
    The couple on the bed—slick with sweat and fucking like mad—had no business being there. At least, not together.
    He knew it. And she knew it. But they couldn’t stop.
    It was all about usage—each for their own purpose.
    They were satisfying their needs; deep, hedonistic needs they both felt powerless to suppress—or control. It was what brought them back each time for more.
    “You were a virgin,” he said gruffly as the dust settled. He still couldn’t believe it. He’d had no idea!
    Last time she’d actually thanked him for being her first. Thanked him. He’d immediately run into the bathroom to shower, trying desperately to wash his self-disgust down the drain. It hadn’t worked.
    And tonight he’d still come back for more.
    “ Why me, for Christ’s sake?” Confusion clouded his temper. “Why did you have to come after me?”
    He rolled away from her, as he’d done before when the sex was over. The release seemed to decompress the storm of complex emotions plaguing him daily—but it was temporary. Once his head cleared and he descended from the clouds, the torment returned…and guilt burrowed in.
    What in the hell were they doing?
    At this point, did he even want to think about it?
    No .
    Hell, no .
    Leaving the bed, he got dressed. Quickly.
    “Where are you going?” Her disappointment was palpable.
    “This can’t happen again,” he said, unable to look in her direction now that it was over. “Never again. No more . Understand?”
    “Wait a minute!” she cried.
    But he was already gone.

Chapter 19
     
    West Palm Beach, Florida
    Late 2000
     
    “ Harvey Nichols, the new