Chapter 1
The glass Concordia Shagger hurled missed
Perry’s head by only an inch, hitting the wall next to the portrait
of William Shagger I, Concordia’s great grandfather and the founder
of the Shagger Inc. empire. The glass shattered to thousand pieces,
scattering around the room and damaging the frame of Concordia’s
great grandfather’s portrait, but omitting to damage its intended
target—Perry.
"You bastard!" Concordia screamed, tears
strolling down her cheeks. "How could you? How could you do this to
me? I was saving myself for you! All this time! I was saving myself
for you!"
"Concordia, darling, you know I love you,"
Perry said sympathetically, his straw blond forelock covering a
pea-sized mole above his left eyebrow.
"I’d do anything for you, I swear. It was a
mistake! A mistake, Concordia! Nothing more! I don’t feel anything
for her. You’re the one I love."
"Perry, you’re such a liar!" Concordia shot
back, spit of anger drizzling from her lips. "Ever since I got
engaged to you my life has been hell. You’ve been telling me one
lie after another. First you tell me you’ve quit drinking, and then
I find out you’ve been sleeping with my best friend. My best
fucking friend, Perry! If you were determined to cheat on me,
couldn’t you have chosen someone who’s not my friend?"
Perry wanted to say something, but his
insecurities rendered him speechless. Any comment he could think of
was potentially damaging. He looked at Concordia despairingly. He
was angry at himself for having bragged about sleeping with his
fiancée’s best friend in front of his pals at his bachelor party.
It was their mouthiness that turned his secret about his one-night
stand into public knowledge. But what would be the fun in breaking
a taboo if you had no one to share it with? The sex with
Concordia’s best friend didn’t really bother Perry. He saw no harm
in dunking his cookie into another woman’s cup of tea before their
wedding. But he was worried about his future with Concordia. And
yet, in spite of his worries, he was relieved that the glass
Concordia hurdled at him had damaged her great grandfather’s
portrait, and not his head.
Perry was aware that having cheated on
Concordia was a mistake that could cost him a lot—his future as a
spouse of an heiress to a business empire, and his reputation. Seen
from that aspect, it was crazy that he cheated, but he didn’t think
about the consequences when he was cheating. He was simply enjoying
the adventure.
It was even crazier that he bragged about
having cheated to his mouthy friends at his own bachelor party. His
friends did a nasty thing—they told their friends, and these
friends told their friends until the gossip made several circles,
making the final stop at Concordia’s ears.
Crazy too was that Marianne wanted to sleep
with her best friend’s fiancé at the wedding party of a mutual
friend of hers and Concordia’s—wedding at which she and Concordia
were maids of honor.
Perry saw the events of that ominous evening
flash like a movie before his eyes.
It was a hot and a steamy night. Summer.
About fifty guests were cramped on a relatively small dance floor,
shaking their booties to top ten dance hits and evergreen romantic
music. The atmosphere was heated and sexual. People sweated. Some
were in bad need of deodorant wipes, but for the most part, the
body odors were bearable. Others perspired so much, their clothes
glued to their bodies revealing skin and voluptuous curves.
Like Marianne. Her dress was so tight, you
could almost see through it. She didn’t wear a bra, which was very
dirty, since her nipples stood erect on her succulent breasts like
twin Eiffel towers on Mouth Everest, bouncing to the music above
curvaceous hips. Perry thought that her curves broke all the
records of architectural proportions for football stadiums.
Marianne asked Perry to dance an honorary
dance with her to a romantic song. He agreed. As