Exposed by S Anders Page A

hissed.
    "Because I married you, I’m not going to call you what I think you are. But, Sadie, get this: It. Is. Over."
    Her face turned red and she stepped back. "You owe me money, Jack, and I am going to get it! This house too."
    Before she stomped from the room, he shook his head, trying to clear it, and said, "I’ve put some money in your savings, Sadie. Just remember it will all be divided evenly and you will only get half, so spend it wisely."
    She glared at him over her shoulder as she walked to the front door, and he followed.
    "If you think I’m thanking you for giving me money that is mine, you can forget it. It was work being your wife, Jack, and I deserve that money."
    He shrugged, knowing now that she had money she'd go get booze. "Don't show up here unannounced again, Sadie."
    At the opened door, she growled, "I’ll be living back here very soon!"
    Once the door slammed behind her, Jack made certain it was locked. "I know it was locked before," he muttered, walking slowly back into the kitchen.
    He knew deep in his gut Sadie had just messed up things with Nia. If the tables had been turned and that had been Cooper catching them, and saying those things, he knew he'd be feeling insecure. He scraped a hand over his jaw.
    He'd be wondering why he was jumping into bed with someone when he was barely divorced. Yes, he'd be thinking the hundred guilty things he knew had to be going through Nia's head, plus wondering about the dynamic between her and her ex.
    Jack cussed and banged his fist once on the countertop. Man, was he messed up. He walked over and looked down the long hall. They couldn't go back now. Not right now. He needed to think. Something he hadn't been doing much of, because he was afraid if he thought about it sensibly, he and Nia would never be ...
    He scraped that thought before it could solidify, and he walked to Nia's door, knocking lightly. He didn't expect her to open it, and he called through the door, "She's gone, Nia. She won't be back. You don't have to worry about it. I'm ..." He paused, leaning his temple to the door. "I'll go to bed, see you tomorrow."
    There was a long pause when he wondered if he should say some more, but then he heard her saying softly, "Good night, Jack."
    He thought it best to leave it at that. For now.
    On the couch thirty minutes later, he lay on his back staring at the ceiling. It was dark, with just light from the streetlight out front. His gaze traced the weird patterns it made on the ceiling as he considered that he'd been so focused on the event of the TV show proving Sadie was cheating that he'd not thought much past it.
    Of course, past it was where he wasn't married any longer. Maybe he'd just skipped that on purpose? But the event of getting the TV show to investigate Sadie, finding out she was cheating, the confrontation day, and down to his plans about the locks, had consumed him for months of preparing. The most he'd thought past it was once free he'd go out to get drunk and to get laid.
    "See how that worked out," he muttered, shifting on his makeshift bed while pulling an arm under his head.
    All of his preplanning couldn't have prepared him for Nia. The wife of the man cheating with his wife. Yet, from the first moment he'd seen her, somewhere in the back of his mind it had registered to him that she was very special. Cute ... okay, lovely, curvy, and all that stuff that could attract men, but it went beyond that. Perhaps it was the connection of their cheating spouses. She knew ... he knew ... they both knew feelings no one else could begin to understand. Was that why he felt so close to her? Wanted to get closer?
    Then there was his overwrought arousal, which he knew stemmed from so much forced celibacy. He could be thinking more with his lower extremities in mind than he should. He wasn't the kind of guy to just love them and leave them, though.
    "Man, you are not," he muttered.
    He'd forgotten that, being married. But before he was married, he'd