Need You Tonight by Roni Loren Page A

lose services and the employees
     who’d lose their jobs. She’d started the project five years ago when Doug had told
     her she should get more involved in his church’s outreach activities to look good
     to the congregation. She’d had no desire to put on more of a show at church than she
     already did, so she’d asked for seed money to start a charity instead. Looking back
     over her years with Doug, it was the one thing she could be proud of. Even though
     it was her ex’s money that had funded it, she’d poured her guts into the project,
     determined to help foster kids who were aging out of the system. She was all too familiar
     with how it felt to be staring down eighteen with no family behind you, few job skills,
     and limited funds to better your education.
    But now the whole thing was going to be drained dry and abandoned if the cash wasn’t
     there to support it. After the divorce, she’d given the lion’s share of her divorce
     settlement money to Bluebonnet. God knows she’d had no desire to live off Doug’s handouts
     for another second and wanted to put them to good use. But even with that donation,
     she knew the charity only had enough cash to make it to the end of the year.
    “Tessa, if you had thought this through better, you wouldn’t have left me in the first
     place and wouldn’t have to worry about this, so don’t try to lay some guilt trip on
     me. This is your doing. Your decision.”
    She ran a hand through her hair, gripping a few strands tight against her scalp, trying
     to keep her composure while her mind was screaming,
You self-centered piece of shit. You cheated! You! I didn’t do this.
    “Doug, you know I’m not going to be able to get this much money in time to keep it
     going. Can’t you wait to pull funding in six months? We can make a big to-do of how
     you’re contributing despite our differences and give you all the credit. The press
     will love it.” She loathed her supplicating tone but knew that’s what got him off—beating
     her down and winning.
    He snorted. “The
press
? You mean the same press you spilled lies to after the divorce? You know how much
     of my congregation I’ve lost because of the shit you spread about me? I’m still repairing
     that damage.”
    “I only told them the truth. I can’t help how they relayed it. And I had to do something
     after you put rumors out there that I was some pill-popping tramp who strayed on you.”
    “Right. Because you were an angel. Gabriel was just lying about you meeting him mornings
     in the guest house. I should’ve known then and let you have someone on the side to
     degrade yourself with. You always did like to slum it.”
    Her nails dug into her palm. That story again. She knew damn well Doug had either
     paid her former personal trainer money or blackmailed him to go to the press and fabricate
     some story about her. It had to have been something big because before that, Gabriel
     had been a friend to her, keeping her company and making her laugh during those often
     lonely days. The guy was probably going to graduate school on a full ride now, courtesy
     of her ex-husband.
    “Good-bye, Doug.”
    “Hold on,” he said, right as she was about to pull the phone from her ear. “I do have
     one way I
may
consider giving you the funds you need.”
    Her gut knotted at his tone, but she forced herself to stay on the phone. She knew
     whatever he was going to propose would be something she didn’t like, but she was willing
     to do a lot to keep those kids at Bluebonnet from losing funding. “And what’s that?”
    She could almost feel his viper grin over the phone. “I would need you to
beg
, darling. Get on those pretty knees and tell me how you can’t get through without
     me. That I was right. Then, you’d need to go to the press, admit to your affair with
     Gabriel and your emotional problems, and tell them that I was a good husband who took
     care of you.”
    Her lunch almost came up at the