Bruiser: A Lonely Housewife Embarks on a Passionate Affair with an Alpha Male MMA Fighter by Simone Scarlet Read Free Book Online

”
    With an exhausted sigh, Ava carried Lex through to the living room, dumped him unceremoniously on the couch, and tried to focus on all the demands the rest of her family were screaming at her.
    “Hun! My phone?”
    “On the sink in the bathroom,” Ava sighed.
    “Mommy! Mommy! Where are…”
    “In the tumble dryer,” she answered Harley’s question before she’d even finished answering it.
    With an exhausted sigh, she looked up into the full-length mirror in the hallways. Staring back at her was – in Ava’s opinion, at least – a frumpy, overweight housewife with tangled, matted hair and dark rings under her eyes.
    Normally she wouldn’t care – hadn’t cared for what seemed like years. This was just what motherhood resembled, right?
    But in a few minutes, she was going to be taking the kids to karate – and that would mean seeing Brandon…
    For once, she didn’t want to look like a schlubby wife who’d given up on life. Not in front of the young, handsome karate instructor.
    “ Mommy ?”
    “Mom?”
    “Honey?”
    “ Guys !” Ava snapped, and her two kids and one husband (who practically ranked as a third kid, the way he was so needy) all fell into immediate silence. They weren’t used to Mommy snapping at them like that.
    “I’m going to go and put some make-up on,” Ava growled, watching three astonished faces looking up at her. “I need to you guys to give me a few minutes.”
    “Well, honey…” Clark started.
    “That includes you ,” Ava hissed. Her husband fell silent.
    With the three of them in hushed astonishment, Ava padded into the bedroom, and pulled open her dresser drawer.
    Makeup she hadn’t worn in six months rolled around in the drawer. A broken lip-liner. A smudged lipstick. Foundation powder that was mostly caked and solid.
    Nevertheless, Ava took the time to use what she could of it – and when she looked up into the mirror, she was delighted to see somebody she hadn’t seen in a very long time.
    Somebody pretty.
    Buoyed by that realization, Ava decided to change outfits – removing her frumpy mom jeans and oversized t-shirt, and slipping into yoga pants and a tight v-neck instead.
    Okay, so she didn’t have the figure of a Victoria’s Secret model any more – but the tighter clothes emphasized her ripe and inviting rear end, her Bette Midler cleavage, and a waist that might not have been tiny, but was certainly the nexus of an impressive, hourglass figure.
    A spritz of body spray and a few quick sweeps with her hairbrush completed the transformation. Looking in the mirror a second time, Ava was delighted at the result.
    “Wow,” said Clark, nervously peering in through the doorway. “You look great .”
    For a guy who normally never interacted with his wife unless he wanted something found, or cooked, that was high praise indeed.
    “So you’re okay to come and pick up the kids at seven, right?” Ava asked, throwing her deodorant into her bag. “I want to take kickboxing tonight.”
    Clark snorted and rolled his eyes, because picking up the kids and then having to put them bed was an inconvenience to him. But he’d been married to Ava long enough to know not to complain.
    “Sure,” he pouted.
    “Good,” Ava slung her bag over her shoulder. “Because God knows I need the break.”

Chapter Twenty
     
    Brandon
     
    A wave of depression hit Brandon not long after Mia had left the karate school.
    She’d taken her kids off to a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese, and that left Brandon alone to run the last few classes of the day, wallowing in his misery.
    His financial problems still loomed over him like a shadow, dominating his thoughts. It was not even five weeks before he was due to make the next round of rent payments – and the way things were going right now, he’d be even deeper in debt by then.
    It would mean the end to his karate school; to his classes. It would mean goodbye to the students he loved, and to what he loved teaching them.
    And as