Sleeping With The Enemy (A Stranger's Touch) by Mary Eason Read Free Book Online

headset.
    “Dad, it’s okay, it’s just me.” She picked up the pages and started to place them back into the box when something caught her attention.
    “Dad, guess what? I’m married! I got married in Vegas. I married Alex Bradshaw over the week...” Her voice died away as the words on those pages jumped out at her.
    Alcohol suspected in death of twenty-three-year-old wife...
    “Oh my God.” Kate barely registered her father’s disbelief.
    “Dad, I have to go. I have to.” She didn’t wait to hear Robert’s response. She disconnected the phone and let it fall to the floor at her feet.
    Marissa Bradshaw, twenty-three, wife of Alex Bradshaw was pronounced dead at the scene early Tuesday morning...
    Wife of Alex Bradshaw. Marissa Bradshaw—wife of Alex Bradshaw. Wife of the man who told her he’d never loved another. Alex had been married before.
    Suddenly everything around her shifted into slow motion. Even the words spilling out before her. Her thoughts. Her breathing. Time itself. Everything slowed to nothing.
    Alex Bradshaw—her Alex Bradshaw had been married! The man who told her he’d never loved another woman before her had lied about everything.
    Kate scanned the headlines again in disbelief and then began to read the story.
    “No,” That single word slipped out into the silent room.
    Alex Bradshaw, the man she loved with all her heart was nothing more than a cold, calculating liar.
     
     
    Chapter Four
     
    Everything Kate believed to be real about her marriage to Alex was slowly slipping away like the newspaper clippings that fell from her lifeless fingers to the floor.
    Her life, her marriage, even her husband’s love exposed for the reality of what they really were. Lies. A means to accomplish one thing. Alex’s revenge against the man he believed responsible for killing his wife. Kate’s father.
    Alex had known exactly who she was when he walked into the bookstore. He told her he loved her, but in truth, she was just part of his plan for revenge. He wanted her father to pay and he would stop at nothing to achieve it, including using her to get to Robert.
    And she had proven guidable enough to fall for every one of Alex’s lies.
    She’d actually believed everything he told her. Under the circumstances, he probably found all of her naivety extremely amusing.
    Looking back now with the truth scattered at her feet like a broken dream, Kate saw how ridiculous the whole thing was. Why should someone like Alex Bradshaw want to marry her? She wasn’t the type of person who attracted such men. In the past, Kate always considered herself boring, but Alex made her feel interesting.
    Right from their very first meeting, he’d flirted, listened, and seemed genuinely interested in everything she had to say.
    I’m such an idiot!
    Now she understood the real reason behind Alex’s rush to marry in the first place. Why he’d insisted Kate not mention their marriage to her father until they returned from their honeymoon.
    She thought he wanted them to break the news to her father, Robert Edwards, together carefully. After all, there was the age difference, Alex was thirty-four, and then of course they’d barely known each other.
    Lies...all lies.
    Kate gathered the clippings from the floor, stuffed them into her purse, and started throwing her clothes into the suitcase she’d just unpacked.
    She settled the heavy bag over her shoulder along with her purse and left the house she planned to share with Alex for the rest of their lives. She could never return there. Whatever she thought she felt for Alex would disappear in time.
    She needed to hear the truth from the one man she could trust to tell it to her. Her father.
    Robert Edward still lived in the small two-story house where Kate grew up. It was worlds apart from the opulent neighborhood Alex lived in.
    She parked her battered SUV in the drive next to Robert’s pickup and went inside.
    “Dad! Dad, are you here—it’s Kate!” She climbed the