Sweet Southern Betrayal by Robin Covington Read Free Book Online

ago.”
    Lucky’s eyebrows shot up and he opened his mouth to say something, but Teague gave him a look that thankfully shut him up. Of course he recognized Risa from the photo on Beck’s phone, but no one else had to know that fact. Ever.
    “Oh, do you own a business, Risa? What kind?” Taylor said.
    “I do.” Risa looked at him helplessly, her alarmed expression causing his stomach to lurch down into his toes. He wasn’t going to like where this went, he just knew it.
    “What kind?”
    Risa’s voice was firm, no hint of an apology or embarrassment when she finally answered. “I sell sensual marital aids and exclusive nightwear for couples.”
    “What?” His mother wrinkled her nose in incomprehension.
    “It sounds like she sells sex toys and lingerie,” Lucky said, a shit-eating grin plastered on his face.
    “Well, that’s one way to describe it.” Risa made eye contact with all of them. “It’s very tasteful. My company is called Behind Closed Doors and I help people keep the romance alive.”
    Teague resisted the urge to look for the hidden camera. Someone had to be fucking with him, because this kind of stuff just didn’t happen in real life. How the hell did he manage to find and marry the Vegas showgirl who also happened to peddle vibrators and crotchless underwear? This was not how he usually ran his life. He had plans. Everything was under control and ahead of schedule. He couldn’t have done this much damage in one night. Could he?
    “That sounds wonderful. Such a nice way to help people, ” his mother said, her smile a little too bright and forced to be real. But, God bless her, she was trying. “Taylor, you’re practically still on your honeymoon, maybe you could find some things for you and—”
    “Okay!” Teague was not going to listen to his mom discuss sex toys with his sister. He needed to get rid of them so he could talk to Risa and figure out how to become single again without anyone in DC finding out. “Speaking of honeymoons, Risa and I haven’t seen each other in a while so…”
    He pulled Risa close to his side and nodded toward the door.
    “Oh, of course.” His mother turned quickly, the relief of getting an escape making her almost break into a run. At the door, she recollected her manners and stopped short, turning to offer a smile to her daughter-in-law. “Risa, dear, we’ll have lunch when you’re settled. Welcome to the family.”
    And with a nod of her head and a swift shooing gesture to Lucky and Taylor, she ushered them out the door in a clamor of shoes on the stairs down to the street. The apartment was startlingly silent in their wake, the only sound the ticking of the grandfather clock whose time told him that it had only been a half hour since his life had fallen apart.
    “Your family seems nice,” Risa said, breaking away from him to walk to the fridge where she opened the door and emerged with a beer in hand. She could drink the whole damn case and he wouldn’t blame her. He was torn between wanting to get wasted and forget this all happened, and bashing his head against the wall.
    “Not that I have a whole lot of family experience to compare it to, but they didn’t freak completely out when they got the news.”
    Teague loosened his tie, stripping it off with a vicious tug and ignoring the distinct sound of the silk ripping under his abuse. Normally, his suits and ties were like a second skin and he was as comfortable in them as he was in a pair of sweats, but today the length of expensive Italian silk felt like a goddamn noose around his neck.
    He didn’t even bother to check the anger and frustration in his voice this time. He was moving beyond shock and right into pissed-off and violent.
    “Oh, don’t kid yourself, this was round one. Once my mother and sister have had time to digest this news, they’ll be back for the full interrogation. I’ll be lucky if my mother doesn’t kill me for doing this to her after the year she’s