Trouble in Sudden Falls: A Sudden Falls Romance by Elizabeth Bemis Read Free Book Online Page A

shifted forward, ready to flee.
    “Seriously, Eli. I really… I don’t want to talk about it.”
    Eli reached for her, tugging her back down onto the couch as he opened his mouth to speak again. Finally, he shook his head as she let herself ease back into the cushions. “Fine. We won’t talk about it tonight . But soon.”
    She’d won that too easily. Eli was clearly not in favor of ignoring their history, but he let go of it pretty quickly. Why?
    “We’ll see,” she said.
    “Will you tell me what happened with Darren?”
    Out of the frying pan, into the fire. “Never trust a man who doesn’t have eyes like Sinatra.” Of course, it would be right at that moment that she noticed what pretty baby blues Eli had.
    She took a long swallow of her wine.
    “Ione Skye, Dream for an Insomniac .” He raised his eyebrows. “And that doesn’t answer the question.”
    She had no desire to give a much deeper answer for a variety of reasons—not the least of which was, she’d been extremely dumb to stick it out as long as she had. For that matter, she’d been an idiot for marrying him in the first place. One more major mistake in a long line of mistakes.
    “He had a little problem with fidelity.” She kept her voice light, as if the memory of his constant betrayal didn’t rip her to shreds every time she thought about it. “Actually, he had a huge problem with fidelity. Usually it was anonymous girls he saw once or twice then kicked to the curb. Then he took up with his assistant, a charming little… tart with more boobs than smarts or class who threatened to— quote —kick my ass— endquote —when I told him to put a leash on her.”
    “That sounds like something you would say.”
    She shrugged. “What can I say? I kind of lost it. She started mouthing off at me, which I didn’t think she had the right to do after I’d found her chubby, naked ass in bed with my equally naked husband.”
    “Ooo. Ouch. She was chubby?”
    “In all the right places.” She held her hands out in front of her approximating the size of giant watermelons, exaggerating slightly.
    “I told him right then and there he needed to make a decision—her or me. He chose her, I packed a bag. Then he spent the next six months making my life miserable.”
    Her face warmed as she remembered the humiliation of that moment. Probably the second most embarrassing moment of her life… Surpassed only by Eli’s rejection, as a matter of fact. The big difference being, she’d really cared about Eli, and by the time she’d discovered Darren in bed with the chubby tart, she would have had a hard time crossing the street to spit on him, even if he were on fire.
    Eli’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean, miserable ? He didn’t hurt you, did he?” If Darren had been in the room, Maddie felt certain he wouldn’t have been able to get out without taking a serious beating.
    She rolled her eyes, but still, she appreciated the support. Too bad she hadn’t had it when she’d actually felt like she was in danger.
    “Physically? No. But once I moved out, he’d show up at my apartment unannounced and I’d run into him all over town. At the dry cleaners, the bank, the library. Just creepy stuff. I got sick of it and it did kind of freak me out. I had to leave the city, though, when I realized he was the reason I couldn’t get a job.”
    “How did he do that?”
    “First by insisting that I quit my computer programming job to become a full time executive’s wife. I didn’t really mind at the time, but in retrospect, it wasn’t a smart move on my part. All my certifications expired and I fell completely behind on the technology. I don’t think I could program “Hello world” at this point. You know as well as I do how quickly you lose computer languages if you don’t use them.” She took a sip of her wine.
    “And the thing was, I didn’t really miss it. I know I was a fairly good programmer, but my heart was never really in it.” She’d