of his mouth.
Nadine had been shocked at his level of frigidity. After she’d slapped him with those papers and Nadine hadn’t given in when he broke down, talking to Noah became like talking to him through a sheet of ice.
He wouldn’t even look at her.
That coldness from Noah had hurt Nadine almost as much as his infidelity. Noah didn’t even want to see her. When he came for the kids, he wouldn’t even come inside. He wanted no parts of Nadine… and it hurt. The divorce was an ultimatum to make him change. To make him want to. The only thing Nadine had achieved by divorcing Noah was driving him away.
She’d already hurt his pride and damaged his humongous ego. She couldn’t possibly stay in that much pain alone. Noah didn’t seem affected enough to her. She wanted him on his knees like she was.
Nadine thought she’d get a rise out of Noah by going for his pockets. She got a lawyer and asked for what she knew was an unreasonable amount of alimony and child support. She knew she wouldn’t get what she wanted when she filed the papers. Nadine pulled her fair share of financial weight around the house. She was a successful photographer with her own studio. As a matter of fact, that was how she’d met Noah.
She’d seen him one day and asked if she could take his picture.
Noah had shown up to that hearing with his own slick lawyer. The judge dropped the petition for alimony, and awarded her reasonable child support. Noah hadn’t even looked at her during the entire hearing, but when he stood to leave, he looked over at her and smirked, his beautiful gray eyes dark and stormy. He let her know he knew she’d tried to fuck him and he was thumbing his nose at her.
Nadine didn’t appreciate the gesture. She wanted to wipe that cute crooked smile off his handsome face once and for all, and she knew just how to do it. She went back to court and filed a petition for sole custody of their kids, with restricted and supervised visitation. She knew she probably wouldn’t win that one either. Noah, if he was anything, was an outstanding father.
She’d gotten a rise out of him all right. She’d finally really hurt him.
Their kids meant the world to Noah. He’d called her in the middle of the night, upset, and more than a little drunk. She still remembered exactly what he’d said, “Nadine, please. I’m sorry a thousand times. Please don’t take my kids from me. Please don’t do that.” Nadine also remembered exactly what she’d said to him. “Fuck you, Noah. See you in court.” Nadine looked over at Noah now, heart her full of regret. She should never have divorced Noah. They should have tried to work it out. She wished she could take back that nasty custody hearing. She’d stabbed him in the heart with that one, and though it was long and drawn out, they’d ended up getting joint custody anyway because he’d fought her so hard.
It had taken them almost a year to get back on speaking terms after that. Noah was slow to thaw and so was she. Eventually, they’d reached the point of polite conversation, though it was mostly tinged with acid and sarcasm on both sides. Too much hurt had gone on. Too many things they couldn’t forgive each other for. Still, they were talking.
Nadine started dating Walter as filler. Filler for Noah. Walter was a good and decent man, but he couldn’t hold a candle to Noah. Nobody could. Nadine lost count long ago how many times Walter made love to her in his decently average way and she’d imagined in her heart it was Noah — unbridled, raw, and completely satisfying. Poor Walter fell short every time. Nadine had been trying to figure out a way to get her husband back, when the kids started coming home from weekends spent with their father talking about some bitch named Lissette.
Noah was a womanizer, but he didn’t bring those women around his kids. If they were starting to talk about this bitch, then she was important. Nadine held her tongue and bided her time. She figured this whore, Lissette, would eventually get as tired of Noah’s need to fuck other people as she’d gotten herself. No such luck. That slut had dug her heels in and gotten Noah to get her pregnant. She was pregnant now.
Lissette’s pregnancy had gotten Nadine’s ass in gear. Sure Noah had fucked around on her with an inestimable number of women, but Lissette was real competition because she was carrying his child. That bitch could actually take Noah away from her! Nadine had to stop her.
There was one sure way of doing that. Granted, it was the oldest trick in the book. It hadn’t been hard to get Noah to sleep with her.
After all, she was — at least up until now — the love of his life. Now Nadine finally knew how it felt to be the other woman. Noah was cheat-ing on Lissette with his ex-wife. He’d found out Nadine was pregnant, too, the day before this horrible thing had happened to him. Now he had no choice but to choose. Nadine had no doubt that she’d win.
Nadine thought of all these things as she watched Noah’s heart beat blip across the monitor. She loved Noah, and she didn’t want to lose him. Nadine lost her train of thought as the door opened and someone walked in.
It was a woman, a little less than average height, with a nice curvy figure. She was very pretty, with stylishly short hair. Nadine frowned, but relaxed some when she saw the 9mm clipped next to the detective badge on her belt. People had been in and out of Noah’s room all day.
She was just another cop looking in on him.
Nadine still didn’t think anything of it when she saw that she was crying — she’d seen a lot of that today, but when she ran her fingers through Noah’s curly hair and bent to kiss his face, Nadine sat straight up in her chair. She watched as the woman picked up Noah’s hand, kissed it, and held it to her face. It was one hell of an intimate gesture.
Nadine stood and quietly walked up on her.
“Excuse me, but who the hell are you?” Nadine asked, one hand on her hip, her eyes sizing her up. The woman took her time answering her. She gently returned Noah’s hand to the bed and turned to face Nadine, wiping her tears with her fingers. A small smile curved her lips.
“You must be his ex-wife … Naomi.”
Nadine’s eyebrows went up. No, this bitch didn’t! Nadine folded her arms over her chest and shifted her weight to one foot. “That’s exactly who I am. Mrs. Nadine Ramsey. I’ll ask my question again. Who the hell are you?”
That small smile was still on her face. Nadine bit her bottom lip.
She wanted to scratch that smile off with her fingernails. She felt herself starting to sink. She wanted to dig her heels in to keep from going there, but her downward slide to a lower level had already begun and to come back would be like trying to climb out of quicksand.
“You’re holding on to an old title a little too hard, Nadine. It’s a lot like Miss America trying to keep the tiara from the new girl.” Nadine narrowed her eyes. “What new girl? You? ” The woman kept her sweet smile and shrugged. “You never know.” Nadine had to tuck her hands under her arms to keep from hitting her. “I’m not going to ask you again. Who are you?” Her smile became derisive. “You just did.” She gave Nadine the same once-over she’d given her. “I’m wondering if I should take that as a threat.”
“Maybe you should.”
She laughed and it infuriated Nadine. “You’re funny. You want to beat my ass because I won’t tell you my name. What difference does it make?”
Nadine wanted to rip her hair out by the roots. “Are you fucking my husband?”
