Raising his hands in surrender, he took a retreating step. “Wait, it’s not what you think.”
A low growl caught their attention and Chanté slowly turned toward her walk-in closet.
Buddy trotted out, growling and shaking his head with a leather pump clenched between his teeth.
“What in the hell?” Chanté screeched.
“Buddy, no.” Matthew raced into the room and knelt to rescue the prized possession. “Give me that. How did you get out of my room?”
“Buddy?” his wife snapped. “This mongrel belongs to you?”
Matthew pried the shoe out of the dog’s mouth, but then groaned at the numerous teeth marks around the heel.
Chanté approached with her fist jabbed into her hips.
He glanced up. “Uh, looks like we were a little too late.”
“Uh, you think?” She snatched the shoe from his hand. “These are Weitzman pumps. Do you know what I had to do to track these down?”
He quickly scooped the dog into his arms before his wife did something rash. As a matter of fact, he realized that he better stand up if he wanted to keep his own teeth. “Chanté, calm down. This was an accident.”
“An accident? You expect me to believe that? What the hell is a dog doing in this house in the first place? You know I don’t like dogs.”
“Well, I do. And I think it’s high time I had one. I need something around here to be happy when I come home.”
She sucked in an indignant breath. “And who is going to take care of him?”
“I’ll take care of him!”
Chanté swept out an arm to indicate her bedroom. “Does this look like you’re taking care of him?”
“He must have gotten out of his crate.”
“Did you come to that conclusion all by yourself, Dr. Valentine?”
“It was an accident. It won’t happen again.”
Rage trembled through Chanté’s body like a bolt of lightning. “Get out!” she seethed through her clenched teeth.
“Chanté...”
Pivoting on her heel, she marched toward the door and held it open. “I said, get out.”
Realizing that she wasn’t going to listen to reason, Matthew waltzed out. He’d barely crossed the threshold when the door slammed behind him.
Matthew stood still for a long moment, reviewing what had just happened.
Just apologize. Seth’s advice rang in Matt’s ear and reverberated through every cell of his body.
But apologize for what? Okay, maybe he could start with the car and the damage the dog did to her room—or even his callous remarks on national television. But all of that transpired in the last week. It would hardly cover the past five months.
It’s a start.
Matthew turned around and knocked on the door.
Chanté didn’t answer.
He drew a deep breath and tried again—this time a little louder. When she didn’t answer the second time, he knew he was officially being given the silent treatment.
“I just wanted to say I’m sorry,” he murmured to the door.
Buddy lifted his head and delivered a sloppy lick against Matthew’s cheek.
“At least you still like me.” Turning, Matthew followed the gray duct tape back to his room.
* * *
Thinking she heard something, Chanté shut off the shower and waited to see if she’d hear it again. After a minute, she shivered from the cool chill of the bathroom and turned the hot water back on. The steady, warm pulse of the water did a considerable job of easing the tension from her body.
However, she fully intended to make herself a hard drink once she climbed out of the shower—maybe even two.
As she lathered and rinsed, lathered and rinsed, she churned an inventory of Matthew’s prized possessions over in her mind. Which item would pack the most wallop and which one would hit below the belt?
How long are you going to keep this up?
The question threw her, mainly because she didn’t have an answer. This tit-for-tat game they played was taking on a life of its own, and in a weird way, it fed something in her—in Matthew, too, if she wasn’t mistaken.
She shut off the water again and stepped out of the shower. Wrapping the towel around her body, she traipsed back into the adjoining bedroom. She stripped everything off the bed, and then put on fresh linens before she crawled on top.
Sighing, she stared up at the ceiling and laughed. She laughed so hard and so long, the voice inside her head questioned her sanity.
Sitting up, she took a long look around her gilded cage—albeit a trashed cage—and felt an incredible loneliness. It hadn’t always felt this way—not when Matthew used to lie beside her. Chanté groaned. Why did her heart constantly flip-flop where Matthew was concerned?
She loved him. She hated him. She loved him. She loved him.
“Aw, hell. Maybe Edie was right. Maybe we do need help.” After all, it had been easy to fall in love with Matthew, though many of her friends thought they were oil and water from the start.
Growing up, she hadn’t known any affluent black families—not in a small Texan town like Karankawa. She was charmed by everything from the way he talked to the way he walked. She was in awe of his intelligence, captivated by his sophistication and seduced by his good looks.
While wallowing in a moment of honesty, she realized he still had those qualities. Maybe she was the one who’d changed. Maybe if her body had given them a child, she wouldn’t be so bitter.
She stretched out across the bed, hoping to fill the empty spaces—but it didn’t work. Chanté closed her eyes and struggled to remember all of their firsts. The first time he took her into his arms. Their first kiss. The first time they made love. After a while, the memories flooded her senses.
The first time they were together they’d lain on a bed of rose petals. Roses were her favorite flowers. That night, she thought she’d die from the sheer joy of their consummation. The tenderness of his probing and inquisitive hands. He was masterful in figuring out all her hot spots.
She remembered his mouth tasting like a fusion of heaven and sin. One minute, she was his precious angel and in the next, his little devil. Back then, Matthew kept a beautifully groomed goatee and her sensitive skin always quivered beneath its light tickle.
Lost in the memories, Chanté unwrapped the towel from her baby-oiled body and fanned her fingers across her
