His Only Defense by Carolyn McSparren

Author:Carolyn McSparren
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2008-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

DRESSED IN HER OWN clothes, carrying her tote and wearing the boots that Jud had cleaned, Liz met him in the garage.

“These are the receipts from the year Sylvia went missing.” He slid a large cardboard deed box onto the backseat, held the truck door open for her, then climbed in and started the engine.

On the drive back, they were silent at first, both obviously unwilling to talk about the scene with Colleen. Finally, Liz asked, “How did you and Sylvia wind up together?”

He shrugged. “You can’t understand what she was like when I met her. She was so beautiful, so warm, so smart and funny. She dumped the guy she was dating, a guy who was going to be a doctor, for Pete’s sake, for me. I was knocked out that she’d do that. She said she didn’t want to support any man through medical school, internship and residency, then have him waltz off with a nurse.” Jud glanced over at Liz.

There was no mention of not loving the med student or of falling in love with Jud.

“I had a lot of great plans. She was going to push me into the big time. I think she had visions of turning me into Donald Trump by the time I was thirty-five.” He shrugged. “I was a big disappointment.”

“Did she mind having to work?”

“No, that’s the one thing she didn’t mind. To Sylvia getting rich was a game. She loved playing it. Money was how you kept score, and I didn’t meet her financial projections, especially after I got her pregnant. She never forgave me for that.”

“Poor Colleen.”

“She doesn’t know.”

“Of course she knows. Mothers can’t fake that sort of thing. There’s even a diagnosis for it—attachment disorder. I came across it all the time in hostage negotiations. This is a hard question, but think before you answer. Did you ever consider Sylvia might have been sexually abused as a child?”

He nearly drove the SUV into the ditch. “What? You mean Herb? Some funny uncle? God, no. One of the few things she really enjoyed was good, uncomplicated sex.”

Liz blinked. She’d assumed Sylvia was as cynical about that as about the rest of her life.

“Let me rephrase that,” Jud said. “I’m telling you stuff I probably shouldn’t, but under the circumstances…” He took a deep breath. “It wasn’t so much sex she enjoyed as the control she could exert over men that way. And she loved having orgasms.”

“And you could give them to her.”

“Well, yeah.” He cut his eyes toward Liz and smiled. “I don’t guess this is the most appropriate time to suggest a demonstration?”

“No.” Although she was thinking precisely that. How could she sit here talking about a man’s ex or dead or absent wife’s orgasms, and still want to make love to him?

“Was she pregnant before you got married?”

He shook his head. “No. We had a formal wedding. Trip was my best man. Not much of a wedding party. As you can probably guess, Sylvia didn’t have many close girlfriends, although she was in a sorority in college.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.