Treasured by Thursday

Meg shook her head. “Hell to the no! I want details, lady . . . lots of details.”

Gabi glanced up the stairs and motioned toward the outside. “How about a walk?”

“Good idea. Your mother is trying to make me fat. Pasta in the afternoon? Who does that?”

“We’re Italian, we do.”

They walked out to the shore and both left their shoes close to the entrance of Meg and Val’s private villa.

“I thought this was a name-only marriage,” Meg started in.

“It is. I don’t even like the man.”

Meg lifted her eyebrows.

“Well, most of the time.”

“His body was molded to yours and it didn’t look like you were pushing him away.”

“He’s a very attractive man,” Gabi defended.

“Mmm-hmm.”

She thought of his breath on her neck with a sigh. “Extremely attractive.”

“There are plenty of attractive men out there, Gabi. Why Hunter?”

Gabi pulled her hair back to keep the wind from tossing it in her face. “He’s convenient.”

Meg laughed. “So is the taxi driver. You haven’t so much as blinked at the men that have come on to you since . . .”

It was sweet of Meg to avoid saying his name. “Since Alonzo.”

“Yeah.”

They walked in silence a little longer.

“Can I ask you something?” Meg asked. “About Alonzo?”

He was the man who shall never be spoken of . . . or had been since his death. Hearing his name so many times in the last month had the opposite effect it had in those early days. It was easier, she realized, now that Hunter was there to annoy and distract her.

“I suppose.”

“If you don’t want to answer, I’ll understand.”

“I won’t fall apart with a question,” said Gabi.

“How were things . . . you know, sexually . . . between the two of you?”

It had been a long time since she’d thought about intimacy. Even with Hunter recharging her hormones, she hadn’t once thought of her time in Alonzo’s bed.

“Well . . . before.” She shook her head.

Meg placed a hand on her arm briefly as they walked down the empty beach.

“It was satisfying.”

“Satisfying?”

It was hard to remember any of their time together as being something other than a lie. She’d told herself that their sex life was off because of his deception.

“Are we talking prime rib satisfying, or bologna sandwich fill the stomach satisfying?”

Gabi looked out over the ocean, tried to remember. “I have to admit I was always a little hungry . . . after.”

Meg looped her arm through Gabi’s. “That’s so wrong.”

“I know . . . I can see that now.”

They dodged the water climbing up on the shore.

“What about with Hunter?”

“Oh, we haven’t. I mean . . . what you saw in the kitchen . . . we haven’t.” How was it possible as a grown woman she had such a hard time talking about sex?

“What I saw in the kitchen looked really hot.”

Gabi felt the blush reach her cheeks. “It was,” came her breathy reply.

Meg laughed.

“I don’t want to compare, but did the big asshole ever make you feel like Hunter did today?”

Her answer was swift. “No. Absolutely nothing alike.”

“Hmm . . .”

“It can’t happen,” Gabi voiced the caution running in her head since she parted Hunter’s company.

“Why not? He’s obviously into you. You’re stuck in this marriage for a year and a half? Meaningless hot sex is better than supposed meaningful wet-noodle sex.”

“There shouldn’t be sex of any kind. I’m not the woman who has meaningless sex.”

“Have you ever tried? Seems Val kept you sheltered most of your life.”

“True,” Gabi managed. “But I’ve had more opportunities than Val is aware of. I simply didn’t act on them.”

Meg pinched her lips together, her expression amused. “How did that work out for you?”

“What are you suggesting, Margaret . . . that I sleep with my husband to scratch an itch?”

Meg shrugged with a nod. “You said he was attractive. My guess is all the parts work.”

Gabi gave a playful shove and had Meg dancing at the water’s edge.

“I can’t trust him.”

Meg’s smile fell. “You think he’ll hurt you?”

“No. Not physically. I don’t get that from him at all.”

“So emotionally?”

Gabi couldn’t put a finger on what her thoughts were. “How does someone have sex with someone they don’t like?”

“Men do it all the time.”

“I don’t have the plumbing to qualify as a man.”

It was Meg’s turn to push her. “You know what I mean. Listen, I’m not suggesting you ignore your head. But don’t be afraid to follow a smoking hot distraction. You know he’s not telling you he cares to get you in bed. You’re already married. There’s a deadline to your relationship that might give you exactly what you need to find your sexual self. It doesn’t sound like Alonzo helped with that at all.”

“And I trusted him,” she mused.

“If it helps at all . . . I like Hunter. Yeah, he’s hard around the edges, and I wouldn’t have passed him as a client for Alliance, but he’s enduring all of us rather well. And considering how much that man is worth, I don’t think he’d have to pretend at all if he didn’t want to.”