Page 113 of This Woman Forever

“Yes?” she says in a singsong voice.

“I’ll take you to work.” My voice is not a singsong voice. It’s a don’t fuck with me voice.

“No, thank you.” More singsonging. I growl as the window rises and she very nearly runs over my toes as she zooms out of the parking space.

“For fuck’s sake.” But I smile, because my lovely, hormonal wife—please be fucking hormones—doesn’t realize the remote fob has been removed from her car.

She stops at the gates, and I wait for the reverse lights to come on.

They don’t.

But the gates do start opening.

Huh? How the fu?—?

I gasp, every muscle engaging to run after her. There’s no way I’ll make it. She whizzes out and drives off. Fuck it. “Clive!” I yell, storming back into the foyer. “What the fucking hell are you playing at?”

The old boy looks startled. Confused.

“You opened the gates!”

“Well, Mr. Ward, when a resident asks for the gates to be opened, it’s my job to open them.”

I slam my palms on his desk and lean over threateningly. “Ava’s an exception.”

“Oh. Okay, sir. Should I relay that to Casey?”

“No.” I push my way off his desk and go to my car. “I’ll tell him.” I fall into my Aston and count all the ways in which she’s defied me this morning. Endless. “Grrrrr,” I growl, leaving Lusso, splitting my attention between the opening gates and my phone, searching for the number I need and dialing.

“Good morning, thank you for calling Tea and Two Sugars, this is Bianca speaking, how may I assist you?”

I laugh out loud. “That was very professional.”

“Who’s that?”

“It’s Jesse Ward.”

“Who’s Jesse Ward?”

“That man from the café.”

“There are a lot of men who come to the café.”

Jesus. “Tall, suit, dark blond, green eyes.”

“I don’t look closely enough at my customers to note an eye color.”

I grit my teeth. “Old, rich guy.”

“Oh, Mr. Ward, how are you?”

“You’re hard work, Bianca.”

“Good morning to you.”

“Good morning.”

“What can I do for you, Mr. Ward?”