The Contract by Marsh, Nicola (read aloud books .txt) 📕

“I said I’d be here.” He couldn’t help sounding petulant. She always brought out that trait in him, not to mention the over-riding fact he’d rather be home right now cuddling up to his luscious wife and her welcoming curves.

“I’m so glad you are. Remember that surprise I told you about?” His mother’s eyes gleamed, their cold, calculated sparkle almost but not quite rivalling the exquisite diamonds dangling from her ears and encircling her throat.

“Cut to the chase, Mother. What’s all this about?”

He fiddled with his wedding band, rolling it between his thumb and index finger, an action he found himself doing more and more these days and he found it strangely calming in his world of never-ending problems.

“This is your surprise.” She waved a hand towards the door. “Enjoy, darling.”

Steve gaped as the woman he’d dubbed the Ice Princess stalked across the foyer in a red dress that left little to the imagination. Slashed to the waist in front, it displayed her siliconed breasts to perfection.

“Hello, Steven. Long time no see.” Brianna ran a talon, painted the same red as her dress, down his cheek.

“So there’s been a thaw.” He stepped away from Brianna, wondering what he’d ever seen in her.

She pouted, the glossy lipstick reminding him of a blood slick. The description fit well, as he knew she could be a blood-sucking vampire, out for every cent of his wealth she could lay her money-grubbing hands on.

“Don’t be like that, Steven. We had some good times together.” She leaned into him, doing her utmost to press her obvious enhancements against him.

“Had being the operative word, Brianna. In case you didn’t know, I’m married now. Happily married.” He wished he hadn’t added it as an afterthought.

“So?” The whispered word hung in the air between them, making him despise her all the more.

“Back off, Bree. I’m not interested.” He plucked her hand off his coat sleeve and dropped it like a piece of unwanted garbage.

Her mask peeled away before his eyes, leaving the chilly facade he’d grown accustomed to towards the end of their relationship. “Your loss yet again. You always were a poor judge of character. Looks like nothing’s changed.”

He sensed some hidden meaning behind her frosty words. “What are you talking about?”

Her upper lip curled in familiar derision. “Your trashy wife.” She jabbed him with a long-nailed finger. “You ditch me, the best thing that ever happened to you, for some carnival tramp? Poor you.”

Steve took a deep breath, willing his rage to subside. He’d never experienced such an all-consuming tidal wave of fury and if he wasn’t careful it would obliterate every ounce of decency he possessed. Rather than focussing it on the surly cow in front of him, he turned and walked away, in search of the woman who had put him in this predicament in the first place.

Spotting his mother talking to one of the event organiser’s, he strode across the room. Grabbing her arm, he bent low and whispered in her ear. “We need to talk. Now.”

She looked up at him with startled eyes.

Rage ran ice-cold in his veins. “I mean it, Mother. Come with me or you’ll regret it. I’ll embarrass you right here and now, in front of all your phoney society parasites.”

His mother had class, he’d give her that much. Rather than coming apart at the seams, like most women would have done when faced with his fury, she lifted her head a fraction, nodded at her cronies and followed him.

“You’re hurting me, Steven,” she said, as he half-pulled, half-dragged her across the foyer to a small room partitioned off by heavy drapes.

He dropped her arm and pulled the curtain across, cutting them off from prying eyes before turning to glare at the woman who had spawned him and who he despised. “What the hell were you thinking, bringing Brianna here? And what did you tell her about Amber?”

His mother folded her arms and tried to stare him down. “I’m trying to help you, Steven.”

“This kind of help I can do without,” he almost shouted and his mother’s wince gave him an ounce of satisfaction.

“Keep your voice down. Rockwell’s don’t shout.”

“No, we don’t.” He unclenched his fists before he punched a hole in the wall. “We prefer to screw up our lives by silences, by holding back emotions, by locking our feelings away in the precious family vault. Much healthier.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Thanks to your upbringing, you’ve turned out fine.” She paused, as if for effect. “Apart from your judgment in women, that is.”

Something inside him snapped. “That’s it, we’re done. I don’t want to see or hear from you ever again. You got that? As far as I’m concerned, I don’t have a mother.”

* * *

Amber had entered the foyer of the Convention Centre in time to see that bimbo Brianna drape herself over Steve, only to be pushed away. She’d almost rushed up to him then, ready to forgive him on the spot when she’d seen the angry altercation with his mother. Reluctant to eavesdrop but keen to see her nemesis put in her place, she followed them to the far side of the room, where they now raged behind closed curtains. She peeked through, delighting in her snobby mother-in-law getting her comeuppance, when the woman in question looked up and spotted her.

Rather than acknowledging her, Georgia Rockwell lifted her head and stared pointedly at her son. “You can denounce me all you want, Steven, but it doesn’t change the facts.”

Steve ran his hand through his hair and Amber yearned to rush in and smooth the ruffled spikes down. “I’ve had enough of your interference to last me a