"Capital Offense" - читать интересную книгу автора (Antrim Kathleen)

ELEVEN

Warner arrived home later that night wearing the kind of smile that didn’t come from surveying flooded farmland or shaking hands on the campaign trail.

“How’s the flood?” Carolyn asked, needling him.

He flashed an annoyed look. “Leave me alone. Why’d you send me on that wild goose chase, anyway?”

“It was politically necessary, and you know it.”

A look of doubt crossed his face.

“Besides, it was your father’s idea.”

Warner shrugged, as though that bit of information settled the issue.

“I thought you were going to be home this morning,” she said. She expected the lie she received a heartbeat later.

“We got held up. You know how it is.”

She swallowed hard against the pain balling up in her throat. His heart belonged to another woman. Carolyn managed to conceal her hurt and frustration behind a smile.

“I’m heading up to bed.” Warner said.

“I’d like to join you.” The words were out before she could stop them.

“Why do you have to push?” His eyes narrowed and the vein in his temple pulsed.

“I need you, Warner. I need us to be the way we used to be.” She hated the pleading note in her voice. “They have counselors for sexual problems.”

“Sexual problems?” he hissed, stepping closer to her.

She could smell bourbon on his breath, see the teeter in his step.

“You think I have sexual problems?” Fury flickered in his eyes. “You think I’m not a man?”

She shank back from the heat of his anger. “Well, I-”

He smacked her across the face.

Her head snapped to the side. She grabbed the back of a chair, stopping her fall. Tears flooded her eyes.

“My only problem is you! You did this to me.” He stared at his red palm, then stalked out of the room.

Carolyn sank into the chair. She ran her fingers over a small cross concealed beneath her silk blouse, an idiosyncrasy she’d developed as a child in the aftermath of countless beatings. Rubbing the heirloom, she closed her eyes remembering her mother’s smiling face, loving touch, and gentle words.

She touched the welt growing on her cheek. What was becoming of him,of them? Her tears refused to fall.