My Despicable Ex (Book 1) Read Online Free Page B

Will has been
read, you have one week to change your minds. If you’d like to
proceed, just contact my office and come in and sign the
papers.”
    “ I don’t plan on changing
my mind. If my mother thought I was gonna prance around the globe
with this idiot and smile for pictures, she was sadly
mistaken.”
    “ We don’t even have to
smile,” Jake said. “You don’t even have to be near me, except to
take pictures. Why not just do it and get our money? After that, we
can go our separate ways—just a little wealthier.”
    “ If you’ll have a seat, Mr.
Connors,” the lawyer said, “we’ll get started.”
    I stood and reached for my purse. “No,
I don’t think so.” Seeing Jake had been too great of a shock. I had
cried my eyes out over him for way too long, and I wasn’t ready to
hand my mother’s money over to the man who had hurt me so badly. “I
think it would be best if I just go,” I said, my voice
cracking.
    Again, Jake reached for my arm, and
again, I shuddered from his touch. “Please,” he begged.
    “ I can’t control what you
do and where you live, but you’d better stay as far away from me as
humanly possible. If you come near me or bug me, I’ll slap a
restraining order on you so fast that your head will be
spinning.”
    “ Listen, I promise to leave
you alone if that’s what you want. I was really just hoping to
spend some time with you, but if you feel this strongly, I…well, I
won’t cause you any further heartbreak.”
    “ Spend some time with me?
What!? You never wrote or emailed me to tell me what happened, not
in five long years, so why should I care now? I’m so over you that
it’s not even funny.”
    “ I thought you’d want
closure.”
    “ Nope. I don’t care
anymore. You’re just the worst mistake I ever made, and I want to
forget about you forever. So why don’t you just respect my wishes
and leave?”
    “ Because I have
nothing.”
    “ So now you want to take
advantage of something my mom wrote when she was out of her mind,
just diagnosed with a deadly disease? Really, Jake.”
    “ I’m so sorry about what I
did, Ashly, but I was young. I was facing a four-year prison term
for punching out that guy, for defending you.”
    “ You got scared and ran for
your freedom, Jake. There’s no excuse for running away, young or
not.”
    “ Don’t be bitter,” he
said.
    My jaw dropped. “Bitter?” I repeated,
then shifted my gaze to my lawyer for help. “Did you hear that? Can
you believe the nerve?”
    My lawyer sighed and squirmed uneasily
in his seat. “I really think we need to tie up this Will and decide
if you two are going to go through with—”
    “ I haven’t seen this idiot
since he hightailed it from our wedding, without giving me any
logical explanation. Did you think I was gonna greet him with a big
smile and a warm hug?”
    “ Ashly,” Mr. Shelby
said.
    “ I’m sorry. I know I’m out
of line. It’s just that…well, seeing him here has thrown me for a
real loop.”
    Jake motioned for me to sit down again
and looked at me with that sad look on his face. We stared into
each other’s eyes. For countless years, I’d wondered if I’d ever
see him again, and now, there he was, right before my very eyes.
His hair was wet and messy from the wind and rain, and I couldn’t
deny that he looked so damn sexy. Still, I’d closed that chapter of
my life and had painfully turned through the next hundred pages.
Finally, I’d gotten back on my feet. Now, I was faced with that
first chapter all over again, and I felt like throwing the book
against the wall.
    I was trying to hate him but I
couldn’t stop staring at his powerful biceps and huge, solid chest.
I had no doubt that under his thin t-shirt, he had rippling muscles
and six-pack abs. I remembered when we’d first met, how he’d made
me laugh right from the get-go. All the memories that I had
desperately tried to block out came flooding back like it had all
happened yesterday: his laugh, his