Read After the Night for Free Online

Noelle had been distressed, but that was far from the case. It wasn’t that she didn’t love Guy; Gray supposed she did, in her fashion. But Noelle intensely disliked sex, disliked being touched, even casually. For Guy to have a mistress was the best solution all around. He didn’t mistreat Noelle, and though he never bothered to hide his affairs, her position as his wife was safe. It was a very Old World arrangement that his parents had, and one that Gray knew he wouldn’t like at all when he finally decided to get married, but it suited both of them fine.
    Monica hadn’t ever been able to see that, however. She was painfully protective of Noelle, relating to her in a way that Gray never could, imagining that Noelle was humiliated and hurt by Guy’s affairs. At the same time, Monica adored Guy, and was never happier than when he was paying attention to her. She had a picture in her mind of how families should be, close-knit and loving, always supporting each other, with the parents devoted to each other, and she had been trying her entire life to make her own family match that picture.
    "Does Mother know?" he asked calmly, and refrained from asking if Monica really thought Noelle would care even if she did know. He sometimes felt sorry for Monica, but he also loved her, and didn’t deliberately try to hurt her.
    Monica shook her head. "She isn’t up yet."
    "Then why worry about it? By the time she gets up, when he comes in she’ll just think he’s already gone somewhere this morning."
    "But he’s been out with her!" Monica whirled to face him, her dark eyes swimming with tears. "That Devlin woman."
    "You don’t know that. He could have gotten into an all-night poker game." Guy did love to play poker, but Gray doubted that cards had anything to do with his absence. If he knew his father, and he knew him very well, Guy had far more likely spent the night with Renee Devlin, or some other woman who caught his eye. Renee was a fool if she thought Guy was any more faithful to her than he was to his wife.
    "You think so?" Monica asked, eager to believe any excuse other than the most likely one.
    Gray shrugged. "It’s possible." It was also possible a meteor would strike the house that day, but not very likely. He drank the last of his coffee and pushed back his chair. "When he comes in, tell him I’ve gone to Baton Rouge to look over that property we were talking about. I’ll be back by three, at the latest." Because she still looked so forlorn, he put an arm around her shoulders and hugged her. Somehow Monica had been born without the decisiveness and arrogant self-assurance of the rest of the family. Even Noelle, as remote as she was, always knew exactly what she wanted and how to go about getting it. Monica always seemed so helpless against the forceful personalities of everyone else in the family.
    She buried her dark head in his shoulder for a moment, just as she had when she’d been a little girl and gone running to her big brother whenever something had gone wrong and Guy hadn’t been available to put-things to rights again. Though he was only two years older, he had always been protective of her, knowing even as a child that she lacked his own inner toughness.
    "What do I do if he has been out with that slut?" she asked, her voice muffled against his shoulder.
    Gray tried to stifle his impatience, but some of it leaked through in his voice. "You don’t do anything. It’s none of your business."
    She drew back, stung, and stared reproachfully at him. "How can you say that? I’m worried about him!"
    "I know you are." He managed to soften his tone. "But it’s a waste of time, and he wouldn’t thank you for it."
    "You always take his side, because you’re just like him!" The tears were slowly dripping down her cheeks now, and she turned away. "I bet the property in Baton Rouge happens to have two legs and big boobs. Well, have fun!"
    "I will," he said ironically. He really was going to see some property;