She Used Me for a Dare… Now I Own Her Mother Chapter 384: Mrs. Sterling(6)

The urban sprawl roared with chaotic energy. Blasting horns pulsed in angry rhythm, streetlights twinkled like fading constellations amid the haze, and the ceaseless drone of vehicles underscored the wreckage of Heena’s wedded life.

Heena reclined against him, her back molding to Alex’s sturdy chest.

The lingering chill of the damp cloth still touched her naked flesh, a stark emblem of her capitulation. Yet the guilt that ought to devour her had vanished, supplanted by a sharp, unyielding insight.

Her gaze stayed fixed on the car mere meters in front, its rear lights taunting her like smoldering coals.

’Was I truly so obstinate?’ the question reverberated in the empty voids of her soul.

Awareness hit like a decelerating collision. She alone had kept their marital spark alive, cradling the specter of their bond while Howard had long stepped into brighter days.

Memories surged through her mind—a reel of shared existence... tender murmurs from bygone times, bitter quarrels at the table, those serene everyday instants she’d treasured.

She’d believed their joy was real. She’d believed love enveloped her.

Now truth dawned: it was all illusion. A meticulously woven deception. She hadn’t been his partner; she’d been the dupe, a mere stand-in in Howard’s solo journey.

Indifference gripped her now. She no longer minded the woman lounging across his dashboard or their destination for the evening.

The devoted wife who pressed his clothes and lingered at the pane perished amid the rutted road and overpass.

She yearned to release his lingering image, the phantom caress, and the foolish hopes borne for a decade and a half.

She yearned to emerge as the woman reborn in awareness.

Tilting her head upward from her perch on his thighs, she traced his chiseled jaw, shadowed by faint scruff.

Here lay the man she’d dismissed as youthful. The learner who’d driven her to shattering ecstasy without penetration, fracturing her world.

’Who else to entomb her history than the fiend igniting the blaze?’

Retribution and lust merged into one shadowy urge.

Heena pressed backward, intentionally nestling into his vast chest. Beside his immense, ripped frame, she seemed petite... nearly delicate... as though he were engulfing her whole.

Her shadowed musings drifted to his enormous girth. Even partially aroused, his hardness pressed like a searing iron at her intimate core.

With a subtle grind, it seemed he already claimed her depths, the insistent weight against her exposed skin blurring her sight.

’What sustenance forged such magnitude?’ A thrill of raw eagerness spiked her vertebrae. ’How could she accommodate his entirety?’

Alex glanced downward. Silence held, but his mouth arched in a languid, perceptive grin. Words were unnecessary; her tensing form and shifting gasps—from weep to predator’s breath—spoke volumes.

’He senses it,’ heat not wholly mortification bloomed on her throat. ’He discerns my fantasies precisely.’

An odd, warped notion flitted by... a muted gratitude toward Tisha Wells.

Without Tisha’s forfeited evening, Heena would remain confined domestically, choking on tedium and fabricating reasons for Howard’s delays.

"Never again," she breathed into the car’s vacant space, the phrase solidifying as oath.

Henceforth, her life would serve her alone, not some twisted rogue exploiting her fidelity.

’You deem me idiotic, Howard, right?’ The idea slashed like a serrated edge. ’You expect the same wife with hot supper and grin at your 2:00 AM creep. Watch me prove otherwise. Witness this idiot’s power.’

She’d ignite her final ties. Today, she’d yield to the unattainable male below, granting the demon his prize to reclaim vitality.

Plunging into that abyss, pulse thundering in her chest, the vehicle abruptly decelerated. Tire song morphed to gritty scrape under braking.

The car halted.

Heena flinched, lids flying wide from reverie. She peered at Alex, breaths ragged and brief.

"Why did you stop?" she murmured deliberately, tone husky with lingering heat.

Alex avoided her gaze. Fixed on the glass ahead, a deliberate smirk etched his features. One firm digit extended forward.

"Look ahead, Mrs. Sterling."

Heena swiveled.

There, mere meters distant beneath The Red Rose Inn’s tacky, stuttering neon glow, sat Howard’s sedan.

​The door on the driver's side swung open. Howard emerged, appearing revitalized with an easy grin on his lips while he strolled to the passenger side. He pulled the door open, revealing a woman who adjusted her dress—a garment Heena identified right away.

​Heena's eyes grew wide. Ice coursed through her veins.

"It's her?" she exclaimed loudly, her voice breaking as the world seemed to spin wildly. "Is that... Siobhan?"

"So her name's Siobhan," Alex remarked, his tone slicing the thick quiet inside the vehicle. "I’ve heard the name before, but why the shock? Is she your friend?"

Heena stayed silent. Words failed her. Her gaze fixed on the pair advancing toward the hotel doors, fingers intertwined. The lobby's warm glow bathed them, highlighting Siobhan's recognizable head tilt as she chuckled at Howard's quiet words.

"This bitch," Heena spat, the phrase bitter as venom. "All along, I believed she was a true friend. I welcomed her into my house. We confided secrets over glasses of wine while she plotted to slip into my bed. I had no idea this bitch... could stoop so low."

"Ah, so that's how it is... haha," Alex chuckled, the sound hollow and tuneful without true compassion. "You got thoroughly duped, Mrs. Sterling. Still, we can't judge her solely on this. Could be blackmail? Perhaps she's a victim too?"

Heena whipped her head toward him, staring as though his words came from another tongue.

Alex caught her expression and lifted his shoulders, his grin broadening. "I mean... given your husband, anything's feasible, right?"

Then he moved, his strong hands gliding from her waist upward to cradle her face, compelling her gaze from the treachery beyond the window into the fierce depths of his stare.

"But why bother caring?" he breathed, his thumb grazing her bottom lip. "Actually, I ought to thank Mr. Sterling. Only an idiot abandons a beauty like you without attention. His mistake becomes my total triumph."

Warmth flooded Heena's face from his words.

Praise so bold and direct from someone she'd viewed as merely young just an hour prior hit her hard. Shyly, she averted her eyes, lashes brushing her skin amid a peculiar, taboo excitement.

After fifteen years, for the first time, no one saw her merely as a spouse or status symbol. A man beheld her as a desirable woman... one who seemed eager to consume her whole.

Through the tinted window, Heena observed Alex steering the car to a hidden parking area, distant from the hotel entrance's bright lights.

The motor cut off, her uneven breaths the sole noise echoing in the space. Alex exited, his imposing figure casting shadows under the lamps as he rounded the vehicle.

He swung her door wide, chilly evening breeze striking her flushed body sharply.

"Come," he murmured, extending his hand. The roughness had vanished from his voice, turning silky and deep. "Allow me to care for you right, Heena. Let me provide the loyalty your husband failed to see."

His words soothed her soul like a gentle touch, yet her legs tightened on reflex. She grasped his intent clearly. The charming facade concealed the primal, bodily vow beneath.

’I’m not an easy woman,’ she reminded herself, grasping at fading dignity.

Falling into his embrace like some naive girl wouldn't do... especially after witnessing Howard's actions.

"Who said I want to go with you?" she retorted, voice quivering though she aimed for icy detachment.

Offense didn't cross Alex's face. He invaded the gap by the door and seat, leaning close until their faces nearly touched. His gaze roamed her form, landing on the shadowed wet spot on his pants... proof undeniable of her earlier yielding.

"Are you coming," he breathed warmly into her ear, "or do I enter that lobby and announce to all this is your handiwork?"

He pointed to his crotch, smirk reappearing. "Howard would love hearing how his ’perfect wife’ passed the ride."