Capital Wives Read Free Page B

contents in the trash. She left the dishes in the sink for Mrs. Rodgers to put in the dishwasher, then went to get her coat, purse and car keys. She had to get out of the house before she did or said something she would later regret.
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    Bethany did not glance up from the book she was reading when Damon walked into the bedroom, closing and locking the door behind him. He’d called earlier to let her know he would not join the family for dinner. He’d had a dinner meeting with the junior senator from Wisconsin.
    â€œHey, baby.”
    She looked up and smiled. At fifty-four, Damon Pennington Paxton had movie-star looks. His close-cropped light brown hair was sprinkled with silver, and he had tiny, attractive lines around large, deep-set dark blue eyes that were mesmerizing whenever he smiled. Damon held a powerful position in D.C., and whenever elected officials were told Damon was on the phone, his call was promptly answered.
    â€œHey, yourself,” she said. Rising off the window seat, Bethany approached him. Wrapping her arms around his waist, she pressed her breasts to his chest. “How was your day?” It was the same thing she asked him every day.
    â€œIt could’ve been better,” he said, his soft Southern drawl caressing her ear.
    â€œWhat’s wrong, sweetheart?” she crooned, her hand massaging her husband’s back over his shirt.
    â€œPaige called me at the office, crying that you won’t homeschool her because you hate her.”
    Easing back, Bethany met Damon’s eyes. “That’s not true, and you know it, Damon. If I hated her, then I never would’ve agreed to have her come here to live. When I spoke to Jean about Paige coming here to live with us, she was upset because she didn’t want to lose her daughter. I reassured her I would treat Paige no differently than I would Abby or Connor, but it hasn’t been easy. She fights with me about everything.” Bethany then informed him that Paige had disrupted what had been a peaceful household to one where the younger children were now fighting with each other.
    â€œWhy didn’t you tell me about this before?”
    Bethany closed her eyes, and when she opened them she saw something in her husband’s eyes that hadn’t been there before—anger. “I thought I’d be able to deal with her.”
    â€œThere’s no way you could deal with her, Beth! She’s my daughter, not yours, so it’s my responsibility to deal with her. You don’t need to be involved when it concerns my child.”
    The frustration that had been building inside Bethany for the past four months felt like gall in her mouth; she dropped her arms and took a step backward. “So, it’s going to be your child and my children!” she screamed. “What do I do, Damon? Let her verbally abuse me, then say wait until your father gets home? I’m sorry, but it’s not going to go down that way. I’m tired of being nice to her out of respect for you. You better tell your daughter that she’d better take her ass to that fancy school you pay twenty gees for, because I wouldn’t help her add two and two.”
    Turning on her heel, Bethany walked out of the bedroom and into one of the guest suites. Falling across the bed, she did what she hadn’t done in years. She cried. She cried until her sobs became hiccuping sounds before she slept from emotionalexhaustion. It would be the first night since she had seduced Damon Paxton that they would sleep under the same roof, but not in the same bed.

Deanna Tyson

Chapter Two
    D eanna Tyson sat in her client’s solarium going over the seating arrangements for an intimate dinner party for the following evening. It was the fourth time Mrs. Otis Charles had changed her mind as to where she wanted her guests to sit.
    Crossing one long, slender leg over the opposite knee, Deanna gave the older woman a steely look. “I have to know