Jaded Read Free Page A

asked from the bar.
    “I’m Millie Cross. Mr. McCann’s new secretary.”
    Jade watched as the woman sipped her drink.
    “Whoa.” Millie coughed. “You’re brave to drink this stuff.”
    With a sweet smile, Jade looked at her shoes and teased, “White in February and you’re calling me brave?”
    Millie looked down at her wrinkled dress. She fumbled with the lapel of her bolero, tugging it over her nonexistent cleavage.
    “Is this . . .? I’m not really into . . .”
    “So why exactly are you coming with us to this dinner tonight? Millie, is it?”
    “I just happened to mention how much of a fan I am of Barbra Streisand and Mr. McCann insisted I come along.”
    Jade shook her head. “Barbra Streisand isn’t going to be at this fundraiser.”
    “Oh.” Millie’s shoulders slumped as she considered this. Her cheeks, stroked with a burnt red, brightened underneath the rouge. “Maybe I should . . .”
    Jade almost felt sorry for her.
    “I see you two have met.” Rodney stood in the doorway, looking from Jade to Millie. “Are we all ready to go?”
    Jade stormed across the living room and stopped when she was eye to eye with her husband. “What kind of game are you playing with me?” she whispered.
    “She’s my new secretary and also the daughter of a very influential producer,” he explained. “Thought it might be beneficial to be nice to her.”
    “How nice?”
    “Is everything okay?” Millie asked. “Listen, if I’m intruding—”
    “You’re not.” Rodney grabbed Jade by the arm and led her into the foyer. “We’ll just get her coat and then we’ll be ready to go.”
    In the foyer, Rodney spun Jade around on her heels.
    “Do not make a scene tonight. You should know that I have better taste than that anyway.”
    She searched his eyes for the truth but the years of performing on camera and the campaign trail had turned him into a master of ambiguity.   
    “I’m not sure what to believe anymore, Rodney. But let this be the last time you bring a woman into my home unannounced.”
    “Huh, that’s interesting.”
    “What?”
    “The way you keep calling this your house even though you’ve never paid the mortgage on it.” A light glimmered in his eyes as he chuckled. “Get your coat, babe.”
    Jade went to the closet and retrieved her fox fur. She leaned against the doorjamb as blood rushed to her head and her heartbeat quickened.
    The way you keep calling this your home . . .
    “Everything okay?” Millie asked from only a few feet away.
    Jade composed herself then turned around.
    “No. I’m not okay.” She looked at Rodney. “I’m not feeling well. I think I’ll sit this one out.”
    “Babe, it’ll look a bit suspect if I’m out in public with a woman who is not my wife.”
    “I guess you should’ve thought about that before you asked a woman who is not your wife to accompany you to the fundraiser. I’m not going. And if I remember correctly, you’re expected to speak. So enjoy your night. Babe.”
    Jade slammed the door, threw her coat back in the closet, and sped up the stairs as fast as she could in the tight evening gown. Never had Rodney been so bold as to flaunt a woman in her face.    
    One fucking paternity suit and you hold it against me for life . . .
    Jade had seen the woman who’d filed the suit on television. She was a former Miss Texas beauty pageant winner who’d come to New York looking for job opportunities. There had been a rumor that she had been interviewing for a reporter position on the local twenty-four-hour cable news channel. While in the city, she’d partied with minor-league celebrities, from ballers to rappers to reality TV stars. Nine months after arriving in New York, she had given birth to a child.
    At first, the press, after learning of her paternity suit, had accused Rodney of bedding the beauty queen and called for his resignation from Congress. But when they later had discovered that the Texas Tart—as she’d been dubbed in