Chapter Three

The morning sun blazed through the open window without mercy.

Eli also felt the hangover with the same ruthlessness. He opened his eyes and instantly regretted it. It felt like his heart was throbbing inside of his skull. Had he really forgotten to drink a few glasses of water before going to sleep? He had done something wrong last night. He hadn't had a hangover in almost three years.

What had distracted him?

Stretching his body, he felt his leg brush against another leg.

That wasn't his.

His eyes widened as he finally remembered what had happened last night. He... and Clare...

"Oh, shit!"

He stood up abruptly and that had woken the sleeping Clare, who sat up as quickly as she could, looking over at Eli, the fact not yet dawning on her. "What's wrong?" She asked, lips pulling into a frown. "Are you okay?"

His first thought should have been that he had made love with the person who had ever owned his heart. His second thought should have been happiness. None of those were his thoughts. His heart had fallen to his feet. His mind was only repeating one thing. One thought.

I slept with a married woman.

"Eli?" Clare asked, her voice full of concern. "Are you all right? Are you going to throw up?"

I just might. Eli thought to himself glumly. He turned away from Clare; unable to focus when she was within eyesight. This obviously distressed her. She threw her shirt on real quick and rubbed his back slowly, as if to coax the bile from his throat out. "What's wrong, Eli." Clare said softly. Her voice was as gentle as he remembered it being. He noticed that she hadn't phrased it as a question. She wanted to know what was going through his head. He shouldn't keep it from her.

"Clare... You weren't drunk last night.." Eli said, turning slowly to meet her eyes. "Do you know what we did?"

A gentle smile answered him. "Yes. We made love. I have no regrets." Before he could respond, her smile faded; replaced by a frown. "Do you have any regrets?"

We made love. She made it sound sound right. As if he hadn't helped her commit adultery. If Jake ever found out what she did with him, he would probably kill her. And then probably try to kill him. Shaking his head, he finally answered, "No. I don't have any regrets."

"Good." She gave him a quick peck on the lips. "I'll make you some breakfast before I go back home."

He gently grabbed her arm. "Jake is going to know, isn't he? What did you tell him you were doing?"

"I told him I was going to a friend's house until he calmed down." She said matter of factually. "And that I would be unavailable once at said friend's house." She giggled. "Now, if you would excuse me. I have some breakfast to make."

He let go of her arm. He watched as she basically skipped to the kitchen, which left him to go get washed up and try to get rid of this hangover. As he passed his bed, he caught sight of Clare's turned off phone. Risking a glance into the kitchen, she was busy getting everything ready. He took it into the bathroom with him. Turning on the shower, he turned the phone on and waited for the missed calls and texts to come.

Sixteen missed calls.

24 unopened texts.

He clicked on voice mail. There was a few of them but he only wanted to listen to the last one he had sent. He instantly regretted it.

"Thought you were a smart little slut, didn't you? You weren't at your friends. I checked over there. She said you might have gone to see an old friend that was in town. It didn't make sense until I saw a name I knew would cause you to go running. Eli's in town, eh? I'll see you in the morning. Wife."

Eli shut the shower off immediately. He shut Clare's phone off and departed the bathroom, moving slowly as if one wrong glace might set off a bomb. "Clare?" Eli called out. "Clare, we have a problem." He hears her mumble something from the kitchen and heard her leave her duties there to come see what the problem was.

She rounded the corner when the first knock rang out.

"CLARE MARTIN!" The voice of Jake Martin roared. "I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!"