EXCERPT:

“You cheating, scum-sucking son of a bitch!”

Macy Maitland slapped her boss and fiancé, Ed Williamson, owner and president of Williamson Motors, as hard as she could, leaving a red welt emblazoned on his cheek. If the tingle in her hand gave her a true indication, she’d given him one helluva shot. But it still wasn’t hard enough to wipe the sickening, taunting smirk off his face.

Damn the bastard to hell and back.

Keeping his salesman’s attitude about him, Ed attempted to placate her. “Now, darlin’, I know this is hard to accept., but Barbie and I did get married this weekend in Vegas. Ain’t no way to change what’s already happened. I know you and I are engaged—”

“Were engaged.” Macy shoved her hands into her pockets. God knows what she’d do if she found a weapon near her. Like the hideous I Can Sell Baths To Pigs paperweight resting on his desk.

“—were engaged, but I couldn’t help falling in love with my sweet little Barbie.”

“Little?” Macy snickered at his description of the Pamela Anderson wanna-be. “Shit, her gargantuan tits weigh more than two Texas-size watermelons. Little? What a joke.”

Which was worse? Getting dumped by her fiancé? Or the humiliation of his choosing that dimwit over her? She fumed as she watched Big Boob Barbie through the glass wall separating his office from the sales floor. Barbie flashed her enormous wedding ring at Macy’s coworkers.

“Now Macy, darlin’, let’s not get personal.” Ed flashed a brilliant smile.

Oh, no, he didn’t.

He couldn’t have said what she thought he’d said. The man had more brains than that. After all, he owned the largest car dealership in Dallas. Intelligence played a factor in running a business, right? Even if, instead of working his way to the top, he’d inherited the dealership when his dear old daddy kicked the bucket last fall. God rest his soul.

Macy dipped her head and peered over her reading glasses. “Personal? Let’s not get personal?” She closed in for the kill. Wishing she could turn her finger into a knife, Macy poked at Ed’s chest, emphasizing each word with violent jabs. “Let me get this straight. We’ve been engaged for what? Two years? I never got so much as a promise ring from you because you didn’t want our relationship flaunted in front of the other employees. Then out of the blue, without so much as the common decency to break our engagement first, you up and marry some Madonna-wannabe. Now you don’t want us to get personal?”

He chuckled.

Wait. He chuckled?

Either Mount St. Helens would explode into outer space or her blood pressure would blow her head off. Right now she didn’t care which one happened.

“Now, darlin’, you don’t expect me to stay engaged to you, do you? I mean, I’m a married man now.” Dismissing her, he crossed over to his desk, sat down and reared back in his imported leather chair. “But don’t you worry your pretty head about my marriage. Barbie said she’s willing to let you stay on as my secretary.”

Macy checked around her. The world must have tilted on its axis and thrown her into an alternate reality. Nothing else would explain Barbie’s sudden influence over her livelihood.

“Gee, Eddie. Do thank Miss Blow-Job-For-Anyone for me. I’m sure the fact that her daddy owns the bank holding the title to this company provided no incentive at all for your impromptu marriage. What’s wrong, Eddie? Business go south while you were busy cavorting around with the town slut?”

Ed’s brown eyes lost the crinkles around their edges. “Watch your mouth, Macy, or faster than you can spit, you’ll find yourself strutting the street, hustling to pay the rent.”

She crossed to his desk, leaned forward and got up in his face. “Don’t you threaten me, you lowlife. I wouldn’t work for you one minute longer even if you paid me ten times my pitiful salary. Let Mrs. Whore Hound fetch your coffee from now on. I quit!”

He cocked his head back and laughed. “I do love your spunk, hon, but let’s not go off the deep end. You need this job. Let’s you and me settle down a mite and talk this over. I’m sure we can come to an understanding.”

She jerked back. “An understanding about what? What’s left to discuss?”

Slanting his eyes to the side, he glanced out the glass walls of his office and marked Barbie’s location. “I know you’re hurt, but I don’t see why my hitching up with Barbie has to change our relationship.” He stood, moved beside her and caressed her arm. He leaned in closer, his warm breath on her cheek. “You can still have me, darlin’. You know, for nooners, late evenings and all those business trips.”

He winked at her. Her skin crawled while her gut did a sickening somersault.

Macy’s right fist connected with his winking eye and knocked him backwards a couple of steps. “Consider that a big, fat no!”

Ed stumbled, groping the air for leverage, and flopped on the couch. “You, bitch! I’ll have you arrested for assault and battery.”

She closed her fist around the knot in his tie faster than he could flinch. “You try, Mr. Williamson, and I’ll counter sue you and that reject from strip joint for alienation of affection. Let’s see what a little bad publicity does for your family dealership.”

Releasing him, she brushed imaginary lint off his shoulders and added, “Instead, darlin’, you’re going to contact Louise in Accounting and tell her to cut me a check for five times my monthly salary. And I want it within the next five minutes.”

Rising up, she plastered on a fake grin and faced the people gaping at them through the glass. Wiggling her fingers, she adopted a cheery expression and hurried off to Louise’s cubicle.

“I will go kill him. I will not kill him. I will not kill him.”