With three quick kisses, my lover and herchildren were out the door and on their way to the daycare center."My lover?" It hadn't occurred to me until ...now that the adjustmentsneeded to keep her and I together meant that she and I were not married.We weren't living in one of the few states that allows this. That reallydidn't matter that much to me. Both Shawna and Sean were madly in lovewith Michelle. I wouldn't have it any other way. Looking down at the backof my left hand, I couldn't help but. .. He had sought vengeance upon me, and won. But now, as I held him in my power, I wondered if he would be as quick to cry for mercy as he was to inflict his desire to humiliate and exile me?There was only one way to find out."Olympias laughed at me, of course... an actual laugh of good-natured sympathy at my lack of understanding. Though she had shown me the iron demeanor of a queen used to the intrigues and bloody back-stabbing, her laugh at that moment made her look warm and human, and that. Melly drank some more champagne, then gave the bottle to her new husband with a smile. Dave was nowhere near as drunk as his wife, who had an astonishing capacity for booze. She didn’t drink excessively very often, but when she did, she could really put it away! He rolled his eyes at her statement, then sipped some from the bottle and set it in a bottle holder in the door.“Baby, you are too much,” he told her softly, leaning over to kiss her. “Mrs. Talbot, I love you.”Melly wrapped her arms. I was just about to pull one of my standard party dresses down off the hanger when I began to think that maybe I should wear something just a bit more provocative. After all, I was probably going to be competing for Jack's attention with a bunch of young twenty-something girls.I started to browse through my wardrobe from my college days a few years earlier and found a yellow tube top that I had always liked. Searching further, I found one of my short white miniskirts. I pulled them both down.