<p><em style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 1)">I've been faithful long enough.</em></p><p><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 1)">I never claimed to be a good man, but I've always done what was expected of me.&nbsp;</span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 1)">Find a nice girl. Get married. Have children.&nbsp;</span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 1)">That was my duty as a good Christian man.&nbsp;</span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 1)">And everything was going as planned when I met Briar.&nbsp;</span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 1)">Beautiful. Charismatic. Sexy.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 1)">But marriage is hard, and after seven years, I feel like I'm failing.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 1)">Then, a figure from my past enters the picture.&nbsp;</span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 1)">Dean Sheridan is cocky and charming. When this twenty-six-year-old needs a place to stay, I should turn him away-especially after I notice the spark between him and my wife.&nbsp; But I don't.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 1)">When I pressure him about his relationship with Briar, he does the last thing I expect.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 1)">He dares me.&nbsp;</span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 1)">He thinks he can take what's mine.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 1)">And if it's a challenge he wants, it's a challenge he'll get.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 1)">What started as a game becomes so much more.&nbsp;</span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 1)">Between them. Between us.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 1)">This isn't how normal couples behave.&nbsp;</span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 1)">The games we're playing are dangerous.&nbsp;</span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 1)">And the roles we're playing are far more.&nbsp;</span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 1)">But God help me, I can't seem to stop.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 1)">What we're doing is wrong, but it feels so right, and before long, I don't recognize the good husband I used to be.</span></p><p><br></p><p><br></p>