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“Angel, that’s not stupid, I completely understand. I may not know any of the people who you were held captive with, but I feel almost certain when I say that not one of them wouldn’t want you to be happy. If the tables were turned, and you were still trapped there, you’d want them to take any chance at happiness that they can get, wouldn’t you?” he asks, and I don’t even need a moment to think.
“Of course, I would. They’ve all been through so much.”
Before Evan can say anything more, his phone begins to beep. Reluctantly, he lets go of me and pulls it out of his pocket. He presses a few buttons and then begins to grimace.
“People are starting to arrive for the meeting. Do you want some time to yourself? You can go to your room and come down when you’re ready. The meeting starts at nine, so you have just over half an hour.”
I quickly reach out my hand, silently asking for him to hand his phone over to me. He does it without hesitation, making sure it’s unlocked, so I can do whatever I need to. I give him a smile, and my heart stutters as I think about how much trust he must have in me to just hand it over.
I’m not one of those girls who has to go through her guy’s phone, to check if there’s any possibility he may be cheating.
For one thing, Evan is stuck in this bloody house with me, so he doesn’t exactly have any opportunities to cheat. But also, I trust him. I don’t need to check up on him.
If there’s something he doesn’t want to talk to me about, I will respect that decision, but I’ll also make sure to let him know that being kept in the dark really does upset me.
Communication always was our biggest strength, and it’s something we’ve been working hard on since we started things back up. If we had communicated better a decade ago, neither of us would have gotten hurt, and I refuse to allow anything like that to happen again.
Once the camera app loads, I flip the screen and take a look at myself on the phone. I could probably have walked to the nearest mirror, but this was closer.
I swipe under my eyes, making sure there are no more tears. My cheeks are a little pink, and my eyes are a bit bloodshot, but in all honesty, I just look tired.
I take a deep breath as I hand Evan’s phone back to him. “No, I will stay.”
“You look beautiful,” he replies, leaning down to capture my lips with his.
It’s supposed to be a short, sweet kiss, as his family is almost here, but as soon as I taste him, I want more.
I wrap my arms around his neck, swiping my tongue along his lower lip, demanding access, which he happily gives. He pulls me into his arms, deepening the kiss in a way that has my core aching, desperate for more.
The loud ringing of the doorbell shocks us both out of the moment, and as we pull apart, gasping for breath, I can’t help but chuckle.
Evan, who normally looks so put together in his perfect black suit, appears ruffled. His hair is sticking up in all directions, his cheeks are tinged pink, and his lips are plump. Even his tie is lopsided, and I take a moment to straighten it before helping to smooth out the wayward strands of hair.
As soon as we’ve both caught our breaths, and we look less ruffled, Evan goes off to answer the door. I remain in the kitchen, thankful that I remembered to put panties on under my skinny jeans when I got dressed this morning.
If I hadn’t, there’s a very good chance everyone would be able to see the very obvious—and growing—wetness between my legs, thanks to Evan and his talented mouth.
Keep focused, Teigan. You can fantasise about him when his family isn’t here,I remind myself.
That’s when it occurs to me, we’ve not actually discussed if we’re going to tell his family anything. Since we haven’t really labelled what’s going on between us, or even talked about it with each other, it would be a big leap to ask what we say to his family.
But now they’re here, and I’m feeling very fucking unprepared. I guess I should just act the same as I did the last time they were here, and hope they don’t notice anything has changed.
Over the course of the next half an hour, the rest of Evan’s family arrives. As soon as everyone is here, we make our way to the meeting room.
Mia has stayed home with the children, like she normally does, but also because she’s almost eight months pregnant now, and any sort of journey can be rough for her. McKenna has also decided to stay home to help Mia. She’s only around six months, but as she’s pregnant with twins, she’s actually larger than Mia, and is finding things much harder the bigger the girls get.
Once we’re all in the same seats we always occupy, everyone looks to Bree for her to start the meeting. With a bright smile on her face, the feisty redhead looks around at everyone in turn, before she addresses us all.
“Thank you, everyone, for coming today. I know this is a bit of an early start, but we have a lot we need to get through. As you all know, the reason for today’s meeting is to get an update on where we are at with The Sheriff, and to make plans for this weekend’s upcoming performance.”
As she says the wordperformance, she looks my way with a wince. Everyone stays quiet, which is really fucking unusual for the Doughty family. They wait for Bree to continue.
“I’m not sure if you know this, Teigan, but as part of the terms and conditions of the auction, when Evan won, one of the conditions he agreed to was that you'd return two months after the auction to headline a performance.”
She pauses for a moment, and I realise she’s waiting for me to respond. “I remember it being mentioned when I was being auctioned off, but I guess I just assumed Evan wouldn’t agree to something like that.”
I turn to face Evan, whose hands are balled up so tight, his knuckles are white. His gaze is fixed on his fists rather than looking at me, but I can see the pain in his eyes.
