But my limbs have grown far too heavy.
‘Don’t leave,’ I murmur as my eyes betray me and dip closed.
16
ROMAN
I glance at Maggie across the breakfast table, wondering if she remembers her admissions from last night. From the way she keeps avoiding my eyes, I’m guessing there’s at least a murky recollection. While she’d slept, I’d long sat up, considering running, but I couldn’t locate her car keys, nor her mobile phone. So I’d taken a long shower and fucked my fist until I sprayed the wall, somehow finding myself unable to think about anything but her flushed cheeks and the idea of her touching herself to my sex noises. The filthy little thing, who could have known?
Maggie sits beside me at the long breakfast table, her shoulders hunched. She’s wrapped in a hugely oversized jumper and scowls at the sun as it glares through the window. Her curls are a wild nest of chaos, and she looks like a bear roused from hibernation.
I know the feeling, though I hadn’t been nearly as drunk as Maggie, I’d already downed two paracetamol and enough water to drown a rat.
At least the coffee is strong.
As I’m pouring my second cup, there is a notable shift in tension within the room.
Maggie’s back goes rigid beside me like someone has pulled her strings taut.
A man with a mop of brown hair comes into the breakfast room and lounges on a chair. With only a smirk, he leans in and grabs an apple, taking a hearty bite.
‘Eddie,’ Maggie says, almost in a whisper.
Eddie gives a grin bordering on deadly. He’s dressed impeccably, dripping with old money vibes. As much as I know about old money. Which isn’t a lot. Every movement he makes seems measured, a bastion of control.
His eyes sharpen as they pass over Maggie hungrily, before flicking to me.
Ugly anger coils in my stomach.
‘Maggie,’ Eddie says, the words as thick as custard. Possessive and familiar. ‘There you are.’
Maggie is like a rabbit in front of a fox. Frozen to the spot, her pulse hammering visibly in her throat.
‘Eddie,’ she says eventually, the tremor in her voice audible.
Eddie looks at me dismissively, like I’m barely worth a thought. I’m assessed and written off in under a second.
That stings more than it should. I’ve been left often enough in my life, but I’m not used to being so thoroughly ignored. Treated like I’m inconsequential.
‘You didn’t tell me you had company,’ he says to Maggie, turning back to her.
‘I don’t believe I ever tell you anything.’
‘You might not, but little birdies do.’
And that’s when something in me snaps into place. Theabsolutely notof it, all. This pepped-up motherfucker is the one that they want Maggie to marry? Over my dead body.
Maybe literally.
I slide my arm around Maggie’s waist and pull her tight into my side, like it’s something I’ve done a hundred times before. Like she belongs at my side.
Her body stiffens for half a second in surprise before she leans into me, her hand coming up to rest against my chest.
The contact sends a jolt through me that I very much did not plan for.
Eddie’s smirk tightens.
‘Roman,’ I say brightly, sticking out my hand despite my stomach lurching at the thought of touching the snake. ‘Boyfriend.’
