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His lips leave mine far too soon. I sigh, missing the contact.
His gaze is serious. “If you don’t want to leave your home, I’ll stand by your decision. But this is something we all need to discuss. There’s someone targeting you, Agatha. And we don’t know how dangerous this person is.”
7
Ian
“Fergus is going to kill me.”
I look over at Agatha where she sits at the kitchen counter, a sullen look on her face. “Better you face everyone at the same time rather than getting everyone mad at you at different times.”
Philip’s reaction this morning when Agatha made the call had been an insistence that she move in with him and Charlotte effective immediately, something which Agatha fought against. He threatened to kick her ass for keeping something like this from him. The video call had resulted in a full-blown fight before I had to step in.
Philip wasn’t to
o pleased at seeing me here as well. However, we both knew that while I am around, there is no way that Agatha’s stalker will approach her. I always carry a concealed weapon with me, and I know how to handle myself in a fight. He gave me a begrudging nod.
Fergus and Zayn agreed to meet at Agatha’s for breakfast. Philip was in Seattle for business, but he ditched his meeting and is flying back. Sarah is at her job, and Charlotte was ordered bed rest because of the difficult pregnancy, so the two women who Agatha counted on to have her back weren’t going to be here.
I rub her back comfortingly. “It won’t be that bad.”
“I hate getting yelled at.” She looks down at her coffee gloomily.
“I’m aware,” I say, dryly.
She sips at the coffee, and I hide my yawn. It’s nine in the morning, and both of us took the morning off from work. I didn’t sleep much last night. Even though Agatha hides it, I can see how much her life has been altered within this last month. She wears a baggy top, but I held her last night, and it didn’t escape my notice that she had lost weight.
It does make me wonder when she started hiding her problems. She will often complain about small things, enough to never let any of us notice that aside from the small inconveniences, she had started shutting us out of major problems, things that mattered, like when her cat, Blinkey, passed away two years ago. Philip found out after his grandmother told him, months later. Agatha had that cat since she had been a child and she had chosen to grieve alone.
She is a complicated person, hiding her feelings beneath a snarky attitude.
It took her a few hours to get to bed. I took the guest bedroom, but sleep eluded me, worry about Agatha eating at my mind. I hadn’t thought she would let me into her bed. It also hadn’t escaped my notice that she hadn’t responded to my feelings.
It bothers me, but that isn’t what’s important right now, so I set it aside.
But as I hand her a plate, I press a kiss to her cheek. When she turns her head to say something, I capture her mouth in a hot kiss that is sweet as well as highly erotic, making my pants uncomfortable.
I encounter the bitter taste of coffee in her mouth and softly suckle on her tongue, making her whimper. One of my hands is planted on the back of her chair, the other face down on the countertop as I drink her in.
Finally pulling away, I feel her grip on my shirt as she clings to me, her eyes dark with need. Removing my hand from the counter, I stroke her face. “I’ve got your back. It’ll be fine.”
The kiss shakes her, and I realize that if I want to move ahead in this relationship, I will have to keep pushing her. My rejection from before hurt her, and there is still a wariness that radiates from her.
I don’t have much time to think about it, because there is a banging on the door and Agatha goes answer it.
Everybody is here together, and I see Philip giving me an annoyed look when I stand next to Agatha, my hand on her shoulder.
“Are you okay?” he demands, and Agatha gives him a dry look.
“We just discussed this a few hours ago. I’m fine, Philip.”
Fergus scowls at her. “Is this why you’ve been avoiding us all?”
Zayn doesn’t say a word, sitting on the arm of the couch, choosing to flip through a magazine. However, I know his attention is on what was going on.
Agatha runs agitated fingers through her hair. “I didn’t want you guys getting dragged into it. You and Philip are starting your families. And I had my own stuff to deal with, my work and everything. I couldn’t—”
“Is anyone hearing these crappy excuses, or is it just me?” Zayn tosses the magazine down on the table and raises a brow. “You chose not to tell us. You could have told Ian or me. Although him I can—”
