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Her fingers clawing around mine, her head shaking, she cries out, and I catch her lips and increase the pace, taking us to the edge, our kiss clumsy—teeth clashing, tongues dueling, lips everywhere.
Her heels dig into my arse, holding tight.
And I’m gone.
It takes me out completely, bends my body, burns my blood, fogs my brain. Fucking hell. I vaguely hear Ava’s yell past my bellow, and I collapse, twitching, Ava’s breathing loud, mine strained.“I can’t breathe,” I gasp, my body limp and heavy, my sweaty hands peeling from Ava’s. She hugs me. I don’t know where she finds the energy, but then like magic, perhaps because I know I must be a weight on her, I find some myself and kiss my way up her neck, her cheek, to her lips. “I crazy love you, baby.” More every second. “I’m glad we’re friends.”
I heave myself off her with effort and fall to my back, grateful for the shot of cool air to my chest. I smile at the ceiling, not quite believing what’s happened, as she sits herself on my stomach and her hands land on my chest. I glance at the ring that shestillhasn’t realized is there and rest my big hands over her petite ones, ready to point it out. God, it looks so good on her.
But she speaks as I draw breath, affirming, as she does, that she knows fine well that I love her. Then she eyes me in a way that tells me I’m about to be interrogated. I’m not worried. Not at this particular moment in time, anyway, because she’s about to ask about Coral. I knew it was coming. “If I’m going to marry you, you have to answer some questions.” She finishes and clears her throat, her back straightening in a show of fortitude.
Here we go.
37
A discussionabout Coral was inevitable, but not ideal after the blissful moment we just shared. But Ava looks rather adamant. Ihaveto answer some questions. “I do, do I?”
“Yes, you do.”
Veryadamant. “Come on then, spit it out.” I know I sound tired. Can’t help it. “What do you want to know?” I raise my brows as Ava lowers hers, unimpressed, and I apologize for appearing bored.
“Who was that woman last night?” she asks.
“Coral.”
Her level of unimpressed increases. “I know her name is Coral.” Head tilted, she looks at me with a warning look. “Whois she?”
“She’s the wife of the nasty little fucker who got ejected from The Manor the day you found the communal room.” I’ll let Ava conclude the rest based on what she heard on the day I’d rather forget. She doesn’t need explicit details.
She’s silent, tying up all of the ends, piecing it altogether. “You had an affair with her?”
“No, they came to me to source someone to participate in a threesome.”
She withdraws, and I immediately wish I could take those words and ram them back in my mouth. Because she looks disgusted. “You?” Ava asks, as if she needs to. I still nod, feeling shame creeping up on me. I don’t want her to be disgusted with me. “Why would you do that?”
Fucking hell. I did it because I could. I did it because I was a hedonistic playboy with not one care in the fucking world. I did it because I was reckless and fucked up. “She asked me to.”
She sucks her bottom lip in briefly, doing what I hoped she wouldn’t. Making a big deal of it. I fucked Coral. She mistakenly thought it meant more. The end.
“She fell in love with you,” Ava says.
I can’t say I wouldn’t have accepted Coral and Mike’s offer had I known Coral would fall in love with me, because... well, I just didn’t care back then. Didn’t think about the bigger picture. “I guess she did.”
She nods, and on this occasion, I really fucking hate the look of acceptance on her, because I will never accept another man loving her. “What did she want yesterday?” she asks, and I inwardly groan. We’re not done. “You were gone for a long time.”
“She left Mike...” I reach for the strength to give her honesty. “For me,” I add, and I detect another small, accepting nod. “I don’t know why. I never gave her any reason to believe I wanted her like that.” I wait for a reaction. Nothing, which surprises me. “He’s thrown her out, took her car, and seized her cards. She has nothing.”
And then there’s something. A frown. I’m not sure I like it. “She came to you for help?”
“Yes,” I reply, slowly and warily.
“And what did you say?”
“I said I would do what I could.” Why do I have a horrible feeling thatthatwas the wrong answer? I feel a bit strung all of a sudden, and it’s not a welcome feeling so close off the back of complete bliss.
“Has this got anything to do with the police?” Ava goes on, her brain working overtime.
“Mike’s playing games,” I say on an unamused laugh. I’ll finish the job if he comes close enough. “He advised the immigration police that half of my staff are illegal immigrants. It was cleared up quite quickly, no harm done. It was just a bit inconvenient.”
