All In (The Blackstone Affair, Part 2) (19 page)

“Well that was fun,” I said sarcastically as
I pulled away from the curb.

“I like your cousin a lot, Ethan. He is a
character for sure. I’m glad you introduced him. I cannot believe
you knew he was on the board at the National Gallery and did not
tell me!” She gave me a little punch in the shoulder, which I found
incredibly hot.

“Well, sorry, I know he doesn’t give a crap
about the art, he’s just on the board.” Remembering my oath to tell
her everything I continued on, “I told him about you a while ago. I
wanted to see if there can be something at the National for you. I
want you to have that work visa too.” I looked at her across the
seat from me, so beautiful and glowing, and knew I’d do anything in
order to keep her in England with me.
Even what Ivan suggested
in jest on the phone?

“Oh, Ethan.” She touched my leg. “That’s
very sweet of you, but I will get any appointment on my own. It’s
something really important to me. I want to earn it by myself, not
from you getting a favor from your cousin. No matter how well
connected he is…and flirty. Jesus, that man is a flirt!”

“Don’t remind me. There were a few times I
wanted to strangle him during lunch.”

“But it’s all just an act, Ethan. You must
know that about him. He respects you and I can see the relationship
you two have. Like brothers almost.”

“Yeah…Ivan’s good deep down. He’s just had
some hard knocks lately which have jaded him.”
Haven’t we
all.

“Haven’t we all,” she said.

I grabbed her hand and held it on my lap in
a sort of answer. Didn’t know what to say in response to that and
knew we didn’t have far to drive.

I dearly wished the trip could have taken a
lot longer though. The closer we got to her destination, the fouler
my mood became. By the time I pulled up to the studio where she was
working today and parked the damn car, I was a rabid mess. I felt
irrationality sweep though my body and had to fight it off hard. My
inner Mr. Hyde was having a field day with my inner Dr. Jekyll.
Like kicking the good doctor’s noble arse to the curb and
delivering sucker punches with glee.

“What are you shooting today?” I demanded.
And please say there are
some
clothes involved.

“Ethan,” she warned. “We’ve been through
this before. You can’t come in and you need to stop worrying. It’s
just me and the photographer, and some time behind the camera lens.
We’re all professionals doing our jobs.” She paused. “There is some
lingerie involved…”

“Which photographer?” I asked.

“Marco Carvaletti. You met him before.”

“Oh, I remember the suave Italiano Mr.
Carvaletti who likes to kiss you,
very
well, my
darling.”

“You can stop being an idiot now, Ethan,”
she told me in no uncertain terms. “This is my job just like you
have a job.”

I stared at her in the seat and wanted to
tell her she couldn’t go in there and take off her clothes. I
wanted to stand in the back of the room and watch everything
Carvaletti did, every move he made, every suggestion he directed to
her. I wanted to be there in case he tried to touch her or looked
too close. I wanted to turn the car around and take her home. I
wanted to fuck her up against the wall the moment we got inside
again. I wanted to hear her pant out my name as she was coming. I
wanted her to feel
me
inside her—to know it was me there and
nobody else. I wanted so much.

And I couldn’t have any of those things.
Nothing.

I had to kiss her goodbye and go back to
my
job. I had to tell her to text Neil when it was time for
a pick up because I had an afternoon meeting and couldn’t come for
her. I had to watch her go and wait until the door closed behind
her and she was inside the building. I had to drive away and leave
my girl inside that building.

I had to do it all.

And hated every bloody second of it.

♥

I wasn’t in much of a better mood by the
time I could leave the office. I rang Brynne and got voicemail. I
left her a message and told her I’d bring the dinner because I know
how tired she is after a photo shoot.
Don’t think about the
motherfucking photo shoot.

I wasn’t worried when she didn’t pick up,
because I knew she was at home. Neil always checked in with me when
he dropped her. I had hoped we could stay at my place tonight but
Brynne wasn’t going for it. I’d asked and she’d balked. Said she
needed her own bed for the night, plus she’d be over tomorrow for
the family dinner we had planned. I tried to get her over with me
every night but she was still elusive about relinquishing her
independence. Brynne got annoyed with me if I interfered too much
or tried to influence her choices.

Cue the nude modeling.
You’re thinking
about it again, asshole.

Damn, relationships are a lot of fucking
work…like all the goddamn time.

So, being the brilliant sod that I am, I
could weigh my options—my place with no Brynne vs. the package deal
of Brynne and her tiny flat, and less privacy if Gabrielle was
around.

Easy decision. Brynne won every time.

Hell, I was still fantasizing about another
wall-shag and wondered if I might surprise her with one if the
coast was clear when I got over there.

Where to pick up food? We liked a lot of
different things. I would have brought lasagna from Bellisima’s but
I immediately was reminded about Carvaletti being Italian and shot
that idea right down to hell.
That bastard saw her naked
today.

Brynne loved Mexican, but it was far better
when she made things from scratch than any restaurant in town. I
really loved the South American influences on what she liked to
make. I decided on Indian and rang in an order for some butter
chicken, lamb curry and veggie salad. I was just leaving the
restaurant with the food when I sent off a quick text:
Almost there, baby. I got us Indian chicken and
lamb.

I received something right back from her:
Hi. Really tired and just want bed. Can I skip
dinner 2nite?

What? I didn’t like the sound of her message
and immediately tried to figure out what she meant by it. A flicker
of unease ran through me. Was she telling me not to come over, or
just that she wasn’t hungry? I couldn’t tell from that text and I
read it over about ten times.

I was tired myself, crabby, rumpled, and
nicotine deprived, and not at all sure my brain was up for a
conversation with a possibly irrational female mind. All I wanted
was to eat something, have a shower and crawl into bed with her. I
could skip the sex even, but sleeping with her was
non-negotiable.

We’d made an agreement of sorts about where
we stayed, because her place or mine, I wanted her next to me. I’d
made that perfectly clear to Brynne when we started out. I rang her
from the car and drove.

“Hi. I’m not hungry, Ethan.” She sounded
odd.

“Well what’s wrong, baby? You’re not feeling
well?” This was a first. She’d never been sick before, except for
the headache that first night we met.

“My stomach hurts. I was lying down.”

“Like you’re going to be sick? You want me
to stop at the chemist and get you something for it?” I
offered.

She paused before answering cryptically.
“No…like I have cramps.”

Ahhhh. The Curse. I knew about that from
having a sister, just never had to deal with it in a relationship
before. Matter of fact, I’d never had a relationship like the one I
was in with Brynne, before either. When you have sex with
short-timers, inconveniences like ‘she’s having her dead week’
don’t come up. But I’d heard the complaints from friends for years,
and I’d been around my sister. And I’d learned enough to know that
giving a woman her space when she’s hormonal is the way to go.
You think?!
I supposed the nice wall-shag I had in mind was
out of the picture now too. Damn.

“Okay…I can give you a massage when I get
there. Is everything else all right? How did the shoot go?” I felt
myself tense up just waiting for her to answer me.

“Ummm, the shoot was fine. Good.” She paused
and made a sniffling sound. “I talked to my mom on the phone.” She
sounded sad and I wondered if the reason she sounded snuffly was
because she’d been crying. Made sense. That woman almost made me
feel like crying from the one time we’d spoken.

“Our conversation didn’t go so great.”

“I’m sorry, baby. I’ll be there and we can
talk when I get up to you.”

“I don’t want to talk about her,” she
snapped back. She had that lovely pissed-off tone to her voice that
actually got me a bit hard, but also got my warning flaps going
too.

I paused a beat. “That’s fine too. I’ll be
there very soon.”

“Why are you sighing into the phone at
me?”

Christ. I’m sure I opened my mouth and just
gaped like a goldfish because I had nothing to offer after that
question. “I’m not.”

“You just did it again!” she scolded. “If
you’re going to interrogate me about the photo shoot, and my
mother, then maybe you shouldn’t come over. I’m just not up for
that tonight, Ethan.”

Can you say wicked hormones changing my girl
into Medusa and scaring the hell out of me?

“Not up for talking to me or not up for me
at all? Because I do want to talk to you.” I tried to keep my tone
level but wasn’t too confident I was succeeding. I was pretty
fucking sure I couldn’t do any better at keeping my cool though. I
did not like this fucked up dialogue at all. It sucked.

Silence.

“Hello, Brynne? Am I coming over right now
or not?”

“I don’t know.”

I counted to ten. “‘I don’t know,’ is your
answer to me?”
What in the holy hell happened to our nice
romantic lunch at Gladstone’s? I want my sweet girl back!

“You sighed at me again.”

“Have me arrested. Look, I’m driving with a
car full of Indian take-out and don’t know where I’m going. Can you
help me out, baby?”

I absolutely fucking refused to get in a row
over this. She was having a shit day and hormonal—that I could deal
with. It sucked if she wouldn’t be in my arms tonight, but at least
we weren’t breaking up. Medusa might be messing with my night, but
she would be out of the picture in a few days. I prayed.

“Okay…come get me then,” she said
firmly.

I couldn’t believe my ears. “Come and get
you? I thought you had to stay at your place tonight. You said
earlier—”

She cut me right off, her tongue like a
sharp edged blade. “I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want to stay
here. I’ll pack a bag and be ready for you in five minutes. Call me
when you’re at the curb and I’ll be down.”

“All right, chief,” I said in utter
bewilderment, waiting till she hung up before I sighed good and
loud. I shook my head too. And even blew out a whistle. Then I
drove over to get my snaked-haired, sharp-tongued, unpredictable,
and very perplexing girlfriend, like the besotted sap that I very
much was.

Women…frightening creatures.

“
That’s going to be Aunt
Marie!
Ethan, can you let her in? I’m up to my elbows here.”
Brynne gestured to her frantic last-minute prep for dinner from the
kitchen.

“I’ve got it.” I gave her an air kiss and
said, “Show time, yeah?”

She nodded back, looking beautiful as always
in her long black skirt and purple top. The color was lovely on her
and since I now knew it was her favourite, I had to believe in my
luck that first time when I sent her the purple flowers.

All in, baby.

I opened the door to a lovely woman of which
I had no expectations other than this was Brynne’s great aunt.
Sister to her grandmother on her mum’s side. But the person smiling
at my doorstep was about as far from a grandmotherly female as you
could get. With her unlined skin and dark red hair she looked young
and stylish and rather…hot for a woman who could not be above
fifty-five.

“You must be Ethan that I’m hearing so much
about,” she said in a native tongue.

“And you must be Brynne’s Aunt Marie?” I
hesitated in case I was wrong, but really, the women in her family
were stunning. I wondered again what kind of beauty Brynne’s mum
must be.

She laughed charmingly. “You sound a little
unsure there.”

I ushered her in and closed the door. “Not
at all. I was expecting her great aunt you see, not her older
sister. She’s got her hands full in the kitchen and sent me to
greet you.” I held out my hand. “Ethan Blackstone. It is my very
great pleasure, Aunt Marie. I hear Brynne sing your praises all the
time and have looked forward to meeting you.”

“Oh please call me Marie,” she said, taking
my hand, “quite the charmer you are, Ethan. Her sister, hmmmm?”

I laughed and shrugged. “Too flattering? I
don’t think so, and welcome, Marie. I appreciate you taking the
time to join us tonight.”

“Thank you for the invitation to your lovely
home. I don’t get to see my niece often enough so this is bonus.
And your comment was lovely even if it was far too flattering.
You’ve got my vote, Ethan.” She winked at me and I think I fell in
love with her right then and there.

Brynne came out of the kitchen and embraced
her aunt. I got a very happy grin from Brynne over Marie’s
shoulder. It was clear that whatever problems she had with her mum,
she didn’t have them with Marie and that made me very glad.
Everybody needs someone to give them unconditional love. They went
off to the kitchen and I went to get drinks sorted before the bell
rang again. I smirked to myself at what Dad would think of Marie
when he got a look at her. I knew she was a widow with no children
but with her beauty, there must be a long queue of men clamoring
for her time. I couldn’t wait to get the story from Brynne.