His Captive Lover (The Thorpe Brothers Series) (16 page)

Mia knew the feeling.  “Why don’t you come with us?  I don’t know about the martinis,” she cautioned, “but the margaritas at Durango’s are perfect for anything that ails you.”

Cricket considered the option.  She didn’t know these two women, but she could definitely use a night on the town with some women her own age.  “I’m not sure I should be around humanity right now,” she came back.

Mia laughed.  “That’s exactly where I am.  I’m Mia Paulson,” she said.  “And we’re heading out to celebrate me not being in jail for the rest of my life.”

Cricket smiled back, taking Mia’s hand in hers.  “That sounds like a perfect start to the weekend.  I think I’ll join you after all.”

The three women walked out the door and headed down the sidewalk to the bar that was down the street from the office.  They found a table in the back of the bar and settled down, ordering a huge pitcher of margaritas with three glasses. 

When they were all poured with chips and salsa in the middle of the table, Autumn raised her glass in the air.  “To avoiding jail time and men!” she said with emphatic conviction. 

Mia was just about to raise her glass when she spotted another woman sitting alone at the bar.  “Wait!” she called out, moments before they took a sip.  “That woman, her name is Kira or Kiera, right?”

Autumn looked over at the bar and nodded.  “Yes.  She’s the new lawyer on Ash’s team.  She started the day you were arrested.”

Mia’s grin grew wider as she watched the sad looking woman sitting off to the side at one of the darker tables.  “She’s the one who found the information about Jeff’s current fiancée buying the new BMW.” 

Without another word, Autumn stood up and walked over to the woman who looked as sad and miserable as Mia felt at the moment. 

Cricket and Mia watched as Autumn spoke softly to the other woman, gesturing in their direction.  Mia knew instantly what was going on and she grabbed a chair from the next table, bringing it over to their own. 

“Hi Kiera!” she called out, signaling to the waiter to bring another glass.  “Looks like you’re in the same boat as the rest of us so you might as well join us,” she said and poured the woman a drink. 

Kiera smiled gratefully and introduced herself to Cricket.  “So back to where we were before,” Cricket said, lifting her glass one more time.  “To no jail time and no obnoxious men!”

The three other women laughed, but they all clinked glasses and took a long sip of the sweet and sour mixture, laughing about the men they’d dated in the past.  Mia didn’t bring up the fact that she was personally involved with Ash.  She thought that would be a bit too revealing, but she thought it was interesting that Cricket reviled Ash’s older brother Ryker.  And Mia knew that Autumn was refusing to date any of the men she introduced her to but she was quite adamant that Xander Thorpe was the worst of the four Thorpe brothers.  Which struck Mia as very interesting. 

And it could just be the tequila finally hitting her system, but Mia thought it was fascinating that the lovely brunette lawyer looked down at her drink anytime one of the brothers was mentioned.  Was the beautiful Kiera interested in another man?  Or perhaps one that had already been mentioned?  Mia watched her carefully and knew something was up when the slender woman held her breath at the mere mention of Axel Thorpe.  Bingo, Mia thought and sat back, mentally congratulating herself on figuring out what was going on. 

Two hours later, they were on their third pitcher of drinks and the four women were tight friends.  “So what’s up with the boss man?” Cricket asked, laughing as she grabbed another chip. 

“You mean Ryker?” Autumn asked, taking a long gulp of her margarita despite the fact that the room was already swaying.

Cricket also took a long, satisfying swallow of her icy drink and nodded.  “Or more appropriately referred to as the most obnoxious, irritating, domineering and arrogant man on the planet.” 

Autumn laughed and shook her head. “He’s not so bad,” she said.  “You haven’t met Xander yet if you think Ryker is bad.  Xander’s a jerk!”

“Oh crap!” Mia gasped, her drink frozen halfway to her lips. 

Cricket looked over.  “What’s wrong?”

Her glass dropped to the table with a clink.  “I just realized that I’m in love with the horrible man!”

Kiera smiled, having figured that one out about three drinks ago.  “And?  Sounds like we all have man troubles.”

Mia, Autumn and Cricket all looked at their new best friend.  “You too?” they gasped almost in unison.

Autumn’s eyes narrowed.  She looked around at counted.  When she came to the right conclusion, she too gasped in horror.  “No!”

Mia was having trouble keeping up.  “What?”  Were they talking about the Thorpe brothers still?  She was a little fuzzy now. 

Cricket laughed and shook her head.  “Figures,” she said and poured Kiera another glass. 

“What?” Mia asked again, but took a sip while she looked over the rim of her glass.

Autumn threw back her head and laughed.  “I can’t believe it!  You too?”

Kiera sighed and took a long sip of her drink as well. 

Mia cringed she voiced the conclusion she’d come to a couple of hours ago.  “Axel?” she asked, instantly feeling sorry for the poor woman. 

Kiera’s shoulders shrugged slightly.  “Everyone has their albatross.” 

The four men standing behind the table listened with only slightly veiled amusement.  Axel rolled his eyes when he was referred to as an albatross.  “At least I wasn’t referred to as obnoxious, irritating and domineering.”

“Don’t forget arrogant,” Xander piped up, filling in the one adjective his brother had forgotten. 

Ryker rolled his eyes.  “You’re the one that was most recently referred to as a jerk, if you recall.”

Xander pushed away from the bar and put his half-drunk beer down on the bar behind him.  “I think it’s time to crash this party.  Don’t you gentlemen?”

Ryker completely agreed.  “I’ll get their tab.  Who is going to be the first to break things up before we’re tarred and feathered?”

He turned around and gestured to the ladies’ waiter, handing him a credit card to cover their drinks for the night. 

Ash was the first to step in, starting to move in behind Mia but Autumn’s next words stopped him several feet from their table.  He didn’t move, just waited for more interesting information to be revealed.

“What were you saying ‘crap’ earlier?  You and Ash are great together,” Autumn commented, leaning back, completely oblivious to the four extremely large men warily approaching their table. 

Mia shrugged and took another long sip of her drink.  “Oh, nothing important.  I just really don’t want to be in love with my jerk.”

The three women stopped drinking and stared hard.   “Are you kidding?” Autumn asked, a huge grin on her face. 

Mia’s eyes narrowed as something occurred to her.  She stared hard at her friend, her mind trying to work despite all the alcohol that was making everything fuzzy.  “Did you have this planned already?” she asked.

Autumn laughed, delighted.  “Not at all.  When I saw your name on the docket, I didn’t spare a moment to consider anything, but remember that last time you came by to pick me up for yoga?” she asked.

Mia nodded her head, already suspicious.  “What about it?”

“You were late.  You were supposed to come up and get me.  And I was going to have you accidentally run into Ash.”

Mia gasped.  “You sneaky…!  Why would you do that to me?”

Autumn smiled.  “What’s the problem?  You’re already in love with him.”

“Yeah, but he’s not in love with me.  And besides, he doesn’t trust me.”

“Yes he does,” Autumn contradicted. 

“Yes, I do,” A deep voice interrupted. 

Mia spun around and groaned. 

“What are you doing here?” she demanded, almost spilling her drink as her hand started shaking.  “Go away.  You don’t trust me and I’m not going to be in love with a man who doesn’t trust me.”

Ash didn’t even bother to reply to that.  He simply took the glass out of her hand and bent down to lift her into his arms.  Walking out of the restaurant, he nodded to his brothers who were starting to move in on what he suspected were their women.  Or at least what he hoped were the women these men had been grouching over.  He was at least relieved to see that Xander was moving in on Autumn’s chair but didn’t take the time to wonder what would happen between the two of them.  He had too much to worry about with this one.

“Put me down,” she grumbled.  “I’m too heavy for you to carry me,” she said and laid her head down on his broad shoulder. 

Ash raised an eyebrow at that, but didn’t slow down at all.  He wanted her in his brownstone where he could strip off this ugly suit she’d chosen to wear and find all that lovely softness he knew was underneath.  He was going to spend the rest of the evening and all of the night convincing her that he trusted her, had always trusted her and would always trust her in the future and she needed to marry him as soon as possible. 

“I’m hiring a new lawyer,” she said while he was tucking her into the passenger seat of his car. 

“Of course you are,” he said and strapped her seat belt on.

Her eyes narrowed on his amused face but she suspected the action might be diminished since she was having trouble focusing on him.  “You might be big and gorgeous,” she said with a sigh as she laughed when he tickled her, “but I can resist you easily.”

“Think so?” he replied, not believing a word of it.  Nice to hear that she thought he was gorgeous, he thought. 

“Absolutely!  You don’t trust me.  That’s easy to resist.”

“I trust you,” he countered, but slammed the door so she couldn’t argue with him any longer. 

He chuckled as he walked around to the driver’s seat.  So the woman thought he was ‘gorgeous’?  He liked that. 

Sliding into the car, he started it up and backed out of the parking space, glancing in her direction to see if she was okay.  Her eyes were closed and she had a satisfied look on her lovely features, just like she had last night when he’d been making love to her. 

“And you’re not getting another lawyer,” he said softly, thinking she’d fallen asleep after all the margaritas she’d imbibed. 

He was wrong.  Her widening smile indicated as much.  “You can’t stop me,” she came right back, not bothering to open her eyes. 

He chuckled as he drove through the streets of downtown Chicago.  “Why would you need a new lawyer?  Are you planning to let some earthworms die off on the sidewalk?”

That wiped her smile away and she turned to glare at him.  “I’ll have you know that earthworms are a very important part of our ecosystem.  And because of that, they’re one of the very best composters.  You want gorgeous plants and flowers, get a bunch of worms.”

He laughed and shook his head.  “Are we talking about our relationship or worm dung?” he asked, confidently maneuvering through the streets. 

“We don’t have a relationship.  So let’s talk about worm…” she hesitated to use the other term so she just said, “poop.”

“We definitely have a relationship.  And I’ll make sure you don’t get a new lawyer.”

She laughed as if his statement as well as his confidence were outrageous.  “How do you think you’re going to stop me?” she asked, snuggling down into the soft leather seat.  “And stop being charming.  I don’t like you.”  Worry lines appeared on her forehead and she turned to look up at him.  “I can’t remember why at the moment, but it will come to me.”

“You think I don’t trust you,” he told her with a wink. 

“Right!” she said, trying to snap her fingers but they wouldn’t connect properly for some reason.  After several failed attempts, she simply waved her hands and then let them fall onto her lap. 

“Autumn is in love with Xander, isn’t she?” Mia asked, squinting through the darkened windshield. 

“That’s our theory.  But no one will touch it and question either party to find out why they won’t do anything about it.”

Mia mulled that over in her mind.  “I don’t think I have the courage either.”

Ash laughed, shaking his head.  “Mia, you’re one of the bravest women I know.”

She blinked, not sure she’d heard him correctly.  “That was possibly the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me.”

He braked for a red light and looked down at her.  “We’re getting married, you know.”

Mia rolled her eyes.  “And there goes the sweetness and charm.”  She shrugged philosophically.  “I figured as much.  Only an ogre would ask a woman to marry her in such an outrageous manner.”

He chuckled again.  “You’ve already told me I’m gorgeous and charming.”

“I never said charming,” she came right back.  “And I didn’t say gorgeous.”

“I heard gorgeous,” he countered. 

“I never will admit to saying gorgeous.”  With that she sighed and leaned back in the leather seat one more time.  “And where are you taking me?” she demanded, trying to figure out where they were.  “I’m not going back to your brownstone,” she told him firmly.  “I need to go home.”

“You’re going to have to sell your pretty house, Mia.  I can’t live in a house with a blue kitchen.  We’ve already discussed that.”

“I’m not selling my house, I’m not living with you and so your masculinity is safe from my kitchen, which is periwinkle.  Not blue.”

He couldn’t believe she was arguing about the color of her kitchen when he’d just proposed to her.  Albeit in a rather unromantic manner.  Even he had to admit that telling someone they were going to get married was rather unromantic.  But hell, she was talking about getting a new lawyer!  What was a man supposed to do? 

Not that he was threatened at all.  The woman was too wholesome for words.  He couldn’t imagine another bizarre situation where she would need a lawyer.  So the point was mute anyway.  “You’re coming to my house, and I’ll try to be more romantic once the alcohol has worn off.  How’s that?”

She immediately shook her head.  “I’m not going back to your house,” she stated firmly once again.  “I’m going to my house and I’m going to have breakfast in my periwinkle kitchen and I’ll sleep in my flowered sheets and you can’t do anything to stop me.”

Since they were already parked in his garage, he’d like to know how she was going to get home.  But he didn’t point that out to her.  He simply got out of the car and walked around to her side, intending to lift her out of the seat again and carry her into his house where she belonged.