Safe Love (Love Brothers #4) (6 page)

“Antony,” she whispered as her fingers twined in his hair.
“Oh, god, Antony. I…I’m…”

“Shh,” he said, pulling out and turning her around so he
could hold her close. She was so much taller than Crystal or Rosie, it was a
completely new sensation but something about her fit him, body and soul. She
was shaking, so he tilted her chin up and kissed her again, starting soft and
slow, licking her lips and tasting every single corner of them and finally
going deep, holding her so close he didn’t know where he ended and she began.
“I need to be inside you, deep, deep inside you Margot. May I? Please?”

“Yes,” she hissed as he picked her up and she wrapped her
legs around his waist. And then he was there, inside her glorious, warm and
perfect body, even before they dropped onto the bed. She lifted her hips and he
propped up on his hands, staring down at her as their bodies moved slowly, then
faster, and then faster still. When he finally did come, it was perfect but
not, at the same time. Something in his chest seemed to burst open as his hips
kept moving and his breathing came in short, scary gasps. His throat closed,
and his eyes burned.

Margot held him, wiping his face. It was odd, realizing that
he was sobbing—something he’d not done even while staring at his wife’s ruined
face or at the closed box of her casket. He cried so hard now, his entire body
hurt with the effort. Margot held him and finally he slept, cradled against her
chest.

A slamming door woke him and he cursed, realizing that
AliceLynn must be home. The clock read nine a.m. and he remembered she had a
lunch shift at the pub. He poked Margot’s leg. “Hey, um, we might have a
problem.”

She struggled to sit up, the sheet clutched to her. At that
moment, his bedroom door flew open so hard he’d have to repair the drywall
divot the next day. AliceLynn stood with her arms crossed, glaring at him and
at the obviously naked woman who was not his fiancée, lying next to him in bed.

The sound of the slamming front door forced Margot out of
her stupor. Antony must have been similarly disabled but he finally launched
himself out of bed and into the hall. She could hear him yelling, about the
same time she heard the loud screech of tires that signaled AliceLynn had
escaped.

She flopped back onto the pillow with a groan. When Antony
reappeared in the doorway, naked and tempting, all she could manage was to
frown and climb out from the warm nest of sheets and blankets and brush past
him.

He moved aside without a word. She located the dress she’d
been wearing when she’d snuck into his house in the middle of the night with
nothing on underneath, knowing full well what she wanted and intended to do.
Her head ached and her mouth was dry and she wanted nothing more than to crawl
into the man’s bed and never leave. But this was a one-off and it was time to
make sure he understood that.

A hand on her hip as she was leaning over to grab her shoes
made her yelp and stumble, sending her shin into the coffee table. She
tottered, before landing with a thud on her ass. Wincing, she pulled the metal
cuffs out from under her butt and let them dangle from her fingers.

“Wow, walk much?” Antony’s grin made her furious. Why in the
hell had she done this? She’d turned into the ‘other woman’, something she’d
sworn she’d never do having been victim of one herself. He held out a hand. She
glared at it, noting he’d put on jeans and nothing else.

“What are you smiling about?” She pushed herself up without
his assistance, snagged her shoes and stomped into the kitchen. After drinking
two glasses of water, she stood facing away from him, her knees shaking and her
heart already breaking. When she turned, she saw him sitting, staring at her.
“This was just…this once. All right? I’m moving back to Michigan just so you
know. I’m in the process of handing my patients over to a colleague. I can’t be
here, not anymore. So…” She held out both hands, at a loss for words in the face
of his intense gaze.

He rose and took the few steps between them in one,
gathering her close. She stayed still, unwilling to allow herself this moment.
She didn’t deserve it. Once he figured out she wasn’t reciprocating, he let go
but kept his hands on her shoulders. Tears spilled down her cheeks, pissing her
off.

“I’m sorry,” he said, his low gruff voice soft and soothing.

She shook her head and wiped her face. “Not your fault. It’s
mine. I let myself… I don’t know, connect with you or something. I don’t understand
it even though I wrote an entire fucking doctoral dissertation on it.” She met
his gaze again. He looked so at ease, calm in a way she’d never seen him before
and she knew that on one level, she’d read him correctly. That left one, tiny
problem. “What do we do about…Rosie?”

Antony blew out a breath and sat down, tapping his fingers
on the tabletop. “I’ll talk to her,” he declared, squaring his shoulders for a
moment before slumping and looking defeated. “Thing is, I’m not a hundred
percent sure that she’s not doing the same thing with my little brother.”

Margot blinked, combing her memory banks for any clue she
might have caught and filed away. “Rosie and Aiden …” She bit her lip when his
face clouded and his dark brows knit together.

“I’m not a hundred percent sure but something about the two
of them…oh fuck who am I to talk?” He glared up at her. Her heart raced. “Why
did you come here anyway if you’re just gonna…leave?” His briefest of
hesitations gave her all sorts of ridiculous, impossible hope.

“Because we needed closure before I move away for good.” She
heard the strength in her voice and wished she actually believed in it.

“Ah, well, so glad I could provide you with your goddamned
closure.” He used the word in such a way that it sounded as stupid a she felt
for saying it. “Thanks for the fuck, doll. See ya ‘round.” He got up and walked
calmly out of the kitchen, leaving her with her mouth hanging open and too many
unsaid words choking her throat. Her feet moved of their own accord and she found
herself standing in his bedroom doorway, watching as he tugged on a T-shirt.

“You can’t throw that at me and then walk out of the room,”
she said, using her best calm therapy voice.

“Really,” he said, facing her and leaving her breathless
with her newfound knowledge of his incredible body. “This from the woman who
broke into my house in the middle of the night, sat waiting for me in my
kitchen and then took what she needed from me, only to inform me that she’s
‘moving back to Michigan’, conveniently enough, after my daughter caught me in
bed with her.”

“I’m pretty sure I provided you with something you wanted.”
Her face warmed as anger rose at his assumptions about what she’d done.

You did want him, you shameless bitch,
her inner nag
reminded her. She shook her head.

“Yeah, well, I’ll say it again: ‘thanks and see ya.’ I think
you know where the door is, right?” He shoved past her, giving her a distinct
whiff of seriously pissed off, yet turned on, male. She shivered and set her
jaw against the urge that nearly blinded and deafened her to grab him and drag
him into the bedroom so she could top the cocky asshole the way he really
wanted her to.

But he was right. She should go. Taking a long, hopefully
calming breath, she walked into the kitchen and nearly plowed right into him.
“Shit, get out of my way already.” She shifted to one side. He mirrored her,
making her scalp tingle but pissing her off at the same time. “What?” She
crossed her arms over her chest to keep from yanking him close.

“I…” He stopped and put his hands on his hips.

“Spare me your compliments. I know I’m good. Now please
excuse me.”

“Wait,” he said, holding out a hand. She moved out of his
reach. “I don’t want to just…”

She sighed and closed her eyes for a split second then
opened them. “Listen, Antony, you don’t have to apologize or explain or
anything. I did this. I initiated it on purpose. But I’m leaving, for good,
because we can’t … do this again.”

“I know.” He slumped in the kitchen doorway, looking so lost
and miserable it killed her. “I asked Rosie to move the wedding up.”

She frowned. “When did you do that?”

“After that night at the hospital, remember?” He looked up
at her, his face a mask of agonized panic.

She felt herself sag so she dropped into a chair. “Oh,
right. Shit.” She watched as he pulled the milk jug out of the fridge and took
a long drink from it. The intense, overpowering desire to be here, with
him—truly with him in this house and this kitchen—made her almost double over
in pain. “Nice,” she said mildly as he emptied the thing and tossed it into the
sink.

“Whatever,” he muttered and leaned on the closed fridge
door. “I do love her.”

“I know you do.” Margot leaned forward on her elbows,
feeling all sorts of cheap, easy and stupid. “So, Aiden is…” She stopped, words
drying up in her mouth.

“Fucking my fiancée? Very possibly.”

“Well, um, maybe it’s more than … that. I mean, more than
just sex?” She heard her voice turn up at the end.

Antony glared at her, and then his gaze softened. “Right.
There is always that. Thanks.”

“Antony,” she said, getting up, determined to get the hell
out of here. All the way out. With nothing more in mind that to soothe and say
goodbye, once and for all, she put her arms around him, burying her face in his
neck. His hands started at her hips, moved up her arms and tangled in her hair
and before she could take a breath, his lips were on hers once more.

She let herself have its perfection for a few seconds, and
then pulled away, gripping his arms. A tear slipped down her cheek. He touched
his fingertip to it. “I hate making women cry.”

“Well, you can rest assured this is not your fault. It’s
mine. I never should have come here and put you in this position. I…I let my
own needs take control of me. This isn’t helping you.”

“You might be surprised to know that I think it is. Even our
actual therapy sessions, such as they are.”

“I have to go. You need to talk to AliceLynn. I won’t be
this person, Antony. My husband fucked around on me and left me for the other
woman, you know? I don’t know if I can stand to look at myself in the mirror
anymore so I’m … going home. All the way home.”

“You aren’t that woman Margot. But yeah, you should go.” He
took a big step away from her. “I’ll handle AliceLynn.”

Margot’s heart sank even further towards her feet. “I…don’t
want to say this but I’m going to since I won’t be seeing you again.” Unable to
stop herself, she put her palm against his rough face. He leaned into it. “I
could love you, Antony Love. If we were living a different life. So take care
of yourself, and your daughter, and your Mama. I do love that woman.”

She dropped her hand and whirled away from him before she
did something even dumber than she already had. By the time she’d parked in
front of her rented condo, her throat was raw from sobbing. Gripping the
steering wheel, she had a brief flash of panic, realizing that AliceLynn
actually had an appointment with her—this very afternoon. Well, the girl
certainly wouldn’t show for it.

Mind already spinning with all she had to do to get out of
here, she unlocked her front door and tossed her keys on the kitchen counter.
It would take her a solid month to disentangle from everything—get out of the
lease on her place, figure out how to resume her practice in Ann Arbor. Might
as well get started on it. She tapped her fingers on the generic granite
counter, pondering the concept of Aiden and Rosie together and what that meant
for Antony.

No. Stop. Don’t go anywhere near there. Make your lists.
Get the fuck out of Dodge. Now.

By five-thirty that night, Margot had her lists done, was
well on her way toward getting her condo sublet and had contacted her former
office landlord in Michigan. He’d been thrilled to know she’d be back.

When the knock on her office door came, she shoved her
reading glasses up her nose, confused. It creaked open, revealing AliceLynn
Love dressed in her waitress getup from the pub, her blue eyes watery and her
lower lip quivering. Without even thinking about it, Margot got up and went to
her, pulling her inside and into a huge hug. She shut the door and let the girl
cry a while, then handed her a tissue.

“I hate him,” the girl muttered between blowing her nose.
“Don’t know what you see in him.”

Margot took a breath and pointed to the couch. “Well,
whatever it was, it’s over. Your dad is going to marry Rosie and she is a
really great lady. She’ll make a super stepmom for you.”

“Oh, I know you’re into him. I can tell. Besides,” AliceLynn
tossed her long red hair over one shoulder, then yanked it up and stuck it
through a band. “Rosie likes my Uncle Aiden. Y’all are so…so…oh never mind.”
She stood, still sniffling. “Thanks, by the way.” She pointed to her purse.

“Well, I’m going to assume you have a good reason for having
a knife in your bag. Just tell me one thing.” She patted the couch next to her
since the girl still remained standing.

“What,” AliceLynn said, not taking the hint.

“Are you cutting yourself?”

Her face flushed bright red as she bit her lower lip and
started backing away.

“It’s not uncommon you know. But it’s also not a good thing
so I want you to do me a favor in exchange for me not telling your dad about
it,” Margot said as she rose, a strange, protective feeling surging through
her. “It’s all right. You can tell me.”

“I, um, well…” The girl shook her head. “What of it? I
haven’t in a … while. Not since I met Jason.”

“Replacing cutting with sex isn’t a solution. You are on the
pill I assume?” Margot heard the berating tone creeping into her voice and
quashed it. She grabbed the girl’s thin wrist and turned it over, noting the
telltale scars all up and down the inside of her pale skin. How in the hell
Antony hadn’t seen this she had no idea. AliceLynn tugged at her arm but Margot
held tight. “You’re having protected sex, right? He wears a condom?” Even as
she said it she nearly choked on the words, recalling her lack of one with the
girl’s father not a few hours before.

“Yeah. I’m not stupid.” She glared at Margot. “And I’m gonna
just say that whatever you are doin’ with him—”

“Is over,” Margot said, dropping her wrist. “I want you to
promise me that anytime you want to cut yourself, you’ll call me.” She pressed
her business card into the girl’s hand. “Sometimes, all you need is someone to
talk to. And if you talk to me first, before you hurt yourself, we can keep you
from doing it, okay?”

AliceLynn opened her mouth but Margot pressed her fingers
over the girl’s lips. “I know what I did with your dad was wrong. It’s why I’m
moving home and leaving him to his life with Rosie. And I’m sure you’re
imagining things about her and your Uncle Aiden.”

“Whatever,” the girl said, stuffing Margot’s card into her
bag. “You don’t have to leave you know. I won’t tell on y’all.” She looked down
at her feet and spoke to them but her words lifted Margot’s saggy spirits. “I
like…talking in here, with you.”

“Thanks. I have a referral for you. You’ll have a new
therapist but you can call me anytime, for any reason, okay?”

To her complete surprise, AliceLynn launched at her and
wrapped her arms around her neck, resuming her crying. Margot sighed and patted
the girl’s shoulder, having all sorts of inappropriate, motherly thoughts.
Finally, without saying another word, AliceLynn retreated and slunk out the
door.

Margot dropped onto the couch, shaking and confused, wishing
she could wind back the clock to that moment she met Antony’s mother so she
could say ‘no thanks’ to the woman’s plan of action for Antony and his
daughter. But even as she wished it she knew it wouldn’t go down that way.
Lindsay Love was the sort of woman impossible to refuse.