“Both feet, Stud.”
My eyes are back on hers now, the reality of what we have just agreed to kicking in for real now.
I instinctively lean in to kiss her but before my lips find hers, she speaks. “I. Bloody. Love. You. Too.”
Her use of my own punctuated declaration of bloody love fills my heart with joy and I feel as though I am soaring off the ground. Her arms wrap around me, and she pulls me closer.
“Now, kiss me.”
“With fucking pleasure.”
I need no further encouragement and before either of us can do or say anything else, I am taking her in my arms, kissing her, worshipping her, counting my lucky stars for her, and loving her.
~~~
It’s a couple of hours later, as we sit in the kitchen eating omelettes that I broach the subject of Christian, and hope that I am not about to burst the happy little bubble we’ve built around ourselves.
“Christian—”
She cuts me off, but I can see by her face that there’s something between them. My suspicions were clearly correct.
“We were involved.”
I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t fucking that.
“Involved?” I am verbally and physically bristling.
“Yes, involved, like you and the temptress twins and goodness knows who else.”
Her reprimand is delivered calmly and her point hits home. Whatever was between them is in the past and is no more than my own previousinvolvements.
“Sorry. Go on.”
She looks nervous, scared almost and that causes my anger to rise again, but it’s not aimed at her. My wrath is firmly directed at Christian.
“When I was at university, I worked in a bar. This man came in and we chatted, flirted and started seeing each other. I thought we were embarking on an actual relationship, and he allowed me to believe that.”
“He didn’t see it as an actual relationship?”
She shakes her head and I have a strong urge to punch Christian, although, my conscience points out that I have been in that position on multiple occasions where a girl has seen things between us far more seriously than I have, not that I have ever encouraged that.
“I thought he did and as I say, he allowed me to continue in that belief. Long story short—he was married with kids. I had no clue about that until the end and felt awful to have been the other woman, even if I thought I was the only woman.”
“Fuck!” I hadn’t thought the voices in my head this far through, having somehow assumed Anita and Christian must have known each other before he became involved with my stepsister, but then, the maths didn’t exactly work out when I considered it now.
“Needless to say, he wasn’t very happy to see me in your mum’s kitchen.”
“Motherfucker! Did he do anything? Threaten you?” I am certain he will have said plenty of unpleasant things to her and having seen how openly hostile he is to Liv, her relationship to Anita is only likely to have made him worse.
She shrugs, confirming he was an arsehole. “I’m not what you might call his favourite person. It was unpleasant at the time and it’s still that way.”
I reach across the counter we’re on opposite sides of and pick her hand up, gently landing a kiss to her knuckles. “We don’t have much to do with him, especially not since he turned on Liv, but I won’t sit silently by if he treats you badly.”
“You don’t need to rescue me.”
“Maybe not.” I grin across at her. “But I will. Always.”
She stretches up on the stool she’s sitting on, leaning over until her lips are almost against mine and then she pauses. “For a man whore you are incredibly romantic.”
