“He accused me of sleeping with Jordan.” I don’t want to tell Char about the other accusation, about the vile look on his face as he taunted me.
Char lets out an incredulous laugh. “Jordan? He’s actually lost it now. I don’t even know why I’m shocked. I don’t think Archie could ever conceive of being friends with a woman, all he sees is an assortment of walking fleshlights.”
I can’t help but giggle, pressing a hand to my mouth. “Truer words were never spoken.” I meet her eyes and sigh. “I told him I wanted a divorce. Should have seen the look on his face.”
“Seven years of bad behaviour have told him you’ll never leave.” Char shrugs. “But, you know, good. Good for you, darling.” She puts an arm around my shoulders, and gently presses her head to mine. "Life can only get better from here, ey?”
17
DOMINIC
It’s late.The manic traffic around London kept me away from Mia for hours, and I should probably just go home. Mia is fast asleep by now, or at least she should be. There’s no point heading over there when she’s resting. I should leave her be. But I find myself taking the streets to Knightsbridge anyway, wondering if she’s still awake, hoping that maybe she is.
My phone pings.
Are you OK?
As though she can read my mind.
Of course she’s not asleep. I said I’d be there and I’m not. She’s waiting for me, and I’ve been out being a fucking brute instead of being with her.
I pull up outside her house, and before I’ve even reached the gate, it buzzes to let me in. Mia is waiting by the door, looking ethereal in a long black slip dress, her dark hair piled on top of her head.
She smiles at me weakly. “Didn’t want to wake up Char with the bell.”
“She asleep already?”
Mia nods, stepping aside to let me in and watching as I slip off my shoes and jacket. “We went to lie down, but I couldn’t shut my brain off. Not even a bang to the head’ll do it.”
We stand in the hallway, and she gazes up at me.
“You don’t look like you just beat the shit out of someone,” she says, lifting her eyebrow. “Let me guess, I should see the other guy?”
I give her a crooked smile. “He had a surprisingly tough mid section. He must work out.” I lift my hand to show her my red knuckles, and she gasps.
“Bloody hell.” She snatches my hand and drags me down the hallway. “That needs seeing to.”
“It’s fine, Mia.”
“It’s bloody not.” She stops in the kitchen and points to where I’m standing. “Don’t move.”
I do as she says, watching as she retrieves a first aid kit from a cupboard beside the fridge. She unzips it, rifling through it as she walks back to me.
“You men and getting your fists involved,” she mutters, pulling out a yellow tube of ointment and some packaged gauze. She sits up on the kitchen counter, and pulls me to her, tutting as she looks down at my red knuckles. “And over what?”
“Over you, love.”
She looks at me with a raised eyebrow. “Well, I’m flattered.” She squeezes some ointment onto the gauze and gently taps it to my raw flesh. “Though I don’t know what you think this will achieve. Hardcastle is going to be on the warpath now and you’re going to get yourself arrested.”
I shake my head, trying not to think too hard about the fact that I’m standing between her thighs, and definitely trying not to look at her breasts in her slinky black dress.
“I warned him, if the police got involved I’d destroy him.”
“You got that option and all, with your money.” Satisfied that the skin on my knuckles is now tended to, she packs the ointment away into the bag and throws the gauze into the sink. With a sigh, she puts a hand to my chest. “Archie’s back.”
I’m sure she’s able to feel the sudden wrench my heart makes in my chest.
“Oh.” I nod slowly. “And what did he have to say for himself?”
