Mags was about to step around the stilt walker and excuse herself with as much dignity as she could drum up when the woman stepped closer to Jonathan.
“Say you’ll come by my place tonight. My sister’s in town, and the three of us had so much fun together last time.”
“Sorry, Deirdre, not tonight. I’m busy.”
And that was all she could handle.Not tonight. I’m busy! He should have said, I’m in a relationship, or I’m never going to your place again.
Furious now, Mags sidestepped the woman until she could see Jonathan. Granted, he looked furious. Unfortunately for him and their relationship, his words didn’t match his face.
He swallowed firmly when their eyes met. “I’m going to go grab a seat with my friends.” Emphasis on “my.”
He was quick to grab her elbow, and had they not been at an important event, she would have used that elbow to thump him in the ribs.
“I’ll take you,” he declared before turning to his ex-whatever. “I should have mentioned before, but I’m exclusively dating Mags now—forever, I hope. My past is very much staying there. Good evening.”
His declaration should have soothed Mags’ ruffled feathers. He eventually made it right, but one minute or an hour later was still too late. He should have announced to the woman exactly who was standing behind her. He should never have let her stand at any woman’s back.
Mags didn’t bother to look at the lady again, even when she huffed and parted with, “Whatever.”
As they pulled away, Jonathan slowed. “Mags. Please let me?—”
“Explain? No need. You already threw out a couple of good explanations. You’re busytonight, was my favorite. Plus, the back of her dress is lovely. I got to study it for a while.”
“Jesus, Mags, please. I was thrown. Seeing someone that I’d slept with while we’re basically on our first date was bad enough, but then she brought up…specifics. I froze, and not because I was tempted. She means nothing to me and vice versa. It was only sex, I swear it. I froze because my past was hurting you again.
“You had to listen to those things, and I hated it. Please say you forgive me. If something like that happens again, and I hope like hell it doesn’t, I swear I’ll handle it better. Tell me I haven’t ruined the whole evening,” he begged.
Mags had already softened once she heard the sincerity in his voice, and even though she wasn’t completely over it—hello, threesome—she patted his arm and attempted a smile. After all, the likelihood of running into one of his exes had been a matterof when, not if. It happened. She needed to Google how to bleach the last few minutes from her memories and move on.
When she started to move, he clasped her fingers and flattened them against his chest. “I love you, Mags.”
“I know. Perhaps start with that next time a woman solicits you.” She raised her brows and tilted her head, but the smile that curled her lips was genuine, and Jonathan smiled too.
“I’ll do that, brat.” He tugged her toward their table, where their friends were already eating appetizers.
For the next hour and a half, she and her friends enjoyed good food and amazing Chamber speakers. It was a packed house, and the only seats left at their table were across from one another. The good news was that Mags had been able to drive Jonathan wild with her bare feet under the table. His looks of retribution sent burning anticipation through her body.
At the end of the evening, their small group decided to have one more drink to celebrate the great evening before they paired off for home. Ciar and Gray would go home to their two children, Dagr and Bébhinn, to snuggle her precious baby bump, Daniel would escort Blair back to the twin townhouses, and Jonathan would come home with her to Eze’s.
She and Blair followed the group, deep in conversation about the possibility of her accepting an offer to pursue a plant pathology PhD from Oklahoma State University in the States, as they snaked their way through the crowd, heading to the same bar they’d started the evening, when she heard a man calling her name.
Mags tapped Blair’s cheek to make sure she would look at her face and mouthed an “Oh, shit. Rory.” That was all she got out before a metaphorical bag of shit exploded over her head.
Rory, her tall, dark, and handsome ‘casual partner,’ hailed her from across the pub. Before she could so much as clutchher imagined pearls, Jonathan was at her side and waving at the man barreling toward them.
What the hell was this nightmare?
She locked eyes with Rory at the same time Jonathan stepped forward and clapped him hard on the back, as men are wont to do.
“Phipps,” Jonathan exclaimed enthusiastically. Phipps was Rory’s last name. “Good to see you, man. Well done on Silverton. Hell of a project, but that old man will be a trial to impress.”
Rory grinned, his dimples creasing his lean cheeks. He glanced at me once more before focusing on Jonathan, returning her boyfriend’s banter.
“Your firm should be thanking me personally for winning that bid, Jon. Silverton is,” Rory hesitated, attempting professionalism, “worse than my partners and I imagined.
“Speaking of nightmares, I hear the O’Faolains are gearing up to open their own architectural firm. Tell me the rumors are just that.”
“I’m afraid I’m not at liberty to say,” Jonathan answered, his smirk totally giving him away.
