Page 276 of The Black Trilogy

“Want me to carry you upstairs?” he asked.

“We shouldn’t have done that,” she whispered.

Uh oh.

“We were two consenting adults, and we both wanted it. Didn’t we?”

No way had he misinterpreted that. Had he?

She sighed. “Yes, we did.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“Emmy.”

“Emmy’s in my past.”

“But she’s not in mine. She’s one of my best friends. How do you think she’d feel if she found out what we just did?”

Anger at the injustice of it all bubbled up inside Luke. He couldn’t lose Mack, not because of a two-month mistake with a woman who’d done the dirty on him then done a runner.

“Oh, come on. If Emmy disapproved, she’d be a hypocrite.”

“A hypocrite? What are you talking about?”

“Well, she didn’t exactly hesitate before she cheated on me, did she?”

“Cheated on you? Are you kidding? Emmy doesn’t cheat.” Mack leaned back and groaned. “She’s gonna kill me.”

“Yes, she did cheat. With Nick.”

“Nick? You think Emmy cheated on you with Nick? Who on earth put that crazy idea into your head?”

“I saw them together, dancing at her charity fundraiser. He’s the fiancé she had problems with in the States, right? And then there’s her ex-husband.”

Mack half choked, half groaned. “Emmy and Nick were over a decade ago. They’re just friends, and that’s all they’ll ever be now.”

“You mean she’s not engaged to him?”

“No!”

Could he have been wrong? Mack seemed pretty convinced, but Luke knew what he’d seen. That tango Emmy and Nick danced had been filthy.

“Are you sure?” he asked one more time.

“Nick doesn’t even date seriously. Not since his fiancée got killed by some lunatic.”

Oh.

It seemed that possibly he’d done the man a disservice. Luckily he’d still been reasonably civil, or that would be yet another black mark against him in Emmy’s eyes.

“So, what now? What do we do about…” He pointed between them. “This?”

“We’ve got to forget it happened.” Mack sure had sobered up in a hurry. “Go back to how things were.”

“But…”

“No buts. We can’t have any buts.” She let out a shuddering breath. “Don’t look at me like that, because if you do, I won’t be able to keep my head. Please.”

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