Page 197 of Mangled Memory
“I get it, Ci. I’m living it, so I get it.”
He looks at Eleanor in my lap. “She’s not usually this way with you. Or maybe you’re not this way with her. She’s usually far more playful, but you seem pensive.”
I nod but don’t explain. I can’texplain.
He stands and extends a hand.
I look to the sleeping pup in my lap before looking back to him. “I’ll disturb her.”
He whistles, and Eleanor pops up and leaps over the arm of the chair to stand at attention. “You were saying?”
“Show off.” It comes off as a mumble but we both know the humor in it. I accept his proffered hand, and he yanks, taking me off my feet until I stumble into his side.
Cian wraps me in a hug and places a kiss to the top of my head. “Glad you’re here, Ayla.”
With a quick squeeze, he releases me and heads to the huge kitchen island covered in food where Christian sits, his eyes boring into mine. He pats the chair next to him. Invitation or order, I don’t know, but I’m smarter than to pick another fight today.
I sit on the bar stool as Cian moves around the other side of the island.
“Dad came by this morning, Ci,” I say apropos of nothing. “He accused Christian of using me to get to him.”
The room freezes and if it weren’t for Eleanor snuffling around the floor for crumbs, there would be no sound in the room at all.
Cian stares.
Christian clenches his jaw.
And I watch.
It would be the perfect moment to observe if a growl didn’t rip from Eleanor’s throat as she bolts for the kitchen window, barking as if her life depends on it. Sure as shit, there’s a mountain lion prowling across the stone terrace.
They’re not uncommon, though I wish they weren’t this close to my brother’s home. It stops. Stares right through the window as if I’m a princess in a fable and it’s leveling truths through some unspoken bond. Two long blinks later, it stalks away, ruining my bomb-dropping moment and leaving me worried for Eleanor’s safety.
11
until death
Ayla
“I have a dinner tonight with a client. Will you come with me?”
It’s the way he says it. It’s not about dinner at all. It’s dripping with sex and innuendo and, I’m not going to lie, it’s tempting.
What does it say about me that after the day I’ve had and how messed up my head is, I’m drawn by the way he asks me to dinner? Seriously, I’d planned a book and a bath and some much-needed recharge time after this morning. But I can’t deny I’m curious about his work.
“And if I say no?” I drop my purse in the mudroom along with my camera bag. It’s the first time I’ve carried it today—a fact that’s not lost on me.
His voice sounds nearer to me than I expected as his warmth suffuses my back. “Surely there’s a way to convince you to join me.” He kisses me just below my ear, forcing a shiver to race through me.
“You’re not fighting fair.”
“You think so? When you look the way you do? With that fiery attitude that makes me hard?” His breath tickles my neck as his voice gets impossibly closer. His words are a caress, but he doesn’t touch me. “My gorgeous, tempting wife. Nothing about you is a fair fight. Stunning, captivating, brilliant, sexy as fuck. You’ve already won. I’m just trying to play on the same field.”
I suck in a breath. I’m playing with fire and I know it. And right now, I’m wondering if it’s worth getting burned.
“Says the hottest man in the mountain time zone,” I offer on a grumble.
His body melts into mine, heating me from my shoulders to below my ass. “Princess, are you hitting on me?”
