Page 29 of Untamed

“There you go, thinking again,” he said. He didn’t flinch when Lesley poked him. Okay, he was being an asshole, but he also needed to make his stance perfectly clear. Any sign of weakness was a beacon for Victoria. “Sure, it’s been a long time. Let’s make it longer, yes?” he looked down at Lesley and winked. “Enjoy the city, Vicky. Hope you make lots of friends here.”

Victoria opened her mouth, but Antony had turned with Lesley and moved off into the crowd and out of sight. He steered her toward a door.

Once they were outside in the courtyard, Antony turned toward Lesley and tried to pull her rigid body close, but she took a step away. “I’m so sorry,” he said. He tipped her chin up to meet her eyes. “I never told you about her and I should have.”

Lesley frowned. “Yes, you should have. How long ago was it?”

“Shortly after I got back from Afghanistan.” Antony closed his eyes and inhaled slowly. “She came to visit me in the hospital and told me it was over. By the time I got out, she’d moved out and changed her number.”

Lesley flinched, and her anger dissipated. To be so cruel to leave someone you’d promised yourself to for something like that was unthinkable. “Jesus. Where did this happen?”

“Texas.” He sighed. “We met in Austin. I graduated from university and joined the Army. And got stuck right back in Texas.”

Lesley nodded. “That’s how it works. For some reason, I thought you were here when the deployment happened.” She wrapped her arms around his waist and the tension left his body.

“I got sent here right after. Doesn’t do much good to be in tactical units when you’re broken.”

“You aren’t broken. You just weren’t ready.”

Antony shrugged and wouldn’t meet her eyes. “Yeah, well, it doesn’t matter at this point. This is my retirement assignment.”

Lesley placed her hand on his cheek and turned his head toward her. “I’m a little upset that you didn’t tell me, but I understand why.” She waited until he opened his eyes to look at her. “I fully expect that you had a life and other girlfriends before me—maybe even serious ones—and I don’t expect a full report on all of them. They don’t matter. This just caught me off guard. You, too, apparently. But going from Texas to the same place you are in Arizona is super weird. Not like she just happened to be in the neighborhood.”

“I know. I’m positive she was cheating while I was deployed. It was hard to get ahold of her, and when I did, the conversations were always short. When I was packing up the apartment in San Antonio to move here, I found some mail for some random guy. Didn’t think much of it but it tracks. How she found out I was here, though, doesn’t.”

“Family?”

“Oh, hell no. Mine would just as soon set her on fire.”

Lesley smiled a little. “Newspaper? One of those hometown news things?”

Antony exhaled sharply. “Son of a bitch. Maybe? But that was a long time ago and would have been published in Seminole.”

“Well, something happened, and she thinks she needs you now.”

Antony pressed his lips against Lesley’s forehead. “Maybe not. Doesn’t matter. She doesn’t get me. I’m tired of thinking about her.”

“I’m good with that. She creeped me out a little, anyway.”

“Why’s that?”

“She’s cold. Like she doesn’t have any emotion. She’s here for a reason, Antony, and I don’t think she’s going to stop,” she said.

He sighed. “I have a feeling that I’ll be seeing her again sooner than later. She doesn’t do alone well.” He tipped her head up toward him and brushed his lips against hers. “She’ll have to, though, because that is not a road I’ll travel down again. View’s much nicer and so’s the companionship.”

Lesley wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed fully against him, “I think so, too.”

They stood for a few minutes until a beep sounded from Antony’s pocket. He pulled out his phone. “We should get to the restaurant.”

As they left, they didn’t notice Victoria in the shadows.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

By the time they got to the restaurant, Vicky had been all but forgotten. Lesley spent the short drive from the museum running her fingers through Antony’s hair and trailing her fingernails down his neck and around the shell of his ear. He’d started humming in approval about a block away from the museum, and by the time he turned into the parking lot, he was leaning into her touch.

He’d reserved a booth far in the back corner. The server took one look at the two of them and smiled knowingly as he led them back. He was reserved and efficient, and Antony made a mental note to tip the hell out of the young man.

“Did you request this booth?” Lesley asked, as she slid across the leather seat.

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