Page 56 of Grand Love

“I don—”

“It’s fine, Nina.” I nod, walking off towards their bedroom before she can stop me. Ellis is standing in his cot when I walk into the room, and my heart soars as his face transforms—dimples and all.

“Da, Da, Da!”

“Shhh. Sleep time now.” I kiss his head and reluctantly place him on his back. “Mummy’s busy, little guy.” I sit in the chair that’s placed beside the cot and look around at the room. It feels weird being in her space, which strangely surprises me. Maybe it’s because it’s so impersonal. Other than a picture of Ellis with the girls on her bedside, there’s nothing here that means anything.

Once Ellis is sleeping again, I slip from the room and make my way to the living area. The sight that greets me has me stopping in my tracks. Nina has her legs spread wide, her back is arched off the ground and she groans as she stretches her arms above her head.

My eyes are glued to her. Every perfect inch—which pisses me off, because it’s totally inappropriate to get hard for your kids’ mum when it’s three o’clock on a Thursday.

Bitch.

I clear my throat, and she instantly sits up. “He went back quickly.” She flushes, her cheeks turning a deep crimson. She stands and starts to roll the mat. “Sorry, just a second.”

“I thought you were dancing.”

“No.” She shakes her head, frowning. “I don’t really get the time anymore,” she says, lifting her hand to her collarbone subconsciously before realising and dropping it.

“Don’t lie to me,” I bite out.

She recoils, putting her hands on her hips. “Excuse me.”

I take a step closer to her. “Don’t lie to me. You have all the time in the world to dance, you choose not to.”

She steps away, putting distance between us again as her face grows sour. “That’s not true and it’s none of your business.”

Reaching out, I grasp her arm before she can turn, pulling her into me. I go to speak but the words die on my tongue the minute our eyes lock. We’re close, too close. She wets her lips as her eyes drop to my own. This is the closest we’ve been since Ellis was born, nearly eight months ago.

My hand instinctively goes to her waist, resting on her hip with a tight grip. I feel like I’m physically restraining myself from kissing her.

“I shouldn’t want you.” I grimace, flexing my fingers against the smooth skin.

“You don’t want me, Mason, trust me.” She grasps my wrist and pulls it from her waist. “What do you want? Why are you here?”

She spins and moves to the kitchen. I rearrange myself in my suit trousers, pissed at myself for being so weak to her. “Elliot, he told me about last night—”

“What about last night?” She doesn’t meet my eyes and I know she knows exactly what I’m talking about.

“When you left me, Nina… It was a hard time for me. You left, and with Dad being gone, I couldn’t find anything to bring me…”

“Are you trying to tell me the only thing that kept you sane in the months after you cheated on me was sleeping with an endless number of women?”

Fuck. “I—”

“Because if you are, you should stop! You have no idea what I went through, what I continue to go through.” She steps forward, pointing her finger into her chest. “I spend my weekends in this apartment alone, and then get judged for the friends I keep when I choose to fill the void.”

“I’m struggling to see the difference here. You think I enjoy living at the penthouse without my family. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you during your pregnancy, but that was your choice. I did what I did to keep myself fucking going. You did this. You broke us, Nina, not me!”

“Are you fucking serious!” she roars, her eyes like saucers.

“Deadly! I never fucking touched another woman and you know it. I couldn’t then and I fucking can’t now!”

She sniggers, looking anywhere but at me. “But there were five months where you found it really fucking easy apparently!”

She won’t ever understand this, why would she? She thinks I slept with Jasmine and now she knows I slept around after she left. “I couldn’t be at the penthouse alone.”

“You could’ve gone and lived with your sister.”

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