Maybe a part of her had hoped that the whole engagement thing was a mistake somehow. But if the hug in his office this morning hadn’t convinced her, then the picture she was staring at did. It wasn’t just a friendly photo-op picture. Brant’s whole stance toward Alexia was possessive. He cradled her against his side protectively. Emma could only imagine how a photo of she and Brant as a couple might look. The photographs would probably alternate between one of them having their hands around the other’s neck to something a little more sweaty and graphic.
Yeah, researching your new enemy at night: not a good idea. Couldn’t Brant’s ex have been a homely, poor wallflower who didn’t have tons of hits on Google? Just for kicks, she entered her own name and while she got some hits, the only halfway interesting one was a college student named Emma Davis who went by the nickname Emmie-Pie and had quite a talent for tying things in knots with her tongue, as evidenced by all the video clips posted on her site.
Right now, even Emmie-Pie seemed to have a better shot at happiness than Emma did.
Brant rubbed the back of his neck, hoping that the drama with Alexia was going to die down soon. When he arrived home, tired and sexually frustrated as all hell after having to cancel his evening with Emma, he had found Alexia on the phone crying. When he asked her what was wrong, she thrust her phone in his hand and asked him to deal with it for her . . . please? What the hell? He put the phone to his ear, fully expecting to hear either her mother or father on the other end. Instead, he ended up in a lovers’ spat. There was a man whom he soon found out was the fiancé, Carter, begging Alexia to listen to reason. “Um, Alexia stepped away for a moment.” Great, that sounded fucking brilliant. Just the type of thing to reassure a man that he can work things out with his woman.
Dead silence followed before an angry voice boomed, “Who the fuck is this and where’s Alexia?” A smarter man would have ended the connection at that point. How screwed up was it that he wanted to help the woman who had dumped him two years ago to save her relationship with the irate man on the other end of the line?
“This is Brant Stone, a friend of Alexia’s. She’s—”
Before he could finish his sentence, there was what could only be called angry laughter from the other end. Brant could sense no real amusement in the sound. “You’re kidding me, right? I’m over here on my knees groveling and begging for forgiveness and she went straight back to you?” Brant didn’t know why he was surprised. Of course, if you were serious enough about someone enough to marry him, you would tell him about your past. He was naive to think that Carter didn’t know who he was. He actually felt a bit like an asshole for doing this to the guy. There was nothing going on with Alexia, but how was Carter supposed to believe that?
“It’s not like that, Carter. Alexia just needed a place to stay. I’m sure she told you that her parents have been less than . . . supportive.”
“What?” Carter asked, clearly having no idea what he was talking about. “I gather you know, but she already told her parents as well?” The concern in Carter’s voice was real and raw. Brant found himself feeling sorry for him.
Alexia was nowhere to be seen and Brant sat on a barstool in his kitchen faced with a decision. If she was going to place him in the middle of whatever was going on with Carter, then he wasn’t going to lie when asked a direct question. “Yeah, she did and it was . . . tough.”
Carter’s voice rose again as he asked, “What do you mean, tough?”
Sighing, Brant said, “Tough as in don’t expect any support from them. I think they pretty much made her feel like an outcast and she left. With things up in the air with you and them cutting her off at the knees, she was desperate. That’s the only reason she would have come to me after all this time.”
“Damn, she really didn’t need that after me being such an asshole about the whole thing.”
“I don’t really know much about Alexia now, but back when we were together, she had always had a man in her life making the decisions. First, it was her father and then me. I think she almost needs the comfort and familiarity now while she tries to get her life together. Especially if things are unsettled between you two. I suspect that’s the biggest reason she turned to me when her parents didn’t offer it.”
“Yeah,” Carter answered absently, “that makes sense. I guess I have been playing that role in our relationship. I just . . . I’m so afraid of her falling back into that old crowd she was running with. I can’t stand to see her relapse after going through so much to get clean. She thinks it means I don’t trust her and that she’s just a burden to me. I know that she’s doubting our whole relationship no matter how much I try to convince her that everything is okay.”