“Yeah,” Brant bit out. “Everyone made damn sure of that. The bastard who did it never faced any consequences. I know regardless of what she says, Ava has done nothing but look over her shoulder since then. Luckily, Mac will always watch out for her even if he isn’t with her.”
They ended up talking for hours that night before finally giving in to the need to get some sleep.
That evening started a pattern that continued every night while Brant was away. Emma spoke to him a few times during the day on business matters but at night, it was all personal. They shared their earliest memories all the way up to the present. There was also a point each evening when their words turned teasing and sexual. Emma had never had phone sex, but when Brant asked her to touch herself and imagine it was his big hands sliding through her slick folds, she hadn’t been able to resist. Their calls always ended with a release for them both. Somehow it felt like she was falling for him even harder during these regular nightly phone calls. When they were finally together again in person, she didn’t think she would be able to resist ripping his clothes off regardless of where they were. God, she was so ready to have him back home.
Chapter Twenty-two
Brant was barely holding on by a thread. The physical toll from a combination of stress and sexual frustration was making it difficult to function, let alone not blow up at the smallest setback. He had been back in town for just a few days and already it was a few too many. Alexia had been waiting at the door when he’d gotten home and she’d done her best to remind him that he had once loved her. He needed to resolve things with her before he could move forward with Emma.
Emma was doing her part to make things damned difficult on him, although he knew it wasn’t her fault. Since he had returned to Myrtle Beach, she looked better than he could remember, smelled better, and on those occasions when gravity brought them close enough to touch, she felt fucking amazing. He had been forced to lie to her and tell her that he had come down with a bug while he was away, that it probably wasn’t anything serious, but he didn’t want to risk giving her his sore throat. She had assured him that she was willing to risk it, but he had held firm. Somehow, it just didn’t feel right to him to touch her, without having the situation with Alexia resolved. He had never been a man to string a woman along and this whole situation felt wrong to him. But he knew Alexia was fragile and the last thing he wanted was to send her spiraling backward.
After two days, though, the excuses were starting to wear thin, and every time he kept her at arm’s length, he almost choked on the hurt in her eyes. He couldn’t even blame her. At this point, he’d be damned skeptical, too. Oh, let’s see, ex-fiancée living with you, sudden business trip where you didn’t come home when you could have and now doing the Texas Two-Step every time she comes too close. Yeah, nothing remotely unusual about any of that. He found it hard to believe she was still speaking to him, much less still had the desire for anything more personal.
He knew he had brought this all on himself. Instead of using the distance between them to his advantage while he was away, what did he do? He called her every night and talked for hours with her about stuff he had never told anyone. Emma now knew more about him than his own family. And he couldn’t deny that he had fallen impossibly in love with her on those nightly phone calls. They made unspoken promises to each other as they poured their souls out and then what? He came back into town and acted like it had never happened. But he just didn’t know any other way to handle it. So he had buried himself in work, making things seem busier than they actually were. Add then the faked illness and here he was two days later trying to figure a way out of the shitstorm called his life.
Brant hadn’t realized that he had been pacing in front of his desk until Emma burst into his office and wrapped herself around him. Instinctively, he embraced her, rocking back on his heels as the force of her momentum moved him. Suddenly, his frustration, fueled by a healthy amount of lust, caused the short fuse on his temper to ignite. He pushed Emma away from him, growling, “Damn it, Emma, can I please have one day at work without getting mauled? I can’t do this with you right now!”