He shook his head. “She doesn’t. I swear.”
“Whatever. Tell yourself that until you believe it. At least I can say that I’ve had my time with Alec and Tai and moved on from it. I’m in a different place. I. Love. You! I’ve never said those words that way to them. I may love them as friends, as people I care about who I know care about me in return, but I’m not in love with them. Monumental difference. I’ve never been in love with them. Can you say the same about Gina? Huh?” My voice was at a screech, and I knew I’d lost it when I stood up and threw my tumbler at the wall. It didn’t even break. No satisfaction what-so-ever. Damn Anton and his love for quality glassware.
I groaned and flopped back down to the couch and cradled my head in my hands. “This is why I never fall in love,” I said the words aloud and repeated them in my head, over and over like a chant.
Without warning, Wes pulled me up and turned around so that my knees hit each side of hips in a straddle.
“Don’t you ever regret loving me. That would hurt worse than anything you could ever say or do to me.” He cupped my cheeks. “Is that all? That everything. Two guys? One attacker, and a handful of new friends?”
I licked my lips and nodded.
“Okay, sweetheart.” He swallowed and admitted his own truths. “For me it was just Gina on and off. We can both move past this.” The words made my heart sing. Like a bedtime lullaby, I softened. Being with him, like this, in his lap, his hands caressing my sides made me that easy.
We can work with this.
My eyes filled again with tears. His thumbs swiped them away as they fell. “No, no, baby. Right now, from here on out, it’s just you and me. We put it out there and it’s done. I know what I need to know, you know that Gina is gone. G-O-N-E,” he repeated spelling it out. “Only thing left is this. You and me. Now we can build on it.”
I nodded and shoved my head into his neck inhaling that ocean and Wes scent I adored. “I love you.” I spoke the words to him so that he could hear them and know that I needed to hear them in return.
“Sweetheart, I love you too. Me and you. Just me and you.”
Chapter 10
The trill of my cellphone woke me from the best dream. Wes and I were touring castles in Germany, hand-in-hand, a young couple very much in love. Until the ringing started. As soon as it stopped, it would start again.
Wes leaned over me, grabbed the offending object and answered it. Shit. No. Bad idea. It could be anyone. If it was one of my ex-clients, friend or not, it could go bad. Really bad, insanely fast.
He yawned. “Yeah, yeah. Okay, just a sec.”
“It’s Ms. Milan.” I rolled my eyes. Aunt Millie.
I grabbed the phone and held my hand over the speaker, muffling any sound. “She’s actually my Aunt Millie. As in, her name is Millie, not Milan.”
“Really?”
“Thought I told you that.”
“Pretty sure I’d remember that,” he leaned up and kissed the top of my shoulder. “I’ll go make us some coffee before you hit the studio today.”
I squeezed his bicep, caught him behind the head and kissed him sweetly. He grinned and pulled back.
I put the phone to my ear. “Aunt Millie. What on Earth would make you call so early? I mean, it has to be ridiculously early for you.”
I heard her fingers tapping in the background. “Yeah, yeah, haven’t gone to bed yet. You’ve ignored my calls all week, and I needed to give you the details on your next client since I’m heading out on vacation tomorrow. Want to make sure it’s booked in advance. This one is…I don’t know. Something’s off about it.” Aunt Millie had never sounded anything other than one hundred percent self-assured.
“What do you mean? Why is it off? The guy a creep?”
She sighed. “No, no, it’s actually that he’s too clean on paper. He’s been insistent that he reserve you as soon as you’re available. Checks in every couple weeks to see if you’ve had a cancellation. Which you haven’t, of course.”
“Okay, so he really wants me. Did he say why?”
“Apparently, he needs you to be his long lost sister. Something about a business landing in the wrong hands if he doesn’t produce his sibling for the investors, blah, blah. Her name popped up in some random agreement regarding the business, but he never knew her. They couldn’t really discern the scribbled name. It could be Mia Saunders or Mia Sanders, or Sonders with an “O” but you share the individual’s birthdate exactly and your name is Mia Saunders. Hence, why he had to have you.”
I plucked at my lips. “This is weird. Did you check him out?”
Millie gave an overwrought sigh that seemed to strangle my heart in the process. “Do you think I’d ever risk your safety?”