by Emelia Blair
I encounter the bitter taste of coffee in her mouth and softly suckle on her tongue, making her whimper. One of my hands is planted on the back of her chair, the other face down on the countertop as I drink her in.
Finally pulling away, I feel her grip on my shirt as she clings to me, her eyes dark with need. Removing my hand from the counter, I stroke her face. “I’ve got your back. It’ll be fine.”
The kiss shakes her, and I realize that if I want to move ahead in this relationship, I will have to keep pushing her. My rejection from before hurt her, and there is still a wariness that radiates from her.
I don’t have much time to think about it, because there is a banging on the door and Agatha goes answer it.
Everybody is here together, and I see Philip giving me an annoyed look when I stand next to Agatha, my hand on her shoulder.
“Are you okay?” he demands, and Agatha gives him a dry look.
“We just discussed this a few hours ago. I’m fine, Philip.”
Fergus scowls at her. “Is this why you’ve been avoiding us all?”
Zayn doesn’t say a word, sitting on the arm of the couch, choosing to flip through a magazine. However, I know his attention is on what was going on.
Agatha runs agitated fingers through her hair. “I didn’t want you guys getting dragged into it. You and Philip are starting your families. And I had my own stuff to deal with, my work and everything. I couldn’t—”
“Is anyone hearing these crappy excuses, or is it just me?” Zayn tosses the magazine down on the table and raises a brow. “You chose not to tell us. You could have told Ian or me. Although him I can—”
“That’s enough,” I growl when I feel Agatha tense. “She’s told us now. That’s important.”
Zayn purses his lips but I can see the sly look in his eyes, and I wonder what that is about.
“Speaking of you,” Philip narrows his eyes. “What’s going on here?”
Agatha opens her mouth, but I beat her to it. “I told Agatha I love her.”
A pause.
“Are we going to have a problem?”
Philip’s eyes darken before he just smiles sardonically and crosses his arms over his chest. “I think my sister can handle you just fine. Nobody does revenge better than her, after all.”
I pale, remembering incidents from our childhood, and when Agatha glances up at me, she rolls her eyes, muttering, “Coward.”
I hear the amusement in her voice and for some reason that tells me that things are going to be okay for us.
“I can assign you a team—” Philip starts speaking before Agatha cut him off.
“No.” She shakes her head. “No teams. No one following me around. I have clients to work with. I do a lot of confidential work, and I can’t afford to have my clients get all itchy about having people around me, for whatever reason.”
Fergus says, “It’s just for—”
However, Agatha is a strong-willed woman, and she refuses to be cornered. She gives them all a bland stare. “Look. I’ll be careful. If you insist on it, you can give me a security member—” her brow arches, “—and that means just one. He can chauffeur me around. Keep an eye on me from a distance.”
Fergus and Philip exchange a look, and I feel Agatha tense up again under my hand.
“I can pick her up in the evening once she’s done. Also, I suggested that she can live with me for a while, but I was shot down as well, so that’s off the table.”
“So, why don’t you move in with her?” Zayn suggests, nonchalantly, as if he is discussing the weather and has not just lit a fire under Agatha.
“Excuse me?” Agatha bares her teeth at him, and I have to hold her down.
Zayn shrugs his shoulders. “I’m just being helpful, you know, offering solutions. Since you plan on shooting down ideas.”
“I don’t need a babysitter,” Agatha snarls at him. “I’ve taken security measures.”
When she makes to get up again, I have to calmly push her back down. “Now, now. Stop it. Both of you.” When Agatha scowls at me, I shake my head. “We can’t force anything on you. You always have the option of moving back into your family home for a while.”
When Agatha gives me a horrified look, I shrug. “Your apartment may be secure, but nothing is ever truly safe. So unless you want us to disrupt our busy schedules for you to keep checking up on you, it would be easier if one of us could always be around. This person knows where you live and where you work. He also knows your favorite spots to eat and hang out.”
Agatha’s lips tighten into a thin line, and I see the fear leap up into her eyes again before she schools her expression.
However, I have seen her weak point, and I press, “Look, it won’t be that bad. We already have busy schedules. I can just pick you up after work or whoever is assigned to you can drop you off at my office once you’re done and then we’ll just come to your place and crash for the night. On weekends, we already hang out together, all of us. So, not much will be changing.”
Agatha looks reluctant, but I can see she is considering the idea ‘til Philip speaks up. “She can stay with Charlotte and me. You don’t have to go out of your way.”
Agatha turns her head to look at him. “As much as I adore Charlotte, she needs you to herself for now. This pregnancy is hard on her. The less added stress on her, the better.” Shifting her eyes to Fergus, who was about to say something, she adds, “Same goes for you. Sarah’s hands are full with her brother’s kid on the way and wedding planning. Ian’s offer is the only one I can take.”
“You can also stay with me.” Zayn’s lips twist in a dry smile.
“Sure,” Agatha gives him a sweet smile, “Where would you prefer me to bury your corpse after the second day?”
He grins at her. “I knew that was a bad idea when I said it out loud.”
Agatha looks up at me. “Fine. You it is.”
Even as Philip mutters in protest, I feel a sense of accomplishment. I want to force down the walls that Agatha is starting to erect around her, and this will give me the chance to do that.
Getting rid of our friends is a difficult task because Philip isn’t very willing to leave Agatha in my hands.
“You make her cry once, just once, and I will break every bone in your body,” Philip glares at me.
“I’ll help,” Fergus says as he zips up his jacket.
When Zayn doesn't say anything, they give him a disbelieving look, and he scoffs. “I’m way ahead of you. I already promised Agatha to hold him down while she went to work on him with a baseball bat.”
“I’m not going to screw this up.” I glower at them. “And you guys are dicks.”
Once they are gone, it’s just Agatha and me.
She looks at me and then sighs. “So, how is this going to work?”
It isn’t a difficult arrangement. The next few days go by easily. I had a talk with Nick about filtering any and every gift that made its way to the office. Agatha saw me talking to him, but she didn’t comment.
The driver that Philip arranged is a veteran, Jacob. The man has scars and looks and sounds tough. However, he already knew Agatha, so she is quite comfortable with this arrangement.
The only problem is that I am starting to sense that Agatha is trying to pull away from me and it’s bewildering me to the point of madness. She didn’t show any intention of taking any steps forward in our relationship, and she didn’t broach the topic of my confession.
In fact, she outright avoids it.
The weekend is around the corner and as I swing by her office to pick her up, I nod to Jacob, who is making a cup of coffee for himself in the office kitchen.
“She’s in a bad mood,” he warns me. I stop in my tracks.
“What happened?”
He puts in two spoons of sugar into the brown liquid. “Don’t know.”
I look through the glass walls that separate Agatha’s office from the rest of the floor. “Did anything come for her?”
Ja
cob shakes his head. “Your boy Nick’s been on that. A lot of stuff came, but he just put it in the cupboard like you said. The cop was here again, the one with the weird thing in his nose.”
“It’s called a nose ring, Jacob,” I wince at the crude description.
“All these kids trying to be punks.” Jacob scowls. “He took some of the things with him.”
“Okay. Thanks.” I am about to leave when Jacob makes a weird sound.
“What?”
He looks a little hesitant before saying, “One of the lawyers from upstairs came sniffing around your girl. He came a few days before as well but left pretty quick. Today he was lingering, talking before she sent him packing.”
I guess it isn’t just Agatha who’s in a bad mood.
I walk into her office. “Lawyers, really?”
Agatha looks up from where she is standing, startled at my appearance. “Ian, I—”
“You can’t say two words to me properly, but you can hour-long discussions with guys who casually stop by?” The words are out of my mouth before I can stop them.
Agatha blinks at me. “I’m sorry. Do I need to inform you every time a guy comes and talks to me?”
I stare at her for a moment before I ask, quietly, “Are you punishing me? Is that what this is? You avoid me like the plague even though we’re living together temporarily, but you still make time for other people? Or have my feelings for you become a bother?”
She is silent, and then she leans forward in her seat. “I don’t… I’m not punishing you. I just don’t know what to say to you. Or how to say it.”
My heart stops in my chest. “Are you having second thoughts?”
Did she decide she doesn't have feelings for me?
She shakes her head. “Things have become complicated with this whole situation. I care about you. I have feelings for you. But with the way—”
“Do you love me?”
There is a very clear brain-to-mouth disconnect going on today with me.
Agatha bites her lower lip but doesn't say anything.
“Agatha.”
My fingers are itching to touch her, to run my fingers through the strands of her beautiful hair, but I am forcing myself to stand still, my hands in my pockets.
She closes her eyes as if gathering the strength to answer my question.
Her gaze is direct when she answers. “I do. Of course, I do.”
I take a step in her direction. “Then I don’t know what’s so complicated.”
“This whole thing.” She watches me advance on her, her eyes growing darker, her words slower. “We’ve been forced into close quarters and—”
I walk around the desk that separates us, cupping her face in my hands. “And what?”
“Um, and, uh—” She stares at me, struggling to come up with the right words. “It’s, uh—”
“Yeah?” My mouth brushes against her right temple. “Go on.” My lips touch her eyelids, making her sigh. “It’s what?”
I feel her body tremble as I finally reach her mouth. Her lips part and as I swoop in, I feel her go limp against me. I groan softly, a low sound in my throat, when her arms circle my neck.
I don’t care that the people in her office can watch through the glass. However, I turn my back to the table so that my larger frame hides hers from view. Pulling her close ‘til her every curve fits against my body, I consume her mouth with a kiss that screams of need and want.
I want her hot and panting, unable to think.
A faint moan escapes her lips, and I feel a surge of triumph when I feel her respond in her kind, her moving to grip my hair, her mouth moving against mine, fueling the urgency. My hands are everywhere: her waist, her throat, her ass. I want her with a desperation that I didn’t realize.
When we finally pull apart, we were both gasping for breath, and the crimson flush on her pale skin makes my heart shudder in my chest.
“Well, uh,” she tries to draw in some air. “That wasn’t… That was definitely not complicated.” When I try to go in for another kiss, she plants a hand on my chest. “Down, boy.”
I raise a brow at the phrase, but her grin and the burning heat in her eyes make me still. “How come?”
“There are still people here. I can’t have them thinking that you can just walk in here and kiss me silly. I have a reputation to maintain.”
I cover her hand with my larger one. “Is that all I had to do? Kiss you and make all your reservations go away?”
She studies my face, and I see the regret fill her eyes. She leans her forehead against my chest. “I’m sorry. I know I’m making things hard on you.”
My hand automatically goes to her nape, a possessive hold. “You can take all the time you need, Agatha. I just miss you. I miss talking to you. It feels like my one screw-up caused all this damage and I can’t seem to fix it.”
She lets out a dry laugh. “Yes, well. I’ve not exactly helped your case. I have this thing which I like to call holding a grudge.”
My body vibrates with silent laughter. “So I’ve noticed.”
She looks up at me, and I see the vulnerability that she usually cloaked with power and confidence. “I’m not forgiving like Charlotte or gentle like Sarah. I get mad at stupid things, and sometimes I don’t let go of things. I won’t let you protect me all the time. And I’ll yell at you when I’m pissed. And I’ll sometimes get angry when we’re arguing and you start making sense. You know what you’re getting into, right?”
My heart feels full right then as my hands go to her face and I press a kiss on the tip of her nose and then steal a soft kiss from her mouth. “I know what I’m getting into. I’m not perfect either. I get jealous; I mean, I trust you, but I keep wanting to let other guys who’re sniffing around you know that you’re taken. I get mad, too, at times. I can be a workaholic sometimes. Do you know what you’re getting into?”
Agatha’s lips curve in a smile. “So, we’re both a little insane.” Her arms go around my neck, and her fingers interlock behind my head as she smiles at me. “So, we should give this a try?”
“Well, it depends on what you mean by—” When she gives me a bland look, I grin. “You mean us. Doesn’t sound like a bad idea to me.”
She glances at her desk. “I still have a few contracts to go through. Why don’t you pick up a nice bottle of wine and we can order some pizza and have our first date?”
I am about to agree before I cock my head at her. “You know, asking you out is my role, right? It’s got something to do with me being a man.”
She reaches up to peck me on the lips. “Well then, you’ll have a chance to prove you’re a man, tonight.”
I blink at her words before throwing my head back and roaring with laughter. Still chortling, I kiss her and leave to set up for the date.
Jacob waggles his brows at me and the few remaining people left in the office can’t quite hide their grins as I leave, whistling.
I pick up a nice bottle of red wine. On my way out of the shop, I spot a packet of scented candles, and I can’t resist picking up a few. I know Jacob is going to drop her home, so I am not concerned.
As I leave the shop while getting into my car, I see a familiar face.
Nick stands across the road, watching me, wearing a jacket. It’s snowing so I can’t be sure.
I lift my hand in greeting, but he just watches me and then turns around and starts walking down the street in the opposite direction.
Puzzled by his odd behavior, I remember that Jenna is down with a bad cold. Has he been picking up cold medicine for her?
But there is no pharmacy anywhere on this street.
Weird.
However, all thoughts of Nick and his strange behavior leave my mind as I get to Agatha’s apartment. She added our friends and me into the biometric system, so accessing her door isn’t a problem.
I see a smudge on the carpet at the entrance outside, and I make a mental reminder to myself to get that cleaned before Agatha notices it and pu
ts me to the job. And once Agatha starts cleaning, that woman doesn't know where to stop.
I am just putting the wine to chill in some ice when I hear the door unlock. I hear Agatha’s voice as she says something to Jacob before entering. She looks tired, but she can’t hide the small spark of happiness in her eyes. Walking into the room, she glances at the candles that I set up and had yet not lit.
Amused, she says, “You do realize that you’ve got a plethora of different scents.”
I wink. “I thought scented candles were all the same.”
She snorts. “Yeah, okay.”
She picks one up and lets out a happy sound. “Lavender. I love lavender.” Then she looks at me, and there is a hint of wariness and shyness. “So, we’re actually going to do this?”
I step closer to her and run my hands up and down the bulky coat she is wearing. I notice that it’s the same ugly one that I saw in her office the other day. Making a mental note to burn it to ashes, I rub my hands up and down her forearms, murmuring, “It’s just a date, Agatha. We can watch a movie, eat, and maybe if I’m lucky, I can get to first base.”
When I grin, her shoulders relax. “If you would be that lucky.” Stepping back, she shrugs off the coat, and I take it from her hands, offering, “Let me throw this off the balcony for you.”
She laughs, but there is that hesitance in her eyes. “Uh, not yet. Just hang it up.” I don’t push, but I watch as she makes her way to the bathroom. “I just need to take a shower. I won’t be long.”
When the door closes behind her words, I stare at the coat, muttering loudly, “You are one ugly-ass coat.” Hanging it out of sight, I get back to lighting the candles. I just set up the movie when the buzzer tells me that the pizza delivery guy had arrived.
Paying him for the food, I take out the plates and hear the snick of the bathroom door.
She didn’t even bother to dry herself off, just holding the towel closed around her form.
Agatha gives me a sheepish look. “Forgot the clothes.”
However, she doesn’t move to get them, instead just staring at me.
And I know.
Pizza and wine can wait.
She can’t.
I cross the floor to her. “How do you like the candles?”