Now he was confused. “Ok.”
“You know where his diapers are… and I don’t mind Rocky in the bed in the morning. But if Cam ends up in with you, can you keep Rocky on the floor? I don’t want Cam trying to suck on his fur while he’s sleeping.”
“Ok, but I don’t—”
“I’ll only be in Calvin’s room, so if there are any problems—”
Letting her go, Shane stood up straight, shaking his head. “No… no. You want me to…” He dipped to hiss, “You want me to babysit so you can go to him and get laid? Not a chance.”
Typical that he should be the one to use Cam against her when she’d just been clear about not doing the opposite. “We’re not going to have sex,” she responded.
“Oh, baby, don’t be naïve,” he sniggered, sneering at her breasts. “If he gets you on your back, he’ll be taking you all the way.”
Shoving her hands to his chest, she wished he wouldn’t look at her with such a leer. “Why? Because that’s what you would do?”
“I don’t have to rush. I have forever with you, baby. He’s running out of time.”
He infuriated her. “You’re so arrogant,” she hissed. “Hear what I’m saying. You’re. Not. Getting. Me. Back.”
When he lunged forward, she gasped thinking he was going to kiss her. Instead, he grabbed her chin and shoved it upward. Ginger yelped when he sealed his mouth against the artery in her neck and sucked hard. She punched his shoulder with the side of her fist and shoved him back as he released her.
“There,” he scowled. “Little something for him to focus on while he fucks you.”
Her hand rose to her throat as Shane strode off the dance floor to return to the table. He didn’t sit down, he scooped up Cam and slung the diaper bag over his shoulder. His sideways nod was enough to get Murphy and Owen onto their feet. Though they were surprised by the sudden departure, neither man abandoned their friend.
Ginger was still standing there in the middle of the dance floor with her fingertips on the bruise Shane had left on her neck when he marched away from the dinner table, their son in his arms, Murphy and Owen in his wake as they made their departure.
Calvin was coming over to her, but she couldn’t stop staring at the door. He’d marked her body and taken her son. But she’d asked him to take responsibility for Cam so she could be alone and he had. So why did she feel so bereft?
“Thank you,” Ginger said, standing in Calvin’s bedroom doorway with him, accepting his kiss.
“We can’t be patient forever,” Calvin said.
Ginger sighed. “I know, just… give me a little more time.”
He rolled his eyes and bent to kiss her. Pressing her into the wood at her spine, he pushed harder than usual until she was struggling for breath and had to push him back. Tilting her head in silent request for an explanation, he smiled. “I want you badly.”
Kissing him once more, Ginger slid away from the doorway. Calvin went inside, dropping her hand and closing the door, leaving her alone in the darkened hallway of the upper mezzanine.
Everyone else was in bed. She and Calvin had stayed at the lodge, they drank and danced, but as the bruise Shane had left on her neck darkened, so did Calvin’s mood and it became clear to them both that they were not going to be spending the night together.
He did try to take her to his bedroom, but she had stopped in the doorway. It had been hours since she’d seen Cameron, though she was confident that he was safe, she felt uneasy about the way dinner had ended and just didn’t feel in a sexy mood.
Shane would be asleep in her bed and it hadn’t worked out so well for her the last time she’d slept in his bed. And there was another person who’d been neglected today. So when she went down the hallway, she passed Murphy’s bedroom door and went to the next one to knock.
Ginger didn’t wait for a response because she didn’t know if he’d be asleep, but when she poked her head around the door, she saw Owen sitting up, reading by lamplight.
“Hey,” he said, taking off his glasses and putting them on the bedside with his reading tablet thing.
“Still talking to me?” she asked.
He smiled and opened his arms, so she went in and closed the door. Rushing over to him, she was so pleased to feel her brother accepting her. After their hug, he pulled back his covers and welcomed her into her bed. “What the hell happened? I left to file those papers in the city and then… what the fuck?” Owen asked. “I came home to World War Three.”
Ginger actually envied him for missing most of the drama. “I don’t know what happened,” she said. The day had been so crazy that she was still trying to figure out how it had turned out the way it had. Lying on her side, she gave the pillow a punch and blew her hair from her face as Owen settled down to lie facing her.
“I thought you were going to bed with Calvin.”
Squeezing her lips together, she winced and shook her head. Tipping her head back, she pointed at the hickey. “I think this killed the mood,” she said. “Calvin wanted to tear after Shane… I can’t believe he… that Shane… Calvin was talking sexual assault and—”
Owen grumbled. “Course he was, he wants to sue.”
Pushing back, she narrowed one eye. “I guess Shane told you what he thought then.”
“Murphy actually,” Owen said. “He gave me the run down while Shane was playing with Cam when you were up at the lodge today… I was going to come and find you but I was just so shocked… Is it true Calvin knew who you were the whole time?”
She hadn’t heard Shane’s full accusation and didn’t like the creepy feeling that tickled her shoulders. “What? No! Calvin didn’t know who I was,” Ginger said. “He was as surprised as I was about you guys showing up at the church.”
“Then why did he ask for such a hefty settlement? He knew exactly who Shane was.”
She couldn’t argue that he did now, she’d seen the settlement clause. “Yeah, now he knows. But he didn’t know then… how could he?” She’d told Shane she didn’t want any stories, that all of them should be kept for the session, so she shouldn’t really play by two sets of rules. “Was Cam ok when you got home?”
“Shane took him straight into his bath,” Owen said. “I heard some hilarity, but I haven’t seen either of them… I’m sure you can go and look in on them. Shane won’t mind seeing you.”
Gnawing her lip, she shook her head. “No, I can’t… I don’t want Cam to see us fighting.”
“Why would you fight?” Owen asked. “You seem to do that a lot.”
“I know,” she said. She wasn’t oblivious to the fact that she fought more with Shane than she did with anyone else and he was supposed to be the one who wanted to bond with her. “I’m pissed at him.”
“Why?” he asked and she pointed at her neck again. “Ok, yeah, you’re maybe a little old for hickeys but his intention was good.”
But it wasn’t just about the bruise. “You didn’t hear what he said to me,” she said, rolling onto her back. “He’s always so… rude.”
Owen laughed and squeezed an arm around her. “You used to love it when he talked dirty to you.”
Yeah, she’d seen that on the video. But she wasn’t used to that language, Calvin didn’t use it and they’d made out plenty of times. “I’m not talking about that stuff. He’s arrogant and—”
“Uh, I think Calvin gets the award for most superior. Shane doesn’t even iron his clothes and his boots are scuffed to fuck, Calvin comes down in a three piece suit every day.”
She nudged him. “He does not! He wears polo shirts and chinos.”
Owen laughed. “I’m not sure Shane even knows what chinos are.”
That was probably true. Ginger turned her face into her brother’s shoulder. “How could I have been attracted to such different men?”
Owen had an explanation. “You’re attracted to strong men… usually the strongest man in the room.”
“I am not,” she said and thought about it. “Am I that easy
?”
Her brother seemed sure. “It’s the reason you fell back under Shane’s spell so fast. He’s definitely stronger than Calvin.”
Comparing the men wasn’t fair, especially when she’d taken Shane out of the running. “I must have an amoeba brain,” she said.
“At its earliest stage of development, definitely,” he said and she pinched him until he yelped. “I meant, you’re an amnesia victim, so you’re innocent. You don’t have the benefit of all your romantic experience. So your body reacts before your brain tells you it’s not a good idea.”
A good point, well made. “Making out with Shane wasn’t a good idea,” she said, settling against him, and pushing her hair out her face. “But it’s ok. That’s done now.”
“Done?” he asked. “Forever.”
“Yes,” she said, yawning. “I have a child to think about, I can’t be messing around with different men.”
“You don’t think it’s a good idea to have a good relationship with the father of your child?”
“Yes,” she said. “Absolutely, we will have to put up with each other for the next eighteen years.”
“And the rest,” Owen said. “You’ll have Cam’s college stuff, his wedding, you’ll share grandkids…”
“You know what I was thinking about today when I was reading about Shane’s success,” she said, rolling to her side again to tuck her hands beneath her chin. Owen raised his brows to prompt her on. “My children are never going to like each other.”
“What?”
“If Calvin and I have kids, I mean, they’ll be happy but you know what kids are like… Calvin and I will get kid two a Mini Cooper as his first car and Cam will rock up in the Ferrari his dad just bought him.” Owen laughed. “I mean it! Think about it,” she said. “Cam is going to be a brat, there’s just no way to avoid it. You’ve seen what Shane is like with him, he won’t just take him to Disneyland, he’ll rent out the whole park for a week for a private experience.”
Owen leaned in, his face contorted with mocking. “Don’t worry, I’m sure Shane will invite you.”
She gave him a shove. “It’s going to be a nightmare.”
“Shane’s not like that. He’ll respect your wishes. Trust me, whether you end up with him or not, he’ll still bow to your every whim… I wouldn’t be surprised if he buys all your kids a Ferrari just to make your life easier.”
She groaned. “How do you live with all that money? I don’t get it. I don’t… see it.”
“When you look at him?” Owen shrugged. “He just… doesn’t care about the money. He cares about the code and the summit. He loves a puzzle and a challenge. His father was a professional gambler, his mother was a cocktail waitress. It was a professor who saw his talent, he was at the school giving a talk about something and he gave the kids a bunch of instructions and set them a puzzle. No one was supposed to solve it. Shane did. After that, the professor began to tutor him. Shane resisted until he realized it was all a puzzle, and he loves one of those.
“The outdoor stuff started much younger, he won some competition his mom entered him in ‘cause he was always hyper and became part of a mountaineering club when he was like five. He fell in love with it and had an uncle that took him camping and stuff. I actually think he started his first company because he wanted to bankroll his mountaineering.”
“So his home life…? He said in therapy that they were happy. Murphy turned out ok, but went through a rough phase. The house he described was normal, they had a car, normal holidays… least that’s how it seemed.”
“It was the professor who got Shane into college on a scholarship, but he was already building his company by then. His father did ok with the gambling, so yeah, they grew up ok for money, but there was no stability, they weren’t rich or anything. I guess you can take the boy out the ghetto…”
She tsked. “He did not live in a ghetto.”
“You know what I mean. He got in his share of fights at school. He and Murphy were quite the duo, always had each other’s backs.”
“He said that in therapy,” she said, thinking about the team defending each other. “Murphy works with him now?”
“He’s his right-hand man, he takes care of the details… I deal with the official stuff.”
“Will you help us with the mediation?” she asked. “I think Boyd will just rile Shane, not on purpose, he’s a good guy, but just his presence will—”
“Of course,” Owen said. “I’m still the Warren family lawyer.”
Peeking at him, she wasn’t going to let that slide. “You know where all the bodies are buried?”
He grinned. “I do.”
That was encouraging, and she shifted higher. “Do you know if I had my own bank accounts? I mean, did I just live off Shane? You said I had a job, right?”
“You worked with Shane,” he said. “You were at WarNet for two years before you started dating him. Murphy was actually the one to hire you as one of his intern assistants in your last year of college. You didn’t meet Shane until a couple of weeks later. He said he fell in love with you the first time he saw you. He turned down one of the corridors at HQ and saw you talking to someone and that was it.”
“That’s not true,” she tutted never believing in such a thing as love at first sight.
“He kept his hands off. Everyone told him that screwing with young underlings was a bad idea, and his family thought he could do better, so he stayed away… he did well for a year, well I say he did well, you were socializing with us by then, I don’t know what happened in that year. But one day he just decided to go for it and he pursued you for another year before you gave in… A year later you were married.”
“And we were married for four years?”
“Yeah, the accident was just a couple of weeks after your fourth anniversary… you had a party because Shane promised you’d be alone somewhere tropical for your fifth… that didn’t exactly work out.”
“I don’t remember any of that,” she murmured.
“I know it must be frustrating,” he said, rubbing her arm when she lay down and hugged the comforter against her.
It was, but she shouldn’t be talking about Shane, this wasn’t therapy and she was over him. So she took a big breath. “Tell me about Derek.”
Owen grinned. “Why don’t we get ready for bed and I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.”
Sleeping with her brother was a better option than going to Shane’s bed and she wasn’t going to kick him out of her bed when she’d asked him to occupy it. Cam would be sleeping and she didn’t want to wake him either. So she got out of bed and changed into Owen’s tee-shirt. A sleepover with her brother was just what she needed to reset the needle.
14
Part of Shane hoped that Ginger would be in his bed when he woke up, but she wasn’t. Shane got himself and Cam ready. Actually, he was surprised that she’d managed to stay away from Cam for so long. He’d kind of hoped she’d come in to see their baby when she got back from the lodge so he could take one last crack at preventing her from going to bed with Calvin. That had backfired, because he hadn’t seen her.
Cam ate his breakfast like a pro and Shane got a new appreciation for how lonely being a single parent could be. Spending time with his son was incredible and enjoying each other in these crisp early hours was a treat, there was something intimate about it and he began to recognize how Ginger and Cam had developed such a strong bond, they really were best friends. But it was hard work and isolating to be the only adult awake, tiptoeing around a house full of sleepers.
Rocky stayed out in the yard after Shane let him out for his pee. Although Shane told himself that he was worried about Cam making noise, the truth was, he was wound too tight to sit still. He needed someone to talk to, someone to vent to. It was making him itch to know that his wife was in Calvin’s bed now and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.
With Cam under his arm, Shane ran up the stairs and stormed along the corridor, choosin
g to walk into Owen’s room. He didn’t trust himself not to keep on going to Calvin’s room at the end to demand an explanation if he went as far as Murphy’s.
“Ok, I’m going fucking insane,” Shane said, striding past the bed to pull open the shades to let some light into the dark room. Despite knowing that Owen liked to stay up late reading or talking to Derek, Shane couldn’t even bring himself to care that he was being rude by waking up his friend.
“What’s wrong?” Owen croaked and Shane kept his back to the bed giving his friend a chance to cough and wake up.
“I—”
“Mama!” Cam shrieked and began to struggle, it broke Shane’s heart that he couldn’t let Cam see his mother, but using his son as an excuse to rouse her from Calvin’s room was cheap and he sure wasn’t going to let Cam into Calvin’s bed. “Mama! Mama!”
“Oh, Angel, come see mama,” said a sleepy female voice.
Whirling around, Shane was speechless at the sight of Ginger there in the center of Owen’s bed under the comforter. With her eyes half-closed, and her hair rumpled, she looked delicious. Cam was still struggling, so Shane bent to put him down.
Cam scrambled across the floor and tried to climb up on the bed. Owen was on the other side, sitting up, rubbing his face and retrieving his glasses. Ginger flopped over, reaching her son and dragging him up onto the bed. She was wearing one of Owen’s silk V-neck tee-shirts and the comforter stayed low on her thighs when she returned to her back and closed her eyes.
Hugging Cam to her chest, Ginger smiled and kissed his head. “Oh, baby, momma missed you… you smell like daddy.” Was that a good thing? He couldn’t tell from her expression, but she was still asleep enough that she might not even have known she said it aloud.
“Mama!” Cam said and turned his face to rub against her breast through the tee-shirt. She loosened her arms so the baby could climb up and nuzzle her face. She laughed and didn’t even bother to wipe the slobber from her lips when Cam wriggled away down her body and pulled up her tee-shirt. Her taut belly came into view and Shane was happy to watch his son try to stick his head beneath her shirt, he’d be doing the same if he was allowed to get close enough.
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