Evangeline finished shoving the cards into the two boxes. “That’s what I figured. You’d have to be either an idiot or desperately in love to come into the lion’s den.” She tilted her head in her brothers’ direction. They were milling around the kitchen, eating and joking with one another.
Jealousy stabbed him. He couldn’t remember the last time he and Sebastian had joked around. Hell, he couldn’t remember the last time they’d spent together that hadn’t involved Christian receiving a dressing down from their father. Zoe’s family teased, cursed and yelled at each other without taking it personally. Without their parents pitting them against each other.
“Well, I am idiotically, desperately in love with your sister,” he said with a wink and a grin.
Zoe carried a plate of cookies and a glass of milk over to Melanie, who was sitting in a chair with her feet propped up on an ottoman. She sat on the arm, talking to Melanie or rather her belly. He couldn’t keep his eyes off of her as she made silly faces while talking in a sing-songy voice. She’d make an excellent mother. To his children. Their children.
A warm, fuzzy feeling settled in his bones. They could live here, follow Zoe’s routine, and be deliriously happy. Just like she’d always wanted and now like he did, too.
“Why don’t you leave and let her have a normal relationship?”
Christian looked up to find Luke in Evangeline’s place at the table. He leaned back in his chair, trying to keep his voice smooth and his face impassive as he faced a challenge nearly as formidable as his wife.
“Obviously, Zoe craves something different. She broke up with Mr. Normal months ago and it wasn’t the first time,” he pointed out. No, the first time had happened before she’d moved out to California and kissed him. Had had a one night stand with him. Christian rubbed his thumb along the bottom of his glass, wiping away the condensation that had gathered.
“You two broke up last month.”
“Now we’re back together.” Christian glowered at Luke from beneath his brows.
“Until you get bored or don’t need her to fix your rep.”
White-hot fury flashed through Christian. “I’m not having this conversation with you.”
“I can wait.” Luke slouched down in his chair, a slow grin covering his face. “Unlike you, I know how to stick around.”
Christian suddenly remembered a little tidbit Zoe’d inadvertently let slip out about Luke and his ex. “Is that how Lily Sawyer would see things?”
Luke’s jaw clenched and his eyes flared. “I’d hate to mess up that pretty face of yours, Romanov.”
“Yes, it would put a damper on the whole do no harm creed you doctors have. And as flattered as I am that you think I’m pretty, I’m married.” Christian looked around the room, struggling to keep his temper under control.
“Unbelievable. You can’t even say anything original. Does your personal assistant have to email you a script to get through the day?” Luke leaned forward, placing his hands on the table between them. “You might have everyone else fooled, but not me. I know why you’re here: You need my sister to save your ass again and make you look good to everyone.” Luke rapped his knuckles on the table. “Thing is, deep down inside, you know you’ll never be good enough for her.”
Wisely, Christian kept his mouth shut. It wasn’t as if Luke wasn’t correct and Christian knew it. But selfish bastard that he was, there was no way in hell Christian was going to help Zoe realize it any sooner than she had to.
***
A full moon lit Zoe and Christian’s path as they walked home. Tall pine trees swayed when a blustery wind gusted.
Zoe wrapped her coat tightly around her, wishing for the summer-like weather that had disappeared when the sun set. Hair dancing around her head smacked her in the face, making her eyes water.
She brushed it away and glanced up at the black sky, noting the large clouds rolling in. “It smells like rain.”
Christian walked beside her, unusually subdued.
Lacing her fingers through his long, tapered ones, she tried again. “You sure are quiet.”
“That’s because I’m still reeling from the shock of discovering how close you live to your parents,” he said, lightly squeezing her hand.
She laughed. “It’s fifteen minutes to their house from mine.” Ours, she wanted to say, but her feelings were still hurt by what she’d seen on television. How did other women do it? How did they reconcile themselves to their husbands’ well-documented and broadcasted pasts while trying to look to the future? And in front of their families. It was one thing to see it in private, but like that, with everyone’s attention on her and Christian, it had been excruciating. Suffocating. It had taken every ounce of willpower not to order him to leave, then run home.
“Only by car. By foot it’s less than five,” he said. “I’m having visions of your mother walking in on us, but I’ll be respectful by not kicking her out when it happens. Over and over and over.”
“You won’t be able to tell her to eff-off while giving her the finger. How inconvenient for you.”
He stopped, turning to look at her. “I know how to comport myself.”
“Yeah, your classiness shined on the red carpet in that video. Shoving your tongue down your lover’s throat was an extra special touch.” She jerked her hand away and stomped ahead of him, but her short legs couldn’t put enough distance between them and he was soon caught up to her.
“Ex-lover, remember? I swear to God, Zoe. It’s one step forward and a million steps back with you,” he said, obvious frustration filling his tone.
She stopped in her tracks. “You think it’s fun to watch you with other women? You don’t think that your display of affection with your ex-lover didn’t humiliate me? My family saw you, Christian.”
“I can’t help what your mother chooses to watch,” he said and even though it was true, it still stung and hurt.
“How would you like to see videos of me and Gabriel kissing? Sex tapes?”
He splayed his arms wide. “I don’t have to. Every damn photo of you in that house has Gabriel at your side.” His face changed as though he realized what she’d just said. “What sex tapes?”
Only the one you’d mentioned in front of Gabriel, she wanted to say. “It’s none of your business,” she said with a toss of her hair. There, that should fix him.