CHAPTER TWO
“Okay, so what on earth is going on with you and Griff?”
I stumbled back into the bathroom in surprise at finding Amelia waiting for me right outside the door. I’d asked to use her private bathroom on the third floor to escape the crowded first and second floors. Apparently she’d followed me.
I caught my footing and pressed a hand to my chest. “You scared the bejesus out of me.”
She sat at the end of her and Quentin’s bed and crossed her arms over her chest. “Mel, what is going on? Last Quentin and I saw you, you and Griff were newly engaged and he couldn’t keep his hands off you.”
I flushed at the memory of our time in Wickford. It was less than two weeks ago but it felt like another lifetime.
“Now you’re avoiding each other. I don’t think anyone else has noticed—they think you’re both mingling. But I’m nosy and I can see Griff shooting you wounded, longing looks, and you shooting him guilty and then angry looks. So what’s going on?”
My God she really was too perceptive for her own good.
Deciding to stick to something closely resembling the truth, I blurted out, “I caught him kissing another woman.”
Her eyes widened. “No. No way.”
“I saw it with my own eyes, Amelia.”
“What… I don’t understand. He looks as if he’d cut down anyone who so much as tried to touch you. Why would he kiss another woman?”
Scrambling for something that might appease the romantic in her I replied, “He said she kissed him and he… well he said that he only kissed her back because he was feeling overwhelmed by us.”
“Silly man,” she tutted. “Scared of his own feelings.”
Relieved that Amelia was buying it, I nodded. “I believe him but I’m also hurt. He wants me to just get over it.”
“Hence the longing, wounded looks?”
I didn’t think Griff was sending me longing, wounded looks. She was misinterpreting the betrayal in them.
“And you’re angry but feel guilty that you can’t just get over it?”
I almost wanted to give myself a pat on the back. Sticking to a version of the truth worked out great. “Right. I will get over it. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think I would. I just need time.”
Amelia sighed and stood up. She crossed the room to take hold of my upper arms and she gave me a little shake. “You have every right to be hurt. But, Melanie, life is too short to hold onto this. That man downstairs is head over heels in love with you. I have never seen Griff with someone the way he is with you. And I’m so glad that it is you. If he had fallen in love with one of those money-grabbing morons he screwed around with I would have screamed.”
I smirked at the idea. Griff wasn’t capable of falling in love with anyone. He was too closed off. “I promise to try harder.”
Satisfied, Amelia led me back down to the first floor where Griff was talking near the dining table with Quentin and some guy whose name I couldn’t remember. The chatter of the guests, the hemmed in feeling of too many people crowded into the townhouse, made me feel antsy. On top of my not knowing what was going to happen with Griff and our deal, I started to feel a little lightheaded. I wandered over to him and curled my hand around his bicep.
He instinctually tensed under my touch and I sucked in a breath. Griff relaxed, realizing what he was giving away.
“Can we talk?” I asked.
Amelia, listening in, gestured to the staircase that led to the ground floor. “You can use the den.”
Griff narrowed his eyes on her before looking at me in accusation. I took his hand, holding it tight, and thankfully he followed me downstairs.
The hum of the party still filled the den but I finally felt like I could breathe. Glancing upstairs, I wouldn’t have been surprised to see Amelia at the top of them listening in. Griff opened his mouth but I put my finger to my lips to shush him and then walked through the den to the guest bedroom where silence reigned.
Griff followed me in and I shut the door. “Amelia ambushed me upstairs. She knows something is wrong between us.”
He exhaled an exasperated breath. “Bloody woman. What did you tell her?”
“I stuck to the truth. I told her I caught you kissing another woman.”
He glowered. “Nicely done.”
“Hey, I know what I’m doing. I fed her a line about how you got overwhelmed by us and did something stupid you regretted. It explained the weirdness between us and she bought it. Right now she thinks we’re down here making up.”
Griff crossed his arms over his chest and gave me a brittle nod. “Fine.”
I ran a shaky hand through my hair. “I don’t feel great. I hate crowds like this and… May we leave?”
He studied me a moment. “If Amelia thinks we’re down here making up she’d probably believe I’d want to leave immediately to make up with you in bed.” I flushed at the thought and Griff scoffed. “All those blushes. I’m an idiot for not realizing who you were sooner.” His eyes narrowed as they raked down my body and back up again. “Funny how those blushes disappear entirely when we fuck. In fact,” his gaze darkened with lust, “You turn into a veritable animal when I put my hands on you. All biting and clawing and need. Were you like that for your husband or am I special?”
Indignation curled my hands into fists at my sides. “He has nothing to do with us.”
Something like triumph glittered in his expression. “I’ll take that to mean only I’ve had the pleasure of seeing that side of you.”
A sick, guilty feeling nestled in my gut. It was a feeling I’d been trying to keep buried for weeks. Because the truth was that I’d never physically wanted my husband the way I wanted Griffin Mandeville and it felt like such a betrayal toward an honorable young man who I’d loved dearly. It made no sense. The guilt made me angry and Griff was an available target. “Well, unlike you, my husband loved me. He didn’t treat me like a whore.”
Griff’s eyes narrowed. “I’ve already apologized for this morning. As for the other night, I didn’t treat you like a whore.” He took a step toward me and I instinctually stepped back. Griff scowled. “You and your husband were young. I imagine the sex was all fumbling and politeness, so maybe I should forgive your confusion… But what you and I did? That’s how grown-ups fuck.”
The first, unforgiveable thought that entered my mind was, did that mean that what Griff and I had wasn’t as unusual as I’d thought? Was sex that explosive for him all the time?
I immediately chastised myself for the thought. Who cared? It was never happening again.
“I’m not staying down here to exchange barbs with you. Clearly you’re better at it than I am.”
Something flickered in Griff’s expression. Yesterday I might have been naïve enough to think it was remorse. I knew better today. “Fine.” His voice was flat. “Let’s leave.”
We made it out of Amelia and Quentin’s with smiles on our faces. Only Amelia and Quentin sensed the brittleness in our countenance but at least they were misguided about the reason. Griff held my hand as we walked through the townhouse and out onto the stoop. He only let it go when we reached the car and then he dropped it like my touch burned.
That smarted but I ignored it and got into the town car and waited for him to get in too. As soon as the privacy glass was up between us and the driver, I turned to Griff. “You have to make a decision. If you want me to sign a contract and stay then you need to agree to forgive me for lying. No more taking jabs at me.”
Silence greeted me.
It lasted a while, making my stomach revolt with butterflies. It wasn’t until we were almost back at The Patrician that Griff replied. “If I don’t, you’re telling me Octavius will take it out on you and your sister?”
Did he care?
I kept my expression neutral. “That’s my problem, not yours.”
His dark gaze held mine, unreadable as always. “I don’t forgive easily, Scarlett.”
Disappointment, misery, and concern washed over me. There was a huge part of me, the part that cared about my own self-preservation that thought leaving Griff was for the best. But a bigger part was more concerned about what would happen to my sister. However, as I’d said, that wasn’t Griff’s problem. Could I live with him if his intention was to inflict emotional distress on me every day? Could I put up with that to help out Mel?
The car stopped and the driver got out to open our door.
“I don’t want to stay here to be an available target for your vitriol.” With that I got out of the car and knew instinctively he wouldn’t follow.
I made my way up the steps to the entrance of The Patrician, listening to the car pull away with Griff still inside it.
What the hell would I do if he ended our arrangement? How did I protect Mel then?