“I agreed to stay for another couple of months.”

The wine tasted acidic in my mouth as I processed her words. Staying permanently was good; staying in London would be the best news I’d had all week, possibly all year, but I knew she wasn’t referring to that.

“Isn’t it going to slow down your dissertation?” This again could be a good thing: if Victoria needed another year to complete it, that would be another year she would be in London, in my bed.

“It’s going better than I thought. I’m reducing my hours and I’ll do some of the work from the law department from home,” she said, taking a bite of the entrée we were sharing.

“I thought they’d appointed someone?” I nabbed a larger piece of the pork belly. It was Valentine’s Day and given that we’d managed to spend pretty much every night together since Marie’s birthday, I hadn’t actually asked her if she wanted to spend tonight with me too. In the past, I’d dismissed February fourteenth as a gimmick, an excuse to sell overpriced gifts and a day to propose on for those with a lack of imagination, but my opinions had been altered by the woman across the table from me who was trying to sneak the crispy bit without me noticing.

“They have, but she’s on a three-month notice period, which is insane. It’s fine: Carol’s been so good to me and I enjoy working there so working fewer hours is the best scenario. It’ll stop me from ending up a total history geek,” she said, nibbling at the pork crackling. “You wanted this, didn’t you?”

“I’d rather watch you eat it.”

“We know you like watching me eat certain things.” Her eyes twinkled, full of chocolate and warmth. We’d been at Claire’s the evening before; she’d invited all of us round for supper, which turned out to be takeaway pizza. Victoria had created an emergency and dragged me into Claire’s bathroom, telling me that the pizza had left a bad aftertaste and the only thing that would get rid of it was my cock in her mouth.

I’d been happy to oblige.

“I like your history geekiness,” I said. She had a story about everywhere in London, from the Kings and Queens to Jack the Ripper. I had suggested she give up ideas of tenure and instead become a London tour guide. It was another way of trying to persuade her to stay.

“You just don’t want me working in the office.”

“True. Has the slimeball been back in since he sent that text?” I referred to Peter Coffey.

She offered me the last bite of the crackling, feeding me across the table. “He hasn’t when I’ve been there. In fact, I think he’s only been in twice, so he must be having withdrawal symptoms or something.”

“No creepy Valentine’s gifts?” She looked shifty and I knew there was something she wasn’t telling me.

“Well, there was a bowl of hyacinths delivered this morning from someone…”

I’d figured roses were too obvious and she’d mentioned how much she loved the scent of hyacinths.

“And the underwear I noticed at your apartment. I assume that’s for me?” she continued.

I chewed slowly and pondered her words. “What if it wasn’t?”

Her eyes glowered. “Then my mouth won’t be anywhere near your cock for the foreseeable.”

“That would be a shame. My cock likes your mouth.”

“Then the underwear had better be in my size, hadn’t it?”

I chuckled quietly. “There might be one more gift for you too, but you’ll have to be good to get it, so that might be difficult for you.”

She tipped her head to one side and regarded me. “But sometimes you don’t like it if I’m too good?”

I groaned, knowing what she was referring to and then applied what she’d determined to be my lawyer stare. “So there were no surprise Valentine’s gifts delivered to your office?”

“Did Seph say he was sending one?”

I growled.

“Max, it doesn’t matter. When Peter next comes in I’ll set him straight and I’ll make sure someone is there while I do it,” she said, pouring more of the wine into her glass.

“So he did get you something?”

She sighed heavily. “There was a small bunch of roses with a copy of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart. I think we can file it under ‘weird’ at the very least.”

I folded my arms across my chest, sitting back in my seat. “At which point will you agree to having someone from Killian’s firm make sure you get back to mine safely after work?”

Her head tilted again. “He’s harmless, Max. You’ve seen him. He has a crush.”

“No, Vic. A crush is what Seph has when he follows you round like an excited puppy. He doesn’t send you texts telling you you’re his, or books by Edgar Allen Poe. If he’d sent you a book on the hospitals of the First World War I’d have been more understanding, but it’s not about you, it’s about him,” I said, trying desperately to not reach for my club and bring out my pet dinosaur.

“I’ll ask him to come into the department for a conversation with Carol. She knows what he’s been doing.”

“I know she does.”

“Of course. You were the one who rang her up demanding security on the place whenever I was working. I believe your words were along the lines of ‘if you want me to be back teaching next year, you’d better have eyes on who’s coming in and out of this place,’ correct me if I’m wrong?” I was eyed like a child who needed to sit on the naughty step and somehow managed to find it a turn-on.

“If you want a man who wears corduroys and can’t lift a paperweight, then there’s one sat over there at the bar.” I turned my head towards him. “Oh look, he’s drinking what looks like a margarita.”

Her pointed glare turned into a badly covered laugh. “I’ll go see what literature he’s into. If it’s Poe, I could be on to a winner. Although, I’m not sure my mouth would like his cock as much as yours.”

“I bet it wouldn’t,” I said, keeping my voice low, my leg brushing against hers under the table. “I don’t think your mouth would like any cock as much as this one. In fact, I’m willing to bet that it’s been ruined for all other cocks it’ll never get to taste.”

She edged closer to me across the table, our hands entwining. “Max, I need to tell you something.”

I sat up bolt straight, my heart rate leaving it’s resting rate of around fifty-four to close to what felt like two hundred. She’s pregnant. She’s pregnant, my inner voice started to yell and I spanned between celebrating like a buffoon and needing to call Jackson as I had a meltdown. She’s drinking wine, it then registered and I stilled myself.

“I’ve got an interview for the position at Johns Hopkins the day after tomorrow. I’m flying out tomorrow afternoon.”

“Oh.” It was all I could manage as nausea filled my throat and I tasted what hurt felt like. I knew this was coming; it was her dream and it hadn’t changed, I hadn’t made it change.

“It doesn’t mean I’ll get it,” she said.

I tried to hide everything I was feeling right now.

“You will. There’s no way you won’t be offered the job. You’re not just a stuffy historian, you’re an amazing teacher and they’ll need someone like you in the department,” I said, focusing on this being her dream and wanting her to be happy.

“Thanks,” she said almost looking shy. “I’m nervous. I suppose anyone would be. I don’t know what the position will entail teaching or what their research focuses are, but those are things I’ll find out at the interview.”

Please let it be things she’s not interested. Please let her hate the place. Please let it be minimal teaching as she’ll hate that. “Write everything down beforehand; you’ll look prepared and it’ll stop you from forgetting if you’re nervous. Not that you’ve got anything to be nervous about.”

She said nothing, just smiled and sipped her wine, watching me with unreadable eyes. Gradually, our conversation drifted onto Vanessa and the wedding plans and the crabbiness of Claire who really did look like she was going to give birth to a baby elephant, although apparently I wasn’t meant to make that comment to her face without expecting a severe beating with her purse.

We went back to mine and my mouth found hers and then every part of her that I liked to taste. And when I fucked her I tried to tell her with my body that I didn’t want her to go.

I needed her to stay.

“When’s she back?”

I only just missed Seph’s jaw as he failed to block my fist. Boxing with my little brother was not a good idea. Most things hadn’t been a good idea since Victoria had flown to Baltimore, including being awake at any point. I’d even slept on the sofa for the last five nights, the bed suddenly too big and cold. “Two days. Concentrate on my hands else you’re going to get hurt.”

“You’re not quick enough,” he added as a sharp jab came my way. I blocked it and threw him off balance. We sparred for a few more minutes, me shouting where to put his feet and trying to coach him at the same time as controlling the power behind my hits. I’d persuaded Jackson to join us later where I’d be able to let loose as Jacks was more than capable of holding his own against me.

“Time out!” Seph shouted, collapsing against the ropes. He was breathing rapidly and looked rather red in the face. I laughed.

“Fucking hell, Joseph, how do you keep a woman happy in bed with that level of fitness? You must pass out from exhaustion before you’ve got the job done.”

He stuck two fingers up at me. “What are you going to do if she gets this job?”

I glared at him. “Be happy for her. If it’s what she wants.”

“Bullshit, Maxwell.” Unfortunately, his breath had returned. “You’ve been fucking awful to be around since she went away. If she moves there permanently, maybe you should go with her.”

I shook my head. “This was never a long term thing, Seph. I know you have it bad for her, but she always planned to work over in America. We said from the start it was just casual.”

“You might’ve said that at the start but it’s not the same now.” He reached for a bottle of water. “If it was casual, you wouldn’t be practically living together and you wouldn’t have bought a house for her.”

“I haven’t bought a house for her. I’ve bought an investment property.”

“That’s crap and you know it. And you know you don’t want her to leave,” Seph said, tipping the rest of the water over his head. “And I don’t have it bad for her. I really like her, far more than any girlfriend you’ve ever had, but I don’t like her like that.”

I eyed him suspiciously, calling horseshit.

“She’s got the best rack I’ve ever seen, but please never tell her that. Besides, she’s your woman.”

I said nothing. Words failed me on both counts. One, the fact that Seph had not erased the image of her glorious tits from his brain as instructed, although, to be fair, they were unforgettable and two, because she was my woman. That was how I thought of her.

I wanted to be the one who took her to bed every night and made her come. I pretty much dedicated myself in the evenings to making sure she didn’t remember ever having another lover and that no man who ever dared be in her future could ever match up to me. I wanted to be the person she woke up next to and shared her day with, tolerated disorganised family gatherings with my siblings and argued with me when I irked her by making random comments about the uselessness of history.

If she was my woman, I wanted to be her man.

But that was never our agreement.

“I thought I said to forget you ever saw that photo?” I growled at Seph and I swear I saw him wince. He was right; I had been in a foul mood since Victoria had flown off. Unfortunately, it was very easy to take my mood out on him.

“I tried. Seriously, if I ever think about how she looked… shit. I never want her to know I’ve seen that photo. She’s like a kind of big sister; a bit like Claire would be if she wasn’t so hormonal all the time. Please never tell Claire that either. I’d like to live a bit longer.” Seph looked genuinely scared.

“If I ever need your share of your inheritance I’ll be sure to pass on your views to Claire,” I said. “Until then, I’ll let you live.”

“Have you told her you don’t want her to go?”

“Who? Claire?”

He gave an irritated sigh. “No, Mr Fucking Difficult! Have you told Victoria you want her to stay?”

“There’s no point.”

“Why, exactly, is there no point?”

“Because if she chooses to stay I want her to do it because of her dreams, not because of me. If I asked her to stay, it’d put pressure on her. If things don’t work out, I don’t want her to blame me,” I said, surprised at how easy it was to tell Seph that. Maybe my kid brother wasn’t a complete ass after all.

“But that’s only if things don’t work out. And don’t you think she deserves to know that you love her? Maybe that will be the thing she wants to stay for.”

“I didn’t say I love her.” The word almost choked me.

“You don’t?”

I said nothing, stepping back into the ring. “Get back in the ring and let me see if you can stop me from kicking your ass.”

The father of my future niece or nephew looked even more like he was made of sheer muscle than ever. I was pretty sure he’d grown another half a foot since finding out he was going to be a dad, or that was just a defence mechanism to protect himself from an even-more-hormonal-than-usual Claire. Killian had been my best friend all the way through university and we’d kept close throughout his time in the Navy and since he’d left, joining his brother to set up a security firm. He also ran a decent PI side and could find out most things about most people.

“Your girl’s student services, isn’t she?”

I nodded, still enjoying any reference to Victoria being mine way too much. “That’s part of what she does.”

“Professor in training?” he said, a half hidden reference to my past where I’d tended to date women who were lecturers.

Vic had already received plenty of information about that, to the extent where she’d checked that I was interested in her body as much as her brain.

“Yes but let’s move on.”

He smirked. “This Peter Coffey you’ve asked me to look up—he’s innocuous enough apart from one thing: he was advised to leave Cambridge after two complaints of stalking were made against him. The university investigated it and probably should’ve reported it to the police. Instead he was advised to continue his studies elsewhere and elsewhere became King’s.”

“What exactly did he do to stalk the women, assuming it was women?” I asked. Victoria was back in three hours—yes, I was counting—which gave me enough time to find him, murder him and dispose of the body.

Killian glanced at his iPad. “Presents, following them, messages. One woman he tried to kiss and grope and got quite handsy until someone else pulled him away. I had to do a bit of stalking myself to find that out. And maybe a bit of hacking.”

“It’s appreciated,” I said. “I owe you a beer or five.”

He shook his head. “Babysitting duty. And a cigar the day the baby’s born.”

“Damn right on the cigar front. Not sure about the babysitting duty—isn’t that what grandmas are for?” I had no issue with looking after small people—I’d done it enough with Callum, the twins and Ava, but I had to try and act a bit manly.

“Who else will teach him about the rules of rugby?”

The door opened and a sharp gust of warm air blew into my office. “You’re suggesting the baby’s a boy.” My sister waddled in and immediately sat down on a chair. “I’m sure it’s twins. There’s no way one baby can make you this fucking uncomfortable.”

“Maybe it’s time to go on maternity leave,” Killian said, keeping a safe distance between him and Claire.

“Maybe it’s time you grew a vagina and had the next baby yourself, then you’d understand about the lack of tolerance for fuckwit remarks like that!”

He gave me the look of a man whose patience had been severely tested.

“How about dinner at Padella?”

“How about you stop asking stupid questions and just take me there already?”

Killian stood up and gave me a brief nod. “Do you want me to arrange someone to keep an eye on him? Maybe do a bit more enquiring as to his hobbies?”

It was cryptic which suggested Claire knew nothing about Peter Coffey and Killian’s research. If she did, she’d more than likely tell Victoria, who I suspected wouldn’t be overly happy.

“Please. Then let me know what I owe you.”

“You don’t. Except babysitting and a cigar. And finding where Claire stored my balls.”

“They’ve been frozen so you can never impregnate me again.”

“That’s not what you were saying last night.”

I covered my ears. “Sister. Therefore, there’s a lot I don’t need to know.”

Killian laughed and yanked Claire out of the chair, being treated to more verbal abuse for his efforts. “I’ll see you tomorrow for poker. Enjoy your reunion and take my advice and wrap it up: that pill thing doesn’t always work.”

“Go. Go now.” I said, both of them laughing as they left, Claire’s arms around him as much as she could manage.

I checked the time, less than a couple of hours until Victoria returned. I still wasn’t sure of what to say; Seph’s idea about asking her to stay was still playing on my mind. I hadn’t dismissed it yet, in fact I was considering it more, only the truth was, I didn’t know the words to say.