The next morning, still fogged in happiness, Ava’s phone rang. She heard it but couldn’t reach for it. The moment she slipped her foot out of the bed and inched it to the floor, it sent a jolt of pain up her leg.
“I’ll get it,” Cristiano murmured, and his husky voice so early in the morning sent arrows of pleasure through her body. She watched him stride confidently to the door, wonderment in her heart. Had they really spent the night together?
She closed her eyes on the tidal wave of happiness. Had they really talked of their future with such easy certainty? She collapsed back against the pillows, her face creased into a bright smile.
Ava was aware of him before she saw him. She rather felt his presence hovering over her, and when she blinked her clear gaze in his direction, she saw that he was in a less thrilled state than she. “What is it?” She pushed up onto her elbows.
He held the phone to her. “It is your … ex-husband.”
“Oh.” She took the phone with an apologetic smile at Cristiano. “Hello?”
“Hey, Aves. Marie texted to say you’ve hurt your ankle. I was going to see if you need anything? But it sounds like you’re well taken care of already.”
She looked at Cristiano, and his expression was one of such jealousy that she had to bite down on her bottom lip to stop from laughing.
“I’m okay, Angus, thanks for calling. Listen, it’s not a good time right now, but why don’t you come over later today?” She heard his objections through the silence and so she was insistent. “It’s no trouble. I’d like you to come.”
“Well, okay. I’ll see what I can do.”
She disconnected the call and placed her phone beside her. “We really need to talk about Angus.”
Cristiano’s nostrils flared. “Do we?”
Now she did laugh and she reached for his hands. “I love that you think you need to be threatened by him …”
“By the man you chose to marry instead of me?”
“Yes,” she pulled him gently, and if he had wanted to stay firm, she would never have been able to move him. But he was in no state to say no to her, and so he sat carefully beside her. “Angus is my best friend. You are going to have to get to know him. And, hopefully, to like him.”
“Ava,” he looked at her as though she’d suggested he walk naked through the streets of London in the middle of winter. “You’re asking too much of me.”
“No, please, let me explain.” Her eyebrows crinkled as she sought the words. “Angus and I have known one another forever.”
“I know this,” he interrupted belligerently. Ava lifted a finger to his lips.
“We were never romantic.
He was always the most popular guy in school. Everyone wanted a piece of him.”
“But he only had eyes for you,” he guessed. “At least he has excellent taste to recommend him, if nothing else.”
She bit down on her lower lip and tried not to laugh. “When we lost my mum, he was the best support I could have asked for. He visited every day, and he helped not just me, but Sophie and Liv too. We all loved him. We came to count on him. When he suggested that he and I get married, it wasn’t because we couldn’t live without each other. It was because he knew I needed something. Some stability. Some promise of a future permanence. And he wanted to give it to me.” She sighed with guilt. “I should never have agreed.” She traced an invisible spiral over the back of his hand. “But by the time I started to have regrets, we were so far down the wedding planning route. His whole family had adopted me. I still didn’t love him romantically, but I did love him, Cris. I do love him. But like a brother. And a dear friend.”
Cristiano flipped his hand over so he could trap her fingers in his. “You never mentioned him to me.”
“No,” she agreed. “At first, I thought I was being stupid to even hope that you might feel the same way about me as I did you. By the time I realised I loved you, it was hard to find the right way to bring my fiancé into conversation.”
“Yes, I can imagine how difficult that would have been,” he said with mock severity. Though it had pained him beyond words to discover that she had pledged herself to another man before fate brought them together. He lifted a hand to the strap of her singlet and slipped his finger inside, so that he could touch her bare skin. Goosebumps appeared in its wake; he smiled at the sight of them. “You had not slept with him.”
“No,” she nodded, and licked her lower lip anxiously. “He … wanted to, but I suggested we wait until we were married.”
Desperate envy spiked inside of him. What had he expected? They had been man and wife. They had lived together.
“I knew as soon as you left that I’d stuffed everything up.” She shook her head wistfully. “But you had left. I told him everything. He gave me the option.” She looked away from him, shame making her face crumple. “So he’s not in the wrong here. He asked me what I wanted, and I told him that I wanted to go through with our wedding. You had gone. And Angus was very, very right about one thing. I craved stability and permanence. He offered that.”
“And I never did,” Cristiano cursed angrily, and he couldn’t fight it any longer. Injury or not, he needed to touch her. He leaned forward and kissed her with all the passion that fired his soul. “It was my fault.”
“No. Don’t be absurd. Are you serious? I married a guy I didn’t love just because I wanted a guarantee of permanence. What kind of idiotic, ridiculous, stupid, selfish thing was that?”