At the Brink by Anna Del Mar

Author:Anna Del Mar
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2016-08-24T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Four

Josh

We left the party through the service elevator. I called Amman and asked him to retrieve our coats. He met us in the underground garage. Lily was still wobbly on her legs, but at least she wasn’t crying anymore. Christ, the sight of those tears had shredded my guts. I inspected my knuckles. They weren’t bruised, but Ernest Chamberlain’s face would surely be tomorrow. Motherfucker. He deserved what he got.

Amman made eye contact with me through the rear view mirror. “Where to?”

“The Commons,” I said, undoing my black tie. “Tremont, near the corner with Boylston.”

“Where are we going?” Lily asked.

“I want to make it up to you,” I said, “for the other day, on the stairs. And for a lousy party tonight.”

“It got better toward the end.” She smiled shyly.

I leaned over and kissed her smile, even though it was crooked and her eyes were still glazed with the kind of pain that enraged me. I pulled the monogrammed balls out of my pocket and put them in her hand. They were still warm from her body.

“Here you go.”

“What am I supposed to do with these?”

“Keep them,” I said. “Enjoy them. They’re yours. Okay?”

She put them away in her clutch.

I squeezed her hand just as my phone rang. I looked at the caller I.D. Hell, I’d better take the call or the witch might show up at my door.

I clicked on the call. “What is it?”

“Damn it, Josh, you said you’d come,” the woman on the other end of the line said.

“No, you said I should come. I said I was busy.”

“You said that Friday would be good for you.”

“Not this Friday.”

“Don’t be an ass,” she said. “Be there or be prepared to tangle with me.”

“Ha,” I said. “I’m trembling in my boots.”

“See you Friday.” She hung up the phone.

“Who was that?” Lily asked.

“No one,” I said.

The light in her eyes waned.

“No one important,” I clarified. “Look, we can’t go on with you miserable and paranoid.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You don’t have to,” I said. “I don’t blame you, Lily. Your father, Martin, you’ve got a lot of stuff to sort through, but I’m not them, and I don’t want to be stuck in the mud forever.”

“Don’t you dare try to psychoanalyze me,” she said. “It’s not like you don’t have a history of your own.”

If I was going to achieve all my objectives tonight, I had to tackle this here and now. “Look, Lily, here’s how it goes: I like sex.”

“I’ve noticed.”

“I’ve had plenty of it, safe, fun and, in some cases, very naughty.”

She rolled her eyes. “No kidding.”

“All my affairs were consensual, brief and based on clear expectations. And all of them happened before I met you.”

“Susannah Phelps?”

She wasn’t going to make this easy. “Don’t tell me you want to go down the list?”

She crossed her arms and stared at me. “Susannah Phelps?”

“No!”

“The blond bombshell with the boobs? The rich girl with the fat ass? The heiress and the very skilled jet setter?”

I raked my hands through my hair.

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