Indigo Nights (Nights #3)(58)

I grinned. “We do?”

“Sure we do. I can’t have my wife and kids living on a different continent, can I?”

“You’re ridiculous.” I laughed, throwing off the sheet and climbing out of bed.

“I’m not proposing.” He followed me into the bathroom.

“Good. Because we’ve known each other five minutes.”

I stared at him in the mirror and he shrugged. “I know. But I also know that I’ve never felt like this about anyone.”

My stomach tugged and flipped. I loved hearing how he loved me because I loved him right back, just as hard. It was just so nice to hear him say it. It felt like we were . . . even. I’d never had that before. I’d always felt like I was two steps ahead of the guys I dated before Dylan.

“I’m not saying we have to have the conversation now, although that works for me. I’m just saying, at some point we need to discuss where we’re going to live our lives.”

He was right, but I didn’t want to leave London and I couldn’t see him moving continents when his business was here. Whenever I thought about it, I didn’t see a solution, so I tried not to think about it. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

I nodded. “I agree. At some point we’ll need to talk about it, but right at this moment I need to get in the shower.” If we came to an impasse, what did that mean? Would we be over if there wasn’t a solution?

Dylan’s phone buzzed from the bedroom and he forgot about following me in to the shower. Although I’d never say no to him, we both needed to get up and face the day. Sex was a great distraction, but real life intruded every now and then.

Dylan

“Stop calling me.” I hung up before Alicia could respond, threw my phone on my desk and looked out at the city. Her calls were getting more frequent. Why was she so determined to contact me now?

If I hadn’t met Beth, I might have been tempted to hear her out. I supposed there was a part of me that didn’t want to have been wrong about her, that there’d been some huge misunderstanding between us that led to her leaving. If she turned out to be a hard-faced bitch, it meant I hadn’t seen it. That I had a blind spot that left me out of control, someone who might be taken advantage of again, which wasn’t something I liked.

Being with Beth had shifted things for me, shown me that what Alicia and I’d had was thin and flimsy. I’d never felt for Alicia what Beth evoked in me. I wanted to care for and protect Beth. With Alicia I’d felt obligated to provide for her, because that’s what a man did, but it hadn’t been about making her safe and happy, which is what I wanted for Beth. My sense of protectiveness over Beth was part of the reason that her leaving to go back to London today stung so bad. We’d had a perfect weekend and I wasn’t ready to let her go.

Beth was thoughtful and kind—not just to me, but to all the people in her life. I grinned. Of course, she had the most incredible body. My phone vibrated on my desk; I turned my chair back around to see Alicia’s name flashing. Again. This was seriously starting to get irritating.

“Fucking witch,” I mumbled just as Raf walked in.

“What did you say?”

“I said ‘f*cking witch.’” I silenced my phone as Raf collapsed in one of the chairs in front of my desk. “This walnut desk is expensive; if it’s going to get banged up I don’t want it to be because Alicia was burning up my phone.”

“Alicia?”

“Yeah. She keeps calling. Hey, do you know how to block a number?”

“Sure.” Raf held out his hand and I tossed him my phone. “I didn’t realize you two were in touch. I thought you hadn’t seen her since—”

“We’re not in touch. She started calling a couple of weeks back.”

“You haven’t answered her calls?”

I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. “I spoke to her briefly. I didn’t know it was her; she’s changed her number. She said she has a business proposition for me. I hung up.”

“A business proposition?” Raf asked, fiddling with my phone.

Talking to Raf brought back some painful memories. The business that Alicia had convinced us to invest in, which went badly wrong, had rocked things between Raf and me and it had taken a long time to get our friendship back on track.

“Well, I hope you know better than to take her up on her offer.” Raf and I had come to blows about the deal with Alicia—literally and figuratively. We’d agreed that we’d never let our personal lives get mixed up in business. “But, aren’t you the least bit curious to hear her out? Isn’t that what they call closure?”

“She dumped me for a richer guy. I think I got all the closure I need.” It happened and I’d moved the f*ck on.

“And you’ve not had a relationship since. It’s like she chopped off your dick as well as your pride.” Raf looked up and grinned at me.

“My dick is just fine. There have been plenty of women and now there’s Beth.”

“Beth is the first one who’s had a name.”

I shrugged. He wasn’t completely accurate but he was pretty close. “I just wasn’t about to make the same mistake twice. Sometimes you have to be patient to find what you’re looking for.”