83
‘It’s going to be okay baby. She can’t come between us this time, I won’t ever let that happen again. I promised you, remember?’ He brought her back around, nose to nose with him, his arms latched around her loosely and stared deep into her chocolate brown eyes, a look of complete seriousness ingrained in the pale depths.
‘I don’t trust her... Something about the way she looked when she left.’ Rose had to admit, she was more than a little afraid of the other woman and that look on her face would surely give Rose nightmares in bed later. Rob shook his head.
‘Morag’s only a danger to herself, and good at making my life a misery when all hell breaks loose...There’s nothing she can do. Not really... Her anger will be aimed at me, but I’m not about to go back to sneaking around and hiding you. In time she will finally just have to accept this; accept us.’ He paused thoughtfully. ‘I’m just worried she does something dumb to herself, although after the scare cutting her arms gave her; I’m not so sure she would hurt herself that way anymore.’
Lifting her chin to him within the circle of his arms, she kissed him slowly, resting her forehead against his as he leaned down nearer her height.
‘You don’t think she will try and hurt herself this time?’
‘That time, years ago... She was in a different place; mentally she was worse. I know it’s hard to believe, but she has come on so much since then and moved on in small ways, with counselling and medication. That accident in the house, it scared her. I could see it in her face. She didn’t want to die Rose.’ Rob looked convinced, his grey eyes focused on Rose’s face as though trying to imprint how she looked in that moment to memory. He seemed completely engrossed on her mouth, rather than the topic at hand. He nudged his groin into Rose with a hint of a wicked smile, leaning down to graze a kiss on her mouth but she pulled back.
‘That was before all this!’ Rose tried to bring his obviously wandering mind back to the conversation, only too aware of how many subtle signs he was giving off against her body, indicating that he was starting to think about sex once more; the days of not speaking making him more ravenous than normal. Rob had the ability to turn to sex at the oddest moments.
He shook his head, something in his eyes assuring her that he didn’t think Morag had it in her anymore to try and take her life. She was stronger. She had more to live for despite all of this, more than she had back then. He sighed, seemingly getting the hint he wasn’t about to get a replay on the desk and instead loosened his hold a little.
‘When she sees that we’re going ahead with the engagement party and the wedding, she will realise it’s gone too far. That I’m serious. About us...About you! And she’ll have to accept it. I don’t know what that means for our friendship but I’m hoping she finally moves on and lets me have a life at last.’
Rose nodded quietly. Her fingers tracing his mouth lightly, watching him as she digested all of this for a few moments.
‘Thought you were against engagement parties?’ She smiled softly, seeing that warmth in his eyes fully returning to normal.
‘Well. It’s all been set up. Planned and paid for by my father, so would be a bit of an arsey thing not to go.’ He grinned, the drama and tension abated.
‘And her?’ She queried with a frown.
‘If she shows up, which I doubt she will, I’ll make sure she can’t ruin it. Won’t ruin it. Hire security if I have too and let someone else deal with her for a change.’
‘I think I may need a bodyguard after the way she looked at me.’ She jested but the cold shiver running down her spine was a giveaway that she didn’t actually mean it as a joke.
‘You have one! Both by day and night.’ He nudged her suggestively, kissing her forehead again, he pulled her away from him and scooped to start collecting the stuff on the floor and dumping it on his desk. ‘Besides Muffin looks like he would be a ferocious protector.’ He laughed as she bent down to help, he stretched out, leaning up and reaching out for her bra over the curtain pole and flung it over her shoulder with a grin and a shake of the head. A definite twinkle at the memory as he moved forward to the desk
‘Rob?’ Rose snagged her bra from his shoulder and tugged it towards her.
He looked up from picking the laptop up and sliding back to where it normally sat, fluidly moving around the room and returning some sense of calm to the mess.
‘Hmmm?’ He answered absentmindedly while straightening some stationary holders.
‘You handled it really well, even if it didn’t seem like you did.’
‘Still feel like a class A asshole though baby. I know I can’t keep running after her trying to fix her life anymore, she’s not my problem. I don’t want too!’ He stopped to watch Rose pulling on her underwear with a disappointed frown and a cocked head as she manoeuvred her bra under her dress to get it on while staying modest.
‘You’re sure about the party? I mean we don’t need to have it if you think it’s cruel? If she...’ Rose carried on, ignoring the way he was watching her.
‘No.’ He straightened up to meet her face, catching her as she struggled to latch her clasp at the back, reaching instead and unzipping her dress so he could do it for her.
‘No more allowances for her. No more handling everything with kid gloves. This...’ he spun her when he had righted her bra and zipped her dress back up, pulling her hand and kissing her above her engagement ring. ‘This is our life together. I need to stop making you put up with shit for her; she needs to realise that you’re my priority now and that I’ll not make any changes for her when it comes to us anymore. You’re my life.’
Rose slid against him, her heart beating whole and steady. Pushing down the dread that had become a familiar ache in the back of her mind and losing herself into his strong arms while a deep pit of dread tried its hardest to push through.
