Momentary Marriage(71)

Doug worked at the knots in Kelsey’s shoulders, hearing her appreciative moan.

A key clicked in the lock just then. With a suddenness belied by his immediate feeling of paralysis, Doug watched with horror as the apartment door swung open…and saw Amy coming through the doorway.

Not Jared with a revolver in his hands, but still not good.

“Hey, sis!” Amy called out. “The Calvary has—“

She stopped then, shock, anger, hurt and disbelief hurrying over her face in a cavalcade of emotion.

Damn! He swore to himself. He couldn’t buy a fucking break here!

Kelsey’s head had lifted under his now-nerveless fingers. “Come in! Your beloved boyfriend has been acting the angel of mercy, but I’m sure you can out do him.”

Amy slowly shut the door behind her. She turned, not meeting his eyes.

Doug snatched his hands off of Kelsey, coming around the couch to take the shopping bag Amy held.

“Here, I’ll put—“

She moved, twitching the bag out of his reach.

“I’ve got special chicken soup, several of your favorite videos to make you laugh,” Amy said with a hard cheerfulness in her voice as she spoke to her sister. “Remember laughter is supposed to make your immune system work better. And if that doesn’t help—fudge ripple ice cream.”

Kelsey sighed her contentment. “I am a lucky woman. A sister who loans me her boyfriend for a neck rub and then brings me chicken soup and fudge ripple ice cream.”

Sitting down next to her sister, Amy’s bright smile didn’t waver as she reached out to lay a hand on her forehead. “No fever. Any more tummy upset? Jared said you were up-chucking last night.”

Flashing Doug a glittering glance, Amy met his eyes at last. She was furious, he knew it. Hell, any idiot would recognize the hostility emanating from her. If Kels hadn’t been so wiped out, she’d have instantly recognized the tension in the room.

“Shall I warm the soup?” Doug asked, determined to act as innocent as he was. Dammit, it wasn’t as if he’d been ravishing her sister.

“Kelsey, are you hungry?” Amy said with terrible brightness.

“Yes,” Kelsey answered with a chuckle. “And no, I don’t have a fever and my stomach is just needing soup.”

“I’ll warm the soup.” Doug advanced on the bag sitting at Amy’s feet, irrationally determined to wrest it from her if necessary. But she ignored him as he caught up the handles of the shopping bag and bore it into the kitchen.

Crap. He was in deep shit here. He felt bad for lying to her, but was furious at himself for feeling apologetic. It wasn’t as if she’d found him fucking her sister! And where did she get off acting like she owned him, Doug fumed. They hadn’t made any promises to each other. She was being completely unreasonable!

***

“Amy, wait!” Doug followed her down the stairs, hustling to keep up as she shot out of her sister’s apartment. The last hour had been a minefield of suppressed hostility until, at last, Jared had come home and he and Amy had gotten up to leave.

“You have to listen to me,” he insisted angrily, catching her on the landing.

Amy rounded on him furiously, her eyes spitting mad. “I don’t have to do a damn thing I don’t want to do and I don’t want to listen to you!”

“Be reasonable. You’re over-reacting,” he insisted, exasperated. She had to know how much he cared about her.

“Over-reacting!” she yelled, coming to a halt as they reached the lobby. “You son-of-a-bitch!”

“Will you quiet down,” he demanded, getting angrier himself despite his efforts to keep his temper.

“No, I will not,” Amy retorted, lowering her voice as a couple walked into the lobby and got into a waiting elevator. “You are a lying bastard!”

“What exactly did I do?” he snapped, taking her by the arm and drawing her toward the outside door. “I finished early at the office and dropped by to see if your sister—“

Amy jerked free of his hold. “You finished early at the office because you broke our lunch date so you could come here and drool over Kelsey! I talked to your secretary. She said you were in your office working through lunch. There was no ‘emergency meeting.’ You cancelled on me so you could sneak over here and be with Kelsey!”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he commanded stiffly, quelling the impulse to take her by the shoulders and shake her.

“Oh!” she jeered. “Look who’s talking! You’re the one who’s ridiculous! When will you get a clue? She doesn’t love you, has never loved you that way. There was never a chance—“