Pitch Imperfect(73)

Maybe Anjuli had kissed Craig because...Hell, he couldn’t think of a reason unless Mac’s suspicions were right and Craig’s occasional lecture tours to London had included stop-offs at Anjuli’s and he’d been screwing her for a long time.

Rob’s hands clenched into fists. Could his brother-in-law be the reason Anjuli had moved back to Heaverlock? The reason she looked so tormented?

He burned with the need to smash his knuckles into Craig’s jaw. He felt like a fraud, a savage in a suit, ready to forget everything that made him civilised and turn into a mindless, violent animal. And like an animal, he was unable to rationalise why Anjuli would sleep with Craig. Her own sister was having his baby, for fuck’s sake. Rob let out a low curse. Maybe such things were common in the glitzy, hedonistic world of international celebrity. Maybe everything he’d read about Anjuli over the years was true.

And what about the picture of her kissing her ex-husband? He hated even thinking the word, hated the intimacy it conjured between Anjuli and the famous guitarist. Couldn’t stand the image it evoked of them laughing and sharing meals. Having sex. The photo was recent, taken after she’d moved back to Heaverlock.

Was she still in love with him? Didn’t she care he had re-married or did they get it on whenever the “lonely” rock star was within driving distance? Rob’s vision blurred. He’d been so confident, so cocksure Anjuli had called out Brendan’s name to deliberately turn him away. And now...he didn’t want to talk to her, didn’t want to hear her admit she’d slept with Brendan or Craig. Hell, it was both by the looks of it.

Rob’s phone rang and he yanked it out of his pocket. “What?”

“It’s Anjuli. Please don’t hang up on me.”

Deep breaths, man. “Give me a reason.”

“No matter what it looks like in that picture I’m not having an affair with Craig. I heard a noise and I thought he was a thief so I went outside and then he...Well, he said a whole bunch of crap and I hit him.”

“Didn’t look like you were hitting him to me.”

“He held me so I couldn’t do it again and that was when your friend snapped her shot.”

“She’s no’ my friend. No’ anymore.”

Anjuli was silent for a few seconds, then, “She deliberately made it look as if Craig was kissing me.”

“Was he?” he growled.

“Oh, for God’s—Didn’t you hear what I just said? He’s a jerk and a bastard but no, he wasn’t kissing me.”

A part of him relaxed, but jealousy refused to release its hold. “What about Brendan?’

Anjuli’s voice was low, almost too soft to hear. “He did kiss me, but it was a sort of goodbye. I’ll always care about Brendan, but I don’t love him and I never did. We...” She paused and Rob stiffened. “We shared something, someone important. Once.”

Her voice contained a note he’d never heard before, a fragility that threatened to wrap around his heart and squeeze it tighter than it was already. “Why did you meet him?”

A long sigh. “He owes me money but wouldn’t pay, and when he kissed me it was brief. Closure.” Her tone was ironic.

“Why are you telling me this?”

Anjuli made an exasperated noise. “Because you asked and because I hate romance films where they spend the entire time fighting over a stupid misunderstanding they could’ve cleared up if you—if the hero had just answered his bloody phone.”

“So this is a romance?”

Anjuli groaned. “It’s more like a horror film. Gossip is rife and Mac, as you probably know, is out for blood.”

“Did you know about Craig and Ash?” Rob said, dreading the answer.

She cleared her throat. “Yes.”

“And you call yourself Mac’s friend.”

Rob was disgusted, no matter her protestations that she could do nothing. Mac didn’t deserve Anjuli’s betrayal. Hell, she’d forgiven Anjuli for leaving him long before he had and never said a word against her. And this was how that friendship was repaid? Ben’s angry rant against Anjuli’s duplicity rang in his mind and his gut roiled in anger.

“All this time you were helping Ash, keeping Mac busy while Craig went to the pub for a bite to eat away from home.”

“Of course I wasn’t,” Anjuli said sharply. “I felt awful, so guilty I couldn’t even look Mac in the face anymore. I’m her friend, but I could hardly tell her that my own sister was—”

“Screwing around with her husband.”

“It was a one-off. A mistake Ash made when she’d had too much to drink. She was lonely and Craig was there and—I don’t understand it.”