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Pitch Imperfect(89)

By:Elise Alden


Rob’s footsteps stopped and Anjuli’s hands froze. Shit and double, triple shit. This was not happening! Rob was not standing at the doorway, watching her wrestle with her buttons while Damien pulled his shirt over his head.

“Nothing happened,” Anjuli cried.

* * *

Nothing happened? Rob narrowed his eyes. What the fuck was going on? Damien looked chagrined and Anjuli flushed, hands shaking as she did up her buttons. The vet stuffed his shirt into his jeans and sent him a steady look that made him want to smash his fists into his skull. Had Anjuli stroked his dick? Maybe she’d taken him into her mouth until he was so crazy he’d returned the favour. Guilt was written all over Anjuli’s face, and for a moment Rob couldn’t breathe.

While he’d been driving over, thinking only of her worry and fear, she was happily getting undressed for the man Mac called a male strumpet. White-hot rage threatened to wipe out his control. At that moment, had Damien as much as glanced his way, he wouldn’t have been able to answer for his actions. Never before had he felt such murderous fury, such willingness to beat a man to a bloody pulp. But that was Ben’s modus operandi, not his.

God damn it, what the fuck was wrong with him? The utter savagery of his thoughts not only stunned him, but increased his fury.

“We didn’t have sex,” Damien said bluntly.

Anjuli gave the vet an imploring look that set Rob’s teeth on edge. “Please leave, Damien,” she said

“Are you sure?” he asked, flicking his eyes to Rob’s clenched fists.

“I won’t touch her if that’s what you’re worried about,” Rob said tightly.

As soon as Damien was gone, Anjuli reached out her hand. Rob recoiled, and she flinched but didn’t try to touch him. “He gave me a massage and kissed me, but that’s all that happened,” she said.

“All that happened?” he repeated hoarsely. “I don’t know what kind of circles you’re used to these days, but I’m a Border man, set in my ways, and they don’t include allowing my woman to receive half-naked massages and kiss other men.

“Your woman?” she said, eyes flashing.

“Aye.”

“More like Border caveman.”

He certainly felt like one, fists clenched and wishing he’d smashed them into Damien’s face. But more than that he wanted to throw Anjuli down on the sofa, thrust straight into her and wipe out Damien’s touch. “Do you want him?”

“No!”

Could he believe her? Rob raked his gaze over her dress, noting the top button was still undone. His heart felt like a piece of lead. She had taken her clothes off for Damien, allowed him to rub his hands over her body, kiss her, even after what they had shared last night. The intimacy this morning. Did she care for him so little?

“I panicked after you told me about the cancer,” she said earnestly. “I was confused. Scared. All I could think of was how I wouldn’t be able to cope with losing you like I did Chloe. Then Damien came over and saw that I was tense. He offered a massage, and promised not to try anything funny.”

Of all the reactions she could have had to his revelation, accepting a massage from the village playboy was not what he’d imagined. Tears, yes; half-naked intimacy with Damien, no.

“Were you going to use him to push me away?”

She looked at the floor. “I thought about it.” Her head came up and her eyes were direct and clear. “But I’m not that woman anymore. I would have talked to you tonight, made you understand I can’t have a future with you. Not now, not ever.”

“And if I disagreed?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I would have—”

Rob’s voice was deceptively quiet. “You would have screamed Damien’s name when I fucked you.”

He hated the angry, crude words that had left his mouth and the hurt expression on her face. Mac and Ben were right; Anjuli wasn’t good for him. He became either a hormonal teenager or a violent primitive whenever he was around her.

He had to calm down, but all he could see in his mind was the image of Damien’s mouth on hers, his hands reaching around to cup her breasts.

Bloody fucking hell!

Why was he still thinking of Anjuli with Damien when the real issue ran leagues deeper that any kiss or caress they may have shared? It transcended the sexual and lay at the foundation of any future they might have together. It was what would allow him to forget what he’d seen, take her into his arms and make love to her.

Or walk away forever like she’d told him countless times was what she wanted.

“Do you love me?”

A simple question requiring a simple answer.