Their Virgin Mistress (Masters of Ménage #7)(46)

"Stay out. And don't contact me again." She slammed the door in their faces, and Oliver heard the distinct sound of the deadbolt sliding home.

He blinked, stunned that he was stuck in the hallway in the middle of the night without his shoes. He rather believed that if he knocked and asked for them, she might try to shove them up his arse. He was staring at the door when one of his brothers grabbed his arm and whirled him around.

"I'll kill you for this." Callum's eyes had gone so cold.

Rory stepped between them. "That won't fix the situation. You're both idiots. I'm going down to Cal's. He's already moved in three doors down. I'm going to get into his Scotch and figure a way out of this mess. If you two kill each other, all the better for me. I'll take the company and Tori for myself. I'm the only one of us who hasn't fucked her over. You're both pathetic. Talib was right. We don't deserve her."

He turned and walked away without looking back.

Oliver felt more vulnerable than ever. Even as he'd lain on the floor of Bezakistan's royal palace after Yasmin had done her best to kill him, he hadn't felt this wretched. Tonight, he'd ruined something good, something pure.

Callum jerked away, snarling in his face. "You hurt her."

"I didn't mean to." He really hadn't. He'd meant to … god, he didn't even know what he'd meant to do at this point. "I didn't like the fact that she seduced you while she has a fiancé."

"You haven't figured it out yet? She doesn't have a bloody fiancé. She made it up to keep men like us away. She's alone and you've made sure she'll stay that way. And don't you dare try to say that what you did to her tonight had anything to do with me. I hate you."



       
         
       
        

Oliver watched his brother walk away, slamming the door behind him.

As he followed his brother down the hall, he kind of hated himself, too.



* * * *



Callum thought seriously about murdering his brother. He knew how he would do it. He would wrap his fingers around Oliver's throat and squeeze until his head popped off. Then he would kick the thing around like a football.

As Rory loitered by the door, Callum shoved his key in the lock, bitterly aware of the fact that he was now three doors away from the woman of his dreams and she wouldn't speak to him. He thought about closing the door and locking them all out, but Rory shoved his way in.

"Are you all right?"

"No thanks to him." Callum pointed a thumb at Oliver.

His oldest brother shuffled inside, looking a bit stunned. "She really doesn't have a fiancé?"

Callum shut and locked the door. Thea had been waiting for him outside the hotel. She'd managed to sneak into the car park and had been lying in wait for him. All in all, it had been a fairly terrible night.

With the singular exception of watching Tori Glen come apart in his arms.

She'd been so beautiful, so unselfconscious. She hadn't been pretending. Her eyes had gone wide with wonder as he'd stroked her and sent her over the edge. She'd been a woman finding her sensuality.

"No, she doesn't. The investigator's report is on the bar if you don't believe me." He crossed to the utilitarian kitchen and grabbed the fifty-year he kept for special occasions or days when the world seemed coated in dung. It had been both today, so he poured three fingers. And then a second glass because Rory hadn't been a bastard. He slid it to his brother.

"I believe you." But Oliver was already opening the private investigator's report. "I could use a drink."

"Then go home and get one," Callum shot back stubbornly.

"No one is leaving until we figure out what to do," Rory said decisively. "We must fix this situation."

"What is there to do?" Oliver ran a hand through his hair. "She quit. She's leaving tomorrow."

"Well, we can choose not to accept her resignation, for starters." Rory took a sip and sighed. "I don't believe she truly wants to leave."

"She seemed fairly certain she did when she attempted to eviscerate Oliver with her umbrella." Callum wished she'd gotten in a good hit. "I'll be surprised if she shows up for work. I'm going to be at her doorstep first thing in the morning. I'll convince her to let me go with her. You'll have my resignation in the morning, too. And you won't talk me out of it." 

He knew one thing in the world: He wanted to be with her. And after talking to Thea tonight, perhaps leaving London for a while would be a good thing. She'd been off, and not simply zany, the way she'd been before. She'd actually convinced herself they were a couple. Claire had called the police, but not before Thea had made a terrible scene.