“It’s not that simple, darling.”
Allie whirled around. “Nothing worth having is ever easy. God, don’t you get that?” She swept out of the room and ran back to Trevor’s room, craving his arms around her. He may not love her, but she loved him. And she wasn’t going to give up on him. She knew he cared about her. Maybe that could be enough.
She entered his room and shucked her clothes, leaving them on the floor. As she pulled back the covers, Trevor stirred. “You all right?” he asked, his voice faint and sleepy.
Allie lay on her side facing him, one hand resting on his hip. She rained light kisses down his chest, her tongue swirling around his nipple. Trevor groaned and dragged her on top of him.
Allie straddled him and braced her hands on his wide shoulders as she leaned down to kiss him. She groaned when her lips met his. Trevor reached between them and held back the curtain of her hair. Her nipples hardened as they brushed his smooth chest and her lips clung to his.
Pulling back, she fitted herself over his shaft and slowly lowered her body, taking him in as deeply as she could. He helped her by pistoning her hips up and down his cock. “Trevor,” she gasped. She reached down and rubbed her clit, and as she came she threw her head back and lost herself in the sensations.
Trevor increased the pace. Allie’s breasts jiggled as he slammed up into her. “Yes, Allison. Oh God.” He clenched his eyes shut as he came, then his grasp on her hips slacked off.
Allie collapsed on his chest, breathing hard. Her hair fell over him, and he smoothed it with one hand.
“Why did you get out of bed?” He petted her hair, slowly brushing the strands back from her face.
“Couldn’t sleep and I went to the kitchen for milk.” She turned her face and planted a kiss on his chest. “Trevor.” She raised her head. He looked so peaceful, so content in the afterglow, she didn’t want to tell him about his parents.
“Yes, love?”
She smiled. “Nothing.” He’d find out soon enough tomorrow. Allie rolled off his chest and laid her head in the crook of his arm.
He kissed her temple. “Think you’ll be able to sleep now?”
“Um hmm.” She closed her eyes and drifted off.
***
The next morning she found Trevor in his office. She bypassed breakfast when she saw he wasn’t at the table. She stuck her head in the door, watched him for a moment tapping away on his computer.
“Hey, sorry to interrupt.”
He glanced up but continued fiddling with his keyboard. “What is it, Allison? I’m busy this morning.”
If he thought that would put her off, he was fooling himself. She’d dealt with two teenage girls who had the leave-me-the-hell-alone-or-I’ll-cut-you vibe down pat. She walked into the room. “I take it you’ve heard about Mags and Nigel?”
His fingers stilled. “I knew all about Mags and Nigel before they ever got here. I told you it wouldn’t last. Hope you’re not too disappointed.”
She approached his side of the desk, leaning against it, and placed a hand on his arm. “I’m so sorry, Trevor.”
“Huh.” He shook her off. “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m not a child, and I haven’t had any illusions about those two since I was a very young boy. I don’t need your sympathy.”
Allie clasped her hands and took a deep breath. “I understand your skepticism and pain.”
He threw his head back and laughed then—not a laugh filled with humor, but a hard laugh tinged with bitterness and anger. “Do you? Well, that’s such a relief. Am I meant to share all my angst over those two bloody morons?” He pushed back from the chair and stood. He moved over and wedged himself between her legs. “I never thought for an instant those two would remarry, and I believe I told you so on numerous occasions.” His voice was calm and pleasant, and he wore that blank mask she’d grown to hate.
She placed her hands on his chest. “Trevor, marriage, love, it doesn’t have to be like that. My parents—”
“Your parents were an anomaly and probably only stayed together because of you and your sisters. That and your dire economic straits. Don’t kid yourself that they had some kind of fairy tale, Allie. Fairy tales don’t exist, and you women think if you shag someone, it means you love him. You can’t bear the thought that you simply like fucking, so you make it romantic and put a name on it. It’s all bollocks.” He leaned down, placed a hand on the back of her head, and gave her a savage kiss. “That’s real. What we have when I’m inside you, that’s real. Don’t wrap it in a bow and think it’s anything more.”
She pushed his chest to try and force him away. He didn’t budge, but he let go of her head. “Don’t talk about my parents that way, Trevor. My mother lay there, dying, and my father was so broken up about it—”
“That he got himself a girlfriend six months later. Oh yes, darling, he was very committed.”
Allie wanted to lash out at him, hit him, hurt him like he’d just hurt her. “Believe what you want. But love does exist, Trevor, because I love you. Yeah, I know you don’t want to hear it and I know you won’t believe it, but there it is. I’m in love with you. And it’s not just fucking wrapped in a bow, it’s consuming and scary and wonderful.”
He dismissed her with a look, his lips pressed together in a straight line. “I told you, I don’t need your sympathy, so take your declarations of love and get out. I’ve got work to do.” He stepped away from her and sat down in his chair, shutting her out.
She should have expected his reaction, especially given his mood. Nevertheless, she felt bruised, wounded. Dazed, she moved from the desk and, with heavy feet, walked out of the room.
She stood at the end of the hallway, her fingers rubbing her still-tender lips, unsure what to do next. Should she pack up and leave? Everything in her wanted to stay, despite Trevor’s harsh treatment of her just now. She knew he was hurting—probably even more than she was—knew it in her gut. Everyone in his life had left him. Was she going to do the same? That’s why he pushed people away, so they would leave on his terms and not blindside him, like his parents had done time and time again.
She left the office and went to Mags’s room, where she found her fluttering like a moth around a light, darting between the closet and the bed with armfuls of clothes. “Oh, Allie dear, I’ve shopped so much, I think I need a new suitcase.”
Allie turned to Frances. The normally cheerful, talkative maid was quiet and her forehead wrinkled into a V shape. “Good morning.”
“Frances, do you think I could have a word with Mags?”
“Yes, of course.” She laid a dress on the bed and squeezed Allie’s shoulder as she walked by.
Allie waited until the other woman left then she watched Mags, who was still in perpetual motion. “Mags, where’s Nigel?”
Mags held up two dresses, one blue, one green. “Gone, dear. Which do you think I should wear on the plane?”
“Neither.”
“Well, I can’t very well go naked, now can I? Although, with those perverts at security, I might as well be.”
“Where did he go?”
She dropped both dresses on the bed and flitted to the dresser. “I need to send my jewels back by courier. I don’t like to travel with them. Go call Frances, dear.”
“No.”
Mags did glance up at her then. “Sorry?”
Allie shoved all the dresses to one side and sat down on the blue silk bedcover, curling one leg under her. “So that’s it? You’re just going to leave him again?”
“Well…” Mags swallowed, her eyes shifting to the floor. “Nigel and I are over, Allie. I’m sure Trevor wants me out of his hair.”
“So all that talk about staying in Vegas to make amends, all that was just bullshit?”
Mags tilted her head and gave Allie a disapproving glance.
“You’re leaving him again.”
With a sigh, Mags gathered up the dresses and moved them to a chair. Half of them slid to the floor, but she didn’t bend to pick them up. She sank down on the bed next to Allie. “He doesn’t want me here, darling. He told me so this morning.”