Page 15 of Fergus

Fergus could too easily imaginehow that much-loved duvet cover had become “lost.” Jessica really had been a complete bitch, even to her own daughter.

“I managed to hold on to the pillowcase.” Thea’s arms tightened possessively about the pillow as the tears began to fall unchecked down her cheeks, a defiant challenge in her eyes as if she were daring Fergus to doubt her again.

And that, right there, was proof enough to Fergus that everything Thea had told him, about the break-in at her apartment and theft of the pillow, having a stalker, and Lev Yegorov’s unwanted marriage proposal, was true.

Fergus was immediately suffused with feelings of self-disgust for having ever doubted her. Theawasn’ta liar and a manipulator like her mother had been. Thinking she was stopped right here and now.

Quite how this acceptance, and the fact that she needed his help, was going to equate with the increasing attraction he now admitted to feeling toward her—and the lustful thoughts of that tantalizing arse that now tormented him!—was his problem to deal with, not hers.

“But maybe I’m just sticking to that story because you caught me out by coming here and seeing the pillow for yourself?” The defiance was still there on Thea’s face and in those challenging golden eyes.

Fergus felt that accusation like a blow to his chest. “Did you hit yourself on the side of the head too? Not an easy thing to do, by the way,” he assured. “And then arrange for me to arrive at your hotel suite so that I could be a witness to it all, when you had no reason to think you would ever see me again after you snuck away in the middle of our conversation?” He quirked a challenging brow of his own.

“I didn’t sneak… You were talking to—to your girlfriend.” Her gaze avoided meeting his. “I didn’t want to intrude, and I believed our conversation to be over.”

“My girlfriend?” Fergus repeated softly.

“My Angel!” she scorned.

Fergus frowned at her accusing tone. Why on earth?—

No, it wasn’t an accusation exactly. It sounded more like… Could it be jealousy?

Did that mean Thea was as attracted to him as Fergus now acknowledged he was to her?

Amutualattraction was a complication Fergus hadn’t anticipated.

Not that it made any difference to what happened next. He had made the decision to help Thea, and that was exactly what he was going to do.

Should he tell Thea who Angel really was, or should he leave her with the misconception he was already involved with someone?

No, that wasn’t the question he should be asking.

The real question was whether or not he was going to be able to keep his hands off Thea in the days, possibly weeks, to come.

The first time he failed to do so, she was going to think he was a two-timing bastard who was cheating on his girlfriend.

One look at Thea’s silky reddish-brown hair, her pale but beautiful face, and slender but perfectly curved body, and Fergus doubted he was going to be able to resist her for much longer.

Especially if, as he now intended to do, he spent more time with her when they traveled back to England together.

CHAPTERFIVE

“Angel is my niece,not my girlfriend.”

It took Thea several seconds to absorb Fergus’s words. “Your niece…?” she finally prompted guardedly.

He nodded. “Step-niece, actually, but the minute my brother Magnus fell in love with Sapphie, who is Angel’s mother, they both became members of our family.”

“Magnus is your twin, right?”

Fergus nodded. “But we’re not identical.”

Thea doubted the female population could cope with two Ferguses!

Except she had seen photographs of Magnus when she was looking into what Fergus was doing now and where he lived, and she knew that his twin was just as lethally attractive as he was, but in a more rugged sort of way. Magnus was just as tall and intimidating as his twin, but he also had a thick, dark beard and was so muscular, he looked as if he could bench-press a truck. Fergus had a muscular chest and arms too, just not so defined they looked as if his arms might burst out of his tailored jacket.

“Angel is only four years old,” Fergus continued. “And she has a love for spiders, hence the ringtone when she calls me.”

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