Page 29 of Fergus

After that, he had reacted defensively to what he felt was her rejection of both him and their lovemaking.

Hours later, he could see how his behavior made him look like a ten-year-old who, having sent a note to the girl in class that he fancied, had to watch as she threw that note into the bin before walking away.

He had not only behaved ridiculously, but badly. Brought about primarily, no doubt, by the fact that Fergus had never spent the whole night with any of the women he’d had sex with. Hell, he had never invited a woman into his house in Paris, let alone to his bedroom and his bed.

Magnus would laugh his head off if he knew how childishly Fergus had responded to the situation. Especially when a more obvious explanation for Thea’s earlier coolness was that she had felt just as disconcerted as he had by having a third person present when they greeted each other again for the first time after their intimacy and spending the night together in the same bed.

The truth was, it had taken every effort on Fergus’s part not to take Thea in his arms and kiss the hell out of her the moment she walked into the kitchen. To devour and claim those lips that he had kissed so deeply the night before.

He had woken in the night, his cock once again hard and throbbing with need as it nestled between Thea’s arse cheeks. His arm was draped possessively about her slender waist, anchoring her against him.

But he had forced himself not to wake her.

The last couple of weeks—hell, months, possibly even years, from what Thea had told him—had been stressful ones for her. More recently because she had been hit on the head the previous day and knocked unconscious.

His own needs be damned, Thea had been sleeping far too peacefully for him to want to wake her for his own selfish reasons. He was an adult, not some kid who allowed the needs of his body to dictate his actions.

He hadn’t been able to fall back to sleep, though. Instead, he’d remained awake in the darkness, holding Thea and making all sorts of decisions and plans for the two of them he had no right making without her input. But the main decision he had made had been that he intended to remain in Thea’s life for as long as she would allow him to do so.

The coldness of her expression now told him that she had already reached that point!

“We’ll talk once we’re inside your apartment,” he said again as Declan parked the SUV outside the building where Thea obviously lived.

“I’m not inviting you up to my home,” she told him.

“Thea—”

“My answer is no, Fergus,” she reiterated. “Take off the child lock, Declan,” she instructed evenly after trying to open the door and failing. “Don’t look at Fergus for permission, just do it,” she grated from between gritted teeth after the other man had done exactly that.

“Do as she says,” Fergus instructed Declan, immediately followed by the sound of the child lock being released. “Fuck it!” he muttered as Thea thrust open the door beside her and stepped out onto the pavement, taking her small piece of luggage with her.

Declan, on the same side of the vehicle as Thea, quickly followed her. Fergus and the other bodyguard stepped out onto the road.

“Shooter!” Declan shouted.

Fergus turned in time to see Declan wrap his arms around Thea, followed by the sound of two shots being fired and the two of them falling to the pavement.

For the briefest of seconds, the rest of Fergus’s life, without Thea in it, flashed in front of him.

Empty.

Barren of light.

And love…

CHAPTERTEN

“Both bullets missedthe spine and vital organs, and we managed to remove them without causing any further damage,” the obviously tired surgeon informed them the moment she entered the waiting room.

The slightly bloodstained blue gown she wore and the mask tied about her neck said she had come straight from the theater to give them the good news.

“He’s already regained consciousness and is in the ICU,” the doctor continued. “But he’s insisting that he must speak to Mr. Wynter right now. I am allowing you two minutes,” she warned Fergus. “After that, I’m asking that you all leave and come back in the morning.”

Thea remained numb inside as she watched Fergus depart with the surgeon.

Because Declan had beenshot.

Twice.

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