Page 86 of The Making of Jonty Bloom
“We have another brother,” Devan said. “Why can’t he ask Cato?”
“Because Cato… Griff wants you.”
“Cato what?”
“Griff wants you,” Ravi repeated.
Cato said no?
“Please, Devan.”
“Could this be because if I stand at Griff’s side, he thinks I’ll have forgiven him? That there are no bad feelings between us? That everyone watching won’t be thinking—isn’t it odd that Griff is marrying the guy that Devan was supposed to marry? But if Devan’s here at his brother’s side, then they must be okay about it. Is that it?”
“He doesn’t like conflict.”
Who fucking does? Take a deep breath. Count to ten.
He made it to five. “You’re welcome to each other. I really don’t care. But I am not standing at his side at your wedding. It’s asking too much. I won’t change my mind. You’ve had a wasted trip.”
“I love him,” Ravi whispered. “I loved you, but along the way, I fell in love with Griff too. He needed me more than you ever did. You were wrong for me. I see that now. All my life I’ve had people controlling me, telling me what to wear, what to say, what to do, and it made life easy, but not the life I wanted. I got paid a lot of money for pretending to be something I’m not. I want to be needed, Devan. Really needed—and you didn’t need anyone.”
That wasn’t true. Devanhadneeded him. If Ravi thought Griff needed him, he was mistaken. Griff was fiercely independent. How long before his brother tired of Ravi? And Devan suddenly felt sorry for both of them. They were marrying too quickly.
“Neither of us set out to hurt you,” Ravi whispered.
Was that true? Maybe Ravi had known Devan would come to the bedroom. Known what Devan would find. If not them actually fucking, then the pair in bed together. Was that easier than Ravi telling him to his face he wouldn’t marry him? He was still finding it hard to believe that Ravi would come all this way for this discussion. Even if he’d been working in Newcastle, Ravi thought the North was full of Wildlings, White Walkers and flat-capped sheep shaggers.
“I wanted to see you,” Ravi whispered.
“You have. Now you can drive away.”
“I got an Uber from Newcastle.”
Devan pushed to his feet. “Well, get an Uber back.”
“I thought I could stay here.”
“Think again.”
“I miss you.”
Devan gaped at him. “What the fuck?”
Ravi stood. “I do.” He put his hand on Devan’s arm. “You were always good to me.”
Devan lifted Ravi’s hand off by pinching the sleeve of his sweater. “You’re unbelievable.” After all Ravi had just told him?
“He’d never know. I wouldn’t say anything.”
So much for banishing his anger. It came roaring back. But Devan was aware that others had come into the lounge and he didn’t want to make a scene. He stepped right into Ravi’s space and kept his voice low. “If you can’t keep your dick in your pants, leave my brother alone. You’ve done enough damage to our family.”
“Let me sleep in your room tonight. I don’t have anywhere to stay. Everyone else has gone back to London.”
“That’s not going to happen.”
Devan walked away. On his way back to his car, he checked his phone, but there’d been no response from Jonty.
He called Cato who was currently studying for a PhD in astrophysics at Cambridge University.
