Perfect Partners(41)
Author: Carly Phillips

“How does it feel to be cornered?” Griff asked.

The other man remained silent.

“You’re not so brave against someone your own size.” Griff raised his fist. “One good blow could do a lot of damage. Then again, jail could do a lot more.”

The man turned white beneath an obviously fake tan.

“Griff, don’t.” Chelsie’s low voice penetrated the throbbing anger that heated his body.

“Press charges, Chelsie.”

Her gaze swung back and forth between the two men, but she remained silent. Griff knew she might be in shock. Dealing with the police could come later. She no longer had to face Jeffrey Sutton alone.

He turned to the man Chelsie had once called her husband. “You’re a lawyer, so understand this. From now on, you’d better act like a restraining order has already been issued. Stay the hell away from Chelsie and Amanda.”

Chelsie emitted a startled cry. Griff turned towards her, unwittingly loosening his hold on the man he’d had pinned to the wall. Jeff darted around Griff and out the door without looking back.

Chelsie ran straight into his arms. Half an hour passed in which Griff did nothing but hold on tight. When the adrenaline pumping through his veins subsided, concern for Chelsie filled the void. The questions came next.

“I take back every rotten thing I ever thought about those animals,” he said.

“They did come in useful.” She leaned her head against his shoulder before pulling away and wrapping her arms around her legs. Her chin rested on her knees and she gazed at him from beneath thick lashes. She appeared pale, but composed. If he’d arrived any later, if her ex-husband had seriously hurt her…

“He didn’t hurt me. Not really,” she said, rubbing her scalp. Her insight into his private thoughts didn’t surprise him. “But…”

“What?”

“This is going to sound ridiculous.” She averted her gaze.

“Let me be the judge of that. What’s on your mind?”

“He touched me.” Her hand went to her cheek. “As if he still had the right.”

Griff drew a steadying breath. “He didn’t…” Griff couldn’t finish the thought.

She shook her head. “But this place has always been untouched by him. And being here, I could pretend it never happened, but now I feel so violated.”

“It’s not ridiculous.” Grasping her hand, he squeezed once for reassurance before pulling her to her feet. “And I have the perfect solution.”

Menial tasks like pouring bath water and finding towels helped him keep his mind off everything he’d overheard. Everything he’d like to forget.

Settled in a warm bubble bath, Chelsie looked up at Griff and smiled. The serene expression did more than anything else to assure him that her ex-husband’s damage had been minimal.

“I stood up to him, didn’t I?” she asked.

“Yeah. You did.” Not enough, since he’d like to see the bastard behind bars, but she’d made a start. He’d never been so proud and so damned frightened in his entire life. This woman made him feel things that were foreign to him. Feelings that went beyond sexual and bordered on love. But borders changed on a whim. His feelings for Chelsie were cemented on a more solid foundation. Not that he discounted the sexual attraction. He couldn’t. The only reason he was able to sit on the edge of the tub and maintain a coherent conversation was because bubbles surrounded her otherwise naked body.

She lifted a handful of soap and blew in his direction. She’d caught him drifting. “This whole experience has me rattled, too,” he said.

“How did you make the connection between me and Amanda?” She lowered her lashes in embarrassment.

“I overheard.” This time, I have a son. You had one last time, too. Forgetting wasn’t an option for either of them.

“I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you about Jeff and how Amanda looked me up on purpose, but the words wouldn’t come.”

They had now because circumstances had forced her to speak. If she’d had her way, she’d probably have maintained her silence, leaving him in the dark.

She shrugged. “Now you know. But there’s more.”

Griff remained silent, sensing any word from him might cause her to clam up once again. He needed the truth. All of it.

“No matter what you think of me after this, there’s something you have to know.”

He gazed at her face. The flush that covered her cheeks might have been from the heat of the bath, but he sensed something more. “What?”

“I love you,” she whispered. “I wasn’t lying this morning. I love you both, you and Alix. I think I have almost from the very beginning.” She smiled. “Despite the tragedy that brought you two together, you’re a lucky man. Family is a precious gift. And you’ve both given me so much.”

No more than she had given them, which made this all the more difficult. “Chelsie, I…” A soft but soapy finger over his lips cut him off.

“Don’t. Just listen.”

He nodded and she withdrew her hand. His tongue swiped over his lips, leaving the bitter taste of soap in its wake. He grimaced and wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve.

She chuckled aloud, but there was no light dancing in her eyes. He missed her gentle touch, and the chill that seeped around him despite the heat in the bathroom frightened him more than he cared to admit.

“You already know I can’t handle. Amanda’s case because she’s married to my ex-husband. For me to take the case would be a definite conflict of interest and would jeopardize her right to fair representation.”

The matter-of-fact way she laid out the facts, the way she tried to appear composed and unaffected, was destroyed by the sheen of tears in her dark eyes. Griff thought of the bruises on Amanda’s arms and Jeff Sutton’s hard grip on Chelsie today. His gaze dropped to her white skin and he clenched his jaw.

“I’ll handle it.” With pleasure, he thought.

“Fairly?”

“Give me some credit. I might like to kill the bastard, but in a court of law, I’ll be fair.”

She nodded. “Good. I hope you’ll apply that same concept to what I have to say next, because this story isn’t your usual marriage, divorce, unhappily ever after.”

He glanced towards the tub and realized she’d begun to shiver, though she was too engrossed in thought to even notice. Reaching for the yellow robe on the back of the door, he held it out. “Should I give you a few minutes?”