All Or Nothing (The Alpha Brotherhood #2)(17)
Author: Catherine Mann

“Not really.”

“Fair enough.”

And still he couldn’t stop from talking. “She just…gets to me.”

He remembered the way she’d called him on the carpet for teasing her on the ride home tonight, giving him hell for talking about that evening they saw La Bohème together. As if he knew that would turn her inside out the same way it did him. Damn, he’d missed that spark she possessed.

“That’s what women do. They burrow under your skin.” Donavan grinned. “Didn’t you get the memo?”

Conrad didn’t feel one damn bit like smiling. He stared down at his clenched fist, at his own bare ring finger. “She’s seeing someone else.”

“Damn,” Donavan growled. “That’s got to really bite. But it’s been three years since the two of you split. Did you really expect you would both stay celibate?”

Conrad looked out over the harbor, the sea stretching as far and dark as each day he’d spent apart from Jayne.

Troy straightened quickly. “Whoa, wait. Are you telling me you haven’t seen anyone else while you’ve been separated?”

Still, Conrad held his silence.

“But the tabloids…”

“They lie.” Conrad smiled wryly at his friend. “Didn’t you get the memo?”

Donavan stared back, not even bothering to disguise his total shock. “You haven’t been with anybody in three years?”

“I’m married.” He thumbed his empty ring finger. “A married man does not cheat. It’s dishonorable.”

Donavan scrubbed both hands over his face then shook his head as if to clear the shock away. “So let me get this straight… You haven’t seen your wife since she left you. Which means you haven’t had sex with anyone in three years?”

“You’re a damn genius.”

Donavan whistled softly. “You must be having some serious quality ‘alone time’ in the shower.”

Understatement of the year. Or rather, that would be three years. “Your sympathy for my pain is overwhelming.”

“Doesn’t sound like you need sympathy. Sounds like you need to get—”

“Thanks,” he interrupted, not even wanting to risk Donavan’s words putting images in his head. “I can handle my own life.”

“Because you’re doing such a bang-up job at it lately. But wait.” He thumped himself on the forehead. “Poor choice of words.”

Against his will, a smile tugged at Conrad’s face. “Really, Donovan. Don’t you have some geeky computer tech support work that needs your attention before we all leave?”

“You can call me a geek all night long, brother, but I’ll be sleeping next to a woman.” Donavan punched him in the arm.

Conrad lifted an eyebrow, but preferred the joking to sympathy any day of the week. Something his best friend undoubtedly understood. “Hit me again, and I’m going to beat the crap out of you.”

Donavan snagged his fedora from the lounger. “Everybody wants to beat the crap out of me today. What’s up with that?”

“Get out of here before I break you in half.”

“Because I feel very sorry for you, I’m just going to walk away.” He spun his hat on one finger. “But I’m taking a bottle of your Chivas with me so you won’t feel bad for scaring me off.”

“Jackass.”

“I feel the love, brother. I feel the love.” He opened the French doors and paused, half in, half out. “See you inside later?”

“Absolutely.” He nodded once. “And thank you.”

Donavan nodded back. No more words were needed.

His friend had helped him decompress enough to see clearly again. He needed to keep his eye on the goal now, to keep Jayne safe at all cost.

He might not be the man she deserved, but he was damn well the man she needed.

* * *

Jayne rolled her small bag out into the living room, having used the past couple of hours to change out of her evening gown and generally get her head together. If that was even possible after her world had been so deeply shaken in such a short time.

The sun hadn’t even risen yet.

If they hadn’t been interrupted, she would have been in Conrad’s bed now, completely unsuspecting of this.

She realized his secret had noble roots, a profession that brought justice, so different than her father’s secret life, his hidden second family with a mistress and two children. But the fact that she’d been duped so totally still hurt on a deep level. Trusting her heart and her life to Conrad had been very difficult.

How could she reconcile the fact that she hadn’t even begun to know the man she’d married? Walking away with any kind of peace when she’d thought she understood him was tough enough. But now with so much mystery surrounding Conrad and their life together, she felt like every bit of progress she’d made since leaving had been upended.

And with this possible threat lurking, she didn’t even have the luxury of distance to regain her footing.

The Donavans sat in the leather chairs, talking over glasses of seltzer water. She felt uncomfortable having Troy and Hillary pose as decoys for them. The thought of anybody in harm’s way because of her made her ill. But she hadn’t been given any say on the matter.

She also couldn’t help but note how seamlessly Hillary had been brought into the plan. Apparently not all Interpol operatives kept secrets from their spouses.

The stab of envy for that kind of compatibility wasn’t something she was proud of. But, damn it, why couldn’t she have found her way to that sort of comfort with her husband? What was wrong with her that Conrad had never even considered confiding in her?

Just as she rolled her bag the rest of the way in, Conrad stepped out of his suite. His normal dark and brooding style of clothes had been swapped out for something more in keeping with Troy’s metro style. She couldn’t take her eyes from the relaxed look of her husband in jeans and a jacket, collar open, face unshaved, his thick black hair spiked.

Troy looked back over the chair, water glass in hand. “Good timing. Salvatore should be done any minute now. He’s arranging the travel plans, complete with diversionary stories going out to the press.” He glanced over at his wife. “Did I forget anything?”

“Just this.” Carrying one of her husband’s hats, Hillary walked to Conrad. “You should wear this. And maybe slick back your hair a bit. Here…” She reached for her water glass. “Use some of this since you didn’t have time to shower.”