No Matter What (122 page)

“No, Layla.
 
No.
 
The past is where it should be, and it’s best left there, you’re right.
 
You’re right.”
 
He sighed, sitting forward, still holding onto her hand.
 
“It’s time to move forward.
 
Time to move on.
 
India
’s quite obviously found someone else and ...” He looked right at her, smiling.
 
“... and maybe I might have found someone else too.”

She smiled back, an extraordinary feeling of happiness flooding through her. For so long she’d wanted this man, for a number of different reasons she’d wanted him and now, when she wanted him for who he was and not what he could give her, or who she could hurt, he finally wanted her too.
 
“Are you sure about this, Michael?”

He nodded.
 
“I’m sure.”

And he was, for now.
 
She was right.
 
India
wasn’t coming back to him, at least, not yet.
 
But this fight was far from over.
 
He could move on, he could make himself do that, but what he couldn’t make himself do was stop loving his ex-wife. She was way too far under his skin for that to ever happen now.
 

He still had plans.
 
He wasn’t giving up.
 
Michael Walsh never gave up.
 
She’d come back to him, he knew she would.
 
One day.
 
But while he was waiting it wouldn’t hurt to have some fun.
 
It wouldn’t hurt at all.

***

The whole adrenalin rush this night was giving her was kicking in big time with
India
.
 
She was having a blast!
  
And it was all to do with her wonderful boyfriend.
 

“I don’t know about you but I could murder a drink,” JJ smiled as they walked back into the busy club.
 
“What do you fancy?”

India
giggled.
 
Miguel’s lethal cocktail and the champagne she’d had before that had already gone to her head and she felt like a sixteen year old kid who’d just bagged the best looking guy in school.

“I fancy
you,
Joseph Joshua Foster.”

He laughed, that deep, gorgeous laugh and she literally swooned as he kissed her.
 
God, she was beginning to love Vegas all over again.
 
You could just shove reality on the back burner and nobody seemed to care.

“I’d love a vodka,” she smiled up at him.

“Are you mixing your drinks?”
 
He raised an eyebrow.
 
He did that a lot and she loved it.
 
It made her stomach do tiny little flips and she giggled again.

“Big time, mister.”

He pulled her closer.
 
“Does that mean trouble?”

She pushed herself against him, playing with the collar of his shirt.
 
“It means, if you play your cards right, handsome, you’ll get more than you bargained for later.”

He smiled, wishing she was out of that dress and naked underneath him again. He couldn’t stop thinking about her like that, he couldn’t stop needing her.

“One vodka coming right up and then, later, hopefully so will I.”

She watched him walk to the bar, biting down on her bottom lip and smiling to herself, until she heard someone shouting her name.
 
She looked over towards the sofas near the bar where Bobby was standing waving his arms about, beckoning to her to come over.

She ran to him, as fast as she could in four inch heels, squealing almost as loudly as him, giving him a quick hug and kiss.

He was jumping up and down and clapping his hands like an excited child.
 
“Come on then, angel, tell all.
 
Is everything back on?”
 

“Well, it all came off in the elevator.
 
Apart from the boots,”
India
grinned and Bobby squealed again.

“You didn’t?”

She couldn’t stop smiling as she sat down.
 
“We did!”

Bobby sat next to her, fanning himself with a coaster.
 
“It’s like something out of a James Bond movie.”

India
looked at him and laughed.
 
“Hardly.”

“And … are we totally and utterly heart-stoppingly in love, princess?”

She smiled again.
 
“I think we most definitely are.
 
Oh, Bobby, he’s got me feeling like a kid again.
 
Right now I reckon Ethan’s got a higher mental age than me.”

“Nothing wrong with that, angel.”
 
He took her hand and squeezed it.
 
“You deserve this, you really do.
 
I love you to pieces, Ms Walsh and don’t you ever forget that.
 
So, you be happy, ok?
 
You be very, very happy ... oh, here comes handsome now.
 
I’ll leave you to it.
 
I’m meeting Miguel in a little while, so …you behave yourself, ok?”
 
He winked and ran off to wait for his extremely handsome Puerto Rican boyfriend.

JJ sat down beside her.
 
“Everything ok?”
 

She looked at him and smiled.
 
“Everything’s fine.”

He smiled back.
 
“Come here.”

She moved closer, his mouth lowering down onto hers as he pulled her legs up over his, his fingers stroking her thigh as the kiss got deeper and harder.

“You know you mentioned me getting more than I bargained for later?” he asked, his hand snaking farther up underneath her dress.
 
“Do you, want to elaborate?”

She rested her forehead against his, stroking his face gently.
 
“Oh, I don’t know.
 
How does sex that’s probably illegal in at least forty-three states sound?”

He groaned.
 
“I’m not banking on getting much sleep tonight, let’s put it that way.”

“Good,” she whispered, taking his hand, his fingers stroking her.
 
“Because I wasn’t planning on letting you get any.”

She closed her eyes as their mouths met again, moving gently together, the kiss slowly building in intensity as the rest of the world just disappeared around them.

“You’re killing me, India Walsh.
 
You’re fucking killing me.”

“I’m making it my mission in life,” she smiled, touching his mouth with her fingertips.

“Ok ... give me two minutes, baby and I’ll be right back.
 
I promise.”

“Where are you going?”

“Do you really think you can kiss me like that, promise me incredibly dirty sex and then think it won’t
do
anything to me?
 
So, I’ve just gotta go finish something otherwise I won’t get through the next ten minutes never mind the whole night.”

He kissed her quickly and she watched him run off in the direction of the toilets, pulling her dress back down as Bobby arrived next to her again.

She looked up.
 
“Is Miguel here already?”

“No.
 
No, he isn’t.
 
India
... did you know ...?”
 
His expression had turned quite serious and she couldn’t help a slight uneasy feeling kicking in somewhere in the pit of her stomach.
 
Bobby was never really serious, not unless there was a very good reason.

“What?
 
Bobby, what’s the matter?”

He looked over towards the bar and
India
followed his gaze.

“Michael ... he was there, not two seconds ago, he was there, by the bar.”

India
felt her stomach sink again as she looked at where Bobby had indicated.
 
“He was there?
 
When?”

“I told you.
 
Not two seconds ago.
 
He was standing there, with Layla Boyd and … he saw you, angel.
 
I’m sure he did.
 
He was watching you with JJ.
 
He saw you.”

India
couldn’t say anything.
 
The thought of her ex-husband being in such close proximity to her after all these years, well, she wasn’t sure how that made her feel.
 
She just wasn’t sure at all.

CHAPTER 59

Lily Elizabeth Maine was born on a sunny Vegas Sunday afternoon weighing in at 7lbs 3oz and
India
had never seen Charley and Vince look so happy.
  

She’d been there with Charley during the surprisingly quick birth because Charley had wanted her there.
 
India
had been through it all before with Ethan after all.
 
Vince had also been there, of course, and he’d been a whole lot more on edge than Michael had been during Ethan’s birth, if that had been possible, refusing to move from holding Charley’s hand to venture down to what he’d described as the “business end” of things, which India had found quite amusing.
 
But the look on his face when he saw his daughter for the first time was something that would stay with
India
forever.
 
Lily was going to be a daddy’s girl.
 
No doubt about that.

But even though seeing her Goddaughter enter the world had been a privilege, it had also been a somewhat emotional experience for India because it brought back all those memories of Ethan’s birth, a bittersweet memory now she and Michael weren’t together anymore.
 
She’d be seeing Ethan soon, though - her very own baby, although Ethan probably wouldn’t like to be called a baby anymore, not now he was at the very important age of four years old.
 
To
India
, though, he’d always be her baby, even when he was thirty, and he was just going to have to get used to that.
 
Reece was bringing him to Vegas especially to see Lily, because once he’d heard she was on the way he’d been way too excited to sleep so
India
had said he could come and see her.
 
And his daddy.
 
Ethan knew Michael was here in Vegas too so what could she do?
 
 
She couldn’t exactly say no.

Back in their suite, JJ was sitting in the living room flicking through a script for the new season of ‘Covert One’.
 
India
was going to reprise her role for a few more episodes and she was really excited about that.
 
It had been one of the best and most enjoyable jobs she’d ever had and when they’d asked if they could write her character back in for season two she hadn’t had to be asked twice.
 
And it meant working with JJ again, which was also a bonus, especially at a time when she didn’t much feel like being apart from him.

He looked up as she walked in, flinging herself down on the sofa opposite him.
 
She hadn’t realised how tired she really was, so God knows how poor Charley was feeling.

“Hey, baby.
 
Everything ok?
 
How’s Charley?”

“She’s absolutely fine, but she must be shattered.
 
I’ve left them to it.
 
Casey’s just arrived to see Lily, and Vince told me Michael was on his way to see her too.”

JJ looked at her.
 
“You ok about that?”

She shrugged.
 
“He’s Vince’s best friend.
 
I can’t stop him from visiting them, can I?
 
And anyway, Ethan’ll be here soon, he’ll want to see his daddy.”

“And what about you?”

She looked at him.
 
“What’s that supposed to mean?”

JJ looked back down at his script.
 

“Joe?”

He looked up.
 
“It meant nothing, ok?
 
I’m sorry.”
 
His eyes went back down to his script.
 
“Was the birth ok?”

India
chose to ignore what had just happened.
 
She didn’t have the energy for a fight.

“Well, it wasn’t pain free but unless you’re knocked out they usually never are.
 
It was quite quick, though, considering.
 
Quicker than mine, anyway, and Lily is beautiful, Joe.
 
She’s just gorgeous ... she’s so tiny ... I loved holding her; it brought back all those memories of when Ethan was that small.
 
She was so warm and perfect.”