The Honeymoon Period (The Austin Series) (36 page)

‘Who?’

‘Milo, who
the fuck do you think? How many times have you seen him without me knowing?’ he
spat as he finally looked at me, his eyes dark and not in a sexy way.

‘What? This
is ridiculous. You think I’d sneak off to spend time with him without you
knowing?’

‘So you’re
denying that you had lunch with him yesterday?’ he snarled. I recognised the
accusation in his tone and didn’t like it. Besides how the hell did he know
that? He wasn’t even there.

‘You’re
bang out of order now, Gabe. We were in the Uni cafeteria with Lexi, it’s not
like we made a date.’

‘I don’t
want you anywhere near him, Mia,’ he growled.

‘So what?
You want me to get your permission first to speak to him if I see him
approaching? Or schedule corridor access rights and times so we don’t “accidently
bump into each other” and piss you off?’

‘You can
reign in the fucking sarcasm, Mia. I don’t want you having any more prearranged
meetings with him.’

‘You’re
saying I can’t even go to Pilates or the gym with him like I do every Thursday?’
I asked, astonished.

‘I wonder
why he’s so enthusiastic to do that with you? O wait, it’s because you’re
wearing tiny lycra shorts and a top that shows off your tits.’

‘For God’s
sake Gabe, loads of women wear stuff like that to the gym.’

‘I don’t
care about loads of women Mia, I don’t want
you
meeting him at the gym
anymore, or anywhere, if you even are in the bloody gym when you meet him every
week,’ he scowled and I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth as I took a deep
calming breath. I’d been determined to tread easy with him until he started his
therapy and had a diagnosis, but he was crossing a serious line,
again
.
A line I was prepared to defend to the end, so I looked back at him and let him
see how pissed off and serious I was.

‘And I
don’t want to keep having this argument with you Gabe, so you can reign in this
jealous accusatory bullshit. I made it clear from the start that I wouldn’t be
dictated to on who I could or couldn’t be friends with, male
or
female,
so you need to back the hell off. I
won’t
be accused of cheating or have
you telling me who I can or can’t see because your trust issues are
your
problem.’
I swung my door open, got out slamming it shut and flashed him a glare as I
walked in front of the car. I stalked around to the front door without bothering
to check if he was behind me, pulled off my heels and ran upstairs barefoot and
headed to the kitchen where Lexi and Doug were sitting with a coffee. I yanked
open the fridge door, grabbed a beer and leaned back on the sink as I yanked
off the cap and drained half of it in one go. I was furious.

‘Take it
Gabe picking you up didn’t go down too well?’

‘
That
went fine.
That
I get Lexi, it was stupid and thoughtless of me to be
out on my own like that in the dark, especially with this murderer still on the
loose, Gabe had every right to get mad about that and I’ve apologised. What I
don’t get is him accusing me of seeing Milo behind his back and saying I’m to have
nothing more to do with him, not even gym sessions.
That
I’m pissed
about.’ I looked up to see Gabe was standing in the doorway looking at me.

‘Mia, a
word in private please.’

‘No, I
think you’ve said enough. Thanks for picking me up, it was very kind of you,
but surprisingly I’m no longer in the mood for dinner with you. Please leave so
Lexi and I can enjoy movie night in peace, on our own.’

‘Mia, not
here,’ he growled angrily.

‘Why not?
If you’re going to yell at me they’ll hear it anyway. Why not do it in front of
them if you’ve more
stupid
accusations to make?’

‘Mia, I’m
not going to ask you again, I’d like to speak to you in private.’

‘Then book
an appointment when you’re in a better mood, now’s not convenient and you’re
embarrassing Lexi and Doug.’

‘Then I’ll
ask Lexi and Doug to give us the kitchen for a while please?’ He turned to fix
them with a firm gaze and raised eyebrows. I watched as Doug stood up and
shrugged apologetically at me and walked out, while Lexi grimaced at me with a
please
don’t stick me in the middle of this
look.

‘Lexi,
don’t you dare move a bloody muscle. I’m not in the mood for his unfair accusations
of cheating.’

‘Sorry
Gabe, but she’s my best friend, she wants me to stay in the kitchen, I’m
staying,’ she sighed. I smiled sweetly at him and he glowered fuming and
stormed off toward my bedroom.

‘Mia, you
need to go and talk to him. It’s like defcon one in here,’ she exclaimed as she
looked at me. I sighed and put my beer on the side.

‘Lexi, how
dare
he. He made out that I’d arranged lunch with Milo yesterday in secret and was
seeing him behind his back.’

‘I was with
you. Tell him.’

‘I did tell
him, but it doesn’t seem to have made a difference. O shit, he’s coming back, please
don’t go,’ I pleaded. She shook her head as he stormed in with a face like
thunder, grabbed me and before I knew what was happening, I was over his
shoulder screaming at him as he marched me out of the kitchen and across the
hall into the bedroom. ‘Gabe Austin put me down this instant,’ I yelled and
smacked his bottom as hard as I could and cursed at the pain radiating through
my palm and wrist, and I ended up with a stinging slap back on my own bottom in
return for my efforts. ‘Put. Me. Down.’

‘With
pleasure,’ he hissed as he flung me down on the bed. He grabbed my hands and
yanked them over my head and I felt coldness and heard two clicks.

‘You
haven’t
just handcuffed me to the bed?’ I uttered glaring at him, but already knew the
answer before I even tried to move my hands and felt the cold metal of my old
cuffs biting into my wrists. I pulled on them as I kicked my legs in
frustration.

‘It’s the
only bloody way I can keep you in the same place as me to talk,’ he shot back
with a scowl as he pulled out my dressing table chair and sat down.

‘I don’t
want to talk you, take a hint. I’m
furious
.’

‘Well, so
am I,’ he snapped back.

‘I
apologised for being so thoughtless Gabe, so you don’t get to still be angry
with me. I’ve done nothing wrong, I’m not seeing Milo and you’re over reacting,
as usual. Let me out of these cuffs right now.’

‘Or what,
Mia?’ he asked with a fake smile, just like I did to him when I was annoyed. I
wriggled up the bed and looked at my hands, he’d been sneaky enough to thread
the cuffs over two bars on my bedhead, so they were too far apart for me to try
and undo them myself. I pulled at them again and swore.

‘Fine, I’ll
just ignore you.’ I rolled onto my side, facing away from him and tucked my
legs up and tugged a pillow down with my teeth to make myself comfortable.

‘You’re so
fucking
infuriating,’ he muttered and I heard him leave. I banged my head in
frustration on the pillow a couple of times, then stared at my wardrobe until I
heard him return. Suddenly he was in front of me with the chair, plonked it
down and sat with my beer in his hands staring at me as he swigged some, so I
closed my eyes. ‘Mia,’ he sighed. I ignored him. I was so tired I was quite
happy to keep my eyes closed, block him out and go to sleep. I nestled into the
pillow and sighed myself. Accusing me of seeing Milo behind his back, I thought
we trusted each other. ‘Mia look at me, stop being so bloody childish.’

I gasped
and went to snap something back and stopped myself, biting my lip. He was
goading me into fighting, so I scrunched my eyes closed a little bit more. I
heard his chair move back and smiled to myself, he was giving up. I suddenly
felt him grab my ankles and yank them down, pulling me onto my back before I
felt his body weight on top of me, his fingers weaving into my hair as his lips
pressed down to caress mine. I tried to twist my head, but he held it still as
he kissed me again and again, his erection flexing against my pelvis. I tried
so hard to fight against him, but the more I did the more turned on I got.

I opened my
eyes and gazed into his boring down into me, giving away how he was feeling. I couldn’t
help myself and opened my mouth and let him slip his tongue in and I gave into
it and moaned into his mouth, pushing my breasts against his chest for some
friction against my aching nipples and hooking my legs around his hips. I
wanted him to do what his face was telling me he wanted to, to rip off my clothes
and fuck me aggressively. As I surrendered to him he pulled away panting, swore
and rolled off me onto his side of the bed.

‘For
fucks
sake
, Mia. You run away from me, won’t look at me or talk to me, but the
minute my tongue’s inside you and you feel my need to fuck you, you let me get
close,’ he snapped. I sighed knowing he was right. We could break each other
down with our lust and passion, but it never solved the problem that lead to
these heated exchanges in the first place.

‘You hurt
me,
again,
’ I whispered as I stared at the ceiling. ‘You made unfair
accusations.’

‘And I came
upstairs to apologise and you wouldn’t give me the chance to do that in private.’

‘I don’t
want
you to keep apologising Gabe, I want you to stop mistrusting me. Deep down do
you really think I’d give up what we have for anyone else? We’re moving in
together for God’s sake.’

‘I trust
you Mia, but I’ll never trust any of your ex’s or
him
when it comes to
you.’

‘But I’ve
done nothing wrong, so why are you so mad at
me
?’ I asked as I turned my
head to look at him. He was lying on his back looking up at the ceiling too.

‘Because
you don’t get it, you just don’t get how devastated I’d be to lose you baby and
you leave yourself vulnerable all the
fucking
time. To other guys who
want you, meeting up with people without me knowing where you are, walking
around on your own in the fucking dark.
Damn it Mia
, I need you to be
more careful.’ He covered his eyes with his hands and massaged his temples with
his fingers.

‘I thought
you could track my phone.’

‘I can, but
that’s a last resort, for if you were drunk or hurt and I needed to find you. I
don’t want to go invading your privacy by checking where you are every five
minutes of the day. I need to trust that you are where you say you are.’

‘I can’t
always tell you that, Gabe. What if I want to do something as a surprise for
you? Like the pole dancing? I need some freedom without worrying you’re going
to freak out on me. You’re being too restrictive.’

‘Then you
take Lexi, you take Doug or you let someone know where you are. I’m sorry Mia,
I know it’s a lot to ask but this is me, this is how I am and if we aren’t
going to keep
fighting
all the damn time I need you to accept that and
work with me.’

‘You tell
me what your acceptable boundaries are Gabe and I’ll try my best. I’m a work in
progress when it comes to relationships and
you
need to accept that.’

‘I know
that baby,’ he sighed and rolled onto his side to look at me. ‘You’ve given me
so much more than I ever expected of you and I’m trying as well, but he’s a
real issue for me.’

‘Gabe there
are a couple of hundred women out there who’ve all been with you and I
guarantee still want you. I don’t lay down rules for you not speaking to them,
or having a drink with them. I can’t even have a fit after the event because I
don’t even know who they are. If I bump into a friend and they ask me to join
them for coffee or lunch and I don’t have plans with you, then I don’t see
what’s wrong with that.’

‘I’m fine with
anyone but an ex or him, Mia.’

‘Gabe, regardless
of what you think Milo
may
feel for me,
I
don’t feel that way
towards him. I’ve never even kissed him, let alone screwed him, so you really need
to back off.’

‘I don’t
think
he feels it, I
know
it, Mia. I’ve seen his face while he talks to you
and I know the look.’ The anger had gone from his eyes, now it was just concern
and love that looked at me from those deep black pools in the vivid blue.
‘There’s just something about him, I get a really bad vibe off him and I don’t
trust him.’

‘Then trust
me to tell him to back off if he ever makes a move, which he
never has
, Gabe.’

‘I would if
I knew you could protect yourself baby, but you won’t even stick to my request
for you to go to classes, which you agreed to do. You want me to trust you in
all areas, then you need to show me that I can.’ He reached over and ran his
finger over my lip and I felt the crackle of electricity from his touch.

‘Then I’ll
ring tomorrow and book them in, please don’t stay mad with me,’ I begged. He
sighed, closed his eyes and opened them again as he ran his finger along my jaw
line.

‘Leave it
until after we move in, you’ll only have more excuses not to go with everything
else going on, but then I’ll expect you to attend every single one.’