Let's Pretend (Romantic Comedy, Contemporary, Second Chance, Sensual) (13 page)

“Go on, Mia.” Tommy’s gibe robbed Belle’s sister of her composure. She sank her hands into her hair and hung her head. “Deny that you and Luc have been meeting in a posh hotel in Portobello. I dare you to analyse yourself out of that one.”
  

11

A
ll eyes turned to Mia, who slid her hands from her hair down to cover her face in a gesture of regret before she finally raised her head. She was tall and elegant—beautiful to look at, and beautiful of heart.

Belle’s throat constricted as vicious jealousy ripped through her. Luc and Mia? Of all the people she would suspect of betraying her, her husband with her sister didn’t even touch her imagination’s stratosphere. But when she paused to think about it, Luc and Mia had always been close. Did it stand to reason that Luc would’ve turned to her sister as someone to talk to? Was that how it started? Had Mia offered an ear? Then a body—

Belle blanched; the image of them together repelled her as her stomach rolled in a very real threat to turn out its contents. Luc wouldn’t do that to her...nor would Mia...would they? What had he said when she’d suspected Mia might’ve had knowledge of their divorce?
Trust me, sweetheart. She hasn’t a clue
. Had that been a way to ensure she never found out about the two of them?

Both Luc and Mia moved at the same time. “Belle, I can explain,” they said in unison.

But the sound of Belle’s heart breaking deafened her to their explanation. She only caught random words through her mind’s haze—
birthday
...
surprise
...
gift
...
Barbados
...
Private Island
...words that made no sense outside of a full sentence, but she couldn’t focus enough to listen properly.

Mia suddenly stopped talking. She turned to Tommy, who lounged against the far wall with a gleeful smile stressing the premature lines on his face. “Who told you that bunch of lies?” She stalked toward him.

He folded his arms across his chest. “I have it on good authority. A mutual friend saw the two of you in the hotel’s bar getting cosy.”

Belle wanted to see Luc’s reaction to that. So far, his response seemed convincing, but his eyes would tell her. He held her gaze without flinching. “I’m telling you the truth. There is nothing between Mia and myself.”

God help her, she believed him. Even without the pain and honesty she saw settle in his eyes, she would’ve believed him because Belle loved Lucas Delaney and always would. And right now, faced with the horrifying reality, she knew she couldn’t free Luc so another woman could swoop in and take him.

He belonged to her.

“No friend of yours will ever be a friend of mine.” Mia’s tone dripped venom.
 

“I didn’t say my and
your
mutual friend.” Tommy directed his loathing gaze to Luc as he jolted out his chin. “Why don’t you ask Lucas when was the last time he saw
Sally-Ann Kent?”

Luc pulled his gaze from Belle’s, clearly having let the conversation go over his head until he heard his name. “Who?”

“Your old girlfriend.” Tommy spat the words at him. “Don’t pretend you don’t remember the girl I was practically engaged to until you made a play for her.”

“Who are you talking about?” Luc pocketed his hands. “I have no idea who Sally-Ann Kent is. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone by that name.”

All traces of Tommy’s smile left as his face turned red with anger, though he kept his distance. “Sally-Ann Kent! Blonde, curvy, funny. She came to visit me at the firehouse one lunchtime when you were on that exchange program between our fire stations. Apparently, once she met you, she suddenly realised you were the man she wanted—”

“Are you trying to tell me all this is over some woman I don’t even know exists?” Luc pulled one hand from his pocket, scraped it through his hair as he shook his head in disbelief. “Is that why you’ve hated me all these years? Because this Sally-Ann person was too fickle to commit to you?” The muscle in Luc’s jaw flexed. “Is she the one who’s been feeding you lies about Mia and me?”
  

“It’s only lies if she made up seeing the two of you together. As it turns out, her stepfather is the solicitor Belle approached to handle her divorce. Once Sally-Ann found out that your marriage had failed, she figured she could get me to set up the two of you. Can you believe that? When she saw you with Mia she phoned me,
distraught, wanted me to tell my cousin to back off.”

Luc narrowed his eyes in a fierce frown as he scratched the short, spiky growth of stubble on his cheek; the rasp sounded as annoyed as he appeared to be. “This is unbelievable.” He slapped his hand against his thigh in irritation. “Mia and I have already explained the reason we met up for drinks. It was nothing more than a simple sister and brother-in-law getting together to plan her sister’s birthday gift. Thanks to you, instead of having a surprise holiday with her little sister next month, she gets a surprise your-sister-and-husband-are-having-an-affair bash. Perhaps if you’d let Sally-Ann go and moved on with your life, she wouldn’t be making a fool of you right now.”

Tommy pulled himself to his full height, but still had to angle his head to look up at Luc. “Forgive me if I’m not like you, Lucas, but perhaps if she had a sister I’d have had less trouble ‘moving on.’”

Luc moved with lightning speed, but Mia was standing closer to Tommy, and it was Mia’s hand Belle saw clench into a fist. Then, almost in slow motion, her sister bopped Tommy on the nose.

“
Mia
.” Vicki’s astonishment echoed the general response from Belle and Tommy’s sisters.

He reeled, grabbing his face and swearing profusely as blood smeared between his fingers. “What the hell did you do that for?”

In all the years Belle had known her sister, she’d never known Mia to subscribe to violence. Tommy must have really pressed her buttons.
  

“Don’t you
ever
talk about me like that again!” She turned and flounced back toward the room she was staying in. “Sorry, Gran,” she said a second before slamming the door behind her.

 
Gran stood in her bedroom doorway while Julianne and Vicki rushed to Tommy’s aid. Alana merely shrugged and headed back to her room now the excitement had dwindled.

Belle was vaguely aware that Gran didn’t seem in the least surprised by all the revelations that had been flying moments ago.

As she turned to help her mum and Julianne with Tommy, Luc grasped her wrist. “He has enough women to look after him, and I doubt Mia has given him more than a bloody nose. I’m sure Vicki can handle a simple nosebleed.” He strolled toward Belle’s room, impelling her to follow with a gentle tug. “You and I are going to talk, whether you like it or not.”

~*~

“I’M STILL waiting for an answer to my question.” Luc closed the bedroom door with a sharp snap. “Why did you end our marriage, Isobel?” His gaze bore into hers. “And don’t bother to come up with some smart way to avoid answering. I refuse to let this subject lie until I have my answer.”

Belle would’ve welcomed any smart thoughts. Unfortunately, she’d stopped thinking the moment Luc had uttered the words,
whether you like it or not
. Now the conversation she’d avoided for two days faced her in the form of a sexy, determined Luc. She took a deep breath as she sat on the foot of her unmade bed. He wanted to know after all this time—fine, she’d tell him. “I can’t handle what you do for a living.”

Judging from his stunned expression, whatever he’d expected her to say, that wasn’t it. “
That’s
your reason?”

“I know it seems frivolous, and I wish I could claim our clashing work hours or something less selfish, but there you have it. I simply can’t handle your job.”

His frown tugged his brows tight. “Since when?”

Belle smoothed her clammy palms over her jean-clad thighs. “Since Will had his accident and I was the attending surgeon.” A huge, fiery ball of dread sank into her stomach. Luc was going to think she was a coward. Running scared at the first glitch.

“That was close to two years”—an expression of realisation crossed his face—“ago.” He came to sit next to her. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“For the same reason you wouldn’t tell me if you had a problem with my job. You love what you do. You’re a firefighter, Luc. I knew this before I married you. But when I walked into the theatre and saw Will lying on that table, I nearly passed out. He was covered in blood with this huge piece of glass sticking out of him, and all I saw was you. Up until then, it never crossed my mind that you could get hurt...or worse. Not until Will’s injuries slammed it home.” Tears stung her eyes and came too fast for Belle to hold them back with rapid blinks. “I couldn’t go on if something happened to you.” She grabbed the tissue box from the bedside table and pulled out a couple of tissues, clearing the husk from her throat as she tried to stem the salty flow of tears. “I can’t live each day wondering if this will be the day you get hurt.”

“So you’re going to throw away everything we have on the off chance I might get injured?” He jumped to his feet, pacing as an indication of his helplessness. “Belle, sweetheart, I could lose my life driving to or from work. A couple weeks ago, my crew and I answered an accident call. A supermarket delivery lorry had collided with a motorcycle killing the rider. We were putting sand on the road to cover the blood and oil when a car pulled onto the hard shoulder. A woman got out and ran toward us, yelling, ‘That’s my husband’s bike, is he okay?’ She was frantic when we told her he didn’t make it. All I could do was hold her while she cried.” Luc squeezed his eyes shut at the memory for a moment. “She had three children, all under five, waiting in the car. Can you imagine how she must have felt in that moment?” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Women lose husbands every day, and it has nothing to do with their jobs.”

Belle’s heart broke for the small children who had lost their father so tragically. She had an idea of how they would have felt when they found out Daddy was never coming home again. Fresh tears spilled from Belle’s eyes, tears that came directly from her heart.
 

“When I’m on duty, I focus all my attention on the job,” Luc continued. “You think I don’t shudder every time one of my men gets hurt? That I don’t think
that could’ve been me
? Do you want to know what kept me vigilant and careful? You, Belle.” He jabbed a forefinger toward her. “
You
.”

Regardless of how much her heart begged her to relent, put her fears aside, and hold onto Luc, she couldn’t do it. When Belle only stared at him, Luc turned. In a couple of long strides, he was at the window overlooking the tree-lined road.

“The night Will got injured, he was careless.” Obviously deciding she needed further convincing, he persisted. “He’d had a row with his girlfriend before he started his shift, and his mind wasn’t on the job. I could see he was preoccupied—texting, phoning her. I warned him to get it together. By the time the call came in, it was obvious she wasn’t taking his messages, and he went into that house angry.” Luc turned back to face Belle. “The difference between Will and me is that I’m in love with you, and I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you. Why would I have done anything to jeopardise that?”

“I don’t think you’d deliberately get yourself hurt.” How could she argue his job’s risk factor when Luc had just told her about the fatal motorcycle accident he’d witnessed? Death was unavoidable—a simple, unpleasant fact she dealt with everyday. Yet death associated with Luc scared her senseless.

“We both have fears, Belle. Let’s not dwell on them and allow them to ruin what we have.” He crossed the space separating her from him, hunkering down in front of Belle as he took her hands in his. “Your job is just as dangerous as mine. I caught the news segment about the junky who brought his girlfriend into A&E with a stab wound, then pulled a knife on you to make sure you had an incentive to save her.”

Although things like that sometimes happened, Belle didn’t consider hers a risky profession. “That was a one-off incident. I’m trained to deal with life-threatening situations.” At the time she’d been shocked by the threatened violence, but she’d kept her head and had taken down the knife-wielding drug addict. She’d managed to save the girl’s life. The police had apprehended the boyfriend on numerous charges, including grievous bodily harm to the girl, who turned out to be his
ex
-girlfriend.