Quiet Longing (Quiet Love #2)

34.

Rhys

The following three weeks were some of the best of my life. Charli and I became insatiable for one another, and every spare moment, we snuck away to be together. She spent weekends at my place, and I was falling deeper and deeper in love with her every day that went by.

Sometimes I’d find her looking at me, eyes all soft and hazy, and I’d wonder if maybe she was having similar feelings, but I didn’t want to break the bubble by asking her. And really, I was just happy to be in her orbit and would take whatever small part of herself she was willing to share.

It was Tuesday night, and Aidan had invited everyone to his restaurant for dinner. Unlike the last time she was there, Charli was relaxed and at ease, the change in her impossible to miss. I liked to believe I’d played some part in her newfound confidence though I knew a lot of it was down to her own courage and perseverance. I drove us to the restaurant, unable to keep my eyes off the black dress she’d chosen. The light material clung to her body in a very distracting manner, with her wavy hair swept into a delicate twist.

We picked Nuala up on our way, and she chattered about her day at work until we arrived at the restaurant. Derek and Tristan were already there, and it appeared Tristan had brought along a lady friend, which wasn’t out of the ordinary for him. Theo was absent as usual. The bloke was always working.

I guided Charli and Nuala towards the table at the back, where Aidan sat with the brothers. It looked like they’d already opened a bottle of wine.

“You’re here,” Aidan said, standing and first going to kiss Nuala on the cheek before turning to Charli. I bristled when his lips brushed her cheek even though I knew it was only a friendly greeting. My hand balled into a fist, but I forced myself to relax. We were sleeping together, but she wasn’t mine to claim no matter how much I might wish to. There was a twinkle in Aidan’s eye when he withdrew, and he flashed me a knowing smirk before motioning for us all to join them at the table.

Aside from Jo, who’d agreed to keep Charli’s and my spending time together to herself, no one knew of our arrangement. We were keeping things private for the moment since revealing it would only garner attention neither of us wanted.

“This is Brenda,” Tristan said, introducing his date to us newcomers. Brenda looked to be in her early thirties and had short black hair. “She’s an interior designer and has been working with us on the new hotel down in Cork.”

“It’s lovely to meet you, Brenda.” Nuala was the first to shake her hand. “I hope my brother’s treating you well.”

“Oh, yes, he’s been a real gentleman,” Brenda responded while Tristan waggled his eyebrows at me like that was some kind of innuendo. I shook my head and turned to Charli, her thigh only an inch from mine where she sat next to me.

“Would you like some wine?” I asked.

I could still smell her on my skin. She’d dropped by my office that morning, and I’d made short work of locking the door before pulling her onto my lap and making her come while she sat astride me at my desk. It was quickly becoming one of my favourite pastimes. The way she’d trembled against me was etched into my mind.

“Yes, thank you,” she replied, the dim lighting making the golden flecks in her eyes shimmer. She was so beautiful it was difficult to look anywhere else. All I wanted was to take her in my arms and kiss her senseless.

“Well, Charli,” Aidan said after taking the liberty of ordering starters for the table, some kind of prawn dumplings that were apparently their most popular dish. “How have you been finding things back on the old sod?”

“It’s been great,” she answered him, lifting her wine glass. “Better than great, actually.” Her gaze flicked to mine briefly, and I couldn’t resist dropping my hand to her thigh beneath the table. I gave a squeeze and saw a small breath escape her. The caveman part of my brain wondered if she was wet. “Everybody’s been so welcoming, and I love working at the hotel.”

“With Rhys?” Aidan went on, that twinkle in his eye returning. I couldn’t be irritated at him, not when he hadn’t breathed a word to anyone about Charli’s breakdown at the opening. In fact, he behaved like it had never even happened, which I knew was a relief to her.

She sipped her wine. “Yes, Rhys’ office is just across from mine. It’s been nice to have a familiar face around.”

Aidan grinned. “I’ll bet.”

I narrowed my gaze at him, and he was smart enough to change the subject. A server arrived with our starters, and the talk changed to other topics. I kept my hand on Charli’s thigh for most of the meal, and I noticed she was more relaxed every time I touched her. My chest practically hummed with satisfaction.

Just after dessert, she and Nuala went to visit the ladies’ room, and as soon as they left, Aidan plonked himself down in the seat Charli had just vacated.

“So, you two are fucking, then?” he stated casually, and I was just glad Tristan was busy flirting with his date and Derek was on the phone with one of his kids.

“You’ve always been a nosy bastard,” I grunted, slugging back the last of my wine.

“Hey now, I’m merely an observer of human interactions. It’s clear in the way you’ve both been looking at one another all night. It was always going to happen. Put you two in a room, and it’s pure chemistry. Has been since you were teenagers.”

“I distinctly remember you chancing your arm with her back then,” I commented.

Aidan chuckled. “Chancing my arm was pretty much all I did at eighteen. Luckily for everyone, I’ve matured since then.” He paused to eye me, his expression sobering a little. “So, is this a rebound from Stephanie or—”

“Charli isn’t a fucking rebound,” I practically growled, and he raised his hands.

“I only ask because the last time Charli was here, she looked like she was going through it. Now, I don’t know what happened to her, but I can make a few educated guesses. And if my guesses are accurate, I wouldn’t want to see her being used in whatever battleground is going on between you and your ex.”

“There is no battleground. We’re over. Have been for a while.”

“You sure about that? Because she turned up at the opening and glued herself to my side for the better part of an hour. I eventually had to tell her outright that I wanted no role in whatever game she was playing to make you jealous.”

“Fuck,” I groaned. “I’m sorry, Aidan. Steph can be a little—”

“Vindictive? Yes, I got that. All I’m saying is, your love life is still a bit messy if she’s trying to get with your friends to make you jealous. I wouldn’t like to see Charli become a casualty of whatever else your ex-fiancée tries.”

“She won’t be. I won’t let anything happen to Charli,” I said, my mood souring. Aidan patted my shoulder, his look meaningful. He stood just as Nuala and Charli returned and retook their seats.

I should’ve given more heed to Aidan’s warning because he was right. Steph had made herself scarce the last few weeks, but it turned out she wasn’t done getting her own back. I wanted to believe she’d take the high road, but it turned out that was too much to ask for.

A few days later, I spotted Charli making a dash through the hotel lobby mid-morning, a distraught look on her face. On instinct, I went after her, only catching up with her a short distance from both our offices.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, my features narrowing in a concerned frown.

Her lip wobbled as she turned to face me before swallowing down what appeared to be a lump in her throat. “It’s nothing,” she answered, barely meeting my gaze, which told me something was definitely up.

“I know that’s not true. You’re upset.”

I cupped her shoulder gently, and she met my gaze, releasing a tired breath. “The last couple days, I’ve noticed some of the other staff giving me odd looks. I couldn’t figure out what was going on, so I mentioned it to Maeve when we were in the office. Well, Maeve began acting shifty, and her conscience obviously got to her because she finally confessed Stephanie’s been spreading a rumour about us.”

My hand on her shoulder stiffened as my frown deepened. “What kind of rumour?”

Charli sniffled. “It’s ridiculously untrue. She’s been saying that the reason you broke up with her was because you and I were having some kind of long distance affair behind her back and that I moved here to be with you.”

I swear my vision flashed red for a second. “She said what? ”

“Look,” Charli replied gently. “I know it’s just a rumour, and that things will die down after a while, but I got upset because I don’t want people to think I’m some homewrecker.”

I gripped her other shoulder, pulling her closer. “No one’s going to think that because I’m going to set them all straight.”

My attention went over Charli’s head—and almost like the conversation had summoned her—Steph appeared at the other end of the hallway, her face buried in her phone as she tapped out a text.

“Hey! You!” I shouted, and she looked up, eyes widening like a deer caught in the headlights. At least she had the common sense to try and flee. Steph shoved her phone in her pocket and turned on her heel, but I caught up to her easily.

“What kind of bullshit have you been spreading around this place?” I demanded.

Steph puffed up her chest and folded her arms. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, pull the other one. You’ve been lying about Charli and me. Are you actively trying to lose your job? You do realise her uncle is your boss, and he adores her. If he finds out about this, he’ll be well within his rights to let you go.”

There was a flicker of apprehension in her eyes, and I knew it was dawning on her how badly she might’ve messed up. Steph could be like that. She liked to talk shit but never expected consequences because she could just flutter her eyelashes, flash her pretty smile, and get away with things. She also tended to lash out when she was cornered, which was why her gaze narrowed on Charli, who’d come to stand beside me.

“You’d just love if I was fired.”

“I don’t want anybody to lose their job. I just don’t understand why you’d make up lies,” Charli said, her words low but firm.

Steph barked an irritated laugh. “Oh, quit acting innocent. You knew exactly what you were doing as soon as you turned up here. Pretending to be a damsel in distress to get Rhys’ attention. He’s a protector, and you know he can’t resist that type.”

“That’s enough, Steph,” I snapped, stepping forward and cutting off her view of Charli.

“God,” she scoffed, flicking her eyes to me. “You’re so good hearted you can’t even see when you’re being manipulated. It’s almost pathetic.”

“Don’t speak to him like that,” Charli retorted, moving by me to face Steph head on though her voice was still quiet and even. “What’s between Rhys and me began long after your engagement ended. There was no affair, and you know it. You need to move on.”

Several things happened at once. Fury flashed across Steph’s face, and she stepped forward, raising her hand like she might strike Charli. Seeing this, Charli reared back in shock, tripping over her own feet as she fell to the floor and started to tremble. I knew instantly that her PTSD had been triggered. Mam would often jump at loud noises or shake when she heard a male voice being raised.

“What the hell? I didn’t even—”

“Back the fuck up, Steph,” I quietly seethed.

“But she’s acting like I attacked her. I didn’t … This is ridiculous.”

“I said, back up ,” I repeated with barely concealed rage, casting a furious glance her way before I knelt and cradled Charli in my arms. She was shaking, her eyes elsewhere, and I knew she was disassociating. I had to bring her back to herself, but the last thing she needed was other hotel staffers seeing her like that. Several had already gathered around to witness the drama.

Ignoring Steph’s pleas not to go to Padraig and tell him of the incident, I turned in the direction of my office. Once there, I shut the door behind me then lowered Charli onto a chair. When I went to grab her a glass of water, I swore under my breath. The boxes containing the special shipment I’d had sent from the States was sitting half opened on my office floor. It had been delivered that morning.

Charli was still lost in her own head, completely unaware that her Lladró collection currently populated my office. Ever since she’d told me about how Jesse was withholding it, I’d been determined to get the collection back one way or another. Yes, I’d promised I wouldn’t get involved, but that was before Piotr sent me a dossier of Jesse’s financial crimes. The idiot had been skimming from his own law firm for years, not to mention helping his criminal clients launder money. The FBI’s white collar crime unit had been investigating him for over a year, compiling evidence. As soon as I’d heard that, my gut twisted, fearing Charli might be unknowingly implicated in his crimes. It was common for spouses to sign documents without full awareness of what they were signing, and Charli’s profession as an accountant made her a likely accomplice.

Piotr dug deeper, utilising his contacts to find out if Charli was in any way connected. It turned out she and Jesse were still married when the investigation began, and the FBI had already looked into her but subsequently ruled her out as a person of interest. In the end, it was a good thing she’d left their marriage with nothing because a lot of Jesse’s assets had been acquired illegally.

Just last week, they’d raided his office and gathered his computers, hard drives, and files as evidence. It was looking like his skimming and money laundering amounted to millions of dollars, and being that it was his own firm he’d stolen from, I imagined they intended to have him punished to the full extent of the law. The maximum prison sentence was twenty years.

I still hadn’t found the right moment to tell Charli, worrying she might get upset with me for looking into Jesse in the first place. I knew she’d be mad when she found out I’d called in a favour from another ex-legion friend of mine, Leon.

I wasn’t entirely sure where he resided nowadays, but I did know he worked for a shady organisation who did black ops work for various governments around the world. That was the thing about my time in the legion, I had friends in all manner of professions, normally security or military adjacent.

Leon, who was already in the US on other business, was more than happy to round up one or two of his colleagues and break into Jesse’s apartment to reclaim Charli’s collection. Yes, it was an extreme measure, but the way I felt for her was all-encompassing. I had this gnawing need to right the wrongs I hadn’t been there to prevent from happening in the first place.

Leon wore an earpiece and linked me up to a live feed from his bodycam so I could witness it happening in real time. You should’ve seen my face when Jesse walked into the apartment while they were rifling through the place to find the collection—and promptly pissed his pants. That gave me a good, satisfied chuckle.

The coward proceeded to fall to his knees and begged for them to take whatever they wanted and leave. I imagined Charli would be amused by his snivelling cowardice, too, once she stopped being angry at me for orchestrating the whole thing in the first place.

And yeah, I should’ve told Leon to let him be, that the pathetic prick was going to suffer enough once the FBI were done with him.

But I hadn’t.

I’d let the darker angel of my nature take over as I told Leon to rough him up a little. Jesse was left with a dislocated shoulder, a broken nose, and two black eyes. He deserved a far worse beating than that. Christ, he deserved permanent disfigurement for every scar he’d left on Charli’s body.

As far as I was concerned, he’d gotten off easy. Leon left with not only the collection but other valuables, too, which I was happy for him to keep. I couldn’t let him only take the Lladrós because then Jesse might suspect Charli was to blame, and I wanted none of this coming back on her.

In the bathroom, I grabbed a glass and filled it with water before returning to the office and kneeling before her.

Charli lifted her head, but her gaze went over my shoulder, and the way her eyes flared told me she’d spotted the boxes.

“Rhys, what are those?” she whispered.

I placed my hand on her knee, softly stroking as I held her gaze. “First, just let me explain.”