He kissed her on the nose. “Told you…”
She giggled and reached up to run her fingers through his sweat-drenched hair. “You’re amazing,” she said, shaking her head. “I hate to say it, because you’re already so full of y–”
He kissed her on the lips. “Shh… it’s okay. Don’t…”
She dazzled him with a beautiful smile. “Okay.”
“Come here,” he said, lying down to hold her in his arms.
She kissed him on the lips and snuggled into his chest. He held her tight and listened to her breathing, hoping she was falling in love with him. Shit… how had she managed to get so far under his skin, and why had he let her?
She kissed his toned pec.
“Okay, Ellie?” he asked.
“Yeah, I’m a bit nervous about meeting your family.”
“Don’t be. I’ll tell them you’re my girlfriend and they’ll understand what you mean to me. I know they’re gonna love you as much as I do…”
Her body tensed. They both knew the ‘love you’ line had been a figure of speech, but now that it was out there, it was expanding to fill the entire room.
She propped herself up on her elbows and kissed him on the lips. “What were you saying earlier about your brother Dylan being involved with Russians?”
He ran his fingers through her long hair. “It’s complicated. I’m not really supposed to talk about it.” He chuckled and kissed her on the nose. “Especially not to the press!”
“You can trust me, Joseph. You were right about everything. It is wrong to try to drag other people down simply for money or entertainment. What right have I got to ruin people’s lives?”
“I’m glad I made a difference with you.”
“See, one person can make a difference.”
They shared a smile. He sighed. “It’s complicated, the situation with Ivan.”
“You said he was on the run?”
“Yeah, he’s living in the UK. Basically, he invented a device… I don’t fully understand it myself, but it would’ve threatened the oil barons because it could provide clean energy. Anyway, he got in trouble with some Saudis, so he destroyed it… there’s a woman he’s in love with who he was worried about. Kidnappings and all that. So he faked his own death. But she doesn’t know he’s really alive and he misses her so much.”
“And this is Ivan?”
“Yeah.”
“And Dylan?”
“Well there was a little piece of the blueprint for the device left so Dylan got involved with some Russians who’d stolen it. But that’s all smoothed over now I think.”
“It is pretty complicated isn’t it?”
“Yeah. I hope you know what you’re getting yourself into!”
“Well, I’m really looking forward to meeting them all.”
“I think Ivan will be joining us on Skype, so you’ll meet him too. My other brother Adam knows all about it, obviously. And so do their girlfriends. You’ll really like them all.”
She sat up and stretched. “Well, we don’t want to be late so let’s get ready. I grabbed some clothes for tonight and I – Oh shit. I think I forgot my make-up bag. I’ll need to pop back and get it – have we got time?”
“We’ve got time, but I don’t want you going back there. Not now Matthew’s had time to think about all this. He might turn nasty.”
“But I need my make-up.”