Absent in the Spring (The Shakespeare Sisters 3)

‘I was surprised when you told me you lived next door to Grant as a child,’ she said. ‘I didn’t realise that was how you met. I assumed you met at work.’

‘I’ve known him ever since I can remember. We pretty much grew up together. Brought each other up, in a strange way. His parents worked all the time – in a restaurant in downtown Miami – so he knew how things were. He had his grandma, though. She lived with them too. But she pretty much left us both to our own devices.’

She closed her eyes, breathing in the scent of his skin. ‘You had to grow up quickly.’

‘We all did in that neighbourhood. It was dog eat dog, we learned how to defend ourselves. And that the best form of defence is to attack.’ He flexed his hand beneath her touch, curling it into a fist.

‘But what about your dad?’ she asked. ‘Didn’t he help? Couldn’t your mum sue him for alimony or something?’

‘He sent money sometimes,’ he told her. ‘But Mom was never very good with it. I can remember coming home on the days he’d sent it – all the cupboards would be full of food, I’d have new clothes, she’d have a brand-new wardrobe. And then the following week it would be back to crumbs and working.’ He smiled. ‘New clothes don’t do much for an empty stomach.’

‘It must have been hard, though, knowing he had all this money and that you guys were going without.’ She ran her finger up and down his inner arm, watching his tendons flex beneath her touch. She felt him press his lips against her head, breathing her in.

‘I didn’t like going to visit him,’ Lachlan said, his voice muffled by her hair. ‘Not because of the contrast – I think when you’re a kid you don’t question things like that. But because they were mean. His wife never liked me, and I can’t really blame her for that. But when you’re ten years old and they’re flaunting wealth in front of you, it hurts like hell.’ He ran his finger down her spine, following the curve where she was lying against him. ‘And Duncan took things to a whole new level. Anything I did, he had to be better. If I mentioned I enjoyed football, the next day he’d get a season ticket and a new Dolphins top. On the rare occasion I was ever given something myself, it would end up disappearing or being ruined.’

Lucy blinked. ‘Didn’t your dad stop it?’

She could feel him shake his head, his lips moving against her hair. ‘He wasn’t there most of the time. He was a workaholic, in case you’re wondering where I got it from. I think he liked the idea of having one big, happy family, but when it didn’t work out, he just left us to it.’

Her tongue felt like sandpaper. ‘They sound like a bunch of assholes.’

He laughed, his chest lifting beneath her cheek. ‘That’s as good a description as any.’

She lifted her head, looking straight into his deep blue eyes. ‘But you showed them, right? You made something of yourself, you have your own business. You’re a success.’ He looked every inch of it, lying next to her. It was almost impossible to keep her hands off him.

The edge of his mouth lifted up. ‘I guess.’

‘What else is there to prove?’

‘Nothing. And I think it’s beyond proving anything to them. It’s about me. About my success, about my drive. I want to be seen as someone other than my father’s illegitimate son.’ Wrapping his arms around her, he pulled her up until her body was resting on his. In his arms, everything felt right.

‘You know, I’m really good with my hands. I could tickle them all to death if you want me to.’ She grinned at him mischievously, running her fingers down his sides. He released his hold on her waist, reaching down to circle each of her wrists with his fingers like human handcuffs.

‘I don’t want you tickling anybody else,’ he said.

‘You don’t even want me tickling you.’

‘True story.’ His grin widened. ‘Anyway, you’ll get to meet them in the flesh on Saturday.’

‘Saturday?’ she asked. ‘What ar

e we doing on Saturday?’ She thought about the weekend – the fact she was flying home on the Sunday. Back to a country and a life that seemed more than half a world away.

‘Going to a gala.’ He rubbed his thumbs in small circles around her wrists. ‘You, me, Duncan and half of New York.’

‘Doesn’t your brother live in Miami?’

Lachlan shrugged. ‘They live all over the place. Like me, my brother has business dealings here, the same way our father always did. Plus the gala is for my father’s favourite charity.’

‘And you want us to go?’ She felt uneasy at the thought. ‘Why?’

‘Because I want to show you off. I want to show them I’m a winner, with a beautiful, intelligent woman by my side.’ Releasing her wrists, he cupped her face in his hands, brushing the softest almost-kiss across her lips. ‘Will you come to the ball, Cinderella?’

His eyes were blinding. She felt herself sinking into him, as though the two of them were made of molten iron. Tough, almost impossible to crack, and yet somehow becoming one.

She thought of the fact she’d be flying home on Sunday morning. About the fact his estranged family would be at the gala, staring at him, hating him, treating him like shit. Her whole body tensed up. Logically, she knew Lachlan MacLeish was more than capable of taking care of himself. The way his muscles flexed beneath her body was enough to prove that. And yet she felt a primal need to protect him – or at least the boy he’d once been. The same urge she felt with her sisters.

Looking up at him through her eyelashes, she nodded, swallowing to alleviate the dryness of her throat. Even still, her voice was croaky when she spoke. ‘Of course I’ll come with you.’