Designing Woman (The Sloan Brothers Book 2) (17 page)

“It’s killing me because I love you, you big jerk.  I love you and you don’t love me.  I don’t stand a chance.”

He pulled back and moved his hands to my thighs.  He lifted my legs, resting them on his hips, then he pressed my back to the wall.

“I never said I didn’t love you Mel’.  I love you more than anything or anyone in the world.  I’ve never said those words to anyone before and I’ll never say them to anyone else.”

“Liar.  You sleep with anything in heels Anton.”

“I haven’t slept with anyone since you Mel’.”

“It’s not for lack of trying.  Lie to ME and tell me that’s not true.”

“Do you trust me?  If I told you the truth, would you know it if you heard it?  Would you believe me?”

“Try me.”

“I swear it Mel’.  I’ve got the worst case of blue balls known to man.  I don’t want anyone but you and I don’t know why.  It confuses the shit out of me, but there it is.  Okay?”

“Why didn’t you tell me before?  Why are you constantly insulting and belittling me?  Why the fuck are you determined to push me away?”

He put his lips against mine and kept our eyes locked, refusing to allow me to break from his gaze.

“Because you scare the living shit out of me.  You’re ahead of me in this.  I’m not ready to settle down.  I’m not ready for the announcement or the invitations.  I’m not ready to give up my apartment.  There.  Are you happy now?”

“No Anton.  I’m not.  Know why?”

I kissed him as thoroughly as he kissed me and he leaned against me, groaning as he kissed me back.  He pulled back slightly and pushed his hips into mine.

“Tell me why.”

“Because I never asked you to give up anything.  I never asked for an announcement or a date.  I asked for two things.  I want your open declaration of love and a commitment.  Yes Anton, I want a commitment.  I want you to decide that we’re exclusive.  We don’t have to live together; we don’t have to spend all of our free time together.  When either of us needs a date, I want the first person you consider to be me.  You’re the first person I consider and you always have been.  If you want to sleep away from home, I want you sleeping with me.  I don’t think that’s too much to ask because I’m willing to give it in return.”

His eyes were still glued to mine and he was concentrating on every word I was saying.

“If that’s too much to ask or expect, then drop the key back in the bowl on your way out.  I won’t accept any less.  Not anymore.”

I waited for him to respond with a yes or a no.  I was not expecting the response I got.

“Have you slept with Austin?”

“No.  No one but you since I met you.”

He nodded once and set me back on my feet.  He continued kissing me while his hands moved to the sides of my face, keeping our lips locked in a kiss that was gentle but consuming.  It felt fiercely protective, but I didn’t hold out much hope.  His goodbye kisses were just as fierce and just as consuming.  Anton kissed as if he didn’t want you to forget him.  For the rest of your life.

He took my hand and led me back into the living room.  I knew what we looked like.  Our hair was disheveled and our lips were swollen.  I’m sure I had whisker burn on my neck and I didn’t care.  The only one that wasn’t smirking was Ayla.  She looked pissed and disappointed and I didn’t blame her.

I looked at her and stood tall.

“Your brother isn’t interested in me Ayla.  If he was, he would’ve at least called.”

“He’s been busy Mel’, or haven’t you noticed that his bar was blown up.”

“He moved out of Pierce’s and he took his stuff from here without saying a word.  Not one word.  I understand he’s busy, but five minutes of his time before he goes to bed at night isn’t too damned much to ask.  Don’t hold it against either one of us.  I’m fine with it.”

Anton said nothing during our exchange.  He stood with our plates in his hand.  He handed me mine, sat down in the armchair, and pulled me onto his lap, settling me so that my ass was next to him and my legs were across his.  He raised his eyebrows at me in a silent question and I smiled and took a bite of lo mein.  He nodded once and began to eat.  It took us a minute to realize that no one else was eating or saying a word.

He looked up and everyone was staring at us in silent shock, blinking.  He shrugged and swallowed.

“What?  We’re engaged.  Get over it.”

I started choking.  Seriously choking.

Anton patted me on the back affectionately, but it was just enough to dislodge the noodle.  I stared at him but he was looking at the other four people staring at him.  I slapped him on the back of the head to get his attention.  It worked.

“What the fuck was that?!”

He shrugged, grinned and took another bite of fried rice before he answered.  Everyone else was on the edge of their seats waiting for the same thing that I was waiting for.

“You said you wanted a commitment.  I figure you can’t get much more committed than that, right?”

“You could’ve asked me first!”

Dorothy and Pierce started laughing loudly and Deacon cleared his throat, but I could tell by the look on his face that he was just barely holding back laughter of his own.

“You’re telling us that Mr. Commitment-phobe didn’t even propose before he just made the announcement of the century?”

“Hell no he didn’t propose!  He’s going to extreme lengths to keep the key he snagged out of the key bowl while we were talking.”

Anton was shaking his head no.

“No, no, no.  That’s not true.  I’d keep the key anyway.  Everyone’s missing the big picture.”

He scanned the group with fire in his eyes.

“She loves me and I love her.  That’s one of the few things we agree on, but it’s the one that counts.  I’m tired of trying to find someone to sleep with that’s only gonna be a poor substitute and she’s tired of watching me do it.  She’s not asking me to set a date or start cohabitation, so I figure why not?  It’s about time, I say.”

His eyes went to mine because I hadn’t stopped staring at him since he started talking.

“I don’t want to see disappointment in her eyes anymore.  I don’t want to break her heart without thinking about it.  Now she knows she owns me and at some future date, she’ll own me legally.”

I kissed his forehead and sighed.  He squeezed my leg in acknowledgement.  Then he turned to everyone else.

“Anyone got anything else to say about it?”

Leave it to Ayla to find the thorn.  She was still pissed over my rejection of her brother and I had a feeling she wouldn’t be letting it drop anytime soon.

“What about a ring?”

I swallowed hard.

“A ring?”

“A ring.  Usually when someone announces an engagement, there’s a ring to flaunt.  An outward sign that he’s serious.  You know.  A ring.”

I couldn’t bring myself to look at Anton.  As quickly as he’d thrown out the engagement surprise, he could throw out, “change of plans”.  I busied myself with sipping wine.

“She’ll have a ring by the weekend.”

This time I’d swallowed so I only coughed.

“This weekend?”, I squeaked.

He smiled and winked.

“Why not?  Do you want to pick it out or do you trust me?”

There were so many avenues behind that question, I took the one with the shortest route to happiness.

“I trust you babe.  Always.”

He grunted his approval and pulled me down for a fast, hard kiss.

Deacon winked at Dor’ and turned to Pierce.

“That leaves you little brother.  The Sloans are falling like dominoes.  I’d pay attention and plan accordingly if I were you.  Shit like this always happens in threes.”

Pierce turned poinsettia red and cleared his throat, suddenly captivated by the food on his plate.  Ayla looked like she swallowed a bug.

Take THAT Ayla.  Yeah baby.

My small victory was short lived.

“Congratulations to the both of you.  Now can we get down to why we came here in the first place?”

Well crap.  I was still working on Anton’s change of heart and wondering if it was actually a good thing or a bad thing.  Did I want to own a twenty-seven year old adolescent?  I suppose it was a little late for that question, eh?  I made a mental note to ask Dor’ about it later.  Maybe she had a theory.

Anton’s voice brought me out of the fog I was in thinking about... him.

“There’s nothing more to discuss.  She’s my fiance and she’ll do what I tell her to do.”

Hey now.  I looked at him as if he’d switched to French.

“Excuse you?”

“Babe, in some things you’ll take the lead and in most things, I’ll take the lead.  This is one of those things.  Do you want me to worry?”

“No.”

He smiled and kissed me on the cheek, then fondled my leg like I was a prize Irish Setter that had just cracked calculus.

“There’s my girl.  Have you unpacked yet?”

“Of course.  I live here.  It’s not an overnight stay at the Hilton Anton, this is where I live.”

“Not for a little while you don’t sweetheart.  Now be my sweet angel and go upstairs and pack your shit.  You’re going back to Pierce’s.”

“Like hell I am.  I wanna move in with you.”

I swear he started blinking Morse Code for, ‘save me, I’m screwed’.

“Sweetheart, I don’t have enough room at my place.  You couldn’t possibly run a business out of my bachelor pad.”

“Your fuck pad you mean...”

He waved a hand in dismissal.

“Potatoes, Potahtoes.  The point is, we’d be tripping over one another.  Besides, I’m not living there at the moment, remember?  I’m living at Deacon and Dorothy’s.”

Dorothy raised her hand in a skittish manner and I couldn’t help but grin.  I know that girl too well and I knew what was coming.

“You could both live here.”

Deacon and I winked at one another, Anton turned the color of milk.  She hurried to explain herself.

“Think about it.  You’re newly engaged and it would be a perfect opportunity to spend time together.  The place is huge and you’d have it all to yourself.  Mel’, you’d still get your alone time while Anton’s at work everyday.  Anton, your sleeping alone problem would be solved.  This place is a major step up from your place and none of your old girlfriends will be dropping by here unannounced like they do at your place...and now our place.  It’s an ideal solution!”

You didn’t need a magnifying glass to read between the lines of that statement.  She was tired of his parade of tramps waltzing through at all hours of the day and night.  She was right about one thing.  That shit would not be happening here, that’s for sure.

I decided to let it stew with him for a minute and not say anything.  The suggestion was out there, let’s see what kind of excuse he came up with.  If I knew Anton, it would be creative if nothing else.

“Dor’, I appreciate you looking out for us, but your place is closer to work and I can ride in with Deacon.  I know!  How about if Mel’ moves in with me at your place?”

Well now.  Let’s break THAT suggestion down to it’s finer elements, shall we?  My sister, who happened to be six months pregnant and irritable as all hell, would not only have to deal with Anton’s sluts and mood swings, but she’d have my temper and sarcastic humor to put up with as well.  Erm, no.  I’d get to witness Anton tell his harem, one at a time, how I was the lucky one that snagged him and as much as he was sorry to say it, he was now off the market.  No way.  Then there was the growing pains we were bound to go through.  We were both independent, private type people.  If we were gonna live together, that potentially explosive experiment should probably be attempted alone, without spectators.  That was after signing Non Disclosure Agreements and installing some type of dungeonslash-pain room in case I needed to beat the shit out of him for being a douchebag.  I’m no angel, but I know what he’s capable of.

Dorothy was staring at me, waiting.  I owed her for years of bailouts where our parents were concerned.  I could help her with this one.

“Anton precious...”

He smiled at me in that, “wait until I get you alone” way, and I waggled my eyebrows at him.  He wasn’t kidding earlier.  That boy needed attention.  His hand slid to my mid thigh beneath my skirt.  If it went any further, he’d be moving in for tonight at least.

“I’m not moving in with Deke and Dor’.  They’ve got a baby coming and they need some time alone.  I’m not saying that you have to move out or that you should move in here.  I imagine you’ve got women that you need to inform of your new relationship status.  We should probably make some changes on Facebook as well.  You can handle the ‘in person’ stuff as they call and drop by I guess.  If you were living here, you wouldn’t be seeing them face to face as much so maybe you should stay at Deacon and Dor’s.  The phone is so impersonal.  And distant.”

He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into his chest.  I put my face against his neck and breathed him in.  I hated manipulating him and that was exactly what I was doing.  We’d always been straight up with one another, but my sister needed her home and her husband back without family hanging around twenty-four-seven.