Her Old-Fashioned Husband (20 page)

Roarke looked over at Frankie and Brax. Brax was looking flushed, a combination of anger and embarrassment, Roarke guessed.

“Why don’t you come up to my office, we’ll talk there,” he said easily, wanting to know why Frankie would risk her husband’s ire to come here.

Frankie nodded and looked
up
at Brax who reluct
antly let her go with a glare
. Frankie snorted and calmly walked up to Roarke who held out his arm to her. She slipped her little hand into the crook of his elbow.

“Thank you, Roarke, nice to know there are still some gentlemen around.”

Brax snorted behind them. Roarke smiled down at her.

“You’re in a lot of trouble, l’il girl.”

She sighed. “I know, but I had to talk to you.”

“All right, let’s go and talk.”

He started up the stairs, Frankie beside him.

“Roarke, can I ask you a question?”

“You may,” he granted, expecting she’d ask him something about the club or his relationship with Tom.

“Why is there a half-naked man following you around?”

Roarke let out a bark of laughter.

Frankie tried to keep her gaze off the muscular chest of the man sitting across from her. Sam. Roarke’s lover and submissive, he’d explained. Fancy that. She hadn’t realized Roarke was gay.

“Sam, perhaps you’d best get dressed. I don’t think Frankie’s going to be able to concentrate otherwise,” Roarke said dryly.

Frankie flushed as she realized she’d been staring. “I’m sorry,” she said. “It’s just, well, you’re magnificent,” she said to Sam who grinned.

“Frankie!” Brax barked. “You’ve got a husband at home.”

She glared over at her
brother. S
he couldn’t believe her bad luck. What the hell was Brax doing here tonight? “I’m not blind. I can notice when another man is hot.” She crossed her arms over her chest.

“What did you want to see me about, l’il girl?” Roarke asked.

“Oh, well,
it’s
kind of private. Can we speak alone?”

Roarke stared at her, Frankie squirmed, feeling like he could see her insides, her every thought. Damn, the man had her wanting to blurt out every guilty thing she’d ever done.

“Sam knows everything about
me, sweetheart. And I don’t think
that Brax is going to leave you alone.”

“Damn straight,” Brax agreed, his own arms crossed over his chest, his stare mulish.

“Brax,” she sighed. “Please leave me alone for a bit. I won’t go anywhere, I promise.”

Her brother
stared at her.

“I’ll have Sam come find you when we’re finished,” Roarke added. “I won’t leave her side.”

Brax looked between them. “Fine.” He stood and glared at her, pointing his finger at her as though she were a naughty two year old. “Stay put. Do as Roarke says.”

Frankie congratulated herself on her control. She didn’t stick her tongue out at him until he’d turned his back. “I saw that,” he called back before opening the door and leaving.

She looked over at
Roarke and the beautiful Sam who
had to be the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen with his white-blond hair and startling blue eyes.

“If you’ve finished staring at Sa
m, honey, maybe we should talk,” Roarke said, his voice amused.

“Oh, yes, sorry,” she said at Sam again. He winked at her.

“I’m surprised you’re here, l’il girl, I
felt sure Tom would have ordered
you
to stay
away from me, he certainly warned me away from having contact with you. Unless you’re truly here for newbie night?”

Frankie waved that away. “No, I came to see you. I thought this might be the easiest way to see you. Tom told me never to talk to you, never to see you, blah, blah, blah. He doesn’t know I’m here, and really, he doesn’t need to.” Her butt would feel a lot better if he never found out. She wondered how she could bribe Brax to keep quiet.

Roarke raised an eyebrow. “I think that dream flew out the window when Brax saw you here. Not terribly obedient, are you, sweetheart? Perhaps Tom needs to spank you harder.”

“Tom spanks me just fine,” she snapped back at the implied criticism. She flushed as she realized what she’d said. “Look, I didn’t come here to talk about
me
.
I came here to talk about Tom. And you. I want to try to help the two of you fix this rift.”

“Do you just?” Roarke’s voice grew icy and Frankie nearly turned tail and ran. Then Sam smiled at her and gave her an encouraging nod.

Frankie took a deep breath. “I don’t understand why Tom is so angry with you. It’s not healthy, for either of you. Tom once thought of you as family. He’s letting his pain blind him and he’s blaming you for something that wasn’t your fault. That’s not fair.”

Roarke was silent for a long moment and she thought he was going to refuse to talk to her. “But it was my fault.
I killed Austin.
”

Frankie shook her he
ad, leaning forward. “No, you didn’t. A drunk driver killed
Austin. It wasn’t your fault.”

“If I hadn’t had that fight with him, he’d never been out on his bike and he’d never have been hit. Tom’s entitled to his
anger.
I suggest you leave him to it. It was completely my fault and my punishment is to have to live every day knowing I lost my brother and my family.”

“Your family?” she asked, shocked. What had happened to his family?

“They blame me.”

“They said that?” Jesus, what had this man lived through?

He shook his head, his gaze locked over her shoulder. “No, but how could they not? I don’t believe this has anything to do with you, Frankie. Perhaps
it’s
time you left.”

Sam urged her on silently, his eyes pleading with her not to give up.

“It wasn’t your fault, Roarke and I think the person blaming you the most is yourself.”

He raised his eyebrows, his gaze sardonic. “Got ambitions to go into counseling, have you, sweetheart? Tell me, how is your own relationship going? Obviously, Tom hasn’t got a firm grip on what you need if you’re sneaking
out and disobeying him. I
s he meeting all your needs or is he ignoring your needs in favor of his own?”

Frankie gaped at him, surpris
ed at the attack.

“Roarke,” Sam said in a shocked voice.

Roarke just stared at her through half-lidded eyes. Obviously, he expected her to run, crying from the room. But Frankie was made of tougher stuff than that. She’d grown up with four older brothers.

She firmed her shoulders. “Taking your pain out on others has been a way to keep them away from you, huh? Been working good too. I bet you’ve pushed away everyone but Sam. How’s that working out for you? Are you happy?”

Roarke narrowed his gaze at her.

“You know
what? M
aybe Tom’s not the problem here. Maybe
it’s
you. You’re so busy blaming yourself for what wasn’t your fault that you’ve pushed away everyone who needed you, who loves you. Did you ever think about your family’s pain, obviously they didn’t just lose one son, but two.”

Frankie cursed herself as soon as she said it, God who was she to tell this man how to run his
life? S
he didn’t even have control over her own most times.

“I’m not the only one who blames me, Frankie. Your husband hates my guts for what I did.”

The door to the office creaked open. Brax hadn’t shut it properly.

“I don’t just blame you, I blame myself as well. It was just easier to be angry at you,” Tom said quietly as he walked into the office. His gaze hit Frankie, running over her body as though to make sure she was all right.

“Brax called you, huh?” she asked weakly.

He nodded. “I was on my way home. My shift ended early.” He volunteered his services at the hospital here a couple of times a month.

“I’m sorry for disobeying you,” she said quickly, hoping her immediate apology would ease the anger in his eyes.

“We’ll get to that later,” he promised ominously. He held out his hand to her.
“Let’s go.”

Frankie rose, feeling defeat pound at her. She hadn’t fixed
anything;
in fact she’d possibly made things worse. Plus, she was going to get her ass spanked, and all for nothing.

“Thank you,” Sam
whispered
as he stood and gave her a hug
. “I’ve been trying to get him to talk about this for years.”

“I think I made things worse,” she whispered back.

“Chin up, sweetheart.”
He let her go and gave her a gentle smile. He morphed from gorgeous to breathtakingly stunning. She shook her head to clear it before walking over to take Tom’s hand. Tom turned to leave.

“Tom,” Roarke called out. “Wait. Please.”

Tom stilled and looked over his shoulder.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I got him killed,” Roarke told him, his voice thick with emotion. “I’m sorry I had to have the plug pulled.”

Frankie took a deep breath. Dear God, Roarke had to make the decision to end Austin’s life? She couldn’t even imagine how hard that must have been. Tom stared at the far wall.

“I loved him,” Tom
finally said. “He was all I had. And I blamed you for taking him from me. Without Austin, I had nothing, no family, well, except for Brax and his family.” Frankie squeezed his
hand. She knew Tom’s parents had never been there for him.

“Bullshit,” Roarke said. “You were always part of our family, from the day Austin brought you home.”

Tom took a deep breath and tugged her into his chest before turning to face Roarke. “
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking over the past few weeks, about why I’m so angry with you. Why I feel this hatred towards you. And I realized it was because blaming you was easier than dealing with my own guilt. You gave me a convenient target to aim my anger at, instead of focusing it on myself, where it really belonged.”

Tom paused and Frankie patted his arm, trying to lend him her strength.
“I’d already argued with Austin
before you got there. I told him that
the clubs weren’t for me
, that I wanted something mor
e. I didn’t want to play
. I enjoyed the discipline aspect, but not the rest. He was furious with
me
.
I was surprised by his reaction
, I hadn’t really expected it
.
I mean, most of the time, I just watched at the club. I only went there because he asked me too.
I don’t know why he was so angry, but he was. Then you came along
to talk to him about Lou-Lou
and it pushed him over the edge.
Then he was gone.
I didn’t deal with any of it well and over the years my anger
has faded, but my guilt has grown. When I learned you’d spoken to Frankie I overreacted. Badly. I’m sorry
, Roarke.”

Frankie stared at Sam with wide eyes, seeing the shock on his own face. This night had taken a turn she hadn’t expected. She’d thought it would take months of work to get both men to the point they were at right now.

“He thought he would lose you, that’s why he was so angry,” Roarke said quietly. “You weren’t to blame
for his death, Tom
. I guess neither of us were.
The guy drinking and driving was the one who killed him.
”

It was a break through, she thought. Even though the tension was still there at least they’d admitted that Austin’s death, while tragic and unnecessary was not their fault.

Tom nodded and Frankie felt the tension in his lessen. “If you’ll excuse us, I have to get my wife home, then she and I are going to have a long talk about obedience.”

Damn. Frankie gulped.

Tom turned away again.

“Would you like to come over for dinner?” Frankie blurted out, surprising herself. Everyone stilled, looking at her. She flushed. “Maybe next Sunday night, around seven. Both of you, of course.” She looked around Tom to Sam who smiled.

Roarke looked at Tom. Frankie held her breath.

“Yes, please do,” Tom said stiffly.

Roarke nodded. “We’d like that.”

“And by that time, Frankie might actually be able to sit comfortably.”

“Upstairs,” Tom ordered as soon as they walked into their house. “Strip and lie naked on your back on the bed. I want you to hold your legs up against your chest.”

Frankie blushed at the vivid image.

“Tom,” she protested.

“Now,” he barked.

Unused to hearing that level of anger in his voice, she fled, racing upstairs. Oh God, what had she done? Sure, she’d had only the best intentions, but she’d disobeyed Tom and now he was furious with her.