That was my thought exactly as the tall blonde walked in and wrinkled her nose rudely at our pizza. Then she caught sight of Gideon and flashed a come-hither smile.
I took a deep breath and told myself to let it go.
“Hey, Cary,” Gideon greeted my best friend before tossing his arm over my shoulder and burying his face in my neck.
“Hey,” Cary said. “What are you guys watching?”
“End of Watch,” I answered. “It’s really good. You two want to join us?”
“Sure.” Cary caught Tatiana’s hand and led her toward the couch.
She didn’t have the grace to hide her disapproval of the idea.
They sat on the couch and settled into a comfortable tangle that was obviously familiar for them. Gideon pushed the pizza box their way. “Help yourselves, if you’re hungry.”
Cary snagged a slice, while Tatiana complained about him jostling her. I was bummed that she couldn’t be more comfortable hanging out. If she was going to have Cary’s baby, she was going to be in my life, and I hated the thought of that relationship being awkward.
In the end, they didn’t stay in the living room long. She insisted that the handheld camera shots in the movie made her queasy, and Cary took her back to his room. A short while later, I thought I heard her laughing, making me think her biggest problem was the need to keep Cary all to herself. I could understand that insecurity. I was intimately familiar with it myself.
“Relax,” Gideon murmured, urging me to lean into his chest. “We’ll work it out with them. Give it some time.”
I caught his left hand hanging over my shoulder and toyed with his ring.
He pressed his lips to my temple and we finished watching the movie.
ALTHOUGH Gideon slept in his apartment next door, he came over early enough to zip me into a sheath dress and fix me some coffee. I’d just finished putting on some pearl earrings and was stepping into the hallway when Tatiana appeared heading from the direction of the kitchen with two water bottles in her hands.
She was buck na**d.
My temper almost boiled over, but I kept my tone calm. The pregnancy certainly didn’t show, but knowing about it was reason enough to skip the shouting match. “Excuse me. You need to have clothes on if you’re going to walk around my apartment.”
“It’s not just your apartment,” she shot back, tossing her tawny mane over her shoulder as she moved to pass me.
I thrust my arm across the hallway, blocking her way. “You don’t want to play games with me, Tatiana.”
“Or what?”
“You’ll lose.”
She stared at me for a long minute. “He’ll pick me.”
“If it came to that, he’d resent you and you’d lose anyway.” I dropped my arm. “Think about that.”
Cary’s door opened behind me. “What the f**k are you doing, Tat?”
Turning my head, I saw my best friend filling his doorway wearing only his boxers. “Giving you a good excuse to buy her a nice robe, Cary.”
His jaw tightened and he waved me off, opening his door wider in a silent order for Tatiana to get her bare ass back in there.
I resumed my trek to the kitchen, my teeth grinding together. My mood worsened when I found Gideon in the kitchen, leaning back into the counter and leisurely drinking his coffee. He wore a black suit and pale gray tie and looked unbearably handsome.
“Enjoy the show?” I asked tightly. I hated that he’d seen another woman na**d. And not just any woman, but a model with the lean, willowy body type he’d been known to prefer.
He lifted one shoulder in a careless shrug. “Not especially.”
“You like ’em tall and skinny.” I reached for the cup of coffee waiting for me on the counter beside him.
Gideon set his left hand over mine. The rubies on his wedding band sparkled in the bright kitchen lights. “Last I checked, the wife I can’t resist was petite and voluptuous. Spectacularly so.”