Safe Love (Love Brothers #4) by Liz Crowe

attention. He gripped her
    ass and lost himself in her, willing this to be right, to be what he wanted.
    She broke the kiss and slid down to her knees, unzipping his
    jeans and sliding her lips over his cock, teasing, licking and sucking as he
    watched her, fascinated by the scene as if he were watching someone else get a
    killer blow job. His fingers twined in her hair. His hips thrust up, moving
    faster as he let it take him, groaning in relief when it did. She sat back on
    her heels, wiping her lips and grinning.
    “That was nice,” he said, breathless. She picked up the wine
    glass and sipped, tucking her bare feet up under her as she sat next to him,
    keeping her disconcerting silence. “I think I owe you a little payback. That
    right, baby?” Putting the glass on the table, he pressed her back onto the
    couch, sliding his hand into her easy-access sweats as he kissed her, loving
    this and loving her, but wanting something that was not this—and hating himself
    for that wanting.
    A sharp knock at the door was followed by the doorbell,
    twice, in the way someone does when there is very bad news on the other side.
    “What the hell?” he said, standing and zipping his jeans and
    helping Rosie to her feet. He opened the door, catching sight of his friend
    Mark the cop, his daughter with blood on her cheek and Margot, standing a
    little behind them, gnawing on her lower lip. He opened his mouth to ask her
    what the hell was going on but she shook her head, her lips pressed into a thin
    line.

Chapter Eleven
     
     
    Margot had spent Thanksgiving alone at a movie, then at a
    Chinese restaurant making small talk with the owners. She moved through a kind
    of cloud, or fog, but one with substance that slowed down her movements and
    made her groggy and tired with the effort of navigating through it. She’d not
    spent much time nauseated, which was good. But ‘exhausted’ was her new reality.
    It was maddening. But somehow right at the same time.
    Friday was the final day of packing—clothes, bathroom
    supplies and other last minute crap. Every now and then she’d stop to touch her
    flat stomach and cry, then she’d get over it and move forward. It was beyond
    bizarre but the concept of being a mother filled her with the sort of peace
    she’d never experienced in her entire life. Father or no father, she would
    manage this and her baby would have a full life—but not here—in Ann Arbor.
    Her sister had been ecstatic and nonjudgmental, thank the
    Lord, and had already made her an appointment with an obstetrician. One of her
    best friends from school sold real estate and had located the perfect little
    house, with the ideal yard, inside the same elementary school district Margot
    and her friend had attended. It was all falling into place.
    It had to.
    There really was no other option.
    She lay awake on Friday night thanks to her many naps,
    staring up at the ceiling of her soon-to-be ex-home, in a state she had come to
    love for a lot of reasons, but had to leave for one reason in particular. At
    some point she must have dropped off, falling directly into a dream that left
    her sweaty and anxious, still tasting Antony’s lips and feeling his body
    against her, inside her. She got up and sipped tea, staring at old movies for
    the rest of the night, determined not to allow the man anywhere near her, even
    in her subconscious mind.
    Saturday morning she woke with a start and winced, having
    fallen dead asleep with her head propped on the couch’s arm with her neck at an
    awkward, painful angle. Her phone was buzzing somewhere nearby but damned if
    she could find it for a solid minute or two. “Hello?” she said, grabbing a half
    empty bottle of water and gulping it down.
    “Hi, um Margot?”
    “Oh, hey AliceLynn. You all right?”
    “Yeah. I just remembered this was your last weekend here.
    So…um, I wanted to say ‘bye.”
    Margot smiled and refilled the bottle. “Thanks. The movers
    come on Monday. Did you