Page 8 of Merger

Morgan whined. "But I don't want to leave. I want to use the sauna."

Atticus nodded at her. "Of course, you can use it."

Clarissa shook her head. "We appreciate it, but we’re going. Come on, Morgan. We just wanted to see that your sister got home okay."

I took both their hands. "We didn't even get to visit."

Clarissa set her gaze over at Atticus and shook her head. "Something tells me that the two of you need a little alone time, okay? We'll come see you later this week. We will do Friday dinner here instead of at the house."

Atticus interjected, "Yes, that's better. I wouldn't have let her come to the house."

Again, not kidding. He was deadly serious. What was wrong with him? And who the hell had replaced my husband with a robot? I got that maybe he was scared for me, or worried. But this was something different. This wasn't him. And if he kept this behavior up, we were going to have a real problem on our hands.

4

Gwen

When Clarissa and Morgan were gone, Atticus seemed to relax slightly. The frigid temperature of his soul warmed up by several degrees. But it seemed to stop and hover much lower than normal, never fully warming to a blast furnace like I was used to. He insisted that I be seated in the living room on the couch, and he brought me a tray. There was soup on it, and bread, and my favorite ginger beer. "Well, now you're just spoiling me."

"You should be spoiled."

"Where's Magda? I expected her to be here, mother-henning me."

He frowned. "You don't need Magda to mother-hen you. I'm perfectly capable."

I shrugged. "Okay, I'm just making conversation. What is wrong with you? You're acting weird."

"I'm not acting weird. This is me, a man who had to watch his wife get shot two weeks ago. And now she's home and insisting on working and doing things for herself. So you can understand how I'm not feeling like myself, right?"

I sighed. "Baby, I'm okay. I didn't mean to scare you."

The lines on his brow only deepened. "You didn't mean to? It wasn't your fault, Gwen. It was mine. We were so busy trying to prove what my father had done that we didn't see how dangerous he really was, or we didn’t see the fact that there was another danger entirely. That's on me. We didn't even look for another suspect. We just narrowed in, and I almost got you killed. I?—"

For the first time in two weeks, I saw him break again, finally allowing himself to be vulnerable with me. I tried to adjust the tray with one arm, and he quickly moved it to the coffee table for me. "What do you need, Gwen?"

"I need this." Awkwardly, I climbed into his lap and tucked myself in, burrowing my face into his chest. I inhaled deeply, letting his scent wrap around me and warm me up even more as I nuzzled in.

"Atticus, I can't even imagine what you went through, knowing I'd been hurt. And I can see how that would make you wary."

"I'm not wary, Gwen. I'm incensed. Because I fucked up. My wife almost died."

"Excuse me, Mr. Price, but I think there is enough blame to go around. We all were looking elsewhere. And for all we know, your father hired someone to do the shooting. So before we go jumping to conclusions and all that, let's think for a minute, okay?"

"Think? What do you think I've been doing for two weeks? I'm trying to figure out how to wrap you in a bubble and how to get him to confess what he knows. Trying to make it safe for you. I've been thinking."

I could tell he couldn't understand me right now. He was still too wrapped up in his grief. "Okay, I hear you. Why don't we go to bed?"

He nodded and helped me up. Earlier, he'd put my bags in our room. I hadn't even stepped foot in there yet. I quickly got ready for bed with some assistance. I would be glad when I no longer needed his help for that. But the maneuvering of my bra one handed was still not quite manageable. Maybe I would just go braless from now on.

You still have to go to the office, so you’d better not.

Yeah. Not the brightest idea.

When I climbed into bed, Atticus helped me onto my side. "Why aren't you ready for bed yet?" I asked when I noticed he hadn’t undressed.

"I have some things that I need to look over in the study. But I’ll be close by if you need me. I’d work in here, but it feels creepy to watch you sleep."

"Don’t you watch me sleep anyway?"

Source: www.allfreenovel.com