Stay with Me

by Maya Banks

  being her sighs of pleasure. When she was nearly asleep sitting up, Logan leaned down and kissed the curve of her neck. A delicate shiver cascaded down her spine.

  Rhys let her foot fall as Logan maneuvered from behind her. He plumped pillows and situated her in the middle as they took their places on either side of her.

  Rhys reclined on his side, resting his cheek in his palm as he gazed at her. Logan adopted a similar position and let his fingers drift lazily over her hip and down her leg.

  “Don’t leave us, Catherine,” Logan said abruptly. “I know you’re hurt and angry, but we can work this out.”

  “Can we? And are you speaking for Rhys now?”

  Both men looked startled at the bitterness in her voice.

  “Of course he doesn’t speak for me, Cat, but in this case, everything he says is true. We can work this out. I love you.”

  Her lips turned down into a resigned moue. “There’s so much I want to say,” she said in frustration. “So much that should have been said years ago.”

  “Then say it now,” Logan said calmly. “We can’t fix it if we don’t know what’s wrong, and damn it, Catherine, we—I—want to fix it.”

  She looked at her fingers clasped together in her lap. She pressed them together until the tips whitened. “Each of you has been handing me off to the other for a long time. Taking a team approach to our relationship.”

  Logan’s protest was swift, but she silenced him with a look. “Let me finish. It’s true. At first you both took your commitment to me very seriously. You took nothing for granted. Over time it became easier for the two of you to rely on each other instead of nurturing your relationship with me.”

  Logan made a strangled sound of irritation. He’d never been able to stomach touchy-feely emotional talk, and she knew it, but he couldn’t avoid it this time. She would have her say. Rhys was more subdued. He wore an almost guilty expression as if she had touched on something he’d already realized.

  ”That’s bullshit,” Logan muttered.

  She eyed him straight on. “You didn’t have to be there all the time if Rhys was around. Rhys didn’t have to feel bad about missing an event or special occasion if you were going to be there. You tag-teamed me instead of treating our relationship as one between the two of us instead of the three of us. You had it good. One of you was on standby at all times. Can’t pay attention to poor ole Catherine? She has two husbands. She doesn’t need but one around, right? Well, you were wrong.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest as her anger grew.

  “Eventually you stopped even that, and both of you shut me out, placed everything ahead of me, your business, your colleagues, even your personal assistant got more of your attention than I did.”

  “We were busy making our business a success,” Logan said tightly.

  “At the expense of your marriage? Tell me, Logan, was it worth it? I’ve long thought money and success was more important to you than I was, but I want to hear it. Maybe I need to hear it, because imagining it is so much worse. Maybe I need to face it instead of wavering back and forth as I wonder if I’m overreacting.”

  Rhys sucked in his breath, and Logan’s eyes widened in shock. For a long moment, there was complete silence as if both men were absorbing, finally, how dangerously close they were to a relationship that wasn’t salvageable.

  “We did it for you,” Logan said, his voice strained and low. “We wanted the best for you.”

  “You and Rhys are…were what’s best for me.”

  She uncurled her fingers and crossed her arms, trailing her hands up to her shoulders in an effort to instill comfort, anything to make the feeling of emptiness go away.

  “I can’t go on living like this,” she whispered. “I deserve better.”

  Logan stared at Catherine. His wife. She looked utterly small and defeated and so damned sad. Worse, she looked resigned. She didn’t see any other option other than leaving.

  Panic knotted his stomach. He couldn’t wrap his brain around a future without Catherine. No, he hadn’t been around much. He and Rhys had been throwing themselves into their company. Making it a success. Never had he imagined that it could cost him the one person who’d loved him when he’d had nothing, been nobody.

  He exchanged glances with Rhys, and Logan could see the same despair in his friend’s eyes. Sex wouldn’t fix this. Catherine was right about that much. Hell, he didn’t even know what would fix this.

  Or if it could be fixed at all.

  He opened his mouth to speak. To say something, anything, but nothing came out. How could he possibly make up for years of hurt and neglect in a few days’ time?

  It seemed so simple now. He could have done so much differently, but she was right. He and Rhys had taken her for granted. She’d always stood by them, supported and loved them unconditionally. And now they faced losing her because they’d squandered her gift.

  Rhys reached out and took Catherine’s hand. She glanced at the other man, pain burning brightly in her eyes.

  “Don’t give up, Cat,” Rhys said in a voice that sounded very close to pleading. But hell, right now Logan would beg if that’s what it took, and he and Rhys had never begged for anything.

  “We’re here now. Give us the vacation we promised you. It’s a starting point. We have a lot to work out, but we can’t do that if you aren’t with us.”

  “No cell phones, no email,” Logan interjected. “Just you and us. Give us a chance to work this out, Catherine. I won’t let you go without one hell of a fight.”

  Her eyes widened as she turned to stare at Logan. “Can you do that? Don’t you have deals to work, people to stay in touch with?”

  Logan cursed under his breath. Then he reached out to cup her chin. “You are more important than all of those things, baby. I know we haven’t acted like it, and we have a lot to make up, to prove to you. But it starts now.”

  Indecision flickered in her expressive eyes, giving her a fragility that inspired every one of his protective instincts. And then he nearly laughed. Protective? When had he protected her? She’d been fending for herself for years.

  “Give us a chance, Cat,” Rhys asked softly. “Please.”

  “Answer me one question,” Logan said, still holding her chin. His thumb stroked across her cheek and then over the fullness of her lips. “Do you still love us?”

  Liquid emotion surged and welled in her eyes. Beneath his touch, her lips trembled and quaked.

  “Because we love you, baby,” he said softly. “That much hasn’t changed. Will never change.”

  “I do love you,” she whispered. “But sometimes…sometimes it just isn’t enough.”

  “It will be,” he said firmly. “I swear it will be.”

  Logan dropped his hand away from her face, and she glanced between him and Rhys. She drew in her bottom lip between her teeth, her brow creased in concentration. It bothered the hell out of him that she had to stop and consider for so long whether she was willing to stay with them.

  “Catherine?” he prompted.

  “All right,” she said. “No cell phones, no emails, just us on vacation.”

  Chapter Eight

  Rhys curled his arms tighter around Cat, but she didn’t even stir. She was warm and soft against him, and he realized how long it had been since they’d lain like this. No hurry, no meetings to go to, no early a.m. flights or conference calls.

  She was right. He and Logan had dropped the ball in their relationship with her, and it sickened him that he hadn’t seen it until it was too late. Too late to prevent her hurt and sadness.

  He wouldn’t allow that it was too late for their marriage.

  He glanced up at Logan, who was preparing to phone in the room service order. “She’s exhausted,” he murmured.

  Logan frowned as he held the phone to his ear. “She looks different. I can’t put my finger on it. Somehow she seems more fragile. I don’t know, like she could break at any time. I don’t like it.”

&
nbsp; Rhys didn’t respond because Logan broke off to place the food order. He was right, though. Cat looked fragile. Dark shadows rested in the hollows beneath her eyes. Hollows that didn’t used to be there. She was thinner too. There was a sadness that hung over her, one that suggested it wasn’t a recent unhappiness but one that had resided for a length of time.

  His jaw tightened as his teeth came together. They would change this. He would change it. He couldn’t remember not loving Catherine. Yeah, he’d taken her for granted in a huge way, but never because he didn’t love her or want her with every breath he took.

  Logan hung up the phone and glanced toward Rhys. “Food will be here in twenty minutes. We’ll let her sleep until then.”

  Rhys lightly touched her cheek with his finger. He wanted to kiss her. He ached to love her, to make love to her, just the two of them. He looked back up at Logan. “I want some time with her,” he said in a quiet voice.

  Logan nodded and ran a weary hand through his hair. “We both need time with her. She booked two weeks at this resort, but it’s going to take longer than that to make this right.”

  “What are we going to do about work?” Rhys asked.

  As much as they were willing to do whatever it took to get Catherine back, as important as she was to them, they couldn’t just blow off their commitments. It would ruin them.

  Logan slouched down into a chair several feet from the bed. “I’m going to make some phone calls in the morning, iron out as much as I can, streamline things so they can run as long without us as possible. I don’t think Catherine means for us to do anything drastic in regards to the company. Her point is we’ve cut her completely out of the picture.”

  He sighed and tilted his head up to stare at the ceiling.

  “And she’s right. That’s what we’ve done. Here we are poised to land the biggest deal of our lives, and at the same time, we figure out what utter fuck-ups we are.”

  His chin came to rest on his chest as he refocused his attention on Rhys. “What the fuck are we going to do, Rhy? We can’t lose her. We can’t lose our business. I feel like everything is slipping away, and it scares the shit out of me.”

  It was unusual to see a chink in Logan’s armor. He was always controlled and methodical. Now he looked defeated.

  “We win her back,” Rhys said simply. “We give her a vacation to remember, but more importantly, we make her remember how much we love her.”

  Logan nodded. “Yeah, I know. I’m just…worried.”

  Rhys looked down at Cat, the soft rise and fall of her chest. “So am I,” he admitted.

  ***

  Catherine awoke to the smell of food. Seafood. Rhys was propped on an elbow at her side, and Logan was busy setting food on the bed. She glanced down at the selection, and her stomach promptly revolted.

  Saliva pooled in her mouth, and her stomach heaved. She took in several short breaths, praying she wouldn’t need to make a run for the bathroom.

  She closed her eyes as the knot grew bigger inside her belly. A flush of heat billowed over her body, and then she went cold just as quickly.

  Throwing off the covers, she lunged out of bed.

  “Cat, what the hell?” Rhys demanded.

  Her bare feet hit the tile of the bathroom floor, and her knees quickly followed as she gripped the toilet seat with her hands to steady herself.

  Stomach lurching, she painfully heaved, nothing coming up as her belly clenched and spasmed. Still, she couldn’t stop the dry retches, and moaned when her body convulsed again.

  “Cat, honey, are you okay?”

  Rhys put his hands on her shoulders then slid his fingers over her hair to pull it out of the way.

  “What the hell is wrong?” Logan demanded from the doorway. “Do I need to get a doctor?”

  She shook her head sharply even as another dry heave seized her.

  “Easy now,” Rhys said soothingly. “Do you want something to drink? Would that help?”

  She leaned into his shoulder, feeling like a wet noodle. She’d gone too long without eating, but the idea of the seafood waiting for her made her stomach protest all the more.

  “I just need something to eat,” she said as she pushed away from Rhys. She looked apologetically up at Logan. “Something besides seafood?”

  “There’s soup and a pasta starter,” Logan replied. “That okay?”

  She smiled and tried to stand. Rhys caught her in his arms and hoisted her upward. “I’m fine, Rhys,” she said. Then she turned back to Logan. “Soup and pasta sound wonderful.”

  They sat on the bed, cross-legged, her naked except for the sheet draped across her lap and Logan and Rhys in shorts. The soup soothed her stomach and allowed her to eat the pasta. She was hungrier than she’d thought and finished not only her portion but the men’s as well.

  “No more skipping meals,” Logan said darkly. “You haven’t been sleeping either.”

  She eyed him levelly. “I haven’t been sleeping well in ages, Logan. I never sleep well when you and Rhys aren’t there.”

  Dark color flooded his cheeks, and she felt a twinge of guilt. She hadn’t really meant it as a dart, but as an honest statement of fact.

  “What would you like to do tomorrow?” Rhys asked.

  She turned to him and pursed her lips. “Honestly? I’d like to have breakfast at a little shack I found while surfing the internet. It’s down the beach, and they’re supposed to have wonderful food. Then I’d like to do some sunbathing and maybe a little swimming.”

  She shifted her gaze to Logan to see him staring intently at her. “Then I’d like to come back and take a long, hot bath, maybe schedule a massage in the spa and then go out to dinner and dancing.”

  Logan scowled. “I don’t want another man’s hands on my wife. I’ll give you a damn massage.”

  She laughed. “Who says it would be a man?”

  “Don’t want us to rub you down?” Rhys asked with a wicked grin.

  “I’d love it,” she said honestly.

  She stared at the both of them, their relaxed postures, the easy smile on Rhys’ face.

  “I’ve missed this,” she said. “I’ve missed you.”

  Logan leaned forward, his hand cupping her chin with a firm grip. His lips brushed across hers, lightly at first then coming back, firmer, more demanding.

  “I’ve missed you, baby. So damn much.”

  She brought her hand up to his cheek. Her lips parted as his tongue probed and pushed inward. To her surprise, as she pulled away, Rhys was gone.

  She blinked in surprise and surveyed the room. “Rhys?” she called.

  “He’ll be back, baby. He’s leaving us alone for a while. A favor I intend to repay as soon as possible.”

  She turned her stare back to him. “Oh.”

  “You’re right,” he said reluctantly. “Rhys and I haven’t treated this relationship as one between you and me and him and you. It’s not fair to you, and we want that to change.”

  “No more passing me off to the free man?” she asked with a slight lift to the corner of her mouth.

  “I have a feeling, before long, you’re going to be very, very sick of seeing us,” he said as he pulled her to him again.

  She melted against him, absorbing his warmth. “Not a chance,” she murmured against his mouth, just before she kissed him. Hard.

  “Uh, baby? I thought you said no sex.”

  “I lied.”

  Chapter Nine

  Catherine pushed at Logan, sending him sprawling onto the pillows.

  “Tell me you’re planning to have your wicked way with me,” he said in a tone so hopeful she had to laugh.

  On hands and knees, she crawled up his body, letting her breasts slide over the tops of his legs and then his abdomen. The shorts he wore bulged at the crotch, the material tight and straining.