Bedmates Soulmates

You Can't Have Both Of Them

Austyn narrowed his eyes.

Kira had a gutsy friend.

Giana took his silence as an admission.

Her face fell.

'Mr McCarthy," Giana drew herself up. I know you're rich and powerful, but that doesn't mean you can do whatever you want, like having an extramarital affair."

Her voice shook a little, but she ploughed ahead. 'Cheating may not be illegal, but it's immoral as hell. I'm sure a man of your stature won't stoop to such an unethical, dishonourable, just plain wicked act."

Giana didn't press Kira when she refused to give a straight answer about Kayleigh and Austyn's

relationship, but that didn't mean she would turn a blind eye when her best friend was getting bullied in her secret marriage.

In her view, might did not make right.

'Kira is a good girl," Giana continued. 'You married her, and you've, ahem, been intimate with her, then you should treat her right.'

Austyn stared straight at Giana, who hid her trembling hands under the quilt.

She was prepared to give the alleged cheater a piece of her mind, but the man, tall and well-built and immensely commanding, gave off a threatening aura that made her want to turn tail.

How could Kira stand living under the same roof as him?

"If you want your wife, you need to sever ties with your mistress. If, however, you have feelings for Kayleigh, then you should give up Kira. It's an either-or situation. You can't have both. Trust me, keeping this up will only hurt everyone involved." Especially Kira.

Austyn did not say a word during Glana's long speech.

He just kept running those dark eyes over her face like he was trying to see into her brain.

With that scowl, the pursed lips and the square jaw, he looked like Henry Cavill's Clark Kent, minus the

cape

Kira must have a hard time keeping any secrets from him.

Giana tried not to flinch.

She'd said nothing wrong, and she stood by her words.

After a while, Austyn finally spoke up. 'Miss Mills, I have a question of my own."

'Sure."

"Why do you care so much about Kira?"

'We're friends."

'Do you always get in the middle of all your friends' domestic affairs?'

Was he calling her a busybody?

"She's my best friend, Glana sald defensively.

"Still, your concern seems a little...over the top."

'The man must not have many friends,' Giana thought. 'He doesn't seem to understand how friendship works."

"Families can turn on each other,' Austyn said, let alone friends."

That put Giana's back up.

She gave a mirthless smile. 'Mr McCarthy, you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth. I know you super-rich, upper-crust lords look down on us mere mortals and live in a parallel world, which I'm sure is filled with nefarious schemes and backstabbings that come with the territory. With friends and families constantly at each other's throats, feuding over control of your vast fortune. I watched 'Dynasties,' I know."

She paused to catch her breath. 'But out here in the real world, Mr McCarthy, friends and families don't turn on each other. They care about each other and stand up for each other when one of them is wronged. Just because you may not have encountered them in your rarefied circle doesn't mean true love and true friendship don't exist."

Giana stole a glance at the man's sphinx-like mien.

He wasn't mad about that last jibe, was he?

It was so hard to tell; he had a good poker face

Oh well, if he was offended and decided to punish her, she might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb.

Before she lost her nerve, she asked, 'Mr McCarthy, one last question."

He gave no indication of either approval or rejection.

Do you love Kira?'

If the man was so cynical as to doubt the existence of true love, was he capable of loving someone?

Her question drew a scoff from him.

'Love?' he curled his lip. I'm a businessman. I don't have time for fairy tales."

Giana sighed in her heart.

Poor Kira.

She married a tin man.

'Like I said, just because you've never seen it doesn't mean it's not real."

Giana pointed to Kira's peaceful face. 'I don't know why a man like you, who doesn't believe true love exists, wants to get married. But what's done is done. I only beg you, please treat her well. If you don't love her, at least don't hurt her."

Kira was a soft-boiled egg, all tough shell on the outside but tender and easily bruised on the inside.

She deserved someone who would cherish her, who was more precious than jewels.

Giana held Austyn's gaze. 'I'm just going to come right out and say it-you don't love her. I can tell." The frown on his face deepened into a scowl. 'I didn't know you were a mind reader."

"You don't have to be sarcastic," Glana countered. 'I have eyes; I can see.

'And what do you see?' Austyn crossed his arms and raised his chin.

You Can't Have Both Of Then

3/3

'I see that there's no love in your eyes,' Giana said evenly. "When a man loves a woman, he can't take his eyes off her. He immediately searches for her every time he walks into a room. His mind is taken over by thoughts of her, nothing else and no one else. In his eyes, she can do no wrong. He'd trade the world for

her."

Giana surveyed Austyn's inscrutable face. I know what I'm talking about, because I've seen eyes like those. Yours, on the other hand, are sharp. They scan, they observe, they scrutinise. But they do not light up at the sight of Kira. They do not love." She stopped short of saying he had a heart of stone.

As if to check out the truth of her statement for himself, Austyn turned around to look at Kira.

She was sleeping soundly.

He wished he had a mirror in front of him. What was the look in his eyes right now?