Page 5 of The Billionaire's Bride

"—Left you while I took some time to figure things out," Edward snarls.

"Then called your best friend to come back to the life he’d left behind—"

"—to watch over you." He squares his shoulders.

"Knowing full-well that I was in a vulnerable position." I purse my lips.

"—I wanted to make sure you weren’t alone."

"And that Baron, here, was trying to cope with life after everything that he’d been through," I insist.

"—I was giving him the chance to mend fences with the rest of the Seven."

"You pushed us together, knowing there was a good chance that we’d develop feelings for each other," Baron interjects.

"I trusted you," Edward roars, and I jump. Whoa, hello! What the hell happened to the Father who was always tightly in control? Who wore his serenity like it was the most important part of his personality?

To be fair, I’d always sensed that burning intensity just below the surface, only I’d never seen him lose his cool before. Not like this, and sensing how full-on Edward is now, compared to how he never showed his emotions earlier? It's something else altogether.

Silence descends in the space, broken only by the muted sound of footsteps outside the door.

"You were supposed to watch her… From a distance," Edward growls. "You weren’t supposed to make contact."

"What can I say?" Baron drawls. "I screwed up. Oops."

"Why you—" Edward’s jaw tics. A vein pops in his temple. Anger pours off of him as he glares at Baron, who meets his gaze with a stoic countenance.

OMG, this can’t be happening. I cannot believe this is actually unfolding in front of me. I mean, I can’t possibly be witnessing this kind of a showdown, and with two men…at the same time, right? Both of whom I fucked; no excuses. And who were—are? —close friends…had clearly been through a lot together.

Now, because of me, they are eyeing each other like they hate each other… Maybe they already did, to some extent, if I’ve correctly read between the lines of how they had spoken about one another. Still, I can’t live with myself if I destroyed whatever little bit of trust remained between the two. Going by how the two of them are engaged in a game of who-blinks-first… Well, I’m afraid things are going to get a whole lot worse.

I drag in a breath, then step between them. "Stop it, you guys."

"Get out of the way, Ava," Baron snaps.

"Don’t talk to her like that," Edward snarls back.

I throw up my hands, "No seriously, you guys, this is not the time or the place to engage in a game of who has the biggest dick."

Both sets of gazes train on me. I glance sideways at Edward’s glowering face, then at Baron’s stony one. Shit, I had to go and say that, right? Of all the things.

Baron opens his mouth and I hold up a finger, "Don’t even think about it."

"You don’t know what I was going to say."

"Oh, please." I toss my hair over my shoulder. "The way the two of you pounced on that comment—which is a figure of speech, by the way, I’ll have you know—you think I don’t know what’s going through your minds right now?"

"Actually, I don’t," Edward drawls.

"Neither do I," Baron widens his stance, "but I’d sure like to know."

I stare between them, "Seriously, now the two of you are going to unite against me?"

"Of course, not, " Edward bites out.

"No way," Baron retorts at the same time.

The two glare at each other again. The tension in the room ratchets up. Now we are back to square one. Lovely.