Free The Medici Mistress: Nothing and no one would stop him from having her. by Clare Connelly

the guy. To hear her speak, he was an arrogant bastard who made her life hell.”
    Silently, Annie speculated that arrogant bastards had a fair bit going for them. But for Chloe to have cheated on Stu was shocking. They’d been inseparable for over a decade. “What does Chloe say?”
    Stu shrugged, looking down at the paved courtyard. The sun was dipping lower in the sky, and the pretty fairy lights strung across the back garden now shone to full, twinkling effect. “She says she’s sorry. That she doesn’t know what she wants.”
    Annie knew how that felt. “Woah. I’m so sorry.” She hugged her brother. “You want my advice?”
    “I don’t know. Do I?” He was half-teasing.
    “If you love her, don’t let her go without a fight.” She swallowed past the lump in her throat. No one had ever loved her enough to fight for her.
    Now, Giac was trying to win her back, but it was as some kind of consolation prize. A second chance at their affair, not because he cared enough to put her front and center in his life. She smiled, a watery, reflective grimace for the brother she adored. “Just make sure she knows that you are willing to move past this. That you want a life with her above anything else.”
    “I don’t know that I do.” He placed his cup on the table and looked at Annie directly. “You know I love Chloe. She’s my best friend. But infidelity is pretty fucking hard to forgive, don’t you reckon?”
    Annie jerked her head in agreement. “I guess it depends on the circumstances. If it was a one off, well, that’s different to an ongoing affair. You have to talk to her, Stu.” She reached out and rubbed his forearm. “Find out what she wants. Don’t worry about what you ‘should’ feel. Just do what seems right at the time. Trust your instinct.”
    “I guess I don’t know what I want either.”
    She nodded, comprehension coming easily to her. After all, she was at her own emotional cross roads, and she understood that uncertainty was a natural feeling to have. Only she wasn’t uncertain. Not really. In a moment of clarity, she saw how wrong it was to stay with Thomas. Giac was irrelevant to the equation. When she’d thought she and Thomas had both wanted the same thing – someone to go places with, to have some fun with, without getting too serious – then it was fine. But he’d just begun a declaration of affection she could never match.
    “You’ll work it out. Try not to make a decision like this when you’re angry.”
    His face was bleak. “Will I ever not feel angry again?”
    She shrugged. Had her anger for Giac ever really died? Yes, it had. It had been replaced by sadness and pain, and miscomprehension. “I guess you’ll feel less angry if you really understand what brought all this on. You need to talk to her. I hate that she’s hurt you, but Chloe is a great person. She’ll be sick over this.”
    He forced a smile to his face. “Maybe. What about you and Thom?”
    Annie met her brother’s curious gaze. “I have to break up with him.”
    Stu made a noise of frustration and threw his hands in the air. “Because he’s perfect for you, and worships the ground you walk on?”
    “Yes.” Her eyes beseeched him to understand. “I don’t feel that way for him. I don’t want to lead him on. Not now that I know how serious he is about me.”
    Thomas stared at his sister long and hard. “I don’t know what you want, Annie, but Thomas seems to make you happy.”
    “We should have stayed friends,” she muttered, putting her drink down and reaching for a water bottle.
    “I’d give you some relationship advice, but I’m hardly in the best place to be handing out counsel.”
    They watched the party in silence for a few moments, before Annie changed the subject. “Who’s your new protégé?” She asked, tilting her head towards the young woman who’d taken to the makeshift stage and was running the decks.
    “She’s good, isn’t she? Found her at a gig in