Martin said with a wink.
The moment the door closed behind them, Henry pounced. “I’m going up to talk to him.”
Susannah grabbed his arm. “That’s not a good idea.”
“Let me handle this, Susannah. I need to handle it.”
“You can’t,” she insisted. “He’s not listening to reason. I know him. When he gets like this, all you can do is wait him out
until he changes his mind. You have to trust me on this.”
“I do trust you. It’s him I don’t trust.”
They looked up when they heard Ryan at the top of the stairs.
Susannah gasped when she saw he was wearing only boxer shorts. The half of his face that wasn’t battered was pale and pinched
with pain. Above and below the tape on his ribs were evil-looking bruises that stretched from his waist to his shoulder. As
he came down the stairs, she noticed his usual cocky stride was gone. That he was so obviously in agony made her heart hurt
for him, despite her aggravation over his sudden reappearance after more than a year of separation. She watched as Henry’s
eyes skirted over Ryan’s broad shoulders, his sculpted chest and abs, his narrow hips.
Henry swallowed. Hard.
Even banged up, Ryan Sanderson was the sexiest man Susannah had ever seen—and he knew it. From the look on Henry’s face, he
knew it, too. He was daunted by Ryan’s imposing physique, which was exactly what Ryan had hoped to achieve by coming down
there in his underwear.
“Is there a problem, darlin’?” Ryan asked as he reached the bottom of the stairs.
“You need to leave,” Henry stammered. “It’s completely inappropriate for you to just show up here and to walk around like
. . . like that.
”
With an innocent look on his face, Ryan scratched his belly just above the waistband of his red plaid boxers.
“Like what?”
“Half naked.”
Ryan snorted. “I don’t know what you consider to be naked, but I’d say I’m about three-quarters naked. Susie can tell you
I prefer being au natural. I only kept the shorts on because we have company. Despite your low opinion of me, I’m not a total Neanderthal.”
“That’s enough, Ryan,” Susannah snapped.
“I just came down for a glass of water, so I can take my pain pills,” Ryan said. “Don’t let me interrupt.”
“You are not staying here with my fiancée,” Henry said in a burst of courageous indignation.
“She may be your fiancée, but she’s still my wife. So I hate to point out the obvious, padna, but I think I trumped your ace.”
Henry fumed, and his ears turned bright red.
“Here’s how this is going to go,” Ryan said. “I want a few days alone with my wife with no annoying distractions—”
“That’s not going to happen,” Henry retorted.
“Yes, it is, or there’ll be no divorce and thus no wedding. You following me here?”
“You can’t do this!” Henry cried.
“I believe I already have.” Ryan left them in the foyer and went into the kitchen.
When they were alone, Henry reached for Susannah’s hand. “Come with me,” he pleaded. “Come home with me.”
“I can’t,” she whispered. “I have to pacify him, so he won’t make trouble with the divorce. It’s the only hope we have.”
“What am I supposed to do while you’re playing house with your ex-husband?”
“Wait and be patient.”
“I’ve been doing that for more than eleven years. How much patience do you expect me to have?”
“It’s ten more days. After all this time, surely you can give me ten more days.” She cradled his face with her hands. “Can’t
you?”
His expression stony, Henry said, “You’re asking an awful lot of me, Susannah. I know what that egomaniacal bastard put you
through. How do you expect me to just walk out that door and leave you here with him?”
Ryan came back into the foyer carrying a glass of water.
“Still here, Henry?” he asked, lifting that cocky eyebrow.
Henry fixed his eyes on Susannah. “I was just leaving.”
“I’ll be