Color flared in her cheeks as she realized Linus and Knox would both have been able to see the bites on her neck and shoulders because the towel only covered her breasts, not the skin above.
It was already warm in the apartment, but there was now also a furnace of embarrassment burning inside her after seeing those visible and possessive marks on her body.
She quickly pulled on a pair of dark jeans and a loose linen shirt in the same aqua color as her eyes, after which she ran a brush through the tangles of her hair. She thought about putting on some makeup, but in the end decided to just brush a light pink gloss on her lips.
Neither the clothes, the brushed hair, nor the lip gloss hid the fact that her flushed face and glowing eyes made her look like a woman who had been thoroughly claimed the night before.
And maybe, just maybe, she mused dreamily as she stared at herself in the mirror, she and Knox had already conceived the first of those babies they both wanted.
“Are you okay?”
She turned sharply at the sound of Knox’s voice. “Is it all right for me to be here?”
He frowned as he stepped fully into the bedroom. “What do you mean?”
“Doesn’t this apartment belong to Wynter Security?”
His brow cleared. “It did, but when Magnus moved to the UK, I bought this apartment from him.” He opened his dressing room door, took out a pair of jeans and a black T-shirt, and pulled them on as he continued talking to her. “Security pays well,” he explained, smiling as he stepped forward to take her in his arms. “So at least you know I’m not interested in your money,” he teased before sobering. “This wasn’t the way I had envisaged the two of us waking up together this morning.”
Ellie chuckled. “It was a bit of a surprise to see Linus downstairs.”
Knox grimaced. “You should probably know that he arrived sometime late last night and then slept in the cinema when he realized we were together upstairs.”
Which meant the other man had probably become an unwilling audience to their noisy lovemaking.
Could this day get any worse?
It seemed that yes, it could. Because immediately after they had rejoined Linus in the kitchen and the three of them were sitting at the breakfast bar drinking coffee together, the other man told them of the in-depth investigation he had done, at Knox’s request, on Andrew Day.
Hearing the stark facts of Linus’s findings was, despite Ellie already knowing most of it, humiliating to say the least.
She had been so naive to fall for the way Andrew had clung to her like a barnacle after her parents died and she was left a vast sum of money. To not have seen that, until then, they hadn’t been a couple as such, but had only ever been out together with a group of friends. The same friends Andrew had distanced her from once they left university and set up in an apartment and business together.
Linus had been very diligent in his inquiries into Andrew, both in the past and now. To the extent he had a comprehensive list of the different casinos and agencies Andrew had gambled at and lost at and still owed money to.
Linus also had a list of the women Andrew had been involved with from the time they’d first moved into an apartment together eight years ago.
“For the past six months, since the two of you separated,” Linus continued in a heavy voice, “Day has had an accomplice who has assisted him in breaking into your offices and apartment.”
Ellie was totally taken aback. “An accomplice?”
Linus nodded. “This someone has been instrumental in helping Day to make your personal and business life a misery.” His frown darkened. “And enabling him to cause you physical harm.”
Ellie felt the color drain from her cheeks. It was one thing for Knox to have told her Linus had given him the hospital reports listing the reason and injuries she had sustained, quite another to have to actually look the man in the face knowing he knew that.
Linus reached out to briefly place his hand on hers before removing it again when Knox gave a low growl. “I’m offering her familial support,” he assured Knox.
“Familial…?” Ellie echoed uncertainly.
“A friend of one member of our family becomes a friend to all of us. Knox is family, so that automatically means that you are too,” Linus dismissed lightly.
Ellie wasn’t quite sure she saw the logic in that statement, but it wasn’t important right now that she did. There was something else she badly needed to know.
She gave Knox a sharp glance. “Do you know who Linus is talking about?”
He grimaced. “I believe I can take an educated guess.”
Ellie studied each man in turn, but they only stared back at her, neither of them seeming to want to be the one to say the name of Andrew’s accomplice. “Tell me,” she pressed impatiently. “Tell me now!”