Chapter 9 #2
Her eyes blazed with annoyance, but she stayed quiet. Good girl.
I chanced another look toward the window but couldn’t distinguish more. “Whoever it is, we have to assume that if they’re nosy enough to spy, they’re nosy enough to gossip. Which means you can’t just stand there like a brick, or they’re going to think you’re not into this.”
“I’m not into this,” she muttered, inching closer. “Nobody’s into this. Not even God is into this.”
I shook my head and slid my hands to her waist, squeezing a little harder this time. Her humor wouldn’t soften me to her.
Stella grimaced, blew out a breath, and then reluctantly put her hands on my chest.
“You look like you’re holding me at bay,” I said. “Come on. It won’t kill you to wrap your arms around me.”
Looking like it might actually kill her, Stella slid her hands around my neck.
“We’re going to have to work on your acting abilities,” I said. “No one’s going to believe you’re obsessed with me if you keep this up.”
“You’re forgetting that these people actually know me. They expect me to be a bitch. Me suddenly fawning all over some random man would immediately raise their suspicions.”
I tightened my thighs on either side of her, trying to ignore how good she felt there. “You sure you’re not just saying that because you’re worried if you pretend to be obsessed with me, you’ll realize you actually are?”
“I’m not obsessed with you,” she said, her tone almost lifeless it was so flat, but I could tell from the way her sides heaved that she was struggling to keep a lid on her temper.
“Whatever you say, Sunshine.”
She spluttered. “Do not call me that.”
I smirked as a dark thrill of triumph shot through me. I felt like a wolf spotting an injured deer. “I’ll call you whatever I want.”
She opened her mouth, but another warning squeeze had her clenching it shut. Maybe she could be taught.
I caught a shift of movement from the window and tugged her the last inch forward, until we were fully pressed together.
From there it was easy to lean down and bury my face in her neck.
Damn it, she smelled incredible. Like that nostalgic blend of banana-scented sunscreen and sunshine that always reminded me of summer.
Suddenly, the pet name felt like it fit.
Her skin was soft beneath my lips, and warm from the heat of the day. The dress had a sweetheart neckline, leaving her shoulders and clavicles on display, and I was tempted to drag my mouth over every exposed inch of her.
You hate this woman, I reminded myself.
Yes. I did. She and her kind were a plague upon this planet. My reaction was nothing but a physiological response to being close to another human being. I would have felt the same way with literally anyone else.
“How long do we need to keep this up?” she asked.
“As long as it takes for you to lose the attitude,” I shot back, rubbing my nose along the column of her neck.
She sighed. “We’re going to die here.”
I was glad she couldn’t see my answering smile. She might take it to mean that my threats were empty and I’d go easy on her. That I wouldn’t set her entire life on fire if she spoiled my plans.
Another stolen glance at the window revealed that our voyeur was gone, but feeling Stella’s impatience to get out of my arms made me want to keep her there for a little while longer.
“Tell me who’s at the party, Sunshine,” I murmured into her skin.
“New rule,” she countered. “No pet names.”
“Too late for that.”
“Then that means I get to choose yours.”
“No, it doesn’t,” I said, nipping at her delicate skin in an idle threat.
A shudder wracked her body. “So, you just get to make all the rules, and I have to go along with them?” Her voice was low, breathy, and it made me think I might not be the only one affected by our proximity.
“Mmhmm,” I murmured, tracing the shell of her ear with my lips.
She blew out a shaky exhale. “Did you ever stop to think that it might have been a nice nickname?”
I pulled back enough to look at her. “Was it?”
Her expression turned cagey, eyes flitting away from mine. “I guess you’ll never find out.”
I took that as a no.
“Who’s at the party?” I asked again.
“I already sent you the guest list.”
We’d emailed some since our first “date.” Unwritten norms she’d forgotten to mention over dinner. More rules for her to follow. A general game plan for today.
“I know,” I said. “I read it. What I’m asking is if there’s anyone here who wasn’t on the list.”
“A few kids. My mother’s friend Susan. My parents’ business partner.
And uh . . .” she grimaced. “Blake is here, too. I told him about the swap, and I wouldn’t exactly say he’s happy about it.
I also didn’t expect him to be here because he’s so pissed at me.
I’ve tried to get him alone a couple of times to warn him that you’re coming, and that he better behave, but he’s also avoiding me. ”
The midday sun suddenly felt five times hotter than a second ago. My father was here, in this house?
I lifted my gaze toward the front door, half expecting him to be standing there, waiting for me, but that was ridiculous.
The man didn’t know who I was. And even if he did, he still wouldn’t care enough to come greet me.
He’d made it crystal fucking clear all those years ago that he wanted nothing to do with me and my mother.
Anger unfurled its poisonous claws inside me, and a dark anticipation swept in on its wake.
After all this time, all this waiting, the day had finally arrived to meet the bastard, to stare him straight in the eye as I smiled and shook his hand.
To finally force him to look at me, acknowledge my existence, even if it was only as a stranger.
Belatedly, the rest of what Stella said sank in. Blake. Goddamn it. This was a complication we didn’t need.
“Is there a place we can speak to your brother alone?” I asked. If he caused a scene and ruined my plans, I’d make him regret it for the rest of his life. I was so close. I couldn’t fail now.
“Ow, you’re hurting me,” Stella said, pulling away as I loosened my hold. “There’s a study just inside, to the right of the front door.”
“Go get Blake and bring him there. I don’t care if you have to drag him. You have five minutes.”
I finally released her, and between my tone and the look on my face, Stella must have realized how close to the edge I was, because she turned and hurried inside.
Instead of five minutes, I gave her ten, pretending to fuck around on my phone in case anyone else glanced out the window.
I needed the extra time to calm down, and I was hoping Stella used it to explain the situation to Blake so all I’d have to do was walk in and threaten him into behaving.
Taking a deep breath, I shoved my phone into my pocket and headed toward the house. Thankfully, no one was lingering near the front.
The entryway looked like something out of a magazine: black-and-white tiled floor, wainscoting, crown molding, expensive furniture and artwork, a dark-stained staircase climbing upward. To my immediate left was a sitting room. To my right, with the door closed, was the study Stella mentioned.
I turned the handle and stepped inside, shutting the door behind me.
“Look out!” Stella shouted.
In the split second it took my eyes to adjust to the dimmer light, I almost missed the fist flying at my face.
I reacted instinctually, blocking the punch with my forearm and following the movement, grabbing Blake’s wrist and using his momentum against him as I shoved him away.
“Blake, stop!” Stella hissed.
He tried to turn back to me, but I got there first, grabbing him by the nape of his neck and slamming him into the wall, pinning him. I snatched his flailing wrist out of the air and yanked it up and around behind his back, hard enough that he cried out.
“Stop fighting me,” I snarled.
He thrashed in my hold. “Fuck you! The deal’s off. It’s my debt. I’ll pay it. Leave my sister alone.”
“Blake,” Stella said, rushing up to us, her expression pleading. “It’s already done.”
“Then undo it,” he demanded, trying to shove me off.
I pressed him harder into the wall, his cheek grinding against the wood, arm twisting so high it was in danger of slipping out of its socket. “No. And keep your fucking voice down.”
His breathing turned into ragged, pained pants.
“You going to behave if I let you go?”
“No!” he yelled, trying to stomp on my feet.
I sighed. “Stella.”
She must have heard the unspoken threat in my tone, because her voice turned placating.
“Blake, I know you’re mad, but it’s done.
Theo agreed to transfer your debt to me, and this is how I’m going to pay it off.
If anything, he’s letting us both off easy.
It could be so much worse. He has the power to make it worse if you keep pissing him off. ”
Good to know she understood the situation so well. Maybe it would be easier to keep her in line than I’d expected.
She stepped closer, gaze steady on her brother. “You need to accept that this is happening, because freaking out or acting like an asshole will only draw attention, and then what do you plan on telling Mom and Dad?”
Blake went still in my grip, showing he hadn’t really thought this through.
It made me think even less of him, had me doubting Stella’s claim that he was a smart kid.
Maybe her parents weren’t the only ones who had sheltered and coddled him.
Maybe she had, too, and that’s why she still looked at him through rose-colored glasses instead of seeing him for who he truly was: a dumb college kid, as impulsive and hormonal as everyone else his age.
“You done?” I asked him.
“Yes,” he muttered.
He was lying. No way had he’d been cowed into submission so easily.
I released him, stepping back so I had room to swing when he proved he couldn’t be trusted.
He whirled on me immediately, fist flying.
Sometimes, I hated always being right.
“Blake!” Stella seethed.
I ducked his sloppy punch and hammered a fist into his side, right beneath his floating ribs, where his kidney sat.
He let out a strangled cry and crumpled to the floor.
Stella tried to rush forward to help him, but I snagged her around the waist and drew her back while Blake writhed in pain.
“He’s fine,” I said as she fought me. “I didn’t hit him hard enough to do permanent damage, but pissing blood for a week should be a good reminder to behave. Right, Blake?”
“Fuck you,” he wheezed from the floor.
I pushed Stella toward the door. “Get out. Let me talk to him alone.”
She stumbled to a stop, shaking her head. “No. You’re going to hurt him again.”
I met her eyes with a hard stare. “Not unless he makes me.” My gaze swiveled back to Blake. “Your brother and I just need to get on the same page, is all.”
She didn’t move. “I’ll only leave if you promise not to hurt him.”
“You still don’t get it, do you?” Two strides and I was in her face. “Promises mean nothing in my world. They’re just another way to manipulate na?ve idiots.”
She backed up, eyes wide, expression torn between fury and fear.
“Are you an idiot, Stella?”
Her cheeks pinked, and she shook her head, anger winning the fight as her eyes narrowed to slits. “No, I’m not. If you hurt him again, all bets are off.”
I flashed her a smile. “Now you’re speaking my language.”
And then I shoved her out the door and locked it behind her.