Chapter 31
Thirty-One
A lfie and I were laying on his bed, kissing softly when his phone rang.
“Leave it,” I moaned as he untangled himself from me.
“I do have a company to run, Lola.”
I listened to him talk; there was some sort of emergency at Harrington and I prayed that he’d tell whoever it was to go away, then throw his phone out of the window and come and ravish me all over again.
He didn’t.
Instead he told them that he was on his way. I sighed. Our love bubble day was over. Monday morning was always going to come, I just didn’t expect it to come on Sunday afternoon.
Alfie hung up the phone and turned to look at me. “We need to go.”
I sat up, the sheets slipping around my waist, baring my breasts. “What? Why do I need to come? Can’t I stay here?”
“No, I want you with me. Go and get dressed. We’ll shop on the way for something more appropriate for you to wear. Actually I should just have a wardrobe brought here for you.” He was already heading into his closet as he spoke so he missed my arched eyebrow.
“Sure, Sugar Daddy. Can I have a condo too?” I called after him. He stuck his head out of the closet, a brow lifted. “And diamonds too, Sugar Daddy, I just love diamonds.”
“Enough. What’s the problem?”
“Don’t tell me what to do.”
“I wasn’t. I was just telling you what I want you to do.”
Patience, Lola.
“There’s a big difference between asking me to come with you and ordering me to. Of course I’ll come with you if you really want, but you’re not buying me clothes.”
“Why not?”
“Because you aren’t my Sugar Daddy.” I lifted a hand before he could argue. “We can stop at my house on the way. I’ll get changed there.” I got out of bed, wrapping the sheet around me.
“Lola, wait.” He grabbed my arm before I could leave. “We need to fix this.”
“It’s fixed, Alfie. You just made a mistake.” He backed off a little, suspicion in his beautiful eyes. “And a very wise woman told me recently that people don’t come gift wrapped.” I gave him a reassuring smile but when I tried to leave again, he stopped me once more.
“We need to make up first.”
“We don’t need to…oh.” His hand dove between my legs for the hundredth time that day, his middle finger expertly stroking my clitoris.
A whimper escaped my lips as I clung to him.
He pressed me against the wall and lifted my leg to give himself better access to me.
I moaned loudly as he pressed two fingers into me and began to work me with perfect precision.
“Alfie…”
“That’s it, O’Connell. Come on my fingers, just like that.” He had me there in minutes. I tensed and rode it out, bucking against his fingers until it was over. I slumped against his chest. I was never going to get tired of doing that, and from the look on his face, neither was he.
An hour later we arrived at my house. My dress had been riding up the whole way, much to Alfie’s amusement. Mini dresses and leather seats just didn’t mix, apparently. I
gave it another sharp tug down, conscious of my commando state.
“I’ll be five minutes.” I climbed out the car and tugged my dress down for the hundredth time. “What’re you doing?” I said when Alfie got out too.
“I’m coming in with you.”
“What? No, no, no you can’t,” I hissed, starting to panic. If Natalie saw him I would have a lot of explaining to do.
Alfie gave me a sardonic look. “Don’t tell me what I can’t do, O’Connell.”
“Alfie, please just wait in the car, okay?” He cocked his head slightly, appraising me. I was spared from further questions when the front door flew open behind me and a toy arrow whizzed past our heads.
“Enemies! Enemies at the gate!” I turned to see my nephew with a colander ‘helmet’ on his head and wearing a suit of armour made from tin foil. His plastic bow and arrow was raised and pointed straight at Alfie. Well, this is one way for him to meet the family.
“Hands above your heads!” Ryan shouted, his cherub face set in a serious scowl. Sighing, I did as I was told. I looked over my shoulder at Alfie who was just standing there, nonplussed. I gestured at him to do the same.
“Seriously?” Incredulous, he raised his hands over his head too. “Shouldn’t your sister put him out of the way?” Put him out of the way?
“She’ll put you out of the way if you say that to her face.” I turned back to my nephew. “Sir Ryan is it?”
“King!” he shouted, an indignant look on his face.
“Of course. Your highness, I’m here to see your mother. I’m her sister. I’ve traveled from afar and I come here seeking a change of clothes before I continue on my journey. My manservant and I,” I gestured at Alfie, “throw ourselves at your mercy.”
Ryan considered us for a tense moment.
“Is that your noble steed?” He pointed his arrow at the Aston Martin. Oh God, this isn’t going to be good.
“Er yes, but?—”
“King Ryan wants to try it!” He sped past me and was on the bonnet of the car before I could stop him. I dove after him, wincing as his bow met the paintwork.
“Ryan?” We all froze. Natalie was standing in the doorway, drying her hands on a dish towel. She gave her son a look, that look, and he climbed down immediately. She turned an apologetic smile on Alfie.
“I’m sorry, my son’s a little wild.”
“It must be in the blood,” he said shortly, eyeing me.
I would have argued, but I was sprawled across the bonnet of his Aston Martin on a Sunday afternoon in a mini-dress, sans underwear.
Natalie looked from him to me. I guess there was no getting out of this now.
I slid off his car and pasted a smile on my face.
“Natalie and Ryan, this is Alfie. Alfie, this is my sister and my nephew.” Alfie stepped forward to shake her hand but halted when Ryan raised his bow and arrow.
“It’s nice to meet you,” he said from a safe distance.
“You too.” Natalie gave me a questioning look and I gave her another that said I would explain later.
“We’re just on our way to Harrington. I needed to get changed…” I trailed off. Why was this so awkward?
“You’d best come in then.”
Inside, Natalie excused herself to have a word with her son about shooting arrows at people and Alfie and I stole away upstairs.
Nerves jangled in my stomach. My world wasn’t nearly as shiny as his, and I dreaded what he was going to make of it. He can like it or lump it. That’s what my grandma would’ve said.
“You don’t have a bedroom door?” Damn. Why did he have to notice that?
“Nope and be careful.” I pointed at a spot on the floor at the top of my attic stairs and hopped over it. “Loose floorboard under the carpet.” He frowned and pressed tentatively on the offending floorboard, scowling as it bent under his foot.
“That’s dangerous, Lola.”
“I’ve gotten used to it.” I turned away and pulled some fresh underwear out of a drawer, my hands trembling slightly as I put them on.
I’d never invited a man to my room before.
Even Adam had never been here. I grabbed my brush and started fixing my hair up into a ponytail, watching as Alfie studied my room like a zoologist might study an animal’s natural habitat.
I watched him analyse every detail—the small purple monkey my father had won for me at a carnival when I was three, the photo collage Keira had given me for a birthday, my limited shoe collection tossed in a corner.
“Your family is interesting.”
“Interesting? Are you sure you wouldn’t rather I just ‘put them out of the way?’” It had been such an odd thing to say and in the moment I’d ignored it, but I couldn’t deny that his immediate rejection of my crazy nephew stung.
“He shot an arrow at us.”
“It was plastic, and he’s just a child.” I kicked off my shoes.
I’d had Alfie back for less than a day and already our differences were rearing their ugly head again.
I dug around in my shoe pile and came up with a pair of red Converse.
I slipped them on as Alfie eyed my pile of brightly coloured shoes with obvious distaste.
“Out of curiosity, what were you like as a child?” It was hard to imagine Alfie as anything other than the immaculate businessman I saw in front of me.
Alfie turned his attention from me to the jewellery tree perched on a shelf. He scrutinized each necklace, each earring, turning them over with delicate finger tips. “I was sent to boarding school young so I wasn’t a child very often, but I suppose I was a little like Ryan.”
“Really? Was your mum as patient as Natalie?” It was supposed to be a joke but the silence that followed sapped all of the humour out of the room.
“No. She wasn’t.” My chest constricted at the implication of his words. For once, I didn’t need him to fill in the blanks. He’d been ‘put out of the way’ a lot as a child. “These pieces aren’t all yours.” He gestured at the jewellery tree.
How does he know that? Had he noticed that they weren’t all my style? “No, some were my mum’s and the vintage pieces were my gran’s.”
His gaze continued around my room, landing on a framed photo of me and my mum.
“This is your mother?” He peered at the photo, his fingers tracing over the marks on the glass. When I was younger I had the habit of kissing it every day before I left for school. “You don’t look like her much.”
“No, the hair I got from my dad.” I’d grown to love my auburn hair, but when I was younger I was desperate for my mum’s blond curls.
I turned to my wardrobe to select an outfit, feeling his watchful gaze over my shoulder.
I picked out a deep green tennis dress and whipped my black dress over my head, changing quickly.
“You have so few clothes,” he said, a careless observation that had an angry blush creeping over my skin. His gaze was pensive as he looked around my room again. “Your life is very different from mine.”
“And you hate it.”
“I hate that,” he gestured in the direction of the broken floorboard. “I don’t understand this,” he waved a hand at my shoe pile. He cupped my cheek, tugging my lip free from my teeth. “But I like that you smile at your ghosts everyday.”
Okay, that could win him some brownie points. I felt my sharp edges soften a little. He tilted my chin up and?—
“Are you two going to kiss?” Alfie and I sprang apart, turning to see Ryan, still in his ‘helmet’ and ‘armour’.
“Ryan, you’re supposed to knock on the wall before you come up. What if I was naked up here?”
“Why would you be naked with a man in your room?”
Alfie snorted and I shot him a look. “Nevermind. Did you need something?”
“Mummy said to ask the manservant does he want a cup of tea.” Alfie looked at me for guidance but I said nothing, wanting to see what he would do. He paused, looking uncharacteristically uncertain. After a few moments, he turned back to Ryan.
“I would like that…your majesty.”
After I’d fixed my make up I headed downstairs, my sketchbook in hand. If Alfie was going to be working then I would need something to keep me busy. Working on my project seemed like a good idea.
Natalie was watching at the kitchen window and I joined her. Alfie was in the garden, crouching next to Ryan who was busy digging a hole.
“What are they doing?”
“Ryan was telling him about his ‘treasure.’ Your fella said he didn’t believe Ryan had any. Ryan’s proving him wrong.”
“And by ‘treasure’ you mean…”
“The earrings Alfie gave you.” We watched as Ryan unearthed a very muddy, very familiar red velvet box. Oops. “So, do you want to tell me how this happened?” Natalie asked without taking her eyes off her son.
“He came, he saw, he conquered.” I shrugged.
“I can’t say I’m surprised. That is one beautiful man.
” She wasn’t wrong. “I’m glad you have him back, Lo.
He’s a touch awkward though, isn’t he?” she said as Alfie politely declined Ryan’s offer to wear his ‘helmet.’ I smiled, wondering if anyone had ever described the ever-smooth Alfie Tell as awkward.
Natalie got on with dinner and I wandered outside, gesturing to Alfie that I was ready to go. He turned to Ryan, and it was hard to tell whether he was playing the part of royal attendant or just being his usual, overly-formal self.
“Your majesty, thank you for showing me around but I’m afraid we have to leave now. Your aunt and I must continue on our journey.”
“And why should I let you take my Auntie Lo anywhere?”
Alfie blinked in surprise, obviously not expecting a challenge. “I’ll let you have a ride in my noble steed sometime.”
It was my turn to blink in surprise. He was going to let Ryan near his car?
“Deal!” Ryan spat on his hand and stuck it out for Alfie to shake. My jaw dropped when Alfie obliged him with a handshake.
“Have fun?” I asked as Ryan ran away inside to hunt down his dinner. Alfie pulled out his pocket square and wiped his hand.
“He’s very entertaining.” I searched his face for a hint of sarcasm but didn’t find any. “He wouldn’t show me in there, though.” He nodded at the gate to my Memory Garden. “He said that I couldn’t go in there on pain of death.”
I tensed. So far, there wasn’t a part of me that I’d been able to keep Alfie away from but that…I couldn’t share that yet.
“My mum and gran’s ashes are buried there. Please don’t push it,” I pleaded, preparing myself for the fight that I knew would follow.
“Of course.” What? I was speechless as he passed me, returning to the house. I followed him, finding my sister in the kitchen, peeling potatoes in the sink.
“Natalie, it was good to finally meet you. Thank you for the tea.” He held out his hand and she took it.
“Yes, it’s nice to see what all the fuss has been about.” She grinned at me and I let out a groan.
“Come on.” I grabbed Alfie’s hand. Natalie’s laughter followed us as I dragged him out of the house before she could embarrass me any further. His hand squeezed mine as we walked to his car.
“I think your family likes me.”
“Yeah,” I smiled up at him, “you should let people like you more often.”