Chapter 5
Amelia
Adull ache throbs in the back of my head.
My eyes flutter open, trying to blink away the aches and I pull myself up.
A blanket covers me on the couch in Clare’s formal living room, and a soft snore fills the room from the armchair by the grand fireplace.
I remember moving from the kitchen to the living room near two a.m., but I don’t remember falling asleep.
I didn’t drink that much after we got back.
I focus on Darius and take in how vulnerable he looks when he’s asleep.
He’s methodical when he speaks, firmly believing every word he says, but I see the walls he’s built around himself.
His views of people from my side of the city are true to an extent, but the way he was looking at me didn’t seem to agree with what he was saying.
I’m pretty sure I’m not reading too much into it, but then I don’t have the greatest track record when it comes to guys who I think like me.
I was convinced Matt O’Hare was into me last year, I caught him staring more than not, he always seemed to be where I was, but it turned out, he was into Clare. I’d never felt such an idiot.
Chucking the blanket off my legs, I stand and head into the kitchen. The house is quiet, and Clare and Tariq are nowhere to be seen. I guess they’re still upstairs locked away in her bedroom.
Opening the fridge, I grab a bottle of water and drink half the contents before screwing the lid back on and I lean against the counter. I hope they wake up soon so I can go home. Mary-Ellen walks in with her cleaning basket and smiles warmly when she sees me.
“Good morning, Amelia. I thought Clare was meant to be staying at yours last night?”
“Our plans changed.”
“They are usually the best kind of nights.”
I don’t agree. I was having a good time until Tariq showed up and stole my best friend away.
Not that she took any convincing. It stings remembering how easily she followed him like a puppy, not considering my feelings at all.
If it were her birthday, I wouldn’t have room to moan but it was my night and she didn’t think of me once.
“Oh, and happy birthday for yesterday. Did you have a good night?”
Before I can answer, her smile drops from her face like a lead balloon, and her chest rises and falls rapidly.
“Get out or I’ll call the cops,” she yells, and I turn around to see Darius standing in the doorway.
“Mary-Ellen, this is a… friend. Clare is with his friend. They stayed over last night,” I explain as she reaches for her phone in her apron pocket.
“Mr. Burley wouldn’t like his kind in the house, Amelia. He must leave.”
Looking between Mary-Ellen and Darius, the assumptions of each other are so strong I can feel them. I admit, he does look the type who would rob our houses, but he’s not here to steal. She can relax.
“Clare will be down soon, and then they’ll be leaving.”
Mary-Ellen moves closer to me, keeping her phone firmly in her hold and lowers her voice. “He’s one of them, a Dog, Amelia. Clare is going to hear about this when I inform Mr. Burley.”
“I’m sure she will,” I say because this is what Clare wants from her father.
“If she’s not up in the next thirty minutes, I’m calling her father.”
With that said, she grabs her cleaning basket and near enough runs out of the room, heading for Mr Burley’s office.
Darius steps farther into the kitchen and sits in the same seat as he did last night. “Does this place have any coffee?”
“I’m not your maid and I highly doubt Mary-Ellen will make you feel at home. Why don’t you go wake up your friend and leave?”
He doesn’t say a word. The corner of his mouth hooks up at the corner and he rubs his hand over his shaven head.
“Maybe I should, wouldn’t want the cops to show up just because your friend wants to ride on a Dog dick.”
And like that, I lose the bitchy sarcasm. “Does that happen to you often?”
“What? People assuming I’m going to be trouble if I’m in places I shouldn’t be?”
I nod.
“More than you know.” He shrugs. “I’m used to it.”
I wander across the kitchen and sit at the table, this time taking the chair next to him. He watches me carefully and cocks a brow.
“Don’t you hate it?”
“I won’t patronise you by calling you a naive princess, but most of the time I warrant the looks I get.
If I were here to rob this place, I wouldn’t feel bad.
I wouldn’t care if the jewellery had been in the family for over a hundred years, I wouldn’t care if the occupants found themselves too scared to sleep under this roof in fear I’d come back. ”
“Do you rob houses?” I ask hesitantly.
“No, Amelia, I don’t. Do you?” He laughs and I roll my eyes.
“Sure I do, but only on Thursday’s. I’m far too busy the rest of the week.”
He laughs and my stomach bottoms out. His aura changes and I smile, it making me feel good I’ve made him laugh.
“I’m sure if you were caught, your daddy would bail you out.”
“That’s what I bank on, I wouldn’t do so well behind bars. I’ve heard the prison system doesn’t let you wear your own underwear.”
His lips part to say something when Tariq and Clare barrel into the kitchen, his arms around her and her laughing at something between them. Pushing my chair slightly away, he notices but doesn’t say anything.
“Mary-Ellen said you’ve got thirty minutes to get your guests out of the house before she calls your dad,” I tell Clare, and her easy smile turns into wicked smirk.
Tariq doesn’t have the same reaction, he stills and stares at Darius.
“It’s good, we’re out,” he says and Clare frowns.
“You don’t have to leave. It’s not like he’ll rush home,” she argues.
“Nah, it’s all good, baby, we’ve got places to be.”
Darius pushes out of his chair and Tariq spins Clare in his arms and plants a big kiss on her. I stay where I am while she walks him out, Darius gives me a long stare before he tips his chin and heads out.
It’s not long before she dances back into the kitchen and falls into the chair Darius was sat on moments ago.
“He’s so hot, isn’t he?”
“Who are you talking about?”
“Darius, obviously.”
I’ll admit he’s as hot as Hell. I can see how his gangbanging persona could draw someone in, wanting to feel excitement, not that I’m going to tell Clare that.
“He’s… okay.”
“Okay? You’re out of your mind if you can’t see it. Unless…” Her smirk returns, and I gulp. “Did something happen between you and Darius?”
“Nothing happened, jeez, Clare, I’ve only met him twice.”
“So you spent the night doing what?”
“Talking and then sleeping… me on the couch and him on the armchair.”
Rolling her eyes, she flicks her hair over her shoulder and love bites are peppered down her neck. I fight not to cringe. I’m not judging her but they’re ugly as hell.
“You can’t deny he’s hot, Amelia. Are you sure there wasn’t even a kiss?”
“I’m sure.”
I judged him harshly the other night but listening to him talk I began to see there’s more to him than his reputation, but it doesn’t mean anything would’ve happened between us.
“Do you think Mary-Ellen will tell my dad they were here?”
“I’m pretty sure she already has.”
She runs upstairs to get her phone and makes sure the ringer is on loud. I hate that her dad makes her feel like this, that she has to go to such lengths for his attention. She could move in with me and he wouldn’t notice.
“What do you want to do today?” she asks, keeping one eye on the phone.
“I want to know what you see in Tariq. Didn’t you see their knuckles covered in blood last night?”
Her wicked smirk returns, and I frown.
“I don’t know, I kinda think it’s hot,” she admits.
“You’re not serious?”
“You weren’t upstairs last night, it was defiantly hot, Amelia.”
Her laughter fills the kitchen, and I exhale a long breath.
“There’s something wrong with you, you know that, right?”
“If it always feels this good to be this wrong, then I’m down.”
Rolling my eyes, I make a start on breakfast, hoping there aren’t any graphic details to come from her and put me off my food.
“The fair’s in town, we could go shopping and then hit the fair tonight.”
The fair is much better at night when the lights and music contrast the dark sky.
“Sounds good to me.”