Chapter Six
She hadn’t been able to think of a reason to not get in the
car with the gorgeous man she’d slept with the night before. The man who could
never know she was Dee.
It was like she was a heroine in one of her Aunt Serena’s
books except they always got a happily ever after, and she was not getting one
of those.
Tragic. She was a tragic heroine.
Damn, but this was awkward.
She couldn’t stand the silence. He hadn’t even turned on the
radio, simply started driving toward the office once she’d buckled her seat
belt. “So, how is your sister doing? It’s been years since I saw her. I
probably wouldn’t even recognize her now.”
He chuckled, a deep sound that reminded her of the night
before. “Well, since she was only eight the last time you were around, I would
definitely say no. When we moved back to Australia, she got into dance. Which
is funny since we lived in London for so long and yet she didn’t start dancing
until she was in a tiny town out in the bush. Miss Addie’s Dance Studio. She
was one of five girls. She was with Miss Addie for years.”
This was much easier. She remembered Elodie as a sweet kid
she used to hang out with when they visited. “Mom told me she’s probably going
to be with a dance troupe. Is it ballet?”
“Mostly, though she does a lot of modern dance. Pretty much
any kind. It’s been her obsession since she was a kid. I always wonder what it
would feel like to know what you’re supposed to do,” Nate said.
She knew the feeling. “I grew up around a guy who knew he
wanted to be a surgeon from the age of seven when he went with Mom to visit
your mom’s clinic. He came back and all he could talk about was how amazing
Aunt Steph is. And she is. I’m pretty sure my da kept waiting for him to get
bored with it, but Aidan never did. He had a path in life from a super-young
age, and he’s followed it. Tris leaving is the only thing that’s ever gone
sideways for my brother.”
“Then why does Liam talk like Aidan doesn’t have a brain in
his head and you’re some kind of saint?” Nate asked.
Daisy let her head fall back against the seat. “I don’t
know. It’s not like I lie to him. I sometimes think it’s because he feels bad
about how I turned out.” She knew her da loved her, but she wondered if he
wanted to know her. The Daisy she truly was. “I’ve been told I can be a
handful. I don’t try to be. It’s hard to compete with a golden boy. I mean in a
regular family the whole I’m going to share my wife with another dude
thing would have helped me out. But no, I had to be born into a kink-friendly
family. I know they worry about me. A lot.”
“Well, if half the stories I’ve heard are true, I can’t
blame them for worrying.” He turned at the light. “So you’re going to hang
around the office?”
She sat beside him, though there was plenty of space in the
big cab. His truck was definitely Nate sized. “I’m going to be working there
for a while.”
But not forever because she was going to figure out her
life. Hearing Nate tell her he understood why her parents worried made her feel
perfectly secure in her decision to not tell him she was Dee. He would be
horrified.
“And you’re going to be staying at Aidan’s?” He asked the
question like he was worried about the response.
At least she could ease his mind about one thing. They
wouldn’t be stuck together. No forced proximity for them. “Nope. I’m going home
tonight. I bought my house a couple of months ago, and I’m working on
renovating it.”
“All right, I have to ask. How did you afford a house?
You’re barely twenty-five, and from what I can tell you haven’t had a steady
job since you left college.”
What had he heard about her? She might have to rethink the
belief her brother actually liked her. “I’ve always had a job. It’s just I
hopped around a lot.”
“Did your parents give you the down payment?”
It was another one of those stories she probably shouldn’t
share with him. But it wasn’t like they were dating. “No, they didn’t. I came
into some money a while back when I happened to stumble on a sex trafficking
operation. I saved a couple of young ladies, and their families insisted on
giving me a reward. I used it for a down payment on my house, but I still have
a mortgage.”
Nate’s head turned, his jaw dropping. “You did what?”
“It wasn’t a big deal. I was dating this guy who turned out
to be in the business, so to speak, but I always carry around some strips to
test drinks. When he drugged me, I only pretended to be out, and he didn’t
realize I was carrying one of the twins’ phones because they needed to show up
as partying downtown to fool some foreign spy agency, so I called and the
police raided.” She thought about it for a moment. “You know, it’s kind of a
theme for me.”
“I’m sorry. So what you’re telling me is the guy you were
dating was going to traffick you?”
“I think they called it an auction,” she explained. “I
didn’t get very far into it. Sometimes I wonder what my opening bid would have
been.”
He shuddered, and his hands tightened on the wheel. “You
need a keeper, girl.”
She got that a lot. “Anyway, everyone freaked, but I made a
couple of friends and I got to give Aunt Serena a good idea for a book, so it
all worked out. But I do need a paycheck. I couldn’t go home last night because
my bodyguard was on vacation. He came back early so he could start the job.”
Nate huffed. “So you’re making some bloke with a family stay
with you twenty-four seven because you refuse to stay with your family?”
She was starting to get the feeling Nate didn’t like her
very much. “No. My father is making some bloke stay with me. I would be fine on
my own. I have a security system. I have had some self-defense training. My
father is being overly protective.”
“Or you aren’t taking the threat seriously enough,” Nate
replied.
“We don’t even know there is a threat. I might not have to
testify. We know very little about…” She sighed. “I don’t want to argue. I can
be quiet until we get to the office. I’ll be working on another floor, so you
won’t have to see me.”
He was quiet for a moment. “Why wouldn’t I want to see you?”
“I don’t know since I thought we were kind of friends. Your
parents are pretty much family.”
“We’re not family, Daisy,” he said quickly. “I wouldn’t call
us old friends either. We don’t know each other. Aidan and I kept up. He’s come
to Australia a couple of times. The one time I visited here, you were out of
town.”
It had been years before. “It was my senior class trip.
Look, I know when I rub a guy wrong. It’s cool. You don’t like me.”
“Never said I didn’t like you,” he replied.
Not in so many words, but she’d heard him loud and clear.
“You literally called me selfish.”
“I was merely pointing out that if you stayed at Aidan’s,
Brian wouldn’t have had to cut his holiday short. I could look after you.” He
said the words casually, like it wouldn’t be the end of her world.
It wouldn’t be. Not the end of her world. But the end of her
peace of mind because she was pretty sure she would make an absolute fool of
herself if she was around this man for any amount of time. “Where would I sleep
when Cooper eventually comes home?”
“Apparently you could stay in Tristan’s room since he hasn’t
been back in months. You could move right in. It would make your dad feel
better. It’s not like I’m doing anything.”
“Cool, then you can move into my place.” She stopped, taking
a long breath because she hadn’t meant to say that. He was flustering her. “I
didn’t mean that. I certainly don’t think you want to hang around me
twenty-four seven. I’ll talk to my da. He’s being unreasonable.”
“So you’re going to be stubborn,” Nate grumbled.
Maybe he wasn’t so gorgeous. “It’s nothing you should worry
about. Like I said I’ll be out of your hair the minute we get to the office.
I’m sure my da will be thrilled to give me a ride home.”
And numerous lectures on how she was going to give him a
heart attack.
“Maybe I should be the one to have a long talk with your
da,” he muttered under his breath.
He was kind of an ass. At least she could trust her father
to take her side. “You do that.”
A hush descended over the cab as he continued toward the
office.
He’d been so sweet the night before, but she should know
better. She wasn’t a na?ve child. Men could be perfectly nice when they wanted
to get into a woman’s thong and then jerks when they’d had what they wanted. Or
they could seem nice because they meant to auction you off to some dude in
Malaysia.
“I heard you were at the club last night. Did you have fun?”
Nate asked.
Fun? She wouldn’t call it fun. She would call it life
changing. A revelation. She could still feel this man’s hands on her. She’d sat
up in Cooper’s bed waiting for the sound of Nate coming home. It had taken
everything she had not to be sitting in the living room, ready to confess what
she’d done and how she wanted to do it again. “I stayed in the locker room.”
“Really? I thought you were a member. Aidan mentioned it,
though he did say you never seemed interested in playing. He said it was more
of a social club for you.” Nate’s eyes stayed on the road.
It gave her a chance to study the hard line of his jaw. He
was such a gorgeous man. “I wouldn’t say I’m not interested. I enjoy the
lifestyle.” Why was she talking about this? It wasn’t any of his business. She
wasn’t about to whine and cry about the fact that the only Dom she wanted to
play with was the one she couldn’t have. Well, not the only one since none of
them seemed interested. “So you went to the party? Did you have fun?”
“It was all right,” he said.
Wow. That hurt. She turned away from him. Had she been this
stupid again? Thank the universe she hadn’t confessed to anyone. Not even Carys
knew what she’d done. She hadn’t had a chance to talk to her this morning
because Nate had been sitting there.
She wasn’t going to cry. “Well, maybe you’ll have more fun
next time.”