Chapter 18
Gen
‘How’s tricks?’ I ask my baby sister. Darcy is twelve years younger than me, and possibly an even bigger disappointment to my parents than I am.
While I was overachieving at prep school, my mum suffered miscarriage after miscarriage.
Her successful pregnancy came long after she and Dad had given up hope, and when Darcy arrived, she needed to do nothing to earn their love.
She was adored for exactly who she was. And quite rightly. She was, and is, the most perfect, adorable and good-natured person on the planet. Unhappily for my parents, she rejected their babying from an early age, acting out and demanding autonomy on every front.
I should have paid more attention. I could have learnt from the master. It took me far longer to demand my own autonomy rather than trying to please everybody else.
The way my sister and I have turned out is fascinating to me.
It’s no major surprise that I finally broke and decided to be my own woman.
It’s more surprising that Darcy, who’d never had to lift a finger to get attention or adoration, reacted so strongly and was so intent on not giving an inch from a young age.
I suspect she found my parents’ love stifling.
In any case, whereas I’m straddling the uneasy divide between respectability and being my authentic self, Darcy has no such qualms. She’s currently in Brisbane, where she’s working in a bar far dodgier than Alchemy as a dancer.
‘Tricks are very lucrative,’ she says through my computer screen with a wink.
I bet they are. She’s fucking gorgeous. Whereas I keep my curves in check through a strict workout regimen, she has the toned physique of a dancer without compromising the arse and tits men love.
‘They’d be more lucrative at Alchemy,’ I tell her with a wink.
‘Winter here is better than summer there,’ she retorts, and I know she has a point.
‘What time is your shift?’ I ask.
She stretches languorously. She’s catlike in her movements. She’s the most physically unselfconscious person I’ve ever met. ‘I need to leave in half an hour.’
Working in a bar suits my sister. She’s a night owl.
I, less so. I sip my camomile tea and consider how well she looks.
How glowy. I need to get my arse on a Mediterranean sun lounger before the summer is over.
Maybe I’ll see if any of my girlfriends are keen, though an alarming number of them are loved up now.
‘Thought so,’ I say. ‘You’re looking particularly slutty.’
‘And you look like an uptight pain in the arse.’
We screw up our faces affectionately at each other. God, I miss her.
‘You still shagging that surfer?’
She smiles her signature catlike smile. We’ve been told we have identical smiles, but I doubt I look as sexy as she does when she does it.
‘Yep,’ she says dreamily. ‘Ryan. Hot as fuck. Bit basic, but he loves going down on me, so I’m not complaining. You’re getting plenty of action, I assume, you dirty bitch?’
I laugh, though it’s not fucking funny, because the King of Pussy is eating everyone but me. And it’s all my fault. I wouldn’t confide in anyone about this humiliation, but Darcy is Darcy. She’s my sister, and the least judgemental person on the planet, so I take a deep breath.
‘You sounded so Aussie when you said that. And I have a little conundrum, actually. Between us.’
She grins and wiggles her eyebrows. ‘Do tell.’
‘A guy’s joined the club,’ I say. ‘Very wealthy, very high profile. He’s pursued me from the get-go. I mean, right from his initial interview. But he’s an arrogant shit, so I told him I’d never let him lay a finger on me.’
I sigh.
Darcy grins. ‘You’re such a self-sabotaging twat. Let me guess—now you’re gagging for his cock?’ She swigs at her Red Bull. I don’t know how she drinks that stuff, but she has a long night ahead of her, I suppose.
‘Nicely put,’ I say, though I would most definitely be gagging on his cock if I got out of my own way. ‘But it’s worse, actually. He kind of challenged me to, um, watch him the other night in the club. So I did.’
I have the gratification of watching my sister choke on her Red Bull. Serves her right. When she’s recovered, she splutters, ‘Are you actually insane?’
‘It’s very probable,’ I tell her. ‘And if I wasn’t insane before I saw his donkey dick and watched his jaw move when he ate her out, I definitely am now.’
‘So do it,’ she says, waving a hand. ‘Your problem has always been that you overthink everything. Just fuck him.’
‘I definitely under-thought letting him give me a full porno audition,’ I tell her, ‘and that didn’t work so well for me. But he sent me this beautiful bouquet of camellias yesterday with a note saying he wished it had been me the night before, so…’
I trail off at the look on my sister’s face. Her jaw is practically on the floor. ‘Oh my God,’ she says. ‘That’s so sexy. So what the hell is your problem?’
‘My problem is I feel like a conquest. He’s like a dog with a bone. He’s not used to women turning him down—that’s for sure—so he’s determined to fuck me just to prove a point. That’s my take, anyway.’
She frowns. ‘Could be. Or he could be genuinely interested.’
‘I don’t think so,’ I say drily. ‘He can have anyone he wants, and I’m not sure I’d ever recover if he fucked me and dumped me.’
She makes a sympathetic moue with her mouth. ‘What kind of a celebrity is he, anyway? Is he, like, an actor or something?’
‘No, nothing like that,’ I say. ‘He’s a very successful entrepreneur—he’s well known in business circles. But because he’s drop-dead gorgeous, and he’s a billionaire, he has a lot of groupies.’
She slams her can down on the table. ‘Oh, for fuck’s sake,’ she says with a sigh. ‘You’ve just ruined it all. You can’t get together with him. Well, you can fuck him, but you can’t be a thing.’
‘Why not?’ I ask, amused.
‘Because can you even imagine Mum and Dad if you bagged a billionaire? They’d be fucking unbearable. The fact that you’re a dirty, sex-club-owning ho would be swept under the carpet and all would be forgiven.’
‘God, yeah,’ I say. ‘They’d be far too happy.’
‘How are they, anyway?’ she asks in a quiet voice.
I shrug. ‘The same. Haven’t seen Dad in a while.
I had lunch with Mum a couple of weeks ago when she was up here and it was all relentlessly shallow and upbeat, and so fucking pointless.
You know, so-and-so’s daughter from the golf club is engaged to an obstetrician.
That kind of bullshit. She didn’t ask me about work once. ’
She groans. ‘Ugh. I’m never coming home. I couldn’t bear it.’
‘Come and see me,’ I say softly. ‘I miss you so much. And Maddy wants to meet you. I’ve told her all about you.’
My baby sister is dancing in a bar on the other side of the world, and I can’t help but wish she was home so I can keep an eye on her.