CHAPTER NINE
Zach
I went off the terrace and around the nearby tree, using it to hide myself from Blair and her sister while staying within earshot. I didn’t trust Blair not to blab to her sister about her hair and the fall.
“It looked like you two were arguing. Is everything okay?” her sister said.
My hand curled into a fist as I peered around the tree, waiting to see what Blair was going to say.
“Yeah. He was just yapping about some plants and shit, and I told him not to bother me about it.”
I almost snorted. She could act like she was superior here all she wanted. It wouldn’t mean shit for her.
“And the chair?”
“I was rocking in it, and I fell.”
“You should be more careful.”
She believed that? Surprising but convenient. I didn’t need her to question what I was doing here.
Their housekeeper showed up on the terrace, and they waited for her to leave before they continued their conversation.
I noticed Blair check her palm, and I tightened my hand around my phone.
Although it satisfied me to see her pained expression as she looked at me from the ground after that fall—the same expression she had yesterday when I cut her hair—it wasn’t nearly enough.
I needed to see more of those expressions.
“So what’s with the haircut?” Melody asked.
“I needed a change.”
“But you loved your hair.”
“Yes, but as I said, I needed a change.”
So she was keeping her mouth shut. Then again, this shouldn’t surprise me. She would do anything to save her ass.
“Mom will flip out once she sees you.”
“I know. But she’ll get over it.” She checked her image in the window. “Does it look that bad?”
My lips twitched. Well, well, well. My comment got to her after all.
“Not at all. I like it. Why? Did you maybe change the hairstyle because you want to impress some guy?”
“Nope.”
“Oh, come on. There has to be someone. You continue to attend parties and business events. You must’ve met some hottie.”
I thought back to that guy in the club the other night, and I caught myself waiting intently for her answer.
She was too beautiful not to have someone, but just imagining her with others made me feel like smashing something.
She didn’t belong with other guys. She belonged only to me, under my control, just the way she was on that vanity table when I touched her.
Fuck, the way she enjoyed it . . . My cock started hardening in my pants. She’d wanted it so badly, and it had been on my mind the whole night. I would’ve buried myself in her right then and there if not for me punishing her.
“Nope. No hotties on sight.”
I smiled. Good. And I was going to make sure it stayed that way.
The conversation shifted to her sister’s spa day, which was my cue to leave.
Making sure they didn’t notice me, I headed off to the shed to grab garden shears, ready for a couple of hours of mindless work.
The job here wasn’t as demanding as it was boring.
Unfulfilling. I didn’t want to spend time out here, tending to someone’s plants.
My passion and interests lay with computer science, and while I’d already accomplished a lot in that field, I had to devote all my time to this “job” for the sake of my ruse.
The shed was spacious, and that was an understatement.
This family splurged money on everything, including this space, with all the various tools taking up the walls and cabinets spanning over one entire wall, but it was all organized.
Blair’s mother demanded every tool was back at its place after use, not to mention cleaned.
Then again, I shouldn’t be surprised after I’d seen her office.
Not a single paper was out of place there, and everything—from the furniture to the walls—was cold and sterile.
She was a control freak through and through.
And apparently, she kept Blair on a tight leash.
And that was another understatement. The way she’d acted with Blair when I met her showed me she didn’t care for her any more than my mother had cared for me, which in itself should feel gratifying, but it didn’t.
Even worse, I was about to tear into her right there, but I held back only by sheer will.
Even now, I felt this fucked-up urge to stand up for Blair, which was fucking pathetic.
She wasn’t a victim. She deserved a taste of her own medicine.
I’d lost track of time as I trimmed the bushes around the shed, the sun beating down on my back. I wiped the sweat off my forehead with my forearm, deciding to grab some water in the kitchen, when the sound of a lighter clicked through the air from behind the shed. My pulse jacked up.
I got to my full height, my skin heating up unbearably before I reminded myself I was okay.
I took a quick breath through my nostrils and darted toward the source, finding Blair’s sister on the other side of the shed, right next to a boxwood shrub that stretched up to the shed’s roof.
It provided a perfect cover for her if anyone from the house looked toward the shed.
She took a long inhale of her cigarette, looking over in my direction. Her eyes widened, her face turning wholly red.
“Crap.” She yanked the cigarette out of her mouth and flung it to the ground, stomping on it. She dispersed the smoke with her hand. “I didn’t know you were here.”
I stared at the tip of the crushed cigarette, its embers now extinguished. I swallowed. “You didn’t have to stop on my account.”
She tilted her head. “Won’t you go and tell on me to my mom?”
So they didn’t know she was smoking. I guessed it shouldn’t surprise me that her innocent-girl look hid a not-so-innocent girl, seeing as she was Blair’s sister.
“Why would I do that? Whether you smoke or not is none of my business.”
Her features relaxed visibly, and she smiled as she pulled out another cigarette from a cigarette pack she carried. “Then you won’t mind if I have another one.”
My hand clenched. “Go for it.”
She lit the cigarette and blew the smoke high up in the air, and I focused on her profile as she stared up at the clouds instead of my stomach knotting or the lit tip of the cigarette. From the side, she looked almost identical to Blair.
“My parents would flip out if they knew I was smoking. I’m immunocompromised, so it’s the last thing I should do.”
“So why do you do it?”
She shrugged, a shy smile showing up on her face as she studied her feet. “Dunno. I guess it makes me feel more normal? Like there’s nothing wrong with me. Does that even make sense?”
I smiled. I could understand that, even if it wouldn’t do her any good. “So this is your smoke spot? Behind the shed, where no one can see you?”
She rocked on the heels of her pink ballet flats. “It’s worked well for me so far.”
I nodded. “Good thinking.”
She looked me up and down, and she frowned. “You seem so different now.”
“Now? Compared to when?”
“Compared to when you’re with my sister. You don’t like her?”
I looked ahead of me, almost curling my lip. “No, I don’t like her.”
“That’s strange. Everyone likes my sister.”
“I wonder why,” I muttered.
Her breath caught. “So you want to tell me you didn’t notice how beautiful she is? You’d be the first.”
If only I hadn’t noticed.
“Is that so? Do guys chase her often?”
“All the time. So much so that it feels like the rest of us girls are invisible compared to her.”
She sounded resigned, but I wasn’t going to poke around that. Or around the fact that I didn’t like hearing that guys always chased her any more than imagining her being attracted to someone else.
“Don’t worry. It takes more than just good looks to capture a guy’s attention.”
She took a long inhale of her cigarette. “She has more than just looks.”
I straightened up, my heart doing a weird thing in my chest. “Like what?”
“She doesn’t smoke, for one.”
I chuckled, my shoulders relaxing. “Wow. She’s raising the bar.”
She giggled. “She’s responsible. Sensitive, although she would never admit that and will act tough all the time. She’s loyal.”
I wanted to snort. Loyal? Blair? It was like she was describing a completely different person, but even as I wanted to refute her, I felt curious.
I wanted to know why she had that opinion of Blair.
I wanted to see what else she could tell me about her.
Her habits. Her dreams. Her fears. Anything and everything. And—
No, the fuck? None of that mattered. Unless I could use it against her, I had no business knowing her better.
“And she makes mean coffee,” Melody added with a slight smile, oblivious to my internal struggle.
“When she’s not busy ordering Anna to do it, you mean.”
Her smile dropped. “That’s Anna’s job, so I don’t see the problem. Wow. You really don’t like her, huh?” She gave a shake of her head. “Just don’t be rude to her, okay? You seem like a good guy, and so far, you’ve been doing a great job with our garden, so have more patience with her, okay?”
If she only knew I’d get worse with Blair. “Sure.”
She smiled. “Thanks.” She lit her lighter, playing with it, and the sound sent searing heat through me. She did it again.
“Don’t do that,” I hissed at her before I could stop myself.
She gaped at me, then narrowed her eyes at my cheek, emitting a small gasp.
Shit. The strands of my hair must’ve shifted enough for her to see part of my scar on my cheek. I quickly rearranged my hair, hiding my scar from sight.
She dropped the lighter in the pocket of her shorts, her face flaring red. “Sorry. Umm . . .” She shifted her weight.
“What?”
“Did you get burned?” Her face got even redder if that was possible, and she lowered her gaze. “Sorry. That’s probably out of line.”
I raised my brows. I wondered how much she knew about what Blair had done to me, and if she would be able to connect the dots.
I’d learned she was homeschooled, but she probably knew about the incident to some extent.
I doubted she’d been aware of what I looked like, though. She would’ve recognized me by now.
I watched her closely. “Yeah. Someone did this to me in high school.” It was a gamble, but I had to see how much she knew.
“Wow. I’m sorry. That’s horrible. Did they end up in jail?” There was no sign of recognition on her face. So she didn’t know.
“No. She got out of it without even a slap on the wrist.”
“It was a girl? Wow.” Her lips downturned. “That’s bullshit that she got away. She should be punished.”
I smirked. “Don’t worry. She will be.”
Her head angled, but if she was confused by my cryptic answer, she didn’t voice it.
She finished her cigarette. “Thank you for keeping me company. You’re nice to talk to. If you ever need someone to vent your feelings to or just hang around with, I’m here.” She offered me a shy smile and brushed her hand over my shoulder.
I glanced at where she’d touched me. I couldn’t be sure if she was coming on to me, but even if she weren’t Blair’s sister, she was too young for me to be interested in her.
She turned to leave, and as I glanced at the butt of the cigarette on the ground, a question slipped out of my mouth before I even thought about it. “Does Blair know you’re smoking?”
Her gaze darted away, and I couldn’t be sure, but it looked like sadness had crossed her eyes. “No. She . . . she wouldn’t understand.”
“Why not?”
“Because she thinks I’m flawless. She looks at me like something to protect and save from the whole world. Something innocent.”
I cocked my head. “And aren’t you innocent?”
She looked off into the distance, two creases forming between her brows. “No one’s innocent.”
“Why don’t you tell her that?”
Her gaze returned to me and stayed on me for a long moment. She gave me a tight-lipped smile. “Good question.”
She turned to leave, but then she gave me a look over her shoulder. “Don’t tell Blair what I just told you, okay? In fact, you can keep our whole conversation to yourself.”
My brows went up. “I won’t tell her anything, but why don’t you want her to know?”
“Because she doesn’t like you. And she’d rip your eyes out if you ever try to hurt me.”
I let out an incredulous laugh. “Really? Isn’t that drastic?”
She shrugged her shoulder. “As I said. She’s loyal.”
She left, and I looked toward Blair’s room, feeling something awfully close to wonder. Which wouldn’t do. Whatever Blair did wasn’t worth admiration. Even if she was loyal, I doubted it was out of anything but protecting her interests. She couldn’t genuinely care.
But whatever her feelings were, I just got more ammo to use against her. It would be so much fun to see how far she would be willing to go to protect her sister.
I smiled.
Yeah. Let’s see.