Chapter Five #2
The Winters took it all in stride. They were used to this kind of luxury: priceless Persian carpets, the endless length of the polished dining room table, the crystal chandelier, the soaring ceilings, complete with a secret library tucked into the second level.
Everything about Winters House was over the top. I'd worked with a lot of wealthy clients since I joined up with Sinclair Security. We only had wealthy clients. If you weren't wealthy, you couldn't afford us.
It was different, though, seeing Annalise here, realizing she'd grown up with this. For just a second, I could understand why she'd kept me away from her family in college.
We got through dinner with a minimum of conflict, mostly because Sophie and Amelia's bickering provided a distraction, especially when the housekeeper set a bowl of fruit in front of Amelia and gave the rest of us slices of chocolate cake.
The older woman glared up at the housekeeper, who responded with a neutral smile, saying only, "Don't look at me. Sophie sets your menu."
Beside Amelia, Sophie just shook her head at the housekeeper and said, "Would you mind bringing out a scoop of that sugar-free ice cream Abel made?"
The housekeeper, Mrs. W they called her, murmured, "Of course," and disappeared back through the butler's pantry. Aunt Amelia scowled at Sophie and said, "I'm not eating it. Sugar-free is never as good as the real thing. I want chocolate cake."
"Well, you can't have it," Sophie said, crisply. "You snuck shortbread today."
At Aunt Amelia's mutinous expression, Annalise burst out laughing, her blue eyes sparkling when she said, "How do you always know? Your kids are never going to get away with anything."
"I know, I tell her that all the time. Sophie has eyes in the back of her head," Gage said.
Amelia let out a disgruntled harrumph. She might not have been happy about that sugar-free ice cream, but when Mrs. W placed the bowl in front of her, she ate it. Every bite.
I was happy to get chocolate cake. Food wasn't always a focus for me.
Depending on the job I was on, meals could be infrequent and too much take out got to be an easy habit.
Living at Winters House, that was not going to be a problem.
Three meals a day prepared by a personal chef who knew what he was doing in the kitchen.
I hoped they had a gym somewhere around here or I was going to get soft.
Annalise stood after dinner and announced that she was tired and just wanted to read in bed. She didn't realize I was following her down the hall until we passed the kitchen and family room and were almost in the corner of the house occupied by her suite and her cousin Jacob's.
Jacob owned a mixed-use residential/commercial building in midtown and had modified the top floor into a spacious penthouse that he occupied with his fiancée.
We'd be the only ones living in this corner of Winters House.
I saw her shoulders tense as I followed her past the door to Jacob's suite.
When she reached her own door, she turned to face me.
"Where are you going?"
"To bed. You said we were turning in for the night," I said.
She crossed her arms over her chest and set her feet, clearly not prepared to move. I did the same.
"You are not staying here with me. This is a huge house. If you need to be close, Jacob's suite is right there.” She threw out her arm and pointed at Jacob's closed door.
"No," I said. "That doesn't work." Lowering my voice, I took two steps closer, until we were almost touching and said, "I have two jobs here.
The first is to play your fiancé to draw out your stalker so we can catch him.
The second is to keep you safe. This guy may not be dangerous, but if he is, we're poking at a tiger.
I am not sleeping fifty feet away with two closed doors and a hall in between us. It's not going to happen."
Annalise stared me down, eyes narrowed, before she let out a huff of breath, dropped her arms and turned on her heel. She opened the door and swung it wide. "Fine. You can have the couch. And it doesn't fold out."
I took one look at the couch in her sitting room and let out a sigh. I was six three, with broad shoulders. That couch would've been perfect for cuddling in front of the TV, but it was more love seat than couch. It sure as hell wasn't going to fit me. Not if I wanted a good night sleep.
Annalise stalked into her bedroom and returned a moment later with a pillow and a blanket. She tossed them on the couch, sent me another glare, and disappeared into her bedroom.
At least I had a TV. I left her suite to collect my bags and came back to find the door to her bedroom shut.
A little poking around and I discovered the other door off the sitting room led to a full bath, which in turn opened into her closet, and from there to her bedroom.
She'd left both doors shut. I changed into something more comfortable and stretched out, as much as I could, on the short couch.
I woke the next morning with a stiff neck and an aching back. I'd left the couch sometime in the middle of the night and made up a bed on the floor. I'd slept in worse places, but the floor still wasn't comfortable. No way was I doing that again. Not when Annalise had a king-size bed.