“It isn’t a good idea right now,” Devin told me. “When you’ve been drinking. When you haven’t had any time to consider this decision.”
“Have you ever heard of one night stands, Devin? Do you think I’m so fragile I’ll be destroyed if I’m intimate with a man and decide later on I shouldn’t have gone that far?”
“I think if we are to have a working relationship together I need to be more careful,” said Devin. His wording dumped a bucket on my fury… and my growing horniness. Obviously there was no love in whatever arrangement we were cooking up and he seemed to agree that we needed to have some other common ground… but that didn’t mean I wanted to be seen as a business partner.
Devin stepped forward and took my arm. I guess I’d stopped looking like I was aiming to jump his bones in as short a time as possible. “Let’s get you in bed. We should focus on the upcoming scene with your parents first, and then we will consider the other details later.”
Well, the thought of having a scene with my parents to look forward to cooled me off even further as well. I couldn’t fault Devin for wanting to take this more slowly with that hurdle still ahead.
I let Devin lead me up to my bedroom, trying not to think about how the last time I had been there I was being dragged out with Devin lurking in a corner making sure everything happened to his specifications—and of course thinking about very little else. I hated to admit it, but Devin had been right to call a halt on whatever I was trying to make happen that night.
Devin waited outside while I changed out of the clothes
he’d made me wear, taking more time than I really needed because I could hardly stop staring at myself in the mirror as I slid out of each piece of clothing in turn. I could see now I’d done a slightly sloppy job on my makeup, but I still looked incredible. If anything, the flaws made me appear older, made my features sharper, harsh. I felt like I was getting a glimpse of another woman I could become if I married the baby-faced criminal outside my door. The thing was I didn’t know if I was going to like her or wish I’d kept her leashed. At least I accepted the Julia I was now was me. For better or worse.
Once I was in my pyjamas and in bed as Devin had directed before I called him in, I considered a bit of mischief: maybe exposing a few inches more flesh than he would be expecting, just to see what he would do.
But even as my heart spiked at the sight of him standing in my doorway, my eyes were closing.
Chapter Eight
I woke to shouting, which wasn’t unusual around my house… but there was an extra male voice in the mix, and that dragged me all the way through the dozing state to the other side.
I was hearing my parents’ voices. That couldn’t be possible, they should have still been in Europe. Even if that man at the restaurant had called them directly, there was no way they could have…
It turned out I didn’t really know what my parents were capable of. But as more memories of the past twenty-seven hours or so came back to mind completely out of order, I realised the really important detail was that I couldn’t leave Devin out there to deal with them unless I wanted more trouble to brew.
I pulled on my more modest dressing gown and stepped into my slippers and kept going from there straight out the door… and stopped fast as I almost collided with my parents in full professional attire, plus Devin looking like he’d managed to put on a fresh suit and easily outclassing them.
When all of them turned to stare at me I realised I’d made a serious error in judgement. My arrival was going to bring the trouble… but what other choice did I have?
“Julia.” Mum managed a little fake smile on Devin’s account. “Has this brute done anything to you he needs to pay for?” Joking, but also pretty serious. Devin’s eyes were stormy in a way that would have made me feel things I didn’t want to, under other circumstances.
“Hi Mum, Daddy.” I was seeing, now that it was hard to avoid confronting it, that things were obviously far from normal when it came to my parents. It had been a whole other lifetime ago since I’d had friends whose families I could get close to, and I hadn’t been a discerning observer as a preteen. I don’t know that my friendships were normal even when I had them. My parents would only approve my visiting with the sorts of kids who had houses as big as ours, who did horseriding and badminton and could provide a basic explanation of the stock market. Mum would shuffle me off with a slice she’d either bought or had someone bake for her, she definitely didn’t do them herself, warning me to be on my best behaviour… and of course I was, but these playdates were organised through my parents, the kids involved hardly ever even talked to me at school, so I didn’t feel too guilty when I broke some present from a deceased grandparent or bullied them in their own bedrooms.
But I was suddenly certain, my old memories snapping into focus and giving me clarity I’d probably never had at the time. Those parents weren’t so wary coming into their own houses, checking every corner for trouble, acting like they were just admiring the artwork when called on it. They didn’t have to look their children up and down like a fox sniffing at a returned cub before accepting it back into her life. There was an openness in the average family life that was not in mine, and I knew from the way they acted towards each other that my parents were capable of tremendous affection, which could only mean they had some reason to protect themselves from everyone else.
“Look, I’m fine. This was all a nasty surprise, but I’m past it already. What I’m more interested in is what you have to say for yourselves about some of the things I’ve been hearing. Is it true, what Devin says? That you’re in some kind of local mafia?” I tried to fix Mum right in the eyes, but she wouldn’t have it. “That our family has uninterrupted water views because some guy got his kneecaps smashed up?”
Daddy grimaced. “Of course he brings up Rocky’s fucking kneecaps.”
No demands for explanation. No denial, no suggestion that I might have the wrong end of the stick. Sometimes saying nothing said everything.
“I can’t believe you never told me about any of this! How could you think that now I’m an adult I was going to be able to just flit around knowing nothing? You put me in a dangerous position because, I don’t know, you couldn’t be bothered sitting me down for a chat or something? What is this, amateur hour?”
Mum scoffed, then she glanced at Devin, who was clearly enjoying this spectacle. “Mr. O’Hare, our family needs some privacy to discuss this situation.”
This dismissal seemed to make him even happier, to my surprise. What had happened to keeping me safe? “I’ll be out waiting near the front door. If you need anything, Julia, just give me a shout.”
I watched him leave, a little bothered by my nervousness in the face of losing him for the moment. Maybe he thought I needed to have this time with my parents alone.
Well, I had to get back to the main point of this… but even as I was collecting my thoughts, my mother turned on me.
“What is this, Julia: we get these calls that you’ve been seen out in the company of that man and that you’re alleging you’ve been kidnapped, so we hurry back to offer whatever assistance we can, and we find that man in our house—parked on the property where absolutely anyone could come past and see?”
For a moment I couldn’t say anything. This was not even the weak sympathy I had expected from their greeting.
Daddy took up where Mum seemed too overcome by her fury to continue. “Worse: you have him in your bedroom! And he has the gall to just stroll out when we arrive and announce that the two of you are now engaged?”