Arrogant Brit

Oh yeah.

It took a few therapy sessions to fix that.

“So, where are they?” I politely redirected the topic as I followed her inside. “Have you killed them already?”

“Oh, heavens no!” Mom chuckled haughtily. “They’re both in the kitchen, putting the finishing touches on lunch.”

“They both cook?” I grinned slyly. “Sounds like a dream come true for you. Two grown men, taking care of all your meals…”

“For a Brit, William knows his way around a spice rack, that’s for sure.”

I was about to comment on that coincidence when we turned the corner into the kitchen… and my heart practically stopped on the spot.

Oh no. This CAN’T be happening.

The two gentlemen had their backs to me, but turned when we came into the room. I recognized the younger one instantly, and a faint look of surprise flickered across his face as he took me in.

His father was the first to say something.

“Clara! I’m William. It’s great to finally meet you!” The older man exclaimed cheerily. He was the spitting image of his son, but with light gray fringing his hair and a pair of horn-rimmed glasses over his eyes.

“Hi, William,” I responded as politely as I could muster. My eyes immediately slid to the other one, though.

How. How is this happening?

“And allow me to introduce my son, Dalton.” He motioned towards the marine from last night, who stepped forward to reach out his hand.

“Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Clara,” Dalton smiled warmly. “I’ve heard good things about you.”

Temporarily rendered speechless, I hastily swallowed as I shook his hand.

“Yes… you too.”

“Oh?” Mom asked, taking interest in this. “Are you familiar with Dalton? I don’t remember ever saying anything about him to you on the phone…”

Shit.

“Yeah, Mom, you totally did,” I nervously insisted. “You mentioned something about him being in the Marines, right?”

“No, don’t believe so,” she shook her head. “Hell, I didn’t even know about the Marines until a few days ago, isn’t that right, Will?”

William shrugged. “I can’t remember how long ago that was. A week? Two? A month? Regardless, it doesn’t particularly matter, does it now?”

Mom pursed her lips but conceded the point. She had a bulletproof memory, and hated to not be completely correct. That’s why, when she answered, “No, I suppose not,” she turned to me with a curious look.

“Anyway, why don’t you two sit down and acquaint yourselves, hmm?” William gestured towards the hall. “Go get seated. Sarah and I will wrap up things here, yeah?”

“Sounds good, Father,” Dalton nodded cordially before disappearing into the hallway.

Confused and alarmed, I followed him out of their sight, cornering him as soon as we arrived at the dining room.

“What the hell? Is this some kind of sick joke?” I demanded, halfway accusing him.

“Kind of what I was beginning to wonder,” he replied apathetically. “I mean, what are the odds? We run into each other last night, you want me to fuck your brains out, and now we’re sitting across the table from one another as our parents prepare to tell us all about how they met…”

“I was not going to fuck your brains out,” I snapped quietly, thinking back to Natalie’s words.

“You said about that much.”

“I was drunk.”

“And that’s why I didn’t bring you home with me,” he replied casually. “There’s no way you could have consented in your state. You got yourself plastered last night. Off of one drink! One!”

“The bartenders suck at that bar,” I groaned. “The guy probably fucked up the alcohol ratios and handed me the strongest long island in history.”

“Which somehow evaded your notice…?”

“I was tired.”

“Tired,” he scoffed, summing me up with a glance. “You were tired. That’s what you’re going with? Look, I understand that you’re upset about this, but–”

Dalton lowered his voice and took his seat as we heard footsteps. After a moment, our parents came into the room, setting various pots and dishes down on the placemats.

“Why don’t you sit down, Clara?” Mom asked politely. “We’ll be back in a moment.”

I did as I was told, and the two of them disappeared back to bring out more food. The moment that they were gone, I rounded my furious gaze back to Dalton.

“I’m just weirded out,” I hissed. “This is obviously a sign that we weren’t meant to happen.”

“What do you mean, ‘weren’t meant to happen?’” Dalton asked, looking just slightly bothered by my wording. “You know, we saw each other before we knew about any of this. I don’t necessarily see that as being wrong.”

“Are you being serious right now?” I asked with mild disgust. “You can’t be being serious. Not at all.”

“Look, we can talk about this later,” he remarked. “They’ll be back in a second.”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” I insisted, crossing my arms. “We almost had sex, but we didn’t, and now our parents have revealed to us that they’re dating. Case closed.”

A look of anger flashed across Dalton’s face. He was opening his mouth to retort when Mom and William popped back into the room, setting the last few pots down and taking their seats with us.

“Alright, kids, dig in!” William chuckled, rubbing his hands together. Sarah complimented the men on the food, and Dalton flashed me a knowing look.

And so begun the most awkward lunch of my entire fucking life.

Chapter 5

After that rollercoaster of a weekend, I was grateful to have a solid distraction. However, I couldn’t help but feel personally cheated and slighted by the cruelty of fate.

If we’d just fucked and I’d gotten it out of my system and cast her aside, it’d probably have been completely different.

Well, it would have been a bit weirder than usual since I’d see her at family reunions, but it would have still gotten her out of my system. I wasn’t used to mentally marking a sexual target and having the opportunity ripped from my clutches on a technicality.

I had begun to think that Clara had a point.

She was determined to nip whatever we might have had in the bud. I couldn’t help but admit that us having something while our parents had something was a bit… strange. I knew it wasn’t incest because we weren’t related, but Clara clearly thought along those lines, and maybe she wasn’t wrong to shut everything down before it started.

However…

I always hated to turn down a challenge.

All of this had to go on the backburner for the moment, though. Just one day later, before I was ready, Monday morning was here. That meant something that I’d been putting off for over eight years now.

School.

You might have gotten the impression, correctly, that college was kind of a complete afterthought to me. As a Marine with eight years of service under his belt and a massive inheritance on the way, I wasn’t particularly interested in giving even more of my life away.

There was one slight problem with that…

And it was named Raleigh and Riana Carlyle.

My elderly, posh grandparents were the rightful wielders of the Carlyle Fortune. After they skipped my father and lost their daughter, I was the only remaining heir to the bloodline. They only had a few rules, but their firm expectations were airtight:

1. Never disgrace the family.