Lust (Vegas Nights 2)

Perrie sighed heavily. “Kids give me a headache.”

I laughed, leaning right back. The grill was smoking and I’d probably wasted the chance to cook, but fuck it. I’d order in. The kids were having fun and we were talking. Hell, I was learning things about her I never thought I would.

I’d buy fifty pizzas if we could carry on like this. Unraveling the mystery of Perrie Fox was priceless.

“Are you nervous about seeing Damien?” I asked her, looking at her. My eyes skirted her profile, from her button nose to the freckles that dotted it and the lashes that fanned against her skin to the lips that pursed in the perfect pout of her indecision.

“Yes. No. I don’t know. He’s my brother, but eight years is a long time.” She twirled a lock of hair around her finger. “I didn’t think I ever would again, so maybe that’s the thing I can’t accept. That I am going to see him.”

“I get that.”

“Do you?”

“No. I was trying to be sympathetic.”

She laughed anyway. “I think the grill is screwed.”

I sighed. “I know, but when you talk, I listen.”

“That sounds like a line.”

I side-eyed her. “If it was, would it work?”

“For what?”

“To get my cock inside you again.”

She pursed her lips. “At least you’re honest.”

I grinned, trying not to laugh at her expression which was somewhere between annoyed and amused. “I’ll just go order pizza, then.”

“You do that.”

***

I set the kids in the front room with two giant bowls of popcorn and a movie. Perrie paced the length of my kitchen, wringing her hands in front of her. She was nervous as fuck, and hell, she was making me nervous with her constant fidgeting.

“Sit down. And no more coffee.” I swiped her half-full mug and tipped it down the sink before she could say anything.

It was her damn third, after all.

“I can’t help it. I’m nervous.”

“No. Really? I couldn’t tell.”

She shot me a death-glare with those dark eyes of hers and flattened her hands against her stomach. “I’m going to be sick.”

“Well, you haven’t eaten and you’ve had two and a half cups of coffee that have been shaking around in your stomach. I’d be surprised if you weren’t sick.”

“Sorry, Dad.”

I grinned and met her eyes long enough to make her lips twitch into a smile.

“I just—ugh.” She slumped onto a chair at the table, dejection slumping her shoulders. “What if…” She trailed off before she’d gotten started, yet again.

I waited for her to continue.

“What if it’s just like it was when I moved away? What if Damien hasn’t changed and he’s still the same person he was eight years ago? What if feeling like this about our meeting screws my interview because I can’t focus?”

“It won’t.”

“You don’t know that. Years, Adrian. I’ve been trying to find a real, permanent job now for years. One that worked with school and life and was flexible. This could be that job. I need it to be that job,” she finished quietly. “I’m tired. I’m so tired of going to work and being afraid of my safety.”

I sighed, taking the seat opposite her as she ran her fingers through her hair. “I’ll speak to the chief today about letting you out of your contract.”

“Great, then if I don’t get this job, I’m screwed.”

“Perrie… You’re about to meet with your brother. Don’t you have ownership of the Fox business?”

“A little,” she admitted. “What my mom left me when she died. I’d never have to work again, but it doesn’t seem right.”

“You could work with your brother.”

“Benedict would never allow it.”

“You’re not a kid under his influence anymore and neither is Damien. From what I know, Benedict barely runs it anymore. It’s all Damien.”

She linked her fingers behind her neck and rested her forehead against the table. I couldn’t imagine how she was feeling right now, but her body language told me enough. Terror tightened her shoulders while fear shook her clasped fingers. When she sat back up and chewed on her lower lip, I saw the hesitance that shone in her eyes.

She didn’t want to see him just as badly as she wanted to, and she had no idea how to feel about that.

Hell, I wouldn’t either.

“I don’t know. I feel like I’m panicking for nothing. Dahlia said enough that I know the person I remember him being is still in there, but I’ve rejected all his attempts to contact me. What if he hates me?”

“You’re the most unhateable person I know.”

“That’s not even a word.”

“I know, but I can’t be bothered to think of a real one.”

Perrie snorted, and I smiled.

“There’s a lot of water under the bridge, and you just have to cross it. There’s nothing else you can do but take a deep breath and try it.”

She nibbled at her lip again. She was going to hurt herself if she carried on doing that.