“Yes. You. Are.” His voice is pure steel.
“If you force me to go home with you, I’ll just run away again. You can’t make me stay.”
For several long seconds, he stares at me, an emotion I can’t decipher flashing across his face. On a weary sigh, he scrubs his hand over his face. “Do you know the last thing your mother told me before I left the house today? She told me not to bother to come back if I was coming without you.”
My chest constricts, leaving me both momentarily breathless and speechless. I miss my mom and I hate that she’s hurting right now. But the fact that she’s worried sick about me is all his fault.
“I’m going to be emancipated,” I state in a hollow voice.
It’s then my dad advances toward me and grabs my arm. I instinctively try to jerk it away, but he holds firm.
“Emily, listen to me.”
The urgency in his voice is so surprising that I briefly let down my guard and give up the fight, allowing his hand to remain wrapped around my arm. I lift my gaze to his troubled eyes.
“Your mother, brothers and I have aged a year for every day you’ve been gone. Did you know both Cole and Tyler flew home? They’ve been out every single day looking for you.”
Oh god. I honestly didn’t think my running away would pull them out of college.
“Your mother’s taken a leave from work and I’ve had two officers I work with searching for you the last six days.”
“I can’t go home,” I whisper, unable to look into his eyes. “Not after what you did.”
There’s a pause. “What if I promised to drop the charges? Would you come home and stop this nonsense about emancipation?”
My head jerks up and my gaze flies to his. I search his expression to make sure he’s serious and he appears as sober as a judge.
“You’ll drop the charges?” My voice squeaks.
Staring intently into my eyes, he gives a solemn nod and gently squeezes my arm.
The last time we’d spoken, I’d begged my dad to drop the charges. I’d promised I’d never see Graham again. I promised I wouldn’t date until I was eighteen if that’s what he wanted. I’d promised I wouldn’t bitch about doing chores ever again. I’d have promised him almost anything. But my pleas had fallen on deaf ears. My dad had been intent on making sure that Graham suffered the consequences. His good looks, British accent, and good grades didn’t mean he was above the law. Those had been his words exactly.
“When?” I ask, the tendril of hope growing in my loudly thumping heart.
“I’ll make the call right now if you come home with me.”
I glance at the single piece of luggage at the foot of my bed. I won’t even have to pack. “Call now.”
I surface from the memory, shaken and cold, my arms wrapped around my chest as I rock back and forth on the couch.
My dad is right about things being different now. My parents aren’t married anymore, and as an adult, I have full access to the money in my trust. Technically, I can support myself if I have to. There’s no reason for him to back off his threat.
That is unless he wants me to have anything to do with him ever again.
Chapter 30
“Do you think he’s serious?”
April runs a hand through her mass of curly locks as she paces the living room rug in front of me.
“I don’t know. A part of me thinks he is. Then another part of me thinks he’s just saying that to scare me into stop seeing Graham.”
It’s been a few hours since Graham went home and April returned to find me curled up on the couch, a stricken look on my face. She panicked, immediately jumping to the conclusion that Graham and I had broken up. I quickly set her straight on that score.
As for Graham, I didn’t say anything to him about my dad’s visit. I didn’t see any point of ruining the night. Plus, I have no idea if my dad said what he did just to scare me. So I pushed the encounter to the back of my mind, determined to enjoy our time together as much as I could. Although, during sex, he might have sensed a couple of cracks in my facade.
“Baby, what’s wrong?” he asked, bewildered by the sight of the tears leaking from my eyes.
“Nothing,” I sniffed, becoming an emotional wreck when he buried himself inside me. “It’s perfect. You’re perfect. I don’t know why I’m crying,” I lied.
His expression softened but not even that could erase the strain of lust and desire sharpening his features. He pulled almost all the way out and plunged into me again. My toes curled.
He gave a strained laugh, breathing hard. “Then you better have a box of tissues handy, because I’m about to make you come so hard.”
And he had. But I didn’t become an emotional basket case simply because of what he can do to my body. No, it’s because of the way I feel about him. How much I love him. A fact I’m only now willing to accept.
I love Graham.
With more depth and maturity than I had the first time. And frankly, that scares the living daylights out of me.
“Oh, he’s definitely trying to scare you into not seeing Graham,” April says. “The question is, how far is he willing to go?”
I hug my knees to my chest and rock back and forth as I stare up at her. “I don’t know. He has to know that if he does this, I’ll never speak to him again. Ever.”
Four years ago, when I’d learned that my father had had Graham arrested, I’d been furious. However, that fury had been tempered with the knowledge that I’d been in the wrong. I was the one who’d lied.
This time it’s all on my dad. I did my time in that prison of guilt, and thankfully Graham’s forgiven me. We’re making another go of it and I’ll be damned if my dad’s going to ruin things.
April stops in front of the coffee table. “I think he’s bluffing. First of all, you’re an adult now. The case would be a weak one and he knows it. You won’t cooperate, which would make the case practically unwinnable. No prosecutor is going to take on an unwinnable case, even as a favor to a friend. Second, you’re his daughter and although, as completely misguided as he’s being, he loves you, and I don’t think he’s going to risk permanently destroying his relationship with you over this. And lastly, a case like this would bring the kind of attention he’d hate. Can you imagine the headlines in the local newspaper?” She spreads her arms and fingers wide, pantomiming a banner. “District Attorney’s daughter the victim of statutory rape.”
I lift my chin off my knees and for the first time since my dad’s visit, the urge to throw up isn’t sitting high in the back of my throat. “You’re right. Let’s forget the first two points, my dad wouldn’t subject himself or us to that kind of publicity if for no other reason than my mother would kill him.”
She nods as if the idea is gaining ground and taking root in her mind. “Who wouldn’t? Remember what happened to Troy’s family? His mother still hates going out in public. Whether people are doing it or not, she thinks everyone is staring at her. Judging her. Wondering if she was complicit in her husband’s crimes.”
Troy’s family troubles had come as a shock to all of us. The good thing is that Troy is here and not back in Illinois where the scandal received the most media coverage.
I nod in agreement, giving myself permission to stop panicking. The same thought had flitted through my head more than a few times last night and this morning, but having someone else affirm them lightens the load.
April rounds the coffee table and sits beside me on the couch, her body angled towards mine. “Do you plan on saying anything to Graham?”
Sigh. I’d been thinking about that too.
“Do you think I should?”
She shrugs a slender shoulder. “I’m not sure.” An eyebrow inches up. “Maybe?” The inflection in her voice makes it a question not an answer. “Or maybe not,” she says more definitively. “I mean, what’s the point if you’re father’s just bluffing? All it would do is freak Graham out—you know, that your father still has it out for him.”
I’d been thi
nking the same thing too. I don’t want him wondering if going out with me is this really worth the aggravation. Wondering if I’m really worth it. And after all I’ve already put him through, I wouldn’t blame him if he doesn’t think I am. Plus, who knows what he’d do beyond washing his hands of me. Maybe decide to move out of state to get out of the reach of my father. Uproot his life again based on the possibility that my dad may try to turn his world upside down…again. The least I can do is to protect him from that.
“Yeah. I don’t see the point of saying anything to him. As you said, my dad is just trying to scare me.”
“I guess that means you’re going to keep seeing him?” April tentatively poses the question. It’s as if she senses the misgivings I’m beginning to have.
I lower my head and take a couple breaths as I turn my feelings over in my mind. After a prolonged silence and some deep soul searching, I lift my gaze back to hers. “I love him. I love him.”
Leaning over, April smiles one of her beautiful, bittersweet smiles, opens her arms wide and wraps them around me. “I know you do, sweetie. And he’s a very lucky guy. Don’t let anyone tell you different.”
“What’s going on with you tonight?”
Em blinks up at me, a bemused smile on her face. “What do you mean?”
I adjust her in my arms and slide the hand that had been innocently resting on her waist up to the underside of her breast. Her breath hitches and she squirms, her butt rubbing against my hard-on.
“You’re never this quiet,” I say, pushing her hair over her shoulder so I can nibble her ear.
Her breath comes more rapidly now. “I’ve been quietly trying to seduce you for the last ten minutes. It’s about time you got the message.” She lets out a groan when my hand closes fully over her breast and I capture her earlobe between my teeth.
“Oh yeah? I thought you were giving me a massage.”
She pants as I continue to nibble her ear and the area surrounding. “On your junk?” she asks, desire thick in her voice.
“Oh that. I thought all that wiggling was you getting comfortable.” I tweak her nipple through her soft, wool jumper and string a line of kisses down her neck.
“Let’s go to your room.”
Before I can turn off the telly and take our foreplay inside, the sound of the flat door opening draws my attention and gaze.
Like someone caught in the act, Emily quickly jerks my hand from her breast and bolts up straight in my lap. I might have lost a tooth if my reflexes hadn’t been what they are. Instead the back of her head smacks solidly on my collar bone.
Ouch. I wince. “Calm down. It wouldn’t be the first time Blake saw two people making out,” I say in a low voice, my mouth close to her ear.
Just then, Blake emerges from the shadow of the door and spies us cuddled up on the love seat together. He pauses as if surprised at the sight.
“I thought you were going out tonight,” he says casually.
“Since you were going out, we thought we’d stay in.” When you share a flat, being able to have loud sex with your girlfriend is a draw like no other. That’s what I’d been looking forward to.
Blake shifts his gaze to Emily and his expression cools noticeably. “Emily.” He acknowledges her with a barely perceptible nod.
“Hi, Blake.” Her tone is overly bright as if she’s trying too hard. She is trying too hard. The mission of making my best friend like her is one she’s determined to win.
I shoot him a look. Be nice or I’ll take your bloody head off.
Blake looks unconcerned, slowly shrugging off his jacket.
“You home for the night?” It’s ten-thirty on a Saturday night. He’s never home this early and I think it’s pretty clear I’d like him to make himself scarce. He never had a problem doing it on the weekends Liane came up.
“Yep. But don’t worry, I’ll be in my room, unless you’d rather I stay out here,” he says gesturing at the telly.
Judging by the expression on Emily’s face, it’s clear sex is off the table. At least, we’re not having it here—not with Blake present.
I stare at him hard. Again, he appears unconcerned. “We’ll stay here,” I growl, beyond frustrated. This shit is going to have to stop. I can’t have him treating her like an unwanted visitor.
The second he disappears down the hall toward the bedrooms, I look down at Emily’s upturned face. “Ignore him. He’ll eventually come around.”
“He hates me.” Her voice is sad, her expression forlorn.
“He doesn’t know you.”
“He knows I almost ruined your life.”
I tighten my arm around her, stroking the soft curve of her hip as she burrows into me. “The more he gets to know you, the more he’ll grow to like you,” I murmur against the silky strands of her hair.
Tipping her head back, she looks me in the eye. “Like you have?”
I chuckle, throaty and low. “You know what they say, there’s a very thin line between love and hate. Where you’re concerned, I’ve never been indifferent.”
She rests her palm on my chest. “I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.”
“Then let me put it this way. If I’d been indifferent to you, I would have simply let you apologize and be on your way. I wouldn’t have fought it the way I did. Maybe I did it so you’d keep coming back, I don’t know. More than anything, though, as furious as I’d been that you’d lied to me, that your dad had me arrested, I’d also been angry that you weren’t as old as you said you were for the selfish reason that I didn’t want to give you up. I didn’t want things between us to end.”
“If you only knew how much I wanted to be that person—a grownup. There’s nothing in my life I wanted more. I used to dream that I met you two years later, when I would be the person I claimed I was.”
I angle her jaw, sift my fingers through her hair and stare into her big beautiful eyes.
“How about we do this,” I murmur, my lips inches from hers. “Let’s not talk about the past anymore. Fate, destiny, whatever it is you want to call it, brought us together again and I say we don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Let’s not squander this chance.”
I’m the recipient of a look one part adoring and two parts turned on. She pulls my head down for a kiss—a kiss that tells me I’m in way deeper than I thought.
It takes me fifteen minutes to say goodbye to Emily after I walk her down to her car. We made out on the couch for a bit but as I thought, Emily refused to spend the night with Blake here. Actually, it’s the whole situation with Blake period. She isn’t comfortable around him and I can’t say I blame her. My best friend is being a jerk. It’s partly my fault for badmouthing her to him and I accept that. But I’m over it and he should be too. He’s not the one who spent time in jail.
Sexual frustration doesn’t put me in a better mood when I get back to the flat. I’m feeling even less charitable when I knock on the door to his bedroom. Tough shit if he’s asleep—although I doubt he is—we need to talk.
“What?”
I open the door at his barked question.
He’s sitting on the edge of his bed, jeans on, his shirt hanging open. The way he’s eyeballing me—as if he’s daring me to say something—is like he’s anticipating a fight.
I come right out and let him have it. “Are you going to be a jerk to her every time you see her?”
“What? You’re pissed at me because I didn’t roll out the fucking red carpet?” His voice drips with disdain.
Jesus H. Christ.
“I’d be happy if you didn’t treat her like something you scraped off the bottom of your shoe.” That’s laying it on thick, but I’m here to make a point.
Blake rises from his bed so we’re standing eye-to-eye. “Are you fucking kidding me?” he asks, looking at me like I’m crazy. “You should be happy I’m being civil to her.”
Fuck that. “If that’s your idea of civility, you need a refresher course. It’s not what you say to her, it�
�s how you fucking say it. The way you look at her. She knows you don’t like her.”
Blake shakes his head a wry smile twisting his lips. “Are you listening to yourself? Holy shit, she’s got you by the balls again.”
“Fuck you.”
His gaze hardens and his mouth thins. “I’m not going to be the one who gets fucked over…again.”
In the past Blake and I have argued. Never over a girl but about small shit best friends usually argue about. It’s only since Emily and I have gotten back together that I’ve found myself wanting to beat the crap out of him.
“Why is it so hard for you to get over the fact that she made a mistake? I have. Why the fuck can’t you?”
Blake takes a quick step back as he rolls his eyes. “Maybe her pussy is all you need to wash away her sins, but that’s you, not me. You were my best friend and one minute you’re here and the next minute, you’re gone. Did you ever wonder what that did to me? I lost my best fucking friend for almost four years. We were supposed to graduate together. Your dad died and you didn’t tell me until after the fucking funeral.”
Everything in me stops. Just for a moment. The anger that seconds ago had my hands clenched into fists at my sides, drains out of me like water at the breaking of a dam.
“Everything happened so fast. And I knew you couldn’t come.”
“No, Gray,” he says sighing and shaking his head. “I would’ve flown out for my best friend’s father’s funeral. But you never told me.”
Okay, now I feel like shit. But honest to God, I’d thought since he’d never met my dad and the funeral was all the way in London, inviting him would’ve been pointless.
“Fuck, Blake, what do you want me to say? I’m sorry. I should’ve been a better friend. But you are the best friend I have.” I glance around his bedroom. We’re living together, and not out of necessity.
“A best friend I can’t even grab a beer with? We talked on the phone maybe once every couple months and that’s it. Your girlfriend cost me my best friend, so yeah, I’m not in a big rush to let her off the hook or play nice.”
Forever With You Page 27
