Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 96112 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 384(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96112 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 384(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
“We’ll have to make sure you’ve got on plenty of sunscreen before you go into the pool.” Lucas kissed the top of my head. “Mind if I ask a personal question?”
“Nuh-uh.” I yawned and sat up to reach for my soda. The ice clinked against the glass, and I took a big gulp. I really, really loved Coca-Cola, but I rarely had it at home. My mom never liked soda. Then Lucas and Colt had brought a bottle, and I was too weak to resist.
“I told you I’ve had my eye on you for a while, yes?” Lucas welcomed me into his arms again and adjusted the thin blanket over me. I nodded in response to his question and watched Colt swim underwater. “So it was impossible not to notice that you seem to have a favorite outfit to wear—for every munch. And probably not just there…?”
Crap. Maybe I didn’t want him to ask that question.
I wasn’t sure he’d understand. Abel hadn’t.
I sat up again and drew up my knees to my chest, and I had to decide if I was going to give him the short or the long answer.
In the end, I suppose I knew the correct answer. They’d asked for honesty, and if we were actually planning to explore some sort of relationship together—which I desperately wanted—they needed to know. Because more questions would arise eventually.
“My mom was very protective of me,” I started by admitting. “She used to run all kinds of charities for children, and there was this one in particular. It focused on missions to bring children to safety from…I mean, anything that was dangerous. A broken home, war zones, trafficking…”
Lucas gathered my hand in his and squeezed it gently.
“She got all the ugly details that were kept from the public,” I said. “And…over time, it affected her to the point where she tried to shield me from everything.” I still remembered the day she told me a personal driver was going to take me to school. I was six or seven. Up until then, Mom or Dad would drive. Or a few parents had taken turns to pick up us kids. I scratched my ear and cleared my throat. “I’ve never been on public transit, for instance.”
I could tell Lucas tried to hide a bit of his surprise.
Growing up, those changes had been mildly strange at best. Because I came from an affluent family, and many of my classmates had drivers or au pairs. Especially those who were old money. My mom came from wealth, but my dad had earned every dime of his own fortune. He’d worked in security and eventually branched out to build an empire of secrecy. Stealth technology, protection against cyber warfare… There was a real estate company in his name, as well as a travel organization for those who worked with or for him. And for clients with a single goal: discretion.
Long answer, it was. I told Lucas everything.
“So when Mom told me that she and Dad had hired Vincent, I guess I was a little uncomfortable…? But no more than that. And I liked him from the start. He’d joke around with me after school and take me to burger places.” My smile faltered as the next memory hit me. “Until Mom found out and said our outings would have to stop. She said it wasn’t safe.”
“She was afraid something might happen to you.”
I nodded. “I…” I swallowed the burst of unease and grief that struck me. “Before she died, I defended her. And I hate going against her now, but…I mean, in retrospect…” I huffed at my own inability to form a fucking sentence. “She became paranoid. She was paranoid, and it bled into other things—like what I ate, how I dressed.” I coughed into my fist. “I think Dad didn’t want to see what was happening—or what had happened.” But there was one time. Mom was cleaning out my closet in a near-panicked state, and she was telling Dad it was stupid for me to wear nicer brands. Because I was essentially a walking target for muggers and murderers.
I stammered my way through the story of Mom taking it so far that she was yelling at my father. That if I wore an expensive-looking shirt, I would get kidnapped and end up on the evening news.
“I remember how terrified my dad looked.” I shook my head. “He managed to calm her down with statistics of kidnappings, but I think it was partly so he could go on like nothing was wrong. She was the love of his life, and he was afraid to lose her—to lose our family.”
“My God.” Lucas brought my hand to his mouth and kissed my knuckles. “That couldn’t have been easy for any of you.”
Both Mom and Dad had been good at shielding me from the worst of it. Of course, I recalled some of the fights that had occurred at home. They were often on my mind, like a ghost that wouldn’t be put to rest. But much of it, I’d learned after the funeral. I’d learned some of it from Richard and Linda’s daughters, some of it from my grandmother on Mom’s side. She passed away last year. My grandfather was still alive, but we didn’t talk much. He was… Cantankerous would be an understatement. He and his housekeeper lived in Connecticut.