Chapter Seventeen
Esme
I was sitting in an Aston Martin with Dorian.
I was totally sitting in an Aston Martin with Dorian, on our way to my parents’ house.
“You really didn’t have to drive me. I would have been fine,” I said, and he just gave me a look and turned his eyes back to the road.
“Well, don’t think this earns you anything special. You’re not getting anal, or anything close, just for driving me.” I shrugged and wiggled to get a bit more comfortable in the smooth seat.
Dorian looked at me for a hot minute, then his mouth opened, and he laughed. A full-on belly laugh, and I couldn’t help but stare at him. In all the time I’d known Dorian, I’d never seen him look so…normal, with his dark jeans, black button-up shirt, and a smile on his face.
I was looking pretty cute, if I did say so myself, in an off-the-shoulder green sweater dress and tight leggings tucked into boots.
We had only been driving for thirty minutes, and I was already starting to regret agreeing to Dorian playing chauffeur.
“So, you’re just going to drop me off and do whatever you do, right? I’ll call you when I’m ready to go.”
I stared out the window, enjoying the beautiful scenery, praying he would just agree, and that would be it.
“I’m not going somewhere else.”
Dammit.
“I can’t have you around my parents. They’re going to think we’re dating or something.” I really hadn’t thought this through. I should have just told him no or snuck out before he came to pick me up.
“They won’t approve of a friend bringing you home and staying in the room with you?”
“Yeah, no.” I shook my head. Oh God, my parents were going to freak.
“Plus, we aren’t friends,” I reminded him. We were having sex. And sometimes eating together.
He seemed to think on my words before speaking.
“Just tell them we’re dating.”
I froze.
Did I just hear him right?
“We aren’t dating.”
“I’m quite aware. We pretend, and at least this way I can make you scream and no one will blink an eye.”
That was his reasoning? We lie to my parents, and then he can screw me, and they won’t care?
“Is that all you care about? Making me scream? Not lying to my parents? Or pretending to be my boyfriend? I mean, seriously, have you ever even dated before? Do you know how to be in a relationship?”
Yeah, I was freaking out, but I had a right to be. This was one big and bad decision. My mom was pretty insightful, she would see through this. And my dad! He would be all protective of his daughter.
Sweat beads broke out on my forehead when I realized that Dorian was going to hear everything about me. About Eli. This was too personal. We were just supposed to be screwing. I would be vulnerable to him, and I didn’t want that.
“My twin brother died when I was sixteen,” I blurted out, grasping for information I could give him, so he was learning about me and my past from my own mouth instead of my parents. At least this way he would understand when the air in the room shifted to sadness—it was because we missed him so much. His death changed us all in many ways.
“How did he die?” Dorian asked calmly, and I started telling him everything. Well, everything except my gift. I wouldn’t give him that tidbit, and I knew my parents didn’t even know, so I was good there.
He listened quietly as I told him about Eli and about growing up in Magnolia, a small town with a very homey feel. I told him about my need to become a nurse to help people and control the things I could. Which still wasn’t much, but I tried.
