“Well okay,” I breathe and climb behind the wheel. His hand slides across my thigh and that’s where it stays the entire car ride across town.
Pulling up to the gates, they begin to slide open, and I roll the car up the long drive, hitting the brakes when I notice my brother’s Bentley parked out front and all the lights are on, beaming out through the windows.
“Shit,” I hiss, and River whips his head to me, probably because I never curse but this situation warrants it. “Get down.”
“What?”
“My brother is here,” I panic, “He can’t see you.”
River stiffens in the passenger seat, whipping his head around in time to see the front door open and the figure of my brother step out onto the porch.
“Oh God,” I whisper cry, “River, get down.”
His jaw is pulsing as he grinds his teeth, but he dips down below the window and then moves himself through the middle and into the back, laying himself across the seats.
It’ll have to do. I can’t back out of the driveway now he’s seen us; I just hope he didn’t notice the second figure inside the car when he stepped out and looked right at us.
Swallowing down the fear, I press back on the gas and make my way toward the house, pulling my car to a stop as far as I can get from the front porch.
“Stay here,” I tell River as I grab my purse and climb out of the car, already seeing my brother walking toward me.
“Liam,” I greet him, continuing passed him toward the house so I can redirect him from my car and ultimately River inside of it.
“Where the fuck have you been?” Liam growls, following close to my heels.
“Out, Liam,” I scoff, “I went out for dinner.”
“With whom?” He demands.
“Zara, who else?”
“You’ve been ignoring my calls all day.” He’s still close to me, following right on my heels.
“I’ve been busy,” I’m impressed with myself, and all my answers. I’m not giving him room to doubt me and report back to our parents. “I didn’t know you called.”
Hopefully River has made it out of the car and is getting off the property. He’s been sneaking onto it for weeks so there’s no way he can’t get away without being seen.
“Why are you here, Liam?” I sigh as I walk into the kitchen and grab a bottle of water from the fridge.
“Well, I wouldn’t be here if you picked up the fucking phone, Marly,” He snaps, “You’re wasting my time.”
I stare at him with a frown, “You’re the one who’s here, Liam. I would have called you back as soon as I realized you called me.”
My brother is blond like me, but with darker eyes and paler skin. He’s tall and built athletically and so clean you’d think he’d just walked off a magazine cover. There’s not a flaw to be seen, unless you count his lacking personality of course. He scowls at me, his teeth grinding together but I keep moving, like ignoring him for an entire day isn’t a big deal.
I make it to the stairs before I stop and turn to him, “What did you need anyway?”
I then continue up the stairs. I’d hoped me walking away would force him to leave me alone, but I should have guessed not.
“We have dinner tomorrow night,” He tells me halfway up and it takes me the rest of the way to process what he just said.
“What? No.” I only go to dinners with my mother and father, not out of choice but because they expect me to sit and look pretty for them.
“It’s not optional,” He snaps, “You’ll be joining me for a business dinner tomorrow.”
“Why?”
“Because dad has left me in charge of dealing with the developers for the south side,” He puffs out his chest, “And they seemed to take a lot of interest in you, Marly.”
