“But that dress, it wasn’t designer, was it?”
She frowned.“No.One of my friends runs this little clothes’ store, and basically she’s giving a leg up to some of the fashion designers at a college near her.Why?”
He ignored her question.“And here you sit, in Trip’s too big tee shirt, and what?A pair of his boxers?”
She grinned.“The shirt swamps me, but the boxers?”Her nose crinkled at the bridge.“My butt’s too big.They stay up without a lot of help.”
“Your butt’s perfect,” he immediately countered, meaning it.“I just… You’re not how I imagined the only daughter of the Forsythe-Drew family would be.”
She pursed her lips a little, pondered that, then cutting him glance, teased, “You think about the only daughters of America’s One Percent a lot, huh?”
He snorted, then draped his elbows on his knees and let his head hang.He had some tension gathering at the back of his neck, and the sun’s warmth would ease it.“Not often, but I’ve been thinking about them since I found out I was mated to one.”
She giggled, then with a sigh, collapsed back into the marble so she was lying flat.He peered at her, surprised by the gesture.
“Aren’t you cold?”
“Nope.The marble’s nice and chilly, while my front’s hot.Perfect,” she said with a purr that would do a housecat proud.
“You’re going to surprise me for the rest of our lives together, aren’t you?”he asked softly, watching as her eyes popped open and glued themselves to his face.
“You mean that, don’t you?”she whispered.
“Which part?”
“’The rest of our lives together’ part.”
“We mate for life, El.”
She gulped.“Will you want me for life, though?I… There’s always trouble where I’m concerned.I don’t even do all that much, but it just follows me.You’ll get tired of it.They always do.Only Shawn hasn’t, and he gets paid to stay interested.”
He heard the hurt in her voice at that, and though it was counter-intuitive, he told her gently, “I think we both know that’s not true.”
She frowned at nothing, then closed her eyes again.“I suppose the police want to question me… Is that why you’re here?”
“Nope.I’m here to be with my mate for a few moments before the craziness of the day sets in.”
“Really?”She peered at him through her lashes.“You mean that?”
He blinked at her.“I’m not in the habit of saying things I don’t mean, El.You’ll learn that pretty quickly.”Ruefully, he rubbed his jaw.“In fact, I’m too blunt.Most people complain about that.”
“I prefer the frank truth to bullshit,” she whispered softly.“I’ve heard too much of that in my life.”
He could imagine, and there were ten billion reasons why.
“We’re going to talk to the police, but they’re mainly going to debrief us.You won’t have to say much.I already told them everything they need to hear, and what I couldn’t offer, Shawn did.They won’t be pestering you for that.Trip thought you’d like to be there, and though I’d prefer to shield you from that, I thought I’d ask you for your opinion.”
She blew out a breath.“I swear, you boys just keep on being too good to be true.”
“We do, huh?How come?”
“I’m not going to have to fight with you over my independence?”
He wriggled his shoulders.“Maybe.From time to time.Not with Trip though.He’s Dutch.They’ve always been avant-garde and liberal.”
She snorted at his disgust.“Well, I, for one, am going to embrace the Dutch!”
“Singular, I hope,” he teased, chuckling when she grinned.
