Chucking the blanket off my legs, I stand and head into the kitchen. The house is quiet, and Clare and Tariq are nowhereto be seen. I guess they’re still upstairs locked away in her bedroom.
Opening the fridge, I grab a bottle of water and drink half the contents before screwing the lid back on and I lean against the counter. I hope they wake up soon so I can go home. Mary-Ellen walks in with her cleaning basket and smiles warmly when she sees me.
“Good morning, Amelia. I thought Clare was meant to be staying at yours last night?”
“Our plans changed.”
“They are usually the best kind of nights.”
I don’t agree. I was having a good time until Tariq showed up and stole my best friend away. Not that she took any convincing. It stings remembering how easily she followed him like a puppy, not considering my feelings at all. If it were her birthday, I wouldn’t have room to moan but it was my night and she didn’t think of me once.
“Oh, and happy birthday for yesterday. Did you have a good night?”
Before I can answer, her smile drops from her face like a lead balloon, and her chest rises and falls rapidly.
“Get out or I’ll call the cops,” she yells, and I turn around to see Darius standing in the doorway.
“Mary-Ellen, this is a… friend. Clare is with his friend. They stayed over last night,” I explain as she reaches for her phone in her apron pocket.
“Mr. Burley wouldn’t like his kind in the house, Amelia. He must leave.”
Looking between Mary-Ellen and Darius, the assumptions of each other are so strong I can feel them. I admit, he does look the type who would rob our houses, but he’s not here to steal. She can relax.
“Clare will be down soon, and then they’ll be leaving.”
Mary-Ellen moves closer to me, keeping her phone firmly in her hold and lowers her voice. “He’s one of them, a Dog, Amelia. Clare is going to hear about this when I inform Mr. Burley.”
“I’m sure she will,” I say because this is what Clare wants from her father.
“If she’s not up in the next thirty minutes, I’m calling her father.”
With that said, she grabs her cleaning basket and near enough runs out of the room, heading for Mr Burley’s office.
Darius steps farther into the kitchen and sits in the same seat as he did last night. “Does this place have any coffee?”
“I’m not your maid and I highly doubt Mary-Ellen will make you feel at home. Why don’t you go wake up your friend and leave?”
He doesn’t say a word. The corner of his mouth hooks up at the corner and he rubs his hand over his shaven head.
“Maybe I should, wouldn’t want the cops to show up just because your friend wants to ride on a Dog dick.”
And like that, I lose the bitchy sarcasm. “Does that happen to you often?”
“What? People assuming I’m going to be trouble if I’m in places I shouldn’t be?”
I nod.
“More than you know.” He shrugs. “I’m used to it.”
I wander across the kitchen and sit at the table, this time taking the chair next to him. He watches me carefully and cocks a brow.
“Don’t you hate it?”
“I won’t patronise you by calling you a naive princess, but most of the time I warrant the looks I get. If I were here to rob this place, I wouldn’t feel bad. I wouldn’t care if the jewellery had been in the family for over a hundred years, I wouldn’t care if theoccupants found themselves too scared to sleep under this roof in fear I’d come back.”
“Do you rob houses?” I ask hesitantly.
“No, Amelia, I don’t. Do you?” He laughs and I roll my eyes.
