Page 90 of Shade
A deep voice startles me when it asks, “Are you talking about me again?”
I spin around.
I’ve never seen Roan face-to-face. Actually, I take that back. He asked me for a bar of soap once at the hotel. But I didn’t get a good look at him. It was more in passing.
Now he’s standing before me, no shirt on, beautiful art proudly displayed on his tall, lean frame.
Keep your head, girl.
I raise my hand, blocking out the sun blinding me over his shoulder and then reach my right hand out to his. “I’m Scarlet.”
We shake hands, his grip tighter than I expect. “I’m going to take a shower.” He raises an eyebrow and gives a careless nod to the castle looking house behind him. “Care to join me?”
I see muscles. And sweat. And inked muscles. More sweat, fuck me. Look. Away.
Here’s what comes out of my mouth. “Well, that’s um, forward?”
Before he can reply, Willa shoves him back, her hand on his bare chest. “Knock it off.” She sighs and gives me a tight smile. “One down, two to go.” He must have been sweating because she wipes her hand on her thigh and then motions me forward to follow her. “Come on. We might as well get this out of the way.”
I follow in step behind her. “You weren’t kidding, were you?”
“You havenoidea. I love them, but they’re tenacious bastards.”
Don’t ask mewhy, but I ask, “You’ve been around them forever. Have you slept with them?” After these words leave my lips, I immediately want to take it back. I shouldn’t ask things like this, should I?
“No way.” Willa chuckles as if that’s amusing to her. “I’m thirty-seven.” Her hands cradle her stomach, bunching the sides of her pink cotton dress. “And I’m about to fill a cradle, notrob one.”
We make our way to the house where Willa opens the front door and throws a look over her shoulder. “Hope you’re ready for this.”
I should be scared, but I’m so nervous I’m not sure how to even put one foot in front of the other let alone form words. The last thing I want to do is trip.
“This is the main house,” she notes when we’re in the foyer with the dark stone floors throughout that lead to a staircase which circles up on both sides of a thirty-foot river rock wall with a waterfall.
Yep. Waterfall.
Impressed yet?
Just wait. Strangely enough, the scene fromCocktailflashes in my head, only this time, Shade and I are the main characters. I also imagine that particular scene has more than likely occurred here before.
We walk, she’s talking, I’m trying to listen, but I only hear things like, Shade lives here.
She doesn’t even say that. Sadly. It’s just the only thing my fucking brain can focus on.
Inside the twelve bedroom, thirteen-bathroom home, about twenty people fill the main living room. It’s a large room off the kitchen, wide and open with floor-to-ceiling windows that face the backyard. Outside are more people, some in the pool, out of the pool, drinking, not drinking. . . . It’s something similar to what you’d see at the Playboy Mansion for sure.
I can hear the loud music playing and people laughing before Willa leads me down a short hall. “How long have they lived here?”
“Couple years now. The property was left to them by their father. They had the race shop and track built a long time ago and then the house.”
I nod, following along. The house is ridiculously huge. You’d think twenty people lived here. “How many people live here?”
“Just the boys and their Uncle Ricky. But there are always people staying over. Get used to it. On an average night, all the rooms are full and usually people on the couch.”
I can’t imagine. You’d think they’d want some sort of privacy, but no, it’s like a damn community dorm. “You don’t live here?”
“No.” She laughs as if she’d never even entertain the idea. “I have a condo in town. This place is a mad house.
Before entering the living room, I take a deep breath. The house is darker than you’d imagine with all the windows, but everything is rich in color. Dark floors, creamy tan walls, mahogany wood accents around the beige stone tile.
