On top of that, she’s beautiful, like outrageously so, an older version of my girl who’d outgrown her youthful beauty into something more refined. I can see why my father-in-law lets her get away with the shit that she’s pulling.
I can imagine Lisa being the same and our daughters after her. I can see her having the same bearing and carriage as her mom as we grow old together, though she thinks she’s so different. I think they’re the same in many ways; it’s just that Lisa shows her strengths in different ways. Her shy sweetness is a whole other weapon on its own. She’d sure fooled me.
“I must go see about this meddling old woman. It was nice to meet you, Cody; we’ll catch up later.” Blaire took my hand and patted it gently as she spoke, and at least she was smiling, so all was not yet lost, I think. She glared at her daughter even as she kissed her cheek before dragging her husband out of the room.
“You two should follow your leader.” Lisa looked at Jess and Alexis, who looked like two statues standing in the corner trying to disappear. I don’t think either of them had spoken more than two words in the time they’ve been here.
“Our job is….”
“I don’t give a fig about your job. Get out!” Ice cold! I think the temperature in the room even dropped.
“Whoa, baby!” She morphed into the princess. I was coming to realize she was right before my very eyes.
Her back went ramrod straight, and her head turned ever so gently in my direction as her eyes stared into mine. I think I read her pretty well in the time it took for the other two to leave the room. I shouldn’t disagree with her in front of others. Got it!
“I guess we should get going as well.” I started to get up to leave.
“Why? We have a perfectly good hotel room with twenty-four-hour room service.”
“You want to stay here? Won’t your parents find out?” I’m not looking forward to having a conversation with my mother-in-law about why I was alone with her daughter in a hotel room. Not even if we were already married.
“My mom doesn’t look at bills of any kind; I doubt she’s ever seen one. The room is probably rented out for the duration of my college life, and if it’s not, her executive assistant would be the one taking care of it.”
“Rented out? For the duration? I’m not sure about the exact numbers, but I know the cheapest room in this place is about six hundred dollars a night, and that’s probably a broom closet on the first floor. This, as you might expect, is the penthouse.
“I thought your mom was a housewife. What does she need an executive assistant for?”
“She needs someone to hold her train while she walks through life dismantling other people’s.”
“Come again?”
“It’s a joke. I guess her assistant handles all the day-to-day stuff mom finds tedious.”
“Like what?” I was genuinely intrigued. She shrugged her shoulders, and dead ass said, “answering the phone.”
I started to ask her just how the frig rich they were but dropped it, it wouldn’t make a difference in the scheme of things anyway, and I had bigger fish to fry. “Forget that. We never finished our conversation from earlier. Come ‘ere.” Her eyes weren’t so brave now, and I was ready when she tried to bolt. “Oh no, you don’t. Your parents aren’t going to come to save you this time; no one is.”
When the hell did I fall asleep? I rolled over on the million thread count sheets in the posh hotel room, promising myself that these were the only sheets I’d ever sleep on once I made it to the pros. The damn things were smoother than silk and felt like heaven against my naked skin. Naked!
I shot up in bed and noticed two things as I looked around the room. My clothes were in a piled mess on the floor, and her scent was on me. I moved the sheet and looked at my boy, who was still drying, and shook my head. She did it again.
“Annalisa Davenport, get in here.”
I grumbled a few choice words under my breath but not loud enough for my little innocent to hear. Innocent, my ass! She’d graduated from the kissing bandit to…whatever the hell she is now. Who the hell taught her to use sex as a weapon? I don’t see her mother for this, maybe the grandmother? What the hell did I fall in love with?
If I count on my fingers, there are three men to three women in this family, including me, but from what I’ve seen and heard so far, each woman is like six different people, so the men are outnumbered any way you look at it. I consoled myself with the fact that I’m from the streets, unlike her father and grandfather, and there’s no way she’s going to run game on me, not now that I’ve got her number.