I was so disgusted by her—and the situation in general—that I’d wrestled with the idea of telling Anna everything several times. I knew it would be the easiest way to get rid of Kinsey, because the second Anna found out what was happening, she’d leave and take Kinsey with her. In the end, however, I didn’t have the heart to break the sordid news to her. Not after everything I’d learned about her.
We’d had several long chats over the last few weeks, and she’d confided a lot of personal things to me. She told me that after her disastrous relationship with James Holland, she decided to shy away from dating and concentrate on raising Kinsey. She said it was fine for a while, but after a few years she became desperately lonely. She never told Kinsey how she felt, because she didn’t want to make her feel bad, but she found the constant loneliness utterly soul-crushing. According to her, meeting my dad was the best thing that had happened to her in two decades.
After hearing that, I knew there was no way I could tell her the awful truth. She’d already been chewed up and spat out by the world enough times, so finding out that her daughter was fucking her partner might be enough to break her permanently. She didn’t deserve that.
My solution to the problem was the same as ever—get rid of Kinsey by forcing her out of town. Once that was sorted, I’d figure out some other way to separate Anna from my cheating asshole of a father without her getting hurt too badly. I wasn’t sure how I’d manage that just yet, but I figured Cerina would come in handy for ideas. She was always good at coming up with plots and schemes.
“Need some company?”
Speak of the devil…
I turned my head over my shoulder. Cerina was standing at the edge of the shower stall, one eyebrow mischievously cocked as she checked out my naked body.
“What are you doing in here?” I asked, turning back to face the showerhead. “Why aren’t you at the afterparty with everyone else?”
“I’m not in the mood for a party, so I decided to come and look for you.” She reached out and trailed a finger up my arm. “I miss you.”
“Don’t,” I said, frowning at her. “We’ve talked about this. It’s not happening anymore.”
“Oh, come on. One more time for old time’s sake.” She leaned closer, letting the shower spray wet the front of her sweater. “I’ll even let you stick it you-know-where.”
Irritation flared in my chest. I shook my head and turned the shower off. “I said no, Cerina,” I said, turning to grab my towel from the hook. “You need to get that through your head.”
She pouted. “But why? You never used to have a problem with us hooking up.”
“Yeah, well… that was before.”
“Beforewhat?” she asked, raising a brow.
I lifted the towel to my face and turned away, not wanting her to see the guilt in my expression. The answer to her question was Kinsey.
As much as I despised that little monster, I couldn’t stop myself from being attracted to her. I kept trying to ignore her and push all thoughts of her out of my mind, but it never worked. It didn’t matter that we barely spoke and hardly went near each other when we were at home. I could always feel her there anyway; a humming energy across the space between us. Now she was the only girl I could think about. Also the only girl I could get hard for.
Not that I’d ever want to stick my cock anywhere near that dirty little whore.
I changed the subject before Cerina could get suspicious. “Why aren’t you in the mood for the afterparty?” I asked, lowering the towel to my waist so I could wrap it around myself and cover my junk. “You usually love parties.”
Her upper lip curled. “That little bitch Kinsey ruined my night,” she said, folding her arms. “I’m starting to have a real problem with her.”
I snorted. “Join the fucking club.”
“You still want to get rid of her, right?”
“Yeah. But nothing’s worked so far,” I said. “We need to turn up the heat, or else we’ll be stuck with her for the whole fucking year.”
“That’s funny. I was about to say the exact same thing,” Cerina replied, raising a brow. She cocked her head. “Got any ideas?”
“I have something in mind, but I can’t do it just yet,” I replied, raking a hand through my hair to remove the excess water.
Cerina’s forehead wrinkled. “Why not?”
“I had to order something special for it, and it’s going to take a while to arrive. Supply chain issues.”
She nodded slowly. “Okay, well, I can think of a few things to do in the meantime. Hopefully it’ll be enough to push her out for good, and then you won’t even have to do your thing,” she said. She paused for a beat, pale blue eyes dropping to my glistening chest. “And speaking of turning up the heat… seeing as we’re both skipping this afterparty, why don’t we stop pretending—”
I lifted a palm to cut her off, already knowing where her little speech was heading. “No means no, Cerina,” I said stiffly. “I told you, I’m not interested in that anymore.”
“I know what you said. But you don’t really mean it, do you?”