Page 15 of Fake Coral and Keys

She opens her mouth to protest when a hard knock at the door makes her bolt upright, and she nearly slips off the counter. I grab her before she falls, helping her to her feet.

“You have got to be kidding me,” she yells. “Who the fuck it is now?”

Adjusting her swimsuit, Daisy marches to the door and looks out the window. She glances back at me, still standing by the sink, my dick in hand.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.I want to scream the words in frustration. Grabbing my swim trunks, I slip them on and join her atthe door, pressing down on my dick, trying to calm myself. Talk about bad timing.

“It’s my damn brother,” she hisses.

“He’s got impeccable timing,” I say, pushing strands of hair off her face. She’s completely disheveled, her bun lopsided, her lipstick smeared. “It’s like he has an alarm that goes off every time we try to fuck.”

She laughs, then clamps her mouth shut, giving me a heated look. “Looks like we’ll have to wait until he’s asleep.”

I press my lips to hers, then brush my mouth across her cheek, to her ear. “We have five days,” I remind her, then back away, grabbing a shirt, and pulling it over my head.

Daisy looks me up and down, shakes her head at my swim trunks, and pulls the door open. She crosses her arms and stares up at Forest, who’s grinning like an idiot. He gives me a wink. Bastard knows.

She adjusts her messed up bun. “We meet again, pussy-blocker.”

“Daisy!” someone shouts. I look over her shoulder to see the entire family standing in the grassy area in front of the bungalow.

Erin laughs, her hand covering her mouth, then looks at me. “Blake, I think you’re a bad influence.”

“He could be if you’d stop interrupting,” Daisy mumbles and grabs her sandals before heading out the door.

***

“So tell me, Blake,” George says, forcing my eyes away from his daughter to him. “What made you decide to work in this field?”

I lean back in the rattan seat, swallow the food in my mouth, and glance around. Everyone at the large round table has stopped talking. All eyes slide to look my way, forks or drinks hanging suspended in mid-air, waiting for an answer. I pick up the glass in front of me and take a sip, delaying my response.

George has been asking me vague questions for the last thirty minutes, not prying too much, but digging just deep enough that I have to remember my lies. We had a brief discussion at the last Gathering, but he only got the basics—my line of profession and how Daisy and I met. I should have seen this coming. I’m an idiot that I didn’t prepare a better front to tell her family. Something sweet, like out of a fifties sitcom. Upstanding citizens have wholesome backgrounds.

I’m far from wholesome and my backstory is pretty awful, but they can’t know that.

Heather’s gaze burns into me. She’s watched me closely throughout dinner. Her threat right before we left the mountains rings in my head. She breaks her stare and glances at her husband, then says, “It’s certainly an interesting line of work. I understand you run a security firm for financial institutions?”

I smile at her choice of words. “That is one way of putting it.”

I lean back in my seat, trying to come up with a way to explain what my business entails. My fake company that is. Or rather, the cover for what I really do. If they discovered that I target large investment firms, break through their security software, then transfer the money into offshore accounts, I doubt they’d be so friendly. If they found out that I then get hired by the same company I stole from to fix the holes in their software when the company realizes they’ve been hacked, I doubt her father would be asking me to join any more Gatherings.

No. I certainly wouldn’t be welcome, so I say, “My security firm analyzes weak points in security software. I find any gaps and see if I can break through. If I can, I assist the company in rewriting the software.”

“So you’re a hacker,” Forest says, glancing at his father and then back to me. A hint of something flashes in his eyes. I recognize it. Mistrust.

“That is a crude way of describing it, but yes,” I tell him, unable to keep the sneer out of my words.If he only knew.I feel Daisy shift next to me. I curse myself. I need to keep my temper at bay. Forest has every right to question his sister’s boyfriend. He’s a concerned brother, and to him, to everyone really, I’m a complete stranger. “But, yes, I’m what is called, in simplistic terms, an ethical hacker.”

Justine places her icy hand on my arm, squeezing my bicep lightly. “That’s fascinating. What made you decide to work in this field?”

I take another sip of my drink, trying to figure out how to handle this one. “My father was a banker,” I lie. My father was a mean ass drunk, who couldn’t hold down a job to feed his son, but I can’t tell them that. So I lie. Lie. Lie. That’s what I do best. That’s what I’m good at. Lying. So I lie some more. “He was a financial investor.”

George leans back in his seat, his eyes burning into mine over the rim of his glass as he takes a sip. “Which firm?”

Fuck.Why didn’t I think this through? Of course, he’d know about investment companies. He’s the fucking president of one.

“It was a small, private investment firm. He traveled often and rarely discussed his work,” I say, hoping to be as vague aspossible. “Unfortunately, it went under and he went to private advising.”

“I see.” George nods. “What made you decide your line of work?”

---