Page 18 of Hell to Pay

LILAH

“Areyou sure this dress is okay?”

I looked down at the short-sleeved floral dress I’d chosen for dinner with Jude’s family. It was one of the nicer things I owned, but now that we were pulling through the iron gate and driving toward a pristine white mini mansion, I wasn’t sure it was good enough.

Jude reached for my hand across the Range Rover’s console. “It’s perfect. You look beautiful.”

It was impossible to tell if he was just being nice, because Jude — improbably — had turned out to be someone who was pretty much always nice.

And he wasn’t hard to look at either. He was hot as hell in the jeans he usually wore but the black dress pants and midnight blue button-down he’d chosen for dinner at his parents’ made him look like a movie star, an effect that was only enhanced by the sunglasses he wore to shield his eyes from the setting sun.

The sunglasses and the dark color of his shirt set off his fair hair, always shaved close to the scalp, and his skin — like all the Bastards’ — was always a little tan because he spent so much time outdoors.

Not sleeping with Jude alone was starting to feel like a glaring oversight.

“Everything okay?” he asked.

“What?” Had I been staring? “Yeah, I’m good. Just nervous.”

“They’re going to love you,” he said, pulling the Rover next to a red Corvette.

“How do you know?” I didn’t know when the dinner had morphed from an opportunity to do Jude a favor into an event that actually mattered.

“Because you’re amazing.” He put the car in park and gave me a quick kiss. “What’s not to love?”

I didn’t answer, but looking at the enormous house, I couldn’t help feeling I probably wasn’t what the Carringtons had in mind for their son.

Not that I was thinking long-term or anything. Because that would never work.

Obviously.

We got out of the car and Jude took my hand as we made our way up the walkway to the ornate front door. “Sure you don’t want to turn around? It’s not too late to change your mind.”

“I’m good.” I smoothed my dress. I felt vulnerable without my knife, which was crazy. I was going to dinner at Jude’s parents’ house, not a fight at the Orpheum (okay, I’d never been to Fight Night at the Orpheum, but I’d heard they got rough).

Jude rang the bell and a few seconds later the door was opened by a pretty curvaceous woman with a styled blonde bob and perfect makeup.

She pulled Jude into her arms. “For heaven’s sake, Jude! You don’t have to ring thebell! This is your home!”

He hugged her back with a laugh.

She pulled away and looked him up and down. “You look good, son. Healthy and happy.”

“I am,” he said.

“That’s all that matters.” There was weight to the words, meaning I couldn’t grasp.

Jude turned to me. “Mom, this is Lilah. Lilah, my mom, Mary.”

“I was so happy when Jude said he was bringing a guest!” Mary Carrington said with a smile. “He’s never done that before.”

Was Judeblushing?

“Mom, I’ve brought people to dinner before.”

“Well, yes!” she said. “Friends! But not agirl.”

“Mom…”

---