Page 83 of The Heir
“Pearl told me you wanted me to hurry home.”
“Oh, that. No, I just missed you and I wanted to know everything that happened in France. I knew Pearl and Laura would hold you hostage for hours to hear about your impression of everything, so I figured I’d do you a favor and give you an easy way out.”
I stared at him. “There’s no emergency then?”
“No.” My dad came down from the ladder and looked at me with a puzzled expression. “I was doing you a favor. You never liked going to the Northlands, so I figured you were eager to get back here.”
“I was, but…” I shook my head and put down my bag before heading for the open kitchen for a snack. “Where’s Mom?”
“She went down to visit with the Sullivans. Their little one is still sick, and it’s been hard on them.”
“When will she be back? I need to talk to her.”
My dad was blessed to still have a full head of hair and for all the time I’d known him, he had an earring in his left ear. As a child I had studied his face for hours and loved his wide nose, scruffy beard, and big brown eyes that often had a look of mischief in them. Dusting off his hands with a happy smile, my dad took his favorite seat on the kitchen counter where he had the full view of the open room. “You have me. I can tell that something is bothering you, so talk to me.”
“Dad, it’s okay. I’ll just wait for Mom to get here.”
“Wow, that’s hurtful. We used to be close.”
“We still are, this is just… big.”
“I’m the largest man in the house. If anyone can handle big problems, it’s me!”
I stared at him for a long moment and then I burst out, “I slept with Thor.”
My dad’s smile vanished as he stared at me. “Come again?”
“You heard me.”
He sat for a moment before he cleared his throat. “Yeah, I think I heard you, but my brain is trying to block it out.”
“I slept with Thor Aurelius last night,” I repeated.
My dad’s large hand tore through his hair and then he scratched his beard again. “Satan’s balls.”
I waited for him to digest the shock.
“Was it consensual?”
“Yes… except that…”
Before I could finish the sentence, my father thundered, “If he forced himself on you, I’ll fucking castrate the bastard.”
“No, it was the other way around.”
“Huh?” With his face scrunched up, my dad was a big question mark. “Was he drunk? How could you force yourself on him when he’s so much bigger and stronger?”
“Argh.” Leaning my head back, I closed my eyes. “I knew I should have talked to Mom about it. You wouldn’t understand.”
“Then give me more details so I can make sense of it. I don’t believe for a second that you overpowered Thor Aurelius and forced him to have sex with you.”
“No, of course not. He… ehm… he wanted me to marry him, and I said no. I figured that his sudden attraction to me was because of the strong sexual energy that permeates all of France. That’s why I suggested that we should have sex and see it as an experience.”
“Oh.”
“Thor said that he wanted us to wait until our wedding night, but since I couldn’t see us together long term, I insisted that we… anyway, we were kissing and playing around and then I…” It was hard for me to explain what I’d done to my father.
“You what?” My dad had that look on his face of full-on concentration. He was trying hard to understand. “Did you finger his ass?”
