Page 6 of Your Fault

“Let me,” she said, and I laughed.

“Since when do you know how to tie a tie?” I asked, remembering that I’d always been the one to tie hers when I still lived there.

“I have to learn because my hot-ass boyfriend abandoned me for his bachelor pad,” she replied, tightening the knot.

“Hot, huh?”

She rolled her eyes. “Let’s go back before everyone figures out what we’re up to.”

I’d have preferred everyone did know what we’d been up to. That would keep all the little boys away from my girlfriend. But even after all we’d been through, most people still thought we were just stepbrother and stepsister.

I let her go first and lit a cigarette while I waited. I knew Noah didn’t like me smoking, but if I didn’t, I’d lose my mind. Before I walked back, I noticed something. Her underwear was under my feet.

Had she left without anything under her dress?

Back at the party, I saw her talking with a group of friends: two guys, one of them with his arm resting around her back. I took a breath to calm down and walked over. When Noah saw me, she gave me a hug and leaned her head against my chest.

That was enough to calm me down.

“Have you seen Lion?” I asked her, looking around. I was a little worried about him. He had called me when I was in SanFrancisco to tell me his brother, Luca, was getting out of jail soon. He’d been in for four years; he’d gotten caught selling drugs, and there had been nothing they could do to keep him from going behind bars. I wasn’t too happy about him coming home. I guessed I was glad for my friend, since he was on his own and his brother was the only family he had left, but I knew what the brother in question was capable of, and I wasn’t sure having an ex-con around was what Lion needed at that point in his life.

“Not for a while, actually,” Noah said. “Anyway, it’s probably a good time for you to go see our parents.”

Hearing that made me tense. Since Noah had been kidnapped, there was no more hiding that we were serious about each other, and our parents didn’t like it one bit. And they tried to make that clear to us every time we saw each other. I knew my father wouldn’t let something so scandalous get out: after all, we were a family in the public eye, and to the outside world, we would go on being stepsiblings and nothing more, he insisted. What surprised me was that Raffaella refused to take our side, after what she’d told me the day the police came to our house. In fact, her attitude had become increasingly suspicious.

“Well, well, well, my son’s returned,” Dad said with a false smile.

“Hey, Dad,” I greeted him. “Hey, Ella.” I tried to muster a friendly tone. To my surprise, she smiled at me and gave me a hug.

“I’m happy you made it,” she told me. “Noah was forlorn till you showed up.”

I looked over at her. She was blushing. I winked.

“How are things at the firm?” my father asked.

The bastard had put me under Jenkins, a bossy asshole who would run the firm until I had enough experience to take the reins. Everyone knew I was perfectly qualified, but my father still didn’t trust me.

“Exhausting,” I said, trying not to scowl at him.

“That’s life,” he said. Now I was getting in a bad mood. I was tired of hearing that shit. I’d matured a great deal in the past few months, was playing the part that was expected of me, and was busy every hour of the day. Not only was I working for my father, but I was still in my last year of law school and had my finals and the bar exam to think about. Most of my classmates knew nothing about the ins and outs of running a firm, and I already had more experience than most attorneys. But there I was, with my father still not trusting me.

“Can I have this dance?” Noah interrupted me, trying to keep me from talking back to him.

“Sure.”

I walked with her out onto the dance floor. They’d put on a slow song, and I pulled her in tight, trying to keep my anger and frustration from affecting the only person at that party who mattered to me.

“Don’t get angry,” she said, stroking my neck. I closed my eyes, letting her touch relax me.

My hand slid down her waist and stroked her lower back.

“I can’t feel mad around you knowing you’ve got nothing on under your dress.”

“I didn’t even realize it,” she said, grabbing my biceps to stop me from caressing her.

She was gorgeous. I leaned my forehead into hers.

“Sorry,” I said, disappearing into the beauty of her eyes.

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