Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 120838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 604(@200wpm)___ 483(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 604(@200wpm)___ 483(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
“But he didn’t work,” I said to confirm.
“Not as…” her eyes slashed to Dair before she finished, “such.”
Ulk!
“And now…what?” I pressed. “He’s refusing to move out of his room which is now my room?”
“Blake—” That was Dair.
“Yes.” That was Christine.
Again.
Hell no.
I turned on my very attractive riding boot and stomped down the corridor, Dair coming after me, calling, “Lass.”
I went faster.
Drat his long legs, Dair caught up with me.
But he didn’t stop me.
“Maybe let me deal with this,” he suggested again as I was jogging up the steps.
I stopped on the half landing. “Why?”
“Because ye have enough on your mind.”
God, he was such a good guy.
“Stop protecting me, Dair.”
“Ye ask the impossible, Blake.”
Man, I needed to suck his dick.
He was a mouthful, but he had a very delicious dick.
I’d do that later.
For the now, I resumed jogging up the stairs.
I heard Dair heave another sigh before I heard him follow me, and when I made the first floor, I went on instinct, and yes (yuck!), you guessed it.
There was a television sounding from the room that had an adjoining door to Mum’s.
I’d learned ages ago this was because, back in the day, it wasn’t done for couples to sleep together. So the woman got the bedroom (the only boon she got back then), and the man was relegated to sleep in his dressing room and only attend her when they had business to see to.
Oh, and this likely gave him ample opportunity not to get caught coming and going on his bent to gamble away the fortune or meet one of his mistresses.
The television noises were coming from that room.
Everyone else was downstairs, chatting, or in Nora’s case, on the phone bossing people around (kindly) while making funeral arrangements.
I knocked hard on the door and didn’t wait for a call to come in.
I opened it and took two steps in.
I felt Dair come in behind me.
And we both watched Jeff scramble off the bed wearing nothing but a pair of long shorts.
“Enjoying a break?” I asked.
“Um…” he didn’t answer.
“As you know, we’ve had several people join us today,” I pointed out. “We have four more arriving tomorrow. Three at the weekend. With possibly six more coming. A funeral is being organized. I’m aware that Christine has hired another maid she trusts from the village, but there’s work to be done. Can you explain why you’re in your room, watching TV?”
“Well—”
“Did my mother pay you?” I asked.
His gaze pinged back and forth between Dair and me before it settled on me. “Yes.”
“Are you up to date with your pay packet?” I went on.
A flush crept up his neck and he pushed out, “Yes.”
“So, I’ll repeat, can you explain why you’re watching TV when there are things to be done?”
He moved to a chair, and it was then I noted he did, indeed, live here.
The place was a mess of clothes, athletic shoes, spent cans of beer, dirty plates that needed to be taken to the kitchen (some of them needed that two weeks ago), and various personal items, like trophies and electronics.
Oh, and it smelled like boy.
He pulled on a T-shirt and turned to me.
“With Helena, I had a—” he started.
“Please, don’t,” I interrupted him. “I think I know what you had with my mother. And now I know she’s dead, the duties you performed for your pay are eternally suspended, and you are occupying a room that’s needed for guests.”
His face set. “She said this is my space.”
“She’s dead, Jeff,” I snapped. “Now, please remove your personal belongings from this room…with haste…and open the windows so we can hopefully air out this scent before someone needs this room.”
Jeff got pissy. “Your mother is not even in her—”
Oh no.
One thousand percent no.
“Do not fucking pretend you give a shit about her, Jeff,” I bit at him. “If you did, you wouldn’t treat this like a crash pad you could impress your mates with when she wasn’t around. If you did, you’d be upset right now, beside yourself with it, and you are not. If you meant something to her, she’d have taken you with her when she wasn’t here. If you meant something to her, she’d bring you into the light, not pretend you were her butler. If she meant something to you, you’d respect her property when she was around. Let’s call a spade a spade, shall we? She was your sugar momma, and that’s all she was.”
He sniffed. “You don’t know what we had.”
Seriously?
Gross!
“Jeff, she was old enough to be your late-in-life-birth mother. You’re younger than Alex. You seem to have no duties here, at least, not anymore, and you get a salary. If you haven’t clued in to what exactly you are, I suggest you do it now. Because with her death, your duties have ended. And if you don’t get your shit together, your employment will too.”