They were both still sitting under the covers. Both still naked.
Sasha pointed at her mother. “Would you get out so that we can get dressed?” When her mother didn’t move, she added, “Please.”
Her mother didn’t respond verbally, but walked out of the room, her heels clicking against the wooden floor. As soon as she left the room, Sasha shot out of bed and closed the door behind her. He didn’t even get to enjoy the view because she pulled on a robe immediately.
When she turned to him, he couldn’t help the probably dumb-looking smile on his face when she couldn’t help checking him out. It made him glad that he’d been very physically active in the name of health for the last decade. He was happy she liked to look at him.
But that happiness was short-lived. Apparently, she remembered that her parents were out in the other room and had caught them naked in bed.
“Why do they have keys?” He had keys to his father’s house and his brother’s apartment for safety reasons. But he would never use them without permission and prior warning—especially in Chris’s case. He never knew what he would find.
Sasha looked down and crossed her arms. He didn’t want to risk his new relationship by saying it, but she looked like her mother when she did that. “Well, technically, they do own the place.”
That made what they’d done the night before seem dirtier and somehow more illicit. Like they were teenagers, and he’d snuck into her room last night. He didn’t hate that thought, and he realized he might have a more subversive streak than he’d previously thought. Or maybe that was just Sasha’s influence on him.
They’d still crossed a boundary by entering their daughter’s home at—he glanced at his watch on the bedside table—eight in the morning on a Sunday. “Okay—”
“Listen, I need you to let me do the talking.” Sasha started pacing in front of the door as he got out of bed and looked for something to put on. Shit. All of his clothes were strewn around the apartment. And those were the only clothes he had until he packed up his things at the rectory.
Sasha noticed his problem and found him another robe. It was pink and way too small, but the too-short baby-blue pajama pants she found him really added to the look.
“I’m not sure what their game is, and we don’t have time to talk strategy, so I’m going to need you to pay close attention to the words coming out of my mouth, and closer attention to the look on my face. I’ll try to position us so that I can signal you if you’re saying too much or too little. But if Moira heads for the liquor cabinet, all bets are off.”
Patrick was totally bewildered. His family wasn’t chock-full of talkers, but there were no mixed messages, and he certainly had never needed to strategize in order to get out of a conversation with them alive.
“Is it always like this with your family?”
She gave him a pointed look that said he was obviously new here. “You need to pick this up quick. I’m sorry about it, but it’s just part of the package.”
He stepped closer to her then and gave her a hug. She stood there stiffly for a moment. “We don’t have time for this.”
Instead of letting her go, he rubbed up and down her back until she relaxed. “I just want to help, and I obviously don’t have the manual on your family, but I need you to let me help.”
She pulled back and he looked down at her. Usually so put-together and competent, she looked lost. “I’m glad you’re here, and I’d hoped that you wouldn’t have to deal with them for a while.”
“Are you ashamed of—this?”
Their whole relationship was so locked up in the taboo of how it had started and how she got off on it that he wondered for a moment if it had only been about the sex. Maybe, now that he was free to be with her, she’d decide that he wasn’t a good bet. He’d known that was a risk going in, but she was worth it.
She was still worth it.
“No, I’m not.” She was firm on that, and relief washed through him. “But my parents might be, and I don’t want to sugarcoat that for you.”
“I’m willing to stand up for us if you are.”
“I am.” She sighed. “But I just don’t want to put you through this.”
He wanted to tell her that he would suffer any number of indignities in order to be with her. He wanted to tell her that he loved her more than he’d ever loved anything in life. He wanted to tell her that he would do anything to ensure that she’d be happy—even let her go. But they didn’t have time for that.
She turned and took his hand and walked them out of the room and into the fire.
CHAPTER THIRTY
PATRICK’S HAND WAS THE only thing holding her back from running out of her apartment screaming in nothing but a cotton robe. His warmth at her back was the only thing keeping her from being a shivering mess.
Her parents catching her and Patrick the way they had was a worst-case scenario. They liked to pretend that all their daughters were virgins until well after they were married. Her mother—who had always referred to sex in the extreme and rare circumstances that it came up with disdain—did not understand why all young women seemed intent on “ruining themselves” before marriage.
“I hope that you have a good explanation for this.” Her mother wasn’t going to cut her any slack at all. Disappointing, but good to know. And she’d made an error by making the opening salvo. Moira was losing her touch.
“I don’t see how any of this is your business.” Sasha was happy to see that Patrick had positioned himself across the island next to the coffee pot. He was even making coffee—four cups, so smart.
“Well, you live under our roof.” Her mother was really rolling out all of the clichés today.
“You mean his roof, right?” She pointed at her father. “You don’t own anything for yourself.”
“Is this going to turn into you lecturing me on how you’re so different from me and your sisters again because you earn your own money?” Sasha had the uncomfortable realization that she sounded just like her mother when she was being shitty and sarcastic. “We gave you the money to start your business, you know.”
“I do know that, and I’m grateful.” Sasha truly did feel thankful that her parents could afford to help her. She knew that without their help, she would have struggled to start her own business and keep it open over the past few years. “But I’ve paid you back, and now it’s mine. And, maybe Daddy didn’t tell you, but I’ve been paying him for this condo in installments, so it’s technically my roof.”
Her dad turned around and winked at her. It filled her with strength until her mother said, “Well, I never agreed to that, so any agreement you have with him is null and void.”