“What was it?”
He thought for a moment then answered, “Direction… in life.” He chuckled and I smiled too.
“Really? That was your thing?”
“I bounced around from one foster home to another when I was a kid, not really belonging anywhere. And I could do stuff not a lot of people could do. I fell in with the wrong crowd and they used my skills for all kinds of crimes. Then one day I found my thing and realized I could do more than what I was doing.”
What he’d said did not sound like his sense of direction had led him to work for Pa. That sounded like what a good person would say.
“Why are you working for my father? You seem different.”
“I am but that doesn’t make me a good person.”
“Well you’re good in my book.” I raised my shoulders into a little shrug. “Thank you. Thanks for coming to my rescue, every time. I swear to God I’m more than this. I do more. I am more.”
“You don’t have to convince me.”
“I feel I have to.”
“No. Not one damn bit, but I am curious as to why you want to head to Europe.” A sheen of interest flickered in his eyes.
Finally, I could talk about something that made me look good.
“I’m an artist,” I told him.
“An artist?”
“I studied fine art and fantasy at college. I do every kind of painting and sculpture you can think of and I really wanted to go to Europe to study more, work at a gallery and then open my own. I wanted to go to Italy. I would so love to live there. It’s beautiful and so me. But just being there to study and work even for a little while would be amazing. It’s been my dream forever.”
“That’s some dream. It sounds good. You sound good.”
“I am.”
“Well you know you’re going to have to follow that talk with evidence right?” He smirked, looking impressed. It was good to see the look in association to me.
“I’ll do a painting for you.” I promised. “As a thank you.”
“I’m not going to say no to a thank you from you. What happened? How come you never went to Italy for art? Sounds like it was in the cards for you well before now.”
The question brought the gloom of the answer with it.
“I was on track to do it and really thought it was going to happen. Then my father started acting weird. He just got more protective and demanding. Had me in his line of sight more and basically controlling.”
“Any reason why he just changed like that?”
“Not specifically. Do you know how my mother died?” I asked.
He nodded slowly. “I know. I was told.”
“He freaked after and I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere.” It was better to put it that way. “If anyone came to see me he needed to know about it. As time went by he calmed down some but never became the way he was back then. Not ‘til now. But I don’t know of any threat that would make him behave this way. He seems more powerful now than ever with so much money. There’s so much wealth and it’s all legit. All of it. With all the wealth at his fingertips I can’t imagine what had him worked up so much to treat me this way.”
“It’s a mystery.” He looked at me like he wasn’t sure what more to say to me.
I couldn’t blame him. I wouldn’t know what more to say to me given that we were talking about my father.
He looked out to the blue expanse of the lake before us and smiled.
“Here’s what we’re going to do today,” he began.
“What?”
“This.” He pointed ahead. “We’re gonna do nothing and pretend nothing else matters. We’re just going to talk and walk around the place and not give a shit about anything else.”
I considered it and smiled, liking the idea. I tucked a lock of hair behind my ear and straightened up. “I can do that.”
He opened the door and got out. I opened my side too but he insisted on taking my hand and helping me get out of the car.
He kept hold of my hand when I went to let go and held it up.
“You’re wearing heels on a quarry, don’t want you to fall over.”
I looked at my feet in the little three inch heels that were a tamer version of the stilettos I usually wore.
“Are you sure that’s not some excuse to hold my hand?” I teased.
“No.” He pressed his free hand to his chest. “Don’t get the wrong idea, remember I’m off limits to you?”
I smiled. “I remember Xander.”
“Good.”
I liked the sparkle in his eyes and the warmth of his hands on mine. It amplified the safety of being with him.
Chapter Eleven
Jia
Night fell and Xander made a fire in the bonfire pit near the car.
We’d gone for a long walk where we’d talked, like he said and didn’t give a shit about anything.
Sitting by the fire with him reminded me of camping in Italy with my cousins who were all so crazy with their ghost stories.
I’d learned that Xander served in the marines when he started telling me all about his adventures.
We sat practically side by side by the fire.
I couldn’t help my fascination with how the orange flames highlighted the outline of his face. It was the artist in me that took note of things like that. The woman in me didn’t fail to notice either because the man was what you’d call mouthwatering gorgeous.
Xander Cage was thirty six years old, a whole ten years older than me but looked more like he was in his mid to late twenties. He had the body of a god, the kind that you knew right off the bat he worked out and took complete, regimented care of.
I doubted the man ever ate anything sugary in his life, or anything that could be classed as fattening. Basically, none of the typical stuff Anya and I would stuff our faces with on a girls night in, or out.
He shuffled to face me when he rekindled the fire and I took in the way his muscles bulged every time he moved his arm. Most men I knew would actually have to tense and flex. His arms just did it naturally.
There was no way he was single with a body like that. Or, maybe he was and the kind of guy who kept himself open so he could have all the women at his beck and call. I was pretty sure he could choose whichever and it would be fine.
“Jia?” He said my name like he’d asked me something previously.
Too busy checking him out and ogling him, I hadn’t heard anything.
I widened my eyes and was grateful for the cover of darkness to hide the blush that crept up my cheeks.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t hear,” I confessed. I couldn’t even think up some lie or excuse on the spot to say.
He smiled at me and that sucked me in too. “You mentioned camping in Italy. I was asking if you did that a lot.”
“Oh, not so much and more when I was a kid.”
“Before the heels?” he teased.
“Before the heels.”
“Well you seem more like an indoor girl.”
I frowned. “What? I’m here aren’t I? And I haven’t complained once about being outside.”
“This is hardly outside, we’re just sitting by the river.” He chuckled.