Page 83 of The Penalty

“And Miss Cecelia. You look lovely.”

I glance back at her to see her nod with a tentative smile. I don’t like the condescending way he uses her first name or the judgment that’s heavy in his tone.

He glances at me. “You’ve got a guest? Name please.”

“Dev,” I reply, but his stare keeps burning into me as a small smirk twitches at the corners of his mouth.

“This is Devlin Connell. My mother should have added him to the reservation.”

“Hmm.” The man looks even more weaselly, frowning at the tablet in his hand. “I don’t see him here.”

Fuck. I know I don’t belong here, but now my skin is getting all hot, and I reach up to tug at my tie. I didn’t even want to come here, but knowing how unwelcome I am is still an awful feeling.

Beau glances at his watch, then straightens his back and zeros in the employee. There are now a couple of cars behind us waiting to enter the hallowed ground. “Add him to the list. My father is waiting for us, and I don’t have all day. He’ll be pissed if I tell him why we’re late.”

“Right. Of course, Mr. Whitaker. How do you spell it?”

Beau spells out my name, and the gate finally swings open slowly, as if it’s reluctant to let me in too.

“Jerome thinks he’s the shit. Sorry about that ass.” Cece reaches out to pat my arm, pulling it back quickly when she realizes what she did.

Beau doesn’t seem to notice. “I hate throwing the family name around, but he was just being difficult. Sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

The trees lining the way are mostly bare, but the ground underneath them is immaculate. As if they send someone out every day to sweep and rake away the fallen ones. I’m sure they do.

A large stone building comes into view. It resembles a castle without the turrets, and it almost looks like it grew up out of the hill it sits on. It watches our approach, casting a shadowover the parking lot filled with shiny cars that cost more than my entire college education.

Beau eschews the valet parking, but he swings into the curve by the front door to let Cece out.

“See you in a minute.”

“You bet I’ll be waiting for you. No need to breach the walls on my own.”

She’s changed into a dress for the evening. Much more subdued and fancier than her usual attire. But it looks good on her. I’m pretty sure she could give the paper bag princess a run for her money if she wanted to. The navy dress has a flowy chiffon skirt that covers her knees, and a tight satiny top with an embroidered pattern of vines stitched on it. I’d love to run my hand over the little detail before I ripped it off her. Little fluttery sleeves cover her shoulders, but she threw on a long red wool coat to keep the cold air off her bare skin. She looks like she’s accustomed to wearing the three-inch heels, but also like she’d toss them in a bush to dance barefoot on the grass if she could. I don’t really like how this place seems to drain her exuberance away. I love that about her.

She’s still standing outside the massive front door when we’ve made our way across the parking lot. Her arms are wrapped around herself in a hug to stave off the cold.

I have to resist the urge to pull her into my arms for warmth.

“You should have gone in, Cece.” Beau scolds his sister.

“I would have, but Trent showed up, and I couldn’t do it.”

“Who’s Trent?” I ask, the skin at the back of my neck prickling to attention.

“Cece’s on-again, off-again boyfriend.” Beau informs me. “He’s a dick. I have no idea why you keep going back to that ass.”

“Thanks for the plentiful helping of condescension, brother. It’s off. Forever. Don’t worry. I’m never touching that guy again. Not even if we were the last two people on the planet. Screw repopulating Earth. If that’s how I had to do it. Better the human race dies out.”

“Did he do something to you?” My fingers are twitching into fists at my sides. If he treated my girl badly. If he did anything to her, I will be happy to smash his face in. I’m sure Beau would help me. Just like that asshole mouthing off at our game.

“He did lots of things to me, but as my brother so kindly pointed out, I went back to him, but it was always more of a casual thing on both our parts. Don’t get all worked up. Are you really cheating if neither of you has much emotional investment in the relationship?”

I still don’t love hearing about her getting treated like that, but at least she wasn’t super into the guy. Now I feel worse about what I’m doing to her. Forcing her to keep our relationship secret is keeping her at a distance that I’m not comfortable with, because I really care about her.

A guy about our age dressed in the same outfit as the keeper of the gate holds the door open as we pass through, and it’s like stepping into another world. The dark wooden floors have an aged shine to them. The ceiling in the foyer stretches all the way to the second floor. Beau leads us to the left, where we hand our coats off to another smiling staff member.

---