Page 40 of Beauty and the Billionaire

I bit my tongue before using Dominic’s name. “Mr. Blackthorne is in the city.”

Father crossed the space between us and put his arms around me. “Come. Come up. Your mother misses you. Did you eat anything?”

My stomach was still full. “Plenty. Don’t worry.”

Father locked the store and turned the CLOSED sign on the old glass door before ushering me through the hallway into the back of the shop and the stairs leading up to our apartment. “This is so unexpected.”

“It was an unexpected trip,” I lied. I hadn’t told them I was coming because I hadn’t wanted to get their hopes up. I hadn’t been sure if I would get a chance to see them, although that wasn’t the entirety of my reasoning. I put the rest out of my mind.

Mother said my name with soft delight when I walked into the apartment with my father. She hugged me tightly and kissed my cheek, lending me the warmth I had so desperately needed. The apartment smelled like the herbs and spices I’d consumed my whole life, all of the scents mingling together to create the perfect aroma of home.

“I don’t have much time,” I said immediately. “Mr. Blackthorne has some business until noon, and he’ll want me back by then.”

“Enough time for tea,” Mother said softly, putting the kettle on. She immediately opened the fridge, looking for something to feed me, and I had to explain what a decadent breakfast we’d had.

“It’s good that he feeds you well,” Mother said, her voice a little tight as if she hadn’t expected to hear this about Dominic.

“He’s pretty nice, actually,” I said.

“Is he?” Mother asked, preparing the tea, while Father sat down at the round dining table with me.

“You’re leaving today?” Father asked. “But the debt…it’s forgiven.”

I nodded and looked from my mother to my father. “It is, but Mr. Blackthorne offered me to work for him.”He offered me the world I’d never thought I had a place in. “And I accepted. For now.” I added the last bit hurriedly when I noticed my parents’ confusion. “He’s a businessman. Working for him will open doors for me.”

Mother brought the kettle to the table and sat down next to my father, pouring tea for everyone before setting her hand on my father’s.

I had called several times since going away with Dominic, telling them some small details about the work I was doing. I wasn’t weeding Dominic’s gardens or cleaning his gutters. I shared his office and helped him organize a mountain of information that needed attention.

“Of course,” my father said with an unusual heartiness. “You are young, but you are ambitious.”

Mother smiled at that and spoke more to my father than me. “He grew up, Amar. The store won’t keep him.”

I felt a pang of guilt and pushed it aside as best as I could. “It’s good work,” I offered. “And D…Mr. Blackthorne is much more generous than I thought.”

“Is he treating you well, Zain?” Mother asked. “He is not known for his…kindness.”

An odd sense of protectiveness filled my chest. “Rumors. He’s much nicer when you get to know him.” I racked my head for something else to say, something that would show them how good he was, and the best I could come up with was pretty lame. “He pays me well and lets me use his mansion like I really live there.”

He kisses me softly and sears my skin with his sexy beard, I thought, pushing that down before it made my cheeks turn red. But I knew without a doubt that I needed to tell them. I needed to tell them some of the truth, even if it wasn’t about Dominic. I’d spent so many years hiding my true self that it felt like my parents didn’t even know me. They knew the lie I’d built by omission. They knew what they were allowed to know.

I wished I could get the words out quickly and painlessly, but I was afraid. My father was so tied to his heritage and tradition that I could already see the heartbreak on his face. His eldest sonand traditionally his heir was gay. Would he be ashamed of me? Or just angry with me? Would he forbid it?

I knew my father so well in every other way except this crucial one. He was a hardworking man, honest to a fault, and proud of who he was. The rules of conduct were so monumentally strict that he allowed nothing to bend them. And he was devoted to his family. I knew that because he had taken on a mountain of debt to provide a better life for me. A life he thought I would like more than working for him.

“I…” I started, my voice snapping immediately.I have something to say, I whispered internally, practicing.And I know it makes me a liar. But I am. I was. And I can’t keep lying to you.

“Yes?” Mother said expectantly, forcing patience into her expression as she leaned a little in.

“I think I’ll visit more often next month,” I blurted. “The work is keeping me busy just now, but it looks like it’ll settle down a bit.”

“That would be wonderful,” Mother said.

We spoke a little more about this and that. My siblings were all in school, doing well, and Father was curious about the agreements I had made with Dominic about the length of my stay.

“It’s sort of undefined now,” I said carefully. “He decided to wipe the debt and keep me on as an actual employee, so I guess I’ll work until this project is complete and decide about the next steps later.”

“And stay in the mansion?” Father asked.

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