Page 42 of Pleasure Payback

‘I’veprovedI can handle you,’ she fired back. ‘But of course, if you’re scared of a little...revelation, you can go right back to brooding like some wannabe rock star.’

I laughed. The sound startled me, emerging from a place I thought was locked and weighted down with concrete. With a start I realised it’d been a while...hell, a long while since I’d laughed so heartily.

And I was laughing because of Neve.

The sound slowly died as I watched her expression alter.

Soften.

That heavy stone I’d carried for longer than I could remember, the one that didn’t permit me to give any quarter when it came to useless emotion...shifted. Attempted to crack open. I tightened my gut against the sensation, whipping up anger that felt a little out of place.

Foolish and overdramatic.

Bloody hell, what was going on with me? This was about sex. Ultimately. So why did it feel even more precarious to know I wasn’t the only one caught in this damn vortex of risky emotion and perpetual horniness?

One beautifully sculpted eyebrow rose, silently prompting an answer.

Right.

My parents.

Predictably, thoughts of them dampened my arousal, diluted the thick shroud of desire whipping around us.

‘I meant exactly what I said. They didn’t emigrate to Greece to be surrounded by its warm and fuzzy locals. They decided they’d had enough of their own family and wanted to live in seclusion, so they bought an island and did exactly that.’

Her eyes widened. ‘You grew up on a Greek island?’

I shook my head, staring at her mouth in the hopes of allaying the deep, bruising ache that went hand in hand with this subject. But while thoughts of biting and licking that plump lower lip helped, they weren’t enough. Nothing was ever enough. ‘Theymean my mother and father. Alone. Exclusively. They bought their island and rarely step foot off it.’

She inhaled sharply. ‘They went without you?’

I stared harder at her mouth, unwilling to confirm whether the sympathy in her voice was reflected in her eyes. ‘Yes.’

‘How old were you?’

‘I was nine.’

Her fingers toyed with her wine glass. I wished I had something stronger than mineral water. But my paranoia about drinking in public wasn’t easy to dismiss.

Not after Penny.

Not when a six-hour black hole yawed in my memory. Fucking hell. Another subject I didn’t want to dwell on for even a second—

‘But...why...?’ Neve asked.

For a blind moment I thought I’d spilled my darkest secret. But no. We were talking about my parents.

I exhaled sharply. ‘They were satisfied they’d done their duty, I expect. Made their contribution to the great Mortimer gene pool. They left and never looked back.’

More questions flared in her eyes. I raised my hand before she could voice them.

‘What’s your agenda here, Neve?’ I asked with a grating laugh. ‘If I learned anything from my...unique childhood growing up in the Mortimer clan, it’s that everyone has one.’ My parents had proved that conclusively. Penny had proved that when she’d sidled up to me under the pretext of needing help and shattered the one relationship that meant a damn. ‘So what’s yours?’

Neve’s eyes widened into pools of affront. ‘Excuse me?’

‘I get the business angle. You feel you were wronged and are out to right it...somehow. But this sudden interest in me? What’s that all about? You want more ammunition for your little arsenal?’

A dart of hurt dimmed her eyes before the blue depths flashed with anger. ‘Don’t judge me by your standards.’

---