Page 44 of Knotting Hill
“Whatever.”
“Get a sex doll.” I go back to my writing. I don’t need JP’s anxiety over not getting shagged, aggravating my own. Not that I’m anxious over the shagging. It turns out I don’t need it. I just need more coffee.
“Eww,” he exclaims, sitting up. “Is that what you do?”
“Nope, don’t need to.”
“You are so fucking blasé about everything, aren’t you? Just sitting there all broody and shit.”
I shrug. “Not about everything.”
“No, Storm riles you up. Man, you did good the other night, breaking her and Franco apart. Oscar-winning performance.”
“Wasn’t acting. It hurts.”
Silence.
“Shit. Yeah, I guess it would.”
“Not helping, so if you have anything poignant to say, say it, or go get some sleep.”
“Neither you nor Russ has asked about my dad.”
I look up, eyes narrowed. “You told us.”
“But you didn’t ask what his plan was.”
“Figured it doesn’t matter if you satisfied his requirement.”
“Christ,” he mutters and rubs his face.
“Okay, tell me. What did he want you to do?”
“He wants me mated and with either a baby born or one on the way with my mated omega before my thirtieth birthday.”
I try not to gape because that would ruin the broody persona I’ve got going on. “What?” I ask, instead appearing puzzled. Man, his dad is a knob.
“Yeah.”
“And you told him what exactly that made him happy?”
“I told him we were serious about Storm, and we’d be mating any day now.”
I groan loudly. “Why did you do that? We are about as far away from that as we were two weeks ago!”
“I know, but Dick-dad was so fucking smug, like he knew it wouldn’t happen and he could delay it for another five years. I wanted to show him he was wrong.”
“This is not good, JP. What if we get her, and she finds out about this? It will look seriously bad.”
“I know,” he says. “Which is why I have to figure out a way to tell her without it sounding like we’re only doing this for that reason.”
“Like we don’t have enough against us, and now this. Dammit, JP. You should’ve mentioned this before now.”
“Mentioned what?” Russell asks, leaning in the doorway, dishevelled and nowhere close to sleep. I don’t blame him after the Emma thing. Fuck. This is all such a mess.
JP fills him in while I glower at him.
“Between you two, your outside factors are fucking this up. I’m the only one making headway with her. Maybe it’s time you two backed off and let me take the lead on this. I can get her to come to me without all your shit getting in the way.”
