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I gave a small grunt.
“No, it’s true,” Cia claimed. “If I have a bad day I always call Darren for a laugh.”
“You’re with the big guy, right?” I nodded toward Gabriel, whom I had spoken to earlier. He was busy drinking whiskey with the Scots and Chloe.
“Yes, I’m Cia and the big guy’s name is Gabriel.” She smiled and turned to me. “I want to ask you something.”
“Sure.”
“Would you let me paint a portrait of you?”
“Of me?” My hand flew to my chest.
“Yes. You’re very intriguing with your long hair and raw masculinity. I would love to paint a portrait of you.”
“What for?”
“Because that’s what I do. I’m a painter.”
“Cool. Can I see some of your work?”
She nodded and turned toward the table. “Melody?”
Our hostess, Melody, swung her gorgeous red mane of hair to look back at us. “Yes?”
“Can I show Adam the painting I did for you and Christian?”
“Off course, go right up.”
“Come on.” Cia took me by the elbow and pulled me along. In reflex I looked over at Chloe and saw her clinking her glass with Andrew and Derek. She looked up and saw me as I passed them. Our eyes were only locked for a second but I felt a strong pull to stay and get between her and her Scottish fans.
“Melody is my aunt,” Cia told me on the way up to the second floor.
“Your aunt? Isn’t she a bit young to be your aunt?”
“My father was a teenager when he had me and she’s seven years younger than him.”
“Oh, okay, I see.”
“Gabriel is her stepbrother.”
I shook my head. “Sounds complicated.”
“Yeah, Gabriel and I aren’t blood related but the family connections still made us fight our attraction in the beginning.”
“Not hard enough, it seems.”
She shrugged. “You can’t choose who you fall in love with.”
“True,” I said. “But there’s always a choice to not pursue it.”
Cia laughed. “Maybe, but all I know is that I’ve never been as happy as when I’m with him.”
“At least you’re from the same social standing,” I muttered low enough that she wouldn’t hear me.
But Cia did hear me and turned on the stairs in front of me with a puzzled expression. “We’re not. I was a homeless criminal when he met me. I’d been homeless since I was fourteen while Gabriel had grown up in a mansion by the lake.”
“How come you were homeless?”
