Page 29 of Highest Bid

“Want some company?” he asked.

She looked up at him. “You’d really want to go through the ordeal of my parents again?”

“Nothing’s an ordeal as long as I’m with you.”

Warmth spread through her and centered at her chest even before she answered huskily, “I’d like that.”

Chapter Eleven

Layla climbed out of Galan’s luxury SUV. I could get used to this. Not because having Galan drive her was so much nicer than having to rely on public transport. It was how relaxed she felt having him by her side when visiting her parents.

Normally her stomach was a mass of knots just imagining the tension and arguments between her mom and dad. But, with Galan, it was as if he’d shoulder any of those burdens and protect her from the worst life threw at her.

She exhaled heavily. Bloody hell. She was already making him into her knight in shining armor, and they’d officially been together as a couple for...maybe an hour?

He moved around the SUV, the garden lights revealing the flash of his white teeth as he said with a smile, “One day you’ll let me be a gentleman and open the car door for you.”

She smiled back up at him as he drew her close and put his arm around her waist. It was past time she simply enjoyed being with him and stopped questioning everything as though they were doomed from the start. “I’m not sure I know how to handle that side of you.”

He arched a dark brow. “The side who wants to take care of you?”

Her smile widened. “No, the side who isn’t throwing me onto the nearest bed and fucking me.”

His eyes glinted in the semi-darkness. “Oh, that side will always be there, firecracker, it’s just biding its time.”

She was still smiling when they walked together into the brightly lit house. “Mom, are you home?”

“Oh! Hi, honey, I’ll be right out,” her mom called from down the hallway. She was probably in the bedroom fixing her hair or makeup.

Except when her mom entered the dining room, her hair was a mess and her lipstick was thoroughly smudged. She was also glowing as she walked hand-in-hand with Layla’s dad.

Layla gaped. Her bare-chested, clean-shaven dad wore nothing but sweatpants and a satisfied grin, and her mother a bathrobe belted tightly around her waist. It was probably the only thing that hid her nakedness.

Everything was still clearly right in their world.

“Hiya, sweet cheeks,” her dad said to Layla. He nodded toward her mom. “As you can see, your mom and I have worked things out.”

“We couldn’t be happier,” her mother gushed.

Layla didn’t even try to repress the first stirring of hope for her parents. She’d thrown caution to the wind for her relationship with Galan; maybe her mom and dad deserved that same reckless optimism?

Layla’s mom smiled at Galan, noting his possessive arm around Layla. “And it looks like things have progressed between you two.” She winked at Layla. “A little birdie told me you two were just friends.”

“We were friends,” Layla conceded.

“Friends having a lovers’ spat last I saw them,” her dad revealed.

“Oh, so friends with benefits,” her mom said with a tinkling laugh. It was the kind of musical sound that wasn’t marred by snorting.

Galan gave her a little squeeze, his voice low and thrumming with censure as he faced her parents. “Your daughter deserves more than a friend with benefits. And I intend to be the one who gives her just that.”

Layla’s mom gasped, before she pressed her fingertips to her mouth and eyeballed Galan up and down. No doubt assessing his expensive threads and the way he commanded a room. She’d worked a crowd enough times to know who had the money and who didn’t. “Seriously?” she asked, voice high-pitched.

Layla’s dad beamed as he looked at his daughter. “Well done, sweet cheeks.” He glanced at Layla’s mom. “I never thought I’d see the day our ordinary little girl would grow up and hit the man jackpot.”

Layla mentally withdrew, as her self-esteem shriveled. She was the child her parents didn’t need to grieve...the living and breathing daughter who’d only ever reminded them of their loss.

Galan stiffened, his outrage palpable. “Ordinary? You have to be joking. Your daughter is extraordinary in every way.” He shook his head. “I’m even more proud of the amazing woman she’s become knowing the harmful environment she must have grown up in.”

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