“I am pretty jetlagged, which probably isn’t helping things. And you should get back to your not-ramen dinner. Who are you with?”
“Just a friend,” I evaded. Again, not technically a lie. He was also my boss. And we’d graduated from friends-with-benefits to fuck buddies, but still.
That was a kind of friend.
“Okay, sweetie. Go have a good night. I’ll send pictures tomorrow. Er, later.”
“I can’t wait. Love you, Mom. Have fun.”
We clicked off, but I didn’t immediately go to the door. I should’ve. Iwantedto. I wanted to leave the shrine-esque study,the voicemail from my dad, and the call with my mom behind, completely forgetting any of them existed.
But it was like I was trapped there, walking my path until I worried that I would be the one to leave the first signs of use in the place. If I was at my apartment—or even closer to it—I would’ve taken off up the nearest hiking trail.
Pretty dress and delicate heels be damned.
Since that wasn’t an option, my body seemed set on displacing the restless energy with inadequate pacing that got me exactly nowhere.
I spun just as the door opened, and I expected to see Percival waiting to escort me back to the dining room. Instead, it was Tripp’s large body that filled the doorway. He scanned me with just as much angry tension on his face as I felt on my own. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” Swallowing down my pain, my manners demanded I apologize. “Sorry, I’m not avoiding dinner, I swear. I just got off with my mom, and?—”
He must’ve read the bitter lie that sat on the tip of my tongue. “I’m taking you to Gilded.”
I could’ve fallen to my knees in front of him since the distraction of Gilded sounded a billion times more effective than a hike. “After dinner?”
“Now.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
WHO HAS THE NEPO BABY’S HANDS TIED, FORCING HIM TO BEHAVE?
TRIPP
I’d already been on edgeall dinner—and not the good kind.
Greer’s accidental touch of my cock had offered a distraction. An outlet. A twisted possibility. It always felt good when she touched me, but it was more than that. It was the way she’d gotten flustered, unable to eat as I forced her to touch me more. She might’ve been uncomfortable, but she’d done it anyway.
And it just went to how fucked in the head I was that her reaction hadn’t been enough to make me stop. I liked her nervous. I liked her uncomfortable but willing to do what I wanted anyway. Pre-cum was stuck to my slacks.
But the distraction had been short-lived, and once she’d left the room, the edge came roaring back to stab at me. Just being in that house made me miserable. It was still a glorified time capsule to all my father’s many accomplishments. His acting roles. The celebrities that he claimed owed him everything. His awards. His posters, playbills, and ad spreads.
Yup, every damn thing that was important to him.
And not a single picture of me. Not even one of us.
It didn’t matter that I was a thirty-three-year-old man who’d already surpassed my father’s glory. Sure, he had the soap fans locked down, but I was on a trajectory he couldn’t have hoped for, even in his heyday. It still cut to know that I wasn’t viewed as something he was proud of. Not even to milk my success and claim the rights to it for all he’d done along the way.
Which was exactly jack-fucking-shit. He wasn’t abusive or anything. He just wasn’t there. He’d had no interest in being a father, and he hadn’t been shy about sharing that. When he did get involved, it was only to point out what I was doing wrong.
A trend that’d continued over dinner.
At least he’d held out on the shitty stuff until Greer left the room. Then he’d taken the time to hammer home what a mistake I was making withSummer. How my bad choices were going to catch up to me, and since I had no backup plan, I would be left doing gig work for pennies. How I wouldn’t be able to support myself, much less a gorgeous and much younger woman.
It was bullshit.
But that didn’t mean it didn’t irk me to hear my own father spew it.
My already thin patience dropped to nonexistence when I’d gone to check on Greer, just to have her lie to me. Right to my fucking face.
