Page 16 of An Illicit Seduction

Seraph frowned and forked the last bite of her chicken into her mouth. She needed to find an emergency exit for this conversation. Whatever love her mother thought Damon felt for her was nonexistent as far she knew. What she did know was that love had absolutely nothing to do with what was between them. It was a numbers game; how many times could Damon make her come a day. She somehow both lost and won each and every time.

“Well, if that's true, it's disgusting because when he was twelve, I was twenty-one.” Chewing, she shrugged. “But I’m sure it's not true, so it doesn't matter.”

Joyce observed her quietly for a moment before a shrewd smirk came across her face. “Girl, I said that boy has a crush on you, and you're acting like I said you're in love with him. For all of your denying of his emotions, you're making me think you must like him too.” She sat forward in her seat. “Do you?”

Slapping her hands on the table, Seraph sat back in her chair. “Are we in the twilight zone? Did you forget that Damon is family? He’s your nephew. My cousin. When did you become okay with incest? Who else in the family is it okay for me to be with, huh? Tell me, Mama!”

Joyce made a loud, clucking sound, and Seraph grinned, glad to give the older woman a little of her own frustrating medicine. “Girl, don't play with me. That boy ain't no kin of yours.”

Cocking her head to the side, Seraph blinked owlishly at her mother. “Since when? If Damon isn't my cousin, then why do I call his daddy Uncle Louis? Why does he call you Auntie Joyce? Riddle me that, Mama.”

“Don't get smart with me, heifer. Louis is your daddy’s brother, and you know good and well that Louis married that boy’s mama when he was in elementary school. That's why you call him Uncle Louis, but there is no blood relation between you and Damon.”

Seraph scoffed. “Blood isn’t the only thing that makes people family. You know that better than anyone with all of the men who came into our lives and called themselves my uncle after my daddy died. You gained a lot of brothers back then, or did you forget?” She quirked an eyebrow at her mother, certain that she had bested her.

With that selfsame smirk returning to her face, Joyce sat back in her chair and shook her head before meeting her daughter’s gaze. “I would have thought you’d figured it out by now, baby.”

“Figured out what?”

Joyce giggled as if Seraph had told a joke instead of asked a valid question. “Seraph, I was fucking every man that called himself your uncle.”

A strangled sound erupted from Seraph’s mouth and her eyes ballooned.

“Mama, NO!”

Her giggle morphing into a full-on laugh, Joyce nodded. “Oh, yes.”

Seraph blinked rapidly as she suddenly remembered something Damon had said to her the first time they’d had sex at her apartment. She’d been adamant then that he was lying, but now that she sat across from her cackling mother, she wondered if maybe she’d just been hoping that he was lying. She cringed, already anticipating the answer to her next question.

“Not…all of my uncles, right?”

Throwing her head back, Joyce’s laugh seemed to grow in volume. Her shoulders shook and wiped a few tears from her eyes. Seraph sat there, her face scrunched into a pout as she waited for her mother to answer her. Finally, Joyce lowered her head and winked, looking so damn tickled that Seraph couldn’t stand it.

“I said ‘every man’ right?”

“Oh my God.”

“Mmhmm. Now tell me again about your family.”

With her argument coming to bite her in the butt, Seraph quickly shifted her focus.

“Okay, okay. Relation aside, Mama please; he’s a child, which is why I don’t believe this mess you’re saying in the first place. If he had a crush on anyone, it would be with someone his own age. Now, can I just eat my food in peace? Please?”

Grinning like the Cheshire cat that caught the cream, Joyce dropped her fork onto her plate and clapped her hands. “Ooh! You do like him don't you?”

Seraph pressed her face into her hands and groaned loudly. She’d expected a nice meal with her mother, completely free from the man who was taking up residence in her mind and her bed. The jokes from her friends were funny because that’s all they were: jokes. But this? Her mother may have been smiling, but she wouldn’t say some off-the-wall stuff like this unless she genuinely didn’t have a problem with it. What was in the damn water lately?

“You’re killing me, Mama.”

Joyce held up her hands. “Okay, okay. I’ll leave it alone. All I was trying to say is that if we lived in a state that required blood testing before they issued a marriage license, you and Damon would have no problem obtaining one. Because you aren’t blood relatives. That’s all. I won’t say anything else.”

“You’ve already said enough,” Seraph mumbled under her breath. Grabbing her glass of wine, she took a long sip to give herself time to think. What was her mother's angle? Why was she pushing this so hard all of sudden? She set the glass on the table and gave her mother her full attention.

“Mama. This is really coming out of left field. Why do I feel like you're trying to push me on Damon? Is it him specifically, or are you trying to tell me something?”

Her mother shrugged, clutching her own glass of wine between her fingers. “I'm just trying to help you out. You're in your thirties—in your sexual prime—and I don't want you to miss out on what could be the best time of your life just because you don't want to be in a relationship right now. I’m trying to look out for your vagina.”

Seraph’s jaw dropped open. “Hold on a moment. Mama, are you suggesting that I use Damon… for sex?! The sweet boy that I babysat from the time I was fifteen until I left for college. Him?!”