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“We’re really proud of you,” Mum smiles.
I bristle at that, even if it’s all I’ve ever wanted to hear. “Why would you be proud of a perfect stranger? You should save your pride for your daughter…but you don’t have one, do you?”
Mum flashes a look at my father, and if I’m not mistaken, there is anger there. “Yes, well, about that…”
“That’s on me,” Dad interrupts, saving Mum from having to explain. “I may have spoken without thinking.”
“You’d tell me that was uncouth,Dad.” I’m being snarky even though they’re obviously trying some kind of apology, which is a miracle in itself, but I just can’t seem to help myself.
“Indeed,” he agrees on a sigh. “Eleanor, I apologise for what I said. It was an overreaction and I didn’t mean it. You are everything to your mother and I and we wouldn’t do without you. I wish for us to start again with the conversation.”
I frown a little, not understanding his meaning.
He clears his throat uncomfortably. “Eleanor, please tell us about your life. What is going on with you?”
My lips twitch as his discomfort grows. This is the realest and most calm conversation we’ve ever had and the warm andgenuine smile my mum is giving me is both disconcerting and endearing.
“Very well,” I say and turn around to beckon the rest of my gang over. “Mum, Dad, I’d like to introduce you to Hayden Pullman, Brent O’Reilly, and of course, you know Lance Preston. These are my boyfriends. Guys, say hi to my parents.”
Lance smiles and tips his glass. Brent stands close behind my chair, I can’t see but I can practically feel the scowl he’s throwing at my parents. Of course, Hayden slides over like there’s no awkwardness whatsoever. “Mr Maxwell, pleasure to meet you,” he shakes Byron’s hand when he stands to greet him. “Mrs Maxwell, now I see where Elle gets her stunning good looks.” He kisses her knuckles and she for real blushes. Hayden flashes her a final wink before sweeping me off my chair and sitting down depositing me back on his lap.
I catch a glimpse of Brent on the turn but his attention is captured elsewhere, I follow his gaze just in time to see Arash leading a young leggy blonde through the staff entrance. Huh, that’s weird.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you all,” my dad says, drawing me back into the conversation.
“We’re excited to learn all about you and find out more about Elle’s life, I’m afraid we may have been a little lacking in actively taking an interest.” My mother looks down at her lap as she admits that out loud.
Before the conversation goes any further, Brent leans over to speak into Lance’s ear. Lance frowns and then a curtain of cool descends over his face. He stands, buttoning his jacket before dipping to give my cheek a quit kiss. “Sorry, sweetheart, I have some business to attend to.”
“Business?” I panic, does he have some more gagsters tied up somewhere that he needs to go shoot in the head?
He smirks, his beautiful face just an inch from mine. “It’s paperwork, sweetheart.”
He offers a half-hearted apology to my parents; Brent remains surly and doesn’t give them a second look. The two of them walk away, the air around them thick with the alpha, do-not-fuck-with-me energy that they radiate.
I frown after them but then find myself lost in Hayden’s smooth charm as he actually makes my father laugh and my mother looks at him doe-eyed. For the first time in my life, I sit and have an enjoyable conversation with my parents, thanks to the sexy vampire pirate whose lap I am currently occupying.
49
BRENT
This isn’t good.
Lance hasn’t yet told us what to do with the knowledge that Sydney orchestrated the attack on Elle, but it undoubtedly had something to do with the club and nowshe’shere. Sydney will lose his shit. We’ll all lose our lives if this goes the way I think it will.Fuck.
I can feel the ice of Lance’s Dao persona next to me, he is in full business mode and although I prefer my happy, carefree cousin, we need the other guy right now and I’m glad he’s here. We walk through the staff door and up the stairs, through the utilitarian hallway until we reach Amiri’s office door.
“Do you trust me?” Lance turns to me rather than heading through into the office.
I frown at him, confused but the seemingly random train of thought. “Of course.”
“I’ve had a plan building in the back of my mind for a couple of days, I was just trying to figure out how to pull it off. I think I’ve got it now, but I don’t have time to explain. Just go with it, yeah?”
Ominous. “Okay.”
Lance opens the door without knocking and Amiri stands from the other side of his desk in surprise. “Mr Preston, I didn’t know you were here this evening.”
The woman sat opposite him with her back to us turns to face us and flashes a wickedly knowing smile. Annika Wolfe, head of The Talons. Lance gives her an easy smile. “Miss Wolfe, I am surprised to see you here.”
