"I know, Dad. I know you're offering me a lot, a good job, a place in your company, but maybe it's not what I want. It's not just about Andrew and Lucy. It's about what I want to do."
"And what do you want to do? This is the first I've heard of you not wanting that job with me. Has he put you up to this?" Dad looks daggers at Andrew.
"Melissa talked to me about her doubts, yes, but she knows her own mind."
Dad ignores him. "Just tell me. Has he turned your head because he wants you to play house here with him and Lucy? Because it's all too convenient for him if you stay, isn't it?"
There's no way Andrew can't react to that. "For fuck's sake, Duncan. It's not like that at all. Are you even listening? I want her to go on her trip. I want her to go back to L.A. if that's what she wants. I'm not keeping her here against her will. I'd never do that, to her or to you."
"It's okay, Andrew." I put my hand out as if to hold him back. I got this. Dad never stays mad at me for long. He's not that kind of guy. Never was.
I pull him round to look at me. "Listen, Andrew hasn't tried to persuade me to do anything. I always had doubts about working in the company-whether it's right for me. It's just been going through my head a lot lately. I don't know what I want to do but I know now it's not that. I'm still working it all out and I don't want to let you down, Dad, but ..." I shrug. I don't know how to make him happy and me at the same time.
Dad looks defeated rather than mad. "I thought it was what you wanted. I really did. You can still go on your trip. Come home and then see. You don't have to work there forever if it's not for you."
"There's no point. I already know it would just be putting off the inevitable."
Dad starts to speak but stops himself. He frowns. "You're never going to join the company, are you?"
"No."
He stands there as if he doesn't know what to make of the news. I've let him down but, it's either let him down or myself. I give him a hug. "I'm really sorry, Dad. I know what you want for me. It's just not what I want."
He hugs me back. "You know, Grandpa wanted me to be a lawyer like him. He wasn't happy when I wouldn't even attempt to go along that path. Even worse, I decided to move to America rather than stay here when I married your mom. Did I ever tell you that? He thought my business idea stank too. Even so, he never forced me to do anything I didn't want to do and he was proud of me in the end. I have to give you the same freedom to make your own mistakes. Whatever your decision, I might not like it but I'll go along with it."
"You're not going to disown me then?"
He looks at me like I grew rabbit ears or something.
"As if. I might disown Andrew, but not you." He gives Andrew a sharp look.
"And Mom? What will she say?"
"You know your mother. I love her to bits, but she always thought my business was boring. She won't be surprised if you decide you want to do something else."
Dad looks at Andrew. "I might not be mad at Melissa, but I'm still mad at you. Because fuck. Twenty-one. My daughter!"
"This has nothing to do with how old she is or who her dad is. I'm sorry, Duncan. Believe me. I didn't plan this to happen."
"Maybe you didn't. But me believing it doesn't change anything. You have it all, don't you?"
"With Melissa, I do. Without her, I have nothing. Just one big mess. Losing her would cut me up, but it's not what I want; it's what she wants that counts. I won't hold her back."
Lucy cries out then, reminding us why I'm there in the first place. I go to her and pick her up.
Dad looks at her as if he's realizing for the first time since he returned and caught us together what Andrew has on his plate. My teeth are on edge, my stomach in knots. I don't dare look at Andrew. I feel so bad that I came between him and Dad, that I'm hurting them both, but Andrew was right. We couldn't help it.
Andrew starts, "Duncan, I..."
"Look," Dad says. "I don't like this. I don't like it at all. Even if you had a hard time recently, it's no excuse. I wish I'd never sent Melissa here. But it is what it is, and I can see whatever I say is not going to change anything. Maybe you'll come to your senses, Melissa, maybe not. Maybe I'm wrong about it all. But whatever happens, you do right by my girl, Andrew, or I'll be back so fast you'll think time travel became a thing."
*
I finally text Paul to apologize I won't be able to make it. I guess he'll enjoy a day in London on his own or he'll find another buddy to hook up with. He seems the friendly type. I don't think he'll care one way or the other.
In the end, we go to lunch in Brampton Head, me and Dad, Andrew and Lucy. And after we get through the initial cool politeness, Lucy disgraces herself by throwing her toy and it lands on the lap of the guy at the next table. Andrew apologizes and cracks a joke, and it breaks the ice. Lunch is a lot more enjoyable than I was expecting it to be.
When we get back to the cottage, Dad gives me a hug. He doesn't say anything about it but I think he's happier now he sees how well Andrew and I get on and maybe, just maybe, he's getting used to the news that I don't want to go back to L.A. or work for the company.
When we send Dad on his way in time for his evening meeting, Andrew and I still have to talk. Because things were said when Dad surprised us at the front door that can't be unsaid.
But we don't try to have that talk until Lucy goes to sleep. Meanwhile, we look at each other and those looks speak volumes. We hug and kiss briefly, but we don't talk. There's time enough for that.
CHAPTER 24
Andrew
The moment Lucy is settled down, I pull Melissa into the living room. I'm desperate to talk to her. Our argument is still going through my head, but also what she said to Duncan. "So, I'm more than a friend? More than a situation?"
"Much more than that. You were never just a situation. You know that." She gives me a big hug that turns into a long deep, far-reaching kiss, and I breathe in her scent like a man addicted to it, my hands in her hair.
She smiles. "Definitely much more than a situation. And you love me? Like you told Dad? You weren't just making it up to stop him getting even madder than he was?"
"No, I didn't make it up. I do love you. I think I loved you from the moment you landed at Heathrow. I just didn't know it." I kiss her hair, her nose, her mouth. I can't get enough of her.
"So, what do we do now?" she says, taking my fingers and kissing them.
"Do you need to ask?" I raise my eyebrows at her. "I already told you what I was going to do to you after you came back from your coffee date. I wanted you to think about fucking me while you drank cappuccino with your friend."
"I never had coffee."
"You want coffee at a time like this?"
"No, coffee is the last thing I want."
I lead her to my room but Lucy's asleep there. "I forgot. Something is draining the blood from my brain."
"And I know just where it's going." Melissa runs her hand over the front of my jeans and sheer will power stops me from coming right then. "We can use my room but the bed is tiny."
"We'll have to snuggle up tight."
She laughs. "I didn't think snuggling was what you had in mind."
"Oh, a whole lot of snuggling and much more besides."
First, I want to take her and make her mine again. And then after we've made up in the best way possible and we've snuggled a whole lot, just as I promised, there'll be time for everything else.
But after that first time-hard, fast, relentless and so fucking good-and the snuggling, Melissa has plans. Dirty plans. I love this girl.
CHAPTER 25
Melissa
It hits me right then. I want to experience everything with Andrew. Things I never tried before. It's as if I want to grab a whole lifetime of sex right here, right now. I want to take him fully in my mouth, deep as I can. I want him to tie me up, properly, tighter than before, and blindfold me. I want him to spank me.
When I tell him all that, he makes a noise in his throat and his softening cock jumps to attention again. He gives me a big hug. "I love you," he says. "I love you and your filthy, dirty mind."
"I didn't know I had one before you," I say, blushing despite myself because that's true. I never wanted to do all those things and more, with anyone else.
And then he tells me the things he wants to do with me that make me blush even more. Dirty things I never thought I'd do. And when I whisper "yes" he makes a low growl like an animal that has me ready for him, though I just came.
"We're going to do all those things soon. And one from your list tonight."
"Which one?" Not knowing makes my heart thud. Did I really say all that? Yet I don't want to unsay any of it.
"This." He pulls me to him and upends me naked face down over his lap, growling in my ear, "Starting with your spanking for being such a fucking beautiful filthy, dirty girl driving a man wild."
He whacks me hard on the behind. It feels anything but erotic at first. It hurts! It's not as if his hands are anything but huge and strong like the rest of him. I should have expected that. I squirm and wriggle on his lap from the first blow. Eek! Why do women like this? But I don't tell him to stop. There must be more to it than this.
"Stay still, dirty girl." He steadies me with a hand on my back. "Feel the sting. Raise your hips to my hand. Don't fight the sensation."