Man of the House: A Dark Bad Boy Romance(17)

“Well, I’m not sexist. But you’re definitely a cradle robber.”

She shook her head. “I don’t find it funny.”

“Relax, Evie. The initial press will be bad, but if we stick it out, they’ll get over onto our side.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“We just need to show them a united front, so to speak.”

“About that. There’s a charity gala event coming up, and I think we should go together.”

I sighed. I hated those f*cking things. They were just an excuse for rich *s to get together and pretend like they were doing good for the world while really just making new business deals that f*cked over the little guy.

“Do we really need to?”

“Yes,” she said. “And an interview with the press. Sooner rather than later.”

“Fine. Gala first, then interview.”

“Fine.” She wrote something down on a pad then nodded to herself. “One more thing.”

“Please, god, not another media thing.”

“No. It’s about Emily.”

I froze for a second, staring at her. Did she know about what happened yesterday? I was positive that nobody saw us, not out there behind an outcropping of trees. She wasn’t anywhere near us, unless there was another drone flying around, but that was crazy. Evelyn couldn’t fly a drone if her life depended on it.

“What about her?” I asked innocently.

“I know you’ve been looking at her, Carter. I can see it happening between the two of you.”

“Whatever do you mean?”

She held up a hand. “You’re both adults. Just be very careful. If I had it my way, you would stay away from her completely.”

“I won’t mess this up, Evie,” I said softly.

“I hope not. This isn’t just about your reputation anymore, Carter.” She nodded to herself, and I got the sense that she got something off her chest. She stood, arranging her papers. “That’s all.”

“Okay,” I said. “Thanks.”

She nodded again and left, shutting the door behind her.

I leaned back in my chair and sighed. If Evelyn noticed, I was sure that others did as well. I was going to have to be more careful from here on out, or else risk f*cking up big time.

I picked up my phone, did a quick Google search, and called a number. A nice woman answered on the third ring.

“Yes,” I said. “Hello. I’d like to order a dozen, no, two dozen black roses for a very special lady . . . “





11





Emily





The day after the kiss, I didn’t see Carter at all. He was probably in the office with mom, which meant that I was free to lounge around the pool all day long. Cox assured me early that morning that he had his own drones patrolling the grounds, and they would keep the bad ones away.

I couldn’t think about drones or Carter or anything else. I had to keep my mind off of him, especially after I already stupidly let myself kiss him.

What a hard life I had. My biggest responsibility was trying to avoid the gorgeous, rich, handsome man that wanted me badly. Otherwise, I could sit around his amazing mansion all I wanted, doing whatever I wanted. It was such a horrible, rough situation to be in.

I sighed. I hated self-pity. I wasn’t the type to feel bad for myself, and I really didn’t have it that bad. Sure, wanting to f*ck my stepdad was pretty bad, but it wasn’t the worst thing in the world. A lot of people had it much, much worse, of course.

Still, my situation was pretty unique. If I gave into what I wanted, I could very likely hurt my mother badly, or even myself. It was just such a strange situation to be in and I really had no clue how to handle it. And now I had to worry about freaking drones!

The day passed by slowly and I did my best to keep my mind off of Carter. Eventually, the sun started to dip in the sky, and I forced myself to go inside.

I went up the stairs to my apartment, opened the door, and stopped in my tracks.

Sitting on the large kitchen table was an enormous bouquet of black roses.

I stood there, staring at them for a second. Who the hell sent someone black roses? I smiled to myself, and knew the answer to that. I walked over to them and carefully picked out the card.

E, red roses would seem inappropriate, but what about black ones? Maybe you can send me a Snap of you wearing only these as well. – C

I smiled, shaking my head. That * had some nerve. I put the card back and stepped away.

What the heck was I going to do with a bunch of black roses?

I got into the shower and quickly rinsed off the day. When I got out, I put on some fresh clothes and made myself a quick salad for dinner.

As I sat at the table, idly looking at the black roses, I suddenly wondered what Carter was doing. Without thinking too much about it, I took out the phone and pulled up the Marauder’s Map of the house. Sure enough, there was Carter’s little dot, sitting in a room I thought I recognized but couldn’t be sure. The map wasn’t labeled, so it took me a few minutes before I figured out that he was in his music room.

I got up and headed out into the hall, walking toward him. It was definitely a bad idea, but I was tired and I was bored, and I wanted to know what the heck he meant by sending me black roses. I knew what pink roses meant, what yellow roses meant, obviously what red roses meant, but not black. Was he trying to make some kind of funeral joke or something? You never knew with Carter. That man seemed to live in his own little world and made his own little jokes that he found amazingly funny, while we normal people were left trying to figure out what the heck he meant. He had referenced the lingerie in his note, and maybe that really was what he was getting at. So then why roses?