Charity Case - The Complete Series - Piper Rayne Page 0,254

in front of you if that’s what you’re asking.”

Am I? I don’t know. Probably. I’m always a glutton for punishment.

“I’m not.”

A tinge of jealousy hits me again thinking about the women who came before me. Did anyone of them hold his heart?

“Stop changing the subject, I snuck you out here so you’d tell me about RISE.” He hands the champagne bottle to me.

I take a sip and hand it back to him.

“You trying to give me liquid courage?” I ask with a chuckle.

“You know I always aim to make you as comfortable as possible.”

I knock my shoulder to his and roll my eyes. “Hmm…I always thought those were ‘get in my pants’ lines.”

He hands me back the bottle, then holds his hands up in the air. “I don’t mean them to be.”

“Uh-huh.”

“So, Firecracker, why did you start RISE?”

No matter how much I try to push this conversation in a different direction, he sets us back on the path. Embarrassment makes me flush and I take a deep breath. “I grew up with expectations. My mom had me in etiquette classes and always tried to instill the belief in me that I should stand in the shadow of the man I married. As I grew older, my fellow debutantes married into wealth similar to their parents. They stood behind the men they married and learned how to throw the best cocktail parties and how to please their husbands by making them look good in the eyes of the people that surrounded them.”

“You don’t seem the type.” He entwines his fingers through mine, the familiar flutter in my belly starts to stir.

“That’s because you met me after the fairy tale had torn at the seams. I wasn’t the first of my friends to be cheated on, but I was the first one who left. You could say it was my dad’s doing. After all, I was the only one of my friends who got an education in business. Most of my girlfriends clung to their mom’s teachings of how to find the right personal shopper and where the best place for brunch was. My mom always tried to get me to fill that role, but she never really had that much success. I was much closer to my dad, who was a doting father…as I grew up, I started to realize that my mom had very little interest in me.”

“I still remember the first time I figured out my mom had a drinking problem,” Roarke says. “The telescope from a kid’s perspective can be gentle.”

I nod because he’s right.

“Yeah, it can be like a punch to the gut when you finally realize what’s been there all along. Anyway, we don’t need to dig into my childhood issues.” I take a sip from the champagne bottle and set it beside me on the dock. “The psychologist my mother hired when I was sixteen because I was acting out delved into that enough. After I found out about Todd’s cheating, something snapped inside of me. My mom’s response was that men will be men. My response was to hire a private investigator to find out if my father had someone on the side. The thought of my father not being the man I thought he was might’ve torn me apart more than seeing Todd with his mistress.”

“And?”

I shake my hand. “Nope. He was clean. He only goes to the golf course, the club, work, and home. My father has always looked at my mom in awe, like he can’t believe she’s his. If I couldn’t believe in that, I’m not sure I’d ever stand a chance to believe in love again. But while my mother was convincing me that it might have somehow been my fault that Todd didn’t stay faithful—that maybe I was too moody or the fact that I didn’t organize a thirtieth birthday party for him, sent the wrong message…she even suggested I read books on sex.”

“Trust me, you have no problems in that area.” He kisses my neck. “I still get hard remembering you beneath me. Todd’s a bastard who let the perfect woman slip through his fingers.”

I smile at his kind gesture to try and reassure me, but any doubts of what I could’ve done to save my marriage left the minute I filed for divorce.

“That’s sweet.” I take back another swig of champagne, the bubbles tickling my throat. “My dad told me to cut off his nuts. Said he’d pay for the lawyer, but that ultimately the decision