Charity Case - The Complete Series - Piper Rayne Page 0,272

dad follow behind, their own conversation turning to golf where I hear Roarke admit he started late in life but loves the game. Funny since not once has he told me he was going to play golf and we’re in the middle of summer. Another lie?

For the next two hours, Roarke charms my parents along with their friends. We eat brunch where my mom criticizes my selection of fruit and pancakes. “Sugar is bad and then you’re adding carbs on top of that. Come on Hannah, you’re only getting older and I’d hate for you to lose that figure.”

My savior or the one he wants me to believe he is, piles his bunch of grapes onto my plate. Surprisingly my mom quiets down and concentrates on her friend’s conversation about the house for sale on Hillside.

When Roarke excuses himself to use the bathroom, my mind gears up into overdrive wondering if he’s making a call to his side piece. My dad takes the opportunity of Roarke’s absence to share his opinion.

“Keeping secrets little girl.” He slides his arm onto the back of my chair, keeping the conversation between the two of us. Not like the other people care, they’re all wrapped up in talking about what the markets are doing.

“I didn’t think it mattered. I was going to wait until the next event.” I nod in my mom’s direction. “This is probably better anyway.”

“Definitely better. He seems nice. Like a good man. Is that so?”

I know why my dad’s asking. After Todd, my dad insisted I do a background on anyone I planned to get serious with, and I didn’t follow through with Roarke. Maybe because everything was going so fast and I felt like I never had time to breathe, let alone check him out.

“I’ll find out soon,” I assure him.

He raises his eyebrows. “You should have checked that out before your heart was invested.” His matching brown eyes to mine hold disappointment.

“Who said I was invested?”

He chuckles to himself, picking up his coffee mug. “You forget that I know you better than you do yourself. You’ve already fallen.”

“No I haven’t.”

My dad looks at me like, prove me wrong.

“We’ll see what comes back.”

“I wish you’d looked into him earlier.” My dad’s lips turn down. “He seems like a good guy, but you just never know.”

His belief that a check by a private investigator seemed like a good idea when I was knee deep in tissues and my self-worth was spiraling. I meant to make the call and have Roarke followed, but he disguised our dating as favors and before I knew it I didn’t want that path for us. I enjoyed discovering things about him and not reading it on a piece of paper. But things have changed and I’m nauseous just thinking about what I’m going to find out later this week.

“I’m sure it will be fine.” I plaster on a fake smile, knowing that bringing him to brunch was a bad idea. Because once it’s proven that Roarke isn’t the man I thought he was a few short days ago, I’ll have to tell my father that once again my gut was wrong. And everyone knows that half of being a good business person is having great intuition.

“He makes a hell of a first impression,” my dad says.

He slides over when Roarke approaches the table, a smile on his face that says he’s about as smitten as I am over the man sitting next to me. So I’ll break both of our hearts. Great.

“Why don’t you show Roarke the fountain?” My dad points out the French doors to the courtyard.

Roarke doesn’t miss a beat. He must want me to get out of my parents’ scrutiny.

The fountain has water shooting from all five points into the one large spout in the middle. It’s nothing like Buckingham but it’s nice.

“Finally I get you alone.” Roarke sits down on a bench and pulls me into his lap.

“This isn’t really a crowd who appreciates public displays of affection.” My gaze darts around the surroundings but no one is really around.

“I don’t much care what this crowd likes because I need your lips on mine now.”

With his words, his hand slides to the back of my neck and he pulls me down to his. The slickness of his tongue doesn’t wait to break the seam of my lips. He grows hard underneath my legs as our kiss becomes more than PDA. It’s almost X-rated the way his hand slides up my skirt,