Embrace the Darkness (The Maura Quinn Series Book 1) - Ashley N. Rostek Page 0,31

wouldn’t even bat an eye. It didn’t faze him one bit. He’d talked with me about it as if we'd been talking about the weather.

“I’m a 32C.” Then the rest of what he'd said registered. “Who is Angela?”

“She’s one of the house staff. I think you spoke to her on the phone the other day,” Stefan said while he sent a text to, I assumed, Angela.

“Oh, you mean the woman who wouldn’t put you on the phone when I needed you?” Apparently, I needed to introduce myself to her. Or introduce my fist to her face. The latter sounded more appealing. I could have been dying and that bitch still wouldn’t have connected me to Stefan.

Speaking of which, he stared at me pointedly. “I’ve already had a discussion with her about that and I believe Brody did, as well.” In other words, Leave her alone, Maura.

“She sounded young. How old is she?”

There was a rule in the house when it came to hiring staff. Never hire a woman who was young, beautiful, or both, because the majority of the people who came in and out of this house were male. It never ended well. Someone in our family always ended up screwing the woman and because most of the men in this family were whores, the girl always got hurt. There was nothing worse for a family business than a woman scorned. It caused drama, put us at risk, and then the girl would have to disappear.

It had happened three times in my lifetime. Which was why Brody and I had come up with the rule. They had to be male, old or middle aged, or extremely ugly.

“She’s younger,” he replied, nonchalant.

“How young?”

Looking bored, he said simply, “Twenty-seven.”

“Oh hell, is she pretty?”

Clearly over my questioning, Stefan gave me the brush off by busying himself with his phone. I turned to Louie because he was the biggest Lothario of them all. He refused to look at me as he picked at a nonexistent piece of lint on his shirt.

“Well, Louie’s already sampled from her buffet,” I said and narrowed my eyes at Stefan. “Old or ugly, Stefan.” That earned me an eye roll.

I glanced at Jamie, who had been silent. With one leg propped up on his knee and his arm stretched along the back of the couch, he looked relaxed. Like his best friend, Jamie enjoyed the ladies. The only redeeming quality to his whorish ways was his standards. If he was interested in Angela or had already bagged her, then she had to be gorgeous. He caught me staring and smirked, looking smug as hell. He knew I was trying to get a read on him. I knew it was none of my business, but I didn’t let that squelch my curiosity or stop me from proving a point. We had another stare off as he sat there with laughter in his eyes because the jerk was giving nothing away.

Giving up, I sighed. “Shit’s going to hit the fan. I just know it.”

“She’s a sweet girl, Maura. You need to give her a chance.” Stefan made it sound like I was the problem.

“That just means someone’s going to chew her up and spit her out,” I grumbled. “And don’t make it seem like I’m the one with the issue. It turns into a damn telenovela around here when you all see a pretty girl with a feather duster. Need I remind you, Stefan, that Monica was your fault. She believed she was lady of the house after she bagged you, making everyone’s lives miserable. She drove Jamie to move out. Young and beautiful house staff bring nothing but drama because they can’t resist the bad boy charm.”

Stefan sighed, “Maura, you’re making it sound like we’re taking advantage.”

“Nah, she’s just being territorial.”

My jaw figuratively dropped to the floor as I gawked at Jamie.

“Yeah, now that you mention it, she was like that when we were kids, too. She didn’t like sharing you with me, do you remember that?” Louie laughed. “Oh man, she was a mean little shit. I think if it was socially acceptable, she would have pissed all over you, marking her territory to keep me away.”

Jamie chuckled. “I remember you encouraging her to do just that. I’ve never seen her so pissed.”

I frowned. “Laugh it up, gentlemen.”

That had all of them laughing, including Stefan.

This was what it was like to grow up around men. They constantly teased you. It was never ending and either you learned to