Page 36 of Vicious Temptation
“So.” Clara rubs her hands over her shorts, looking at me with a lopsided grin. “Now that we’re past the gargoyle, what do we do for the rest of the day?”
“Agnes is actually really sweet,” I promise her. “She’s just protective of Gabriel and the kids. I’ve seen how he is with her and her husband since I’ve been here—he treats them like family, not staff. And they worked for Gabriel’s parents since before he was born. She’s more like a grandmother than a housekeeper. So I get it.”
“Yeah, that makes sense.” A small smirk tilts Clara’s smile, and I look at her guardedly, sure that I’m not going to like whatever she says next. “I can’t help but notice you keep calling him Gabriel. Not Mr. Esposito, which feels like the right way to refer to your boss?—”
“I told you, it’s very informal here. It doesn’t mean anything.” I shake my head at her. “You gotta stop, honestly. There’s nothing going on between us like that.”
Just a moment last night where I thought he was going to kiss me. A moment where I actually wanted to be touched. That’s all. Nothing major.
“So what’s the plan?” Clara asks again, jolting me out of the memory, and I nod towards the living room.
“You can come meet Cecelia and Danny, and then we’re going to go outside for Danny’s baseball practice. They usually like to go swimming after that—I don’t know if you brought a bathing suit—and then we eat lunch and they take a nap. And after that, we usually watch something educational, and chill out until their dad gets home.”
“This sounds like a pretty sweet gig,” Clara says with a laugh. “Maybe I should get out of coding and look for a nanny job.”
“It can be really tiring,” I tell her honestly as we walk to the living room. “They have so much energy. I don’t remember having this much energy at their age, but maybe I’ve just forgotten about it. But it is a pretty cool job.”
“You’re living a five-star lifestyle and getting paid, so yeah—pretty cool.” Clara laughs, and I wince.
“I don’t get paid.”
“What?” She turns to face me, her eyes going wide. “He’s not paying you?”
“Shh!” I hiss. “I don’t know. I think he and my father came up with some arrangement. And honestly, I don’t care. I have everything I need here, like you said. Room and board paid for, the best of everything, my evenings to myself to do whatever I like—and I’m not constantly being hounded with the possibility of being forced into a marriage that I don’t want. My father is probably taking advantage of it to make money off of Gabriel—but honestly, I really don’t care, if it means I get to stay here.” My voice rises as I speak, defensiveness coloring my tone.
“That makes sense,” Clara says, a soothing tone to her voice that I know is her way of trying to calm me down. “I get it. I just don’t want you to be taken advantage of.”
I take a deep, slow breath. “I know. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get so—passionate about it,” I admit with a small laugh. “But I feel like this has been good for me. Being away from home, away from my father, all of it. Having something to do. I know I’m going to have to go back eventually, but?—”
“Hey, maybe you don’t.” Clara loops her arm through mine. “Maybe this can lead to something other than just going back to marry some rich asshole that your dad has decided is good for your family name or his bottom line or whatever. But for now—” She glanced towards the living room. “We’ve probably kept the kids waiting too long. Let’s get introduced.”
I lead Clara into the living room, where Cecelia is still nose-deep in her book, and Danny has started zooming his Batmobiles—there are multiple iterations of them, apparently—back and forth across the bricks in front of the fireplace in a simulated car chase. Cecelia looks up as soon as we walk in, a curious expression on her face.
“This is my friend Clara,” I tell Cecelia, before she has a chance to say anything. “She wanted to come meet you guys and hang out today.”
“Does my dad know?” Cecelia asks, ever the prim skeptic. Her eyes narrow a little, and I realize, for the first time, that her attitude towards me when I first arrived wasn’t personal. She’s suspicious of everyone. Which, actually, will probably serve her well in the world as a woman when she grows up.
“I didn’t get a chance to ask him,” I admit. “But Clara is a really close friend. I’ve known her forever. So I’m sure he won’t mind.”
The expression on Cecelia’s face tells me that she’s not entirely convinced of that. But she just shrugs, closing her book and getting up from the couch. “Are you going to play baseball with us?” she asks Clara, who shrugs.
“I’m down for it.” Clara glances at me, and I nod.
“Let’s go out back, guys.”
We head out to the backyard, where we make a square instead of our usual triangle, since we have a fourth person. If Clara didn’t plan on spending her afternoon throwing a baseball back and forth with me and two kids she only met today, she shows absolutely no sign of not having a good time. She’s grinning broadly as we toss the ball back and forth, around the square and then back and forth across the corners, trying out different patterns to keep Danny on his toes. When we’re all sweaty and tired, Cecelia asks if it’s pool time, and when I nod, she grabs her brother’s hand and they both tear across the lawn to the pool house.
“I’ll grab you a bathing suit if you want to get in the water,” I offer to Clara, and she looks at me curiously.
“Aren’t you going to swim?”
I hesitate. If I say no, it’s going to open up more questions that I don’t want to answer. I caught the way she looked at me earlier, while I was standing in the hot sunshine throwing a ball in long sleeves and jeans. She’s not going to push for answers I don’t want to give, but I also don’t want to worry her.
Quickly, I cast a surreptitious glance around the yard. There are no landscapers out today, and the pool is set pretty far back from the house. Gabriel also won’t be home for a while. There’s not really any chance of anyone except Clara and the kids seeing me, and I do want to get into the pool. It’s hot, and I’m sweating, and the cool water sounds blissful.
“Of course,” I tell her quickly. “I just meant I’d grab you one while I get mine.”
We all traipse back to the house, Cecelia and Danny running to their rooms to collect their swimsuits, and Clara follows me to my room as I go to get mine. She lets out a low whistle as we walk into the room, grinning at me as I glance back at her.