Page 92 of A Dark Fall
With a sigh, Jake stands, pushes his chair back, and smooths the front of his suit down. “I’ll let you decide on that, yeah?” He looks down at me. “Where’s the bathroom, baby?”
I stand, ready to walk him there, but he stops me. “On this floor?”
“Yes, as you come in the front door, on your left.”
He nods, leaning in to kiss me hard on the lips.
“God, could you two get a room?” Rob says from behind us as she comes back into the conservatory with Dan. Dan’s carrying a tray of cocktails, which he immediately starts to hand out.
As soon as Jake’s out of the room, I round on Mark. “What the hell was that?”
He has the nerve to look confused. “Pardon?”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“What happened?” Rob asks, sitting down, head moving between us.
“That was rude.”
He gives me a wan smile. “Oh, it wasn’t intended to be. I was only trying to get to know him. He’s a stranger.” He shrugs.
“It was more like a bloody interrogation.”
“Can someone tell me what happened?”
I give Mark a sharp look. “Mark decided Jake needed some heavy questioning.”
“Listen, we don’t know anything about this guy, do we? I was just trying to suss him out, that’s all.” Mark sighs as though this is all some huge overreaction on my part.
Robyn throws Mark a look then. “If you want to suss Alex’s dates out, Sherlock, then do it on your own time, not at my dinner parties. We’re not in some mirrored room at your cop shop now.”
This is enough to shut Mark up. It normally is. He stands and follows Dan outside where a couple of the others are smoking and drinking their cocktails. The conservatory doors are open, letting in a nice cool breeze, soft twinkling lights casting a warm glow over the large decking area. Low chatter fills the air, and I wonder if they’re gossiping about whether Jake is well connected, brave, or fucking stupid.
“You’re not going to go now, are you?” Rob asks. “Did he piss Jake off?”
“No, I think he’s okay. It was ... weird.”
“Guess he’s jealous you brought the hot nightclub owner to dinner,” she says, throwing daggers at Mark’s back.
I glance behind me to see Jake is on his phone in the hall now. He doesn’t look angry or annoyed, and when he lifts his head, he gives me an easy smile.
“Soooo, he’s one hundred percent not what I imagined at all,” Rob says. When I look back at her, she’s also looking at Jake as she sips from her glass. “I mean, when I asked Dan what he looked like, all I got was, ‘Ummmm, I dunno, ummmm, fit-looking, ummmm, kinda tall.’ Well, he got fit-looking right. He’s certainly fucking fit. But he’s not ... I don’t know ... the kind of guy you ever go for.”
“I haven’t gone for a guy in eight years, Rob. Maybe my type has changed. Maybe the polar opposite of Ben is a good thing.”
“Yeah, he’s definitely that,” she laughs.
“Oh, he came over last night. Ben.” I take a drink and wait for her reaction.
Her mouth falls open. “Whaaaaaat?” Her eyes are wide.
“I met him at a seminar on Wednesday. He wanted us to go for a drink andtalk.”
Rob rolls her eyes.
“I said no, obviously, but then he turned up at the house last night, used the spare key to let himself in. He tried it on.”
Robyn’s mouth goes even wider before her eyes narrow to slits. “That is fucking out of order.”