“Maybe I would have shipped you off,” he says, swishing his ice in his whiskey. “I was mad as hell back then. Your relationship with her was the only redeeming thing. So maybe.”
I nod. Yeah it’s why he let me stay. Maybe he would have missed me too. But he’ll never admit that.
“So if you two weren’t really together, what the hell were those noises coming from your room?”
I frown and then recognition hits me. I bury my face in my hands, mortified. “You heard her?”
“You weren’t the only one living here,” he snaps, “and you two were loud.” No. She was loud. “It’s not as if I was trying to listen. Believe me.”
This is so fucked up. I rub the bridge of my nose, wanting so badly to wake up. Wake the fuck up.
He finally settles in his chair. “Don’t tell me you let her fuck someone else in your bed.”
I drop my hand and scowl. “Let’s get something straight—you’re not allowed to talk about her fucking anyone. Not me, not someone else, not anyone. Got it?”
He rolls his eyes. “You just told me she’s a sex addict—”
“I don’t give a shit,” I say coldly. “She’s still my girlfriend. She’s still Lily. And I’m not anywhere near comfortable talking about this with you.”
“Maybe she’s just a slut,” my father says, clearly ignoring me. “Ever think of that?
I could punch him. I think I could. But I don’t. I use my words, just like he taught me. “I’m going to say this once, and then you will never ever fucking call her that again. Nor will we have this discussion.” I’m standing up now. “She has a problem. She cries herself to sleep because she can’t stop thinking about it. I hold her in my goddamn arms, trying to get her to quit. Sex is her drug.” I point to my chest, my arms trembling. “I get it. I fucking get it, and you should too if you think for a goddamn minute how much you rely on that.” I motion to his drink and he stiffens. “And if anyone is the slut, it’s you.” He paraded enough women in and out of the house that I could have easily obtained some complex. My chest rises and falls heavily as I finish speaking.
His voice softens considerably. “That still doesn’t explain what I heard in your bedroom. If you two weren’t together—”
I grimace. He’s still on that? “I used to let her masturbate in my bed.”
His eyes widen and he opens his mouth to speak. I cut him off. “No way,” I snap. “You don’t get to ask any questions about that. Our relationship—even fucked up—is between us. It has nothing to do with this situation.” That’s a lie, but I’m not discussing that shit with my father, no matter if our own relationship is complicated too.
He keeps his lips tight now and then sips from his glass.
“If the tabloids found out—” I start, but it’s his turn to interrupt me.
“Lily would be in the tabloids, being called names that you don’t like.”
“What about Fizzle?”
“It would suffer, and because you’re linked with her, so would Hale Co.” He rises from his chair. “Let’s find the bastard.”
PART TWO
“We all have secrets; the ones we keep, and the ones that are kept from us.”
– Peter Parker, The Amazing Spider-Man
{ 17 }
LILY CALLOWAY
I hate flying.
Not like Superman flying. But plane flying—trapped in a metal tube in the air.
Add in my fear of heights and the prospect of being in a small, confined space for a long period of time, and I begin to freak out a little. I need the option to dash into a room and burrow underneath the covers, to hide from everyone and escape to my sanctuary.
Privacy, that’s my bread and butter （besides porn）。
And now that I’m on the road to recovery, I can’t even join the mile-high club. I should already be in the prestigious sex-on-flight clan. Being denied for the umpteenth time aggravates me and cranks up my already intolerable sexual frustration.
Lo doesn’t fare much better. He used to love flying because of the mini-bottles of vodka. Now he just looks like someone stole his favorite toy.
The only upside is that we’re flying somewhere fun for Spring Break. Initially, I didn’t want to go anywhere. Traveling to a party locale during the wildest week of the year seemed like a disaster zone for a recovering alcoholic, but Lo basically forced me to concede. He said he wants to test himself, and there’s no better place than Cancun—with Ryke tagging along. Because we all know his half-brother would stand in front of a bus before letting Lo drink.