Keir

“I’ve never seen so many doors and windows on one house before,” I say as Rowan takes me down the stamped concrete walkway that leads to her parents’ massive Potomac estate.

Two bubbling fountains frame the steps leading to two arched double doors.

Ringing the doorbell a moment later, she steps back, hands folded in front of her.

“You have to ring the doorbell to your own house?” I ask.

Her pink mouth lifts. “If you only knew how anal my parents are. We’ve got a rule book three inches thick.”

“Tell me you rebelled every chance you got.”

She gazes up at the two-story entrance that shelters us, then back to me. “I wish. This place was locked down tighter than Fort Knox.”

“All these doors and windows and you never snuck any boys in?”

“Babe, we weren’t even allowed to have friends over,” she says.

“Wait, what?” My nose wrinkles just as the door opens, and a woman in khakis and a white polo smiles.

“Hi, Marta,” Rowan says as we head inside.

“Your parents are out back.” Marta doesn’t smile, and I can’t help but imagine how thick her rule book is.

Rowan leads me through a home that comes across as quaint and welcoming despite its enormous footprint. Framed portraits of Rowan and her family line one of the halls we pass through, and the living room boasts a floor-to-ceiling fireplace and an abundance of seating. I’m guessing her parents like to entertain.

Once we reach the sliding glass doors off the kitchen, she takes me by the hand. Outside, under a cedar pergola next to a glistening pool are Rowan’s mother and father. A bottle of red wine rests between them and their voices carry lightly over the sound of jazz music piping through some hidden speakers.

“Mom. Dad.” Rowan gives a little wave as we head toward the table.

“My goodness, I didn’t even see you walk out here.” Deborah’s face is lit. And so is Deborah. She rises from her chair and moves toward me, arms wide open.

It’s hard to imagine the sweet-looking woman who’s hugging me right now as a cold, workaholic mother.

Doug stands, extending his hand, and as soon as Deborah lets me go, I give him a proper hello.

“Keir, why don’t you have a seat,” Doug says. “You drink wine?”

“Please,” I say. He moves a goblet toward me and pours from an open bottle.

“Rowan?” he asks.

“I’ll have some. Thank you,” she says. She’s sitting up a little straighter around them, and she’s definitely more reserved, quiet. It’s almost as if they put her on edge.

“So how was the drive?” Deborah asks. “You didn’t hit rush hour, did you?”

“Just missed it,” I say.

Deborah twists toward her daughter. “Something’s different about you. Did you get highlights? You know how those ashy ones wash you out. You’re much better suited as a buttery blonde, sweetheart.”

Her eyes widen, as if she can’t believe her mother is doing this right now.

I can’t either.

“That lipstick’s just a shade too light on you too,” she says, eyes squinting as she studies her daughter. “Might look better on Adeline. She’s a bit fairer than you are.”

“Everything looks better on Adeline,” Rowan says, reaching for her wine.

“Deborah used to be big in the beauty pageant circuit,” Doug says, leaning toward me. He wears the smile of a man who’s spent the last thirty years making excuses for his wife’s behavior. My father wears that very one. “She’s into hair and makeup and all of that. You know, girl stuff.”

I give a tight smile and nod, my attention moving to Rowan.

I want her parents to like me, but I’ll be damned if I sit around while her mother picks her apart like this.

“I love that shade on you, Rowan,” I say. “I don’t think it’s too light at all. I think it gives your eyes a chance to shine.”

My words are overly sugar-coated and I don’t know the first thing about makeup and colors or any of that, but someone needs to defend her.

“Aw, Keir.” Deborah’s hand clutches at the diamond pendant hanging from her neck. “Isn’t that just the sweetest thing?”

Doug smiles, topping off his wine. “Rowan, how’s the job hunt going?”

Deb scoffs, glancing toward the pool. This must be a sore subject for her.

“This is a gorgeous house you’ve got,” I change the subject. “Mind if Rowan shows me around?”

Doug and Deborah exchange looks, and I understand it isn’t proper etiquette to ask for a tour of someone’s house, but there’s something I need to do.

“Go right ahead, darling,” Deborah’s tone changes to faux sweet and she swirls the wine in her chalice.

Rowan gives me a look but follows my lead, rising from the table and heading back toward the sliding doors.

“What are you doing?” she whispers as soon as we’re inside.

“Show me your room.”

“What?” Her brows meet.

“Where is it? The room you had growing up?”

Her mouth is open slightly, head tilted.

“Just do it,” I take her hand, and she leads me toward a spiral staircase and down a long hall at the top, stopping at the last door. “This it?”

She nods, and I show myself in.

A full-sized bed with a white duvet centers the pale pink room, and a white writing desk and chest of drawers are shoved against the wall between the closet and bathroom doors. A bulletin board hangs over the desk, covered in various medals and ribbons and certificates, and there’s a sweet scent in the air, almost like raspberries and innocence.

“So you never had boys over, huh?” I ask.

“Never.”

“That’s a shame.” I glance around the room, my hands on my hips and my eyes landing on her lock-less doorknob. “This is going to be risky, but I think we can pull it off.”

“What are you talking about?” she laughs until she finally lands on the same page as me. “We can’t have sex in here, Keir. I don’t have a lock, and my parents are going to come looking for us if we’re gone too long.”

“Jesus, you’re not sixteen.” My hands rest on her hips and I pull her against me. Our eyes hold, and we share a moment that almost feels real.

“You have no idea what it was like to grow up with the strictest parents in America.” She laughs through her nose.

“Your mom’s a piece of work,” I say. “Five minutes with her was five minutes too fucking long.”

“Tell me about it.”

My hands slide down, cupping her perky ass and pressing her hips against me. “It’s a shame you never had a chance to rebel, to sneak boys into your room. It’s like a teenage rite of passage.”

“I will forever regret, until my dying day, that I never had a boy feel me up in my childhood bedroom.” She sighs, her mouth curling.

Lowing my lips to hers, I taste her sweetness, my hand gliding up her side and stopping at the hem of her blouse.

“You’re seriously going to feel me up?” she whispers, fighting a chuckle.

“And if you’re lucky, I’ll finger you too while we make out.” I massage her breast before sliding my hand down to her waistband.

Rowan exhales when my hand reaches lower, deeper breaching the space between her silk panties and her bare skin. A moment later, I’ve slipped a finger inside her wet pussy, pushing it deeper and circling her clit with my thumb.

Her eyes close and her tongue grazes her lower lip, followed by her teeth.

Pressing my mouth into the soft skin just beneath her jaw, I work my way higher, along her neck and making my way to her ear. I breathe in her delicate scent as her hips buck softly against each insertion, and within a few minutes her hands are digging into my arm as she enjoys the world’s quietest orgasm.

“Holy shit.” Rowan collapses against me when we’re finished.

“Better late than never,” I say. My cock strains against my pants, but I don’t need anything in return. The fact that I got her off and gave her parents a giant ‘fuck you’ is all the satisfaction I need for now. “Should we head back down?”

Slipping her hand in mine, she nods, cheeks flushed. My guess is her parents will be too sloshed to notice the glow on her face or the new light in her eyes.

“Thank you,” she says, leaning against me as we walk down the hall.

“Welcome.”

“You like me, don’t you?” she asks, wearing a goofy grin.

“What kind of question is that? Of course I like you.”

There’s an airiness in my chest, a weightlessness in my walk, but only for a fleeting second. And then it’s gone. For the tiniest moment, this—whatever it is—felt real.

And then I force it away.