Lilly knew that Sylvia had even higher ambitions for her husband, but she was pretty sure Matt would be happy with a senate seat and would push back at anything more.
“Darling, why haven’t you been to brunch at the house for the past two weeks?” Sylvia asked, pouting cutely. “You know that Mother asks this of us so she can check in with her children.”
Lilly glanced guiltily at Drako, then caught herself and turned her attention back to her sister. “I’ve been busy,” she told Sylvia. “I’ll call Mother and explain that it wasn’t a snub.”
“Don’t bother,” Sylvia said, turning to shoot an almost predatory smile at Drako. “I’m guessing that you’ve been…too busy to visit with your family or hangout with your nieces and nephews,” she added slyly.
Lilly wanted to grumble that she wasn’t allowed to interact with her nieces and nephews since they were immediately carted off to the kids’ area to be watched over by nannies. Children were never allowed at the brunch table. Lilly had been twenty-one before she’d been allowed. Her brothers had been seventeen and Sylvia had been eighteen. Their earlier acceptance had been due to their abilities to acknowledge the superiority of mother and father’s plans for their lives. Lilly had rebelled against…well, too many dictates over the years.
Lilly hated watching Sylvia put on her show for Drako. Jealousy was not a kind companion!
“Sylvia,” she snapped, pulling her sister’s gaze away from Drako, “was there something that you needed? I’m busy just now, working, but I’m sure that–”
“Why don’t you go have breakfast with your sister?” Drako offered. “I’m sure that you have a lot of catching up to do.”
Lilly shot him a look, willing him to understand that – first of all, Lilly’s sister didn’t eat breakfast. And second of all, Sylvia didn’t care about catching up with Lilly. Her sister only wanted to interrogate her about Drako.
And since they’d agreed that their relationship would be private, accompanying her to a breakfast, or any meal with a member of her family, was not a good idea.
“That’s a brilliant idea!” Sylvia chimed in. Oh no, thought Lilly. Whatever her sister had planned would be bad. Very bad!
Lilly shook her head and picked the closest stack of file folders. She had no idea what was in them, but that didn’t matter. Just now, they were props. “I’m sorry, Sylvia, but I have so much work to do. I just helped with an acquisition, and…”
“Nonsense!” Sylvia broke in with an annoyingly perfect laugh. “You’ve been working all weekend. It’s time for some sister-bonding time.” And with that, she grabbed Lilly’s bag and, holding it delicately, with only two fingers since she didn’t want to contaminate herself. “Let’s go, Sis!”
That last word grated on Lilly’s nerves. Sylvia barely acknowledged a relationship with Lilly. Now, she was calling her by a nickname? Ick! This was such a bad idea!
But glancing over at Drako, Lilly could tell that she wasn’t going to get help from him. He was angry with her, for some reason. Granted, she’d snuck out of his bed this morning. But she’d done that every time she’d spent the night at his place. She’d slipped out of his bed without waking him, dressed, and hurried home.
Drako watched as Lilly trudged off behind her sister. He didn’t relent even when Lilly glanced pleadingly over her shoulder, begging him to give her an excuse.
Why the hell was he so irritated this morning? It wasn’t just exhaustion, but he knew they were both tired. No, it was more than that.
He heard the elevator ping and the reason occurred to him. Lilly hadn’t introduced him to her sister. She hadn’t introduced them because…because they weren’t in a relationship! Damn, he hated that! He hated that she slipped silently out of his bed every morning. He hated that he couldn’t hold her hand, or even touch her as they walked out of the building every night. He hated that he couldn’t pull her into his arms whenever he wanted to kiss her, or make her smile or just…anything! Damn it, Drako was furious that Lilly refused to acknowledge that they were in a relationship!
Yeah, that’s what was irritating him. She’d left him. After two weeks in his bed, he didn’t like that she’d left him in the morning, sneaking out of his bed like some dockyard doxy!
And yet, she was following the rules they’d established at the beginning of this…relationship. Damn it, even that word was forbidden! “Relationship.” Lilly refused to use that word for what they had with each other.
He’d agreed to the rules. And to be honest, Lilly had lived up to her side of their bargain. She was an incredible lover. She told him what she wanted, how she wanted it, and gave back to him one hundred percent.
Turning on his heel, he stalked into his office, slamming the door behind him.
So, if she was fulfilling her end of the bargain, what was wrong?
She’d left this morning. He was sick of waking up without her. He wanted her to stay with him. And damn it, he wanted to hold her when they went out to social events. Or even during the day! Hell, she wouldn’t even let him put a hand to her back now when they walked down the street.
Even before they’d become lovers, she’d let him touch her on the arm or on the back when they were out in public.
Now, she kept at least a foot of space between them. It was almost as if she had to prove to the world that they weren’t sleeping together.
Although, to be honest, there wasn’t much sleeping going on. With a grim smile, he turned back to look at his desk. There was work to do, but for once, he wasn’t in the mood. They’d just finished a major acquisition last night. There were probably a thousand details to finalize, but he didn’t care about any of them just now.
Gazing thoughtfully out the window, he wondered what Lilly would do if he took her on a trip. If they went far enough away, would she let him touch her in public? Would she allow him to kiss her on the street?
He certainly hoped so. And as soon as she got back from breakfast, he was going to alter the terms of their arrangement.
Chapter 8
Lilly sighed as the waiter approached. She really wanted one of the restaurant’s famous muffin baskets. They served the baskets with softened butter and several flavors of jam and jelly. A blueberry muffin soaked with butter sounded perfect right now.
But sitting across the table was her perfect sister in her perfect beige sheath dress with perfectly pulled back hair and…!
“You’re wearing pearls,” Lilly commented flatly, trying to hide her irritation, but failing. Miserably.
Sylvia’s eyebrows lifted as she continued to survey the menu. “Of course I’m wearing pearls. Why wouldn’t I?”
Lilly remembered lunch with her mother several weeks ago, when Janice had criticized Lilly for wearing pearls with her dress. She’d said wearing pearls during the daytime hours simply wasn’t done. Or just during lunch?
Right! It was yet another example of how Lilly could never please her mother.
Sylvia must have decided on what she wanted to eat because she carefully set the menu down beside her plate and lifted a hand slightly. Immediately, a waiter appeared and Sylvia smiled at the man.
“I’ll have the fresh fruit salad and green tea please, if you don’t mind.”
The waiter nodded with a smile, almost bowing with his efforts to please the beautiful Sylvia.
Lilly contemplated ordering the fruit salad too. It was certainly healthy enough. And lord knew that Lilly could use more fruit in her diet. For the past few days, they’d lived off of food delivered to the conference rooms or Drako’s office. Last night, it had been Chinese food. And during lunch, there’d been sandwiches from the deli down the street. There might have been an apple or banana on the table as well, but Lilly hadn’t thought to eat one.
Still, Lilly wasn’t in the mood for a healthy fruit salad. She was in the mood for a blueberry muffin. And not because she was nervous. She wasn’t nervous and that was a startling realization. Still, she wanted a blueberry muffin simply because it was
probably the least healthy item on the menu.
So turning, she smiled up at the waiter, who gave her a startlingly relieved smile, and said, “I’ll have the muffin basket, please.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Sylvia scoffed. “She’ll have the fruit salad as well, but with coffee, not green tea.”
Lilly looked over at her sister, mentally examining her feelings for a long moment. Without pulling her eyes away, she told the waiter, “The muffin basket. Don’t bring me fruit. Just the muffins. With extra butter,” she added. Lilly didn’t really need the extra butter. It was simply another jab at Sylvia’s judgmental expression. Yeah, it was petty, but it made Lilly feel better.
Sylvia lifted one of her perfectly arched eyebrows and Lilly wondered how much time her sister spent at the salon to look so…perfect. There wasn’t a flaw anywhere! Lilly knew that she needed to shave her legs, maybe pluck her eyebrows because she simply didn’t have time to get them waxed. She needed a manicure and a pedicure, her cuticles looked horrible at the moment. And yeah, she should probably lose about ten pounds. Or more.
Lilly sat up straighter in her chair as something occurred to her. Sylvia was absolutely judging her, as evidenced by the perfectly manicured fingernail tapping on the table. But Drako didn’t care that her eyebrows weren’t perfectly shaped or that she’d barely spared the time to put makeup on this morning. And he definitely hadn’t cared that she hadn’t shaved, waxed, or lazered her legs. Last night, they’d been exhausted. Last night, he’d simply stripped off his clothes, and hers, then they’d slipped into bed and slept like the dead. Lilly smiled at the memory and brightened. She didn’t have to look perfect to drive Drako crazy. He was crazy for her anyway.
Sylvia’s gaze sharpened with irritation. “Why are you smiling, Lilliane? You’re about to eat a thousand calories of pointless carbs. That means that you’ll be tired all afternoon and won’t…”
Lilly laughed, shaking her head. “Sylvia, I was working until one o’clock this morning. I didn’t get to sleep until about two o’clock. My alarm went off at five o’clock and I was back in the office working by six.” She paused deliberately, leaning forward as she folded her hands on the table. That, in itself, was a major aberration in Von Deuch dining rules! “I’m already tired and I guarantee that nothing I eat for breakfast will change that. What’s more, I’ll be exhausted this afternoon as well. I’ll just have another cup of coffee and keep pushing through until dinner, which I’ll probably have delivered to my desk, because I’ll most likely be working very late again tonight.” She laughed softly. “So no, eating a basket of muffins won’t make me tired. It will make me happy. And you know what?” She didn’t give her older sister time to answer her question. “I like being happy. I finally realize that I don’t have to do or say certain things, dress a certain way, or be seen with certain people in order to be happy.” She eyed her sister pointedly. “Are you happy, Sylvia?’
The waiter arrived with their food and Lilly beamed her gratitude for the still-warm muffins, taking one and breaking it in half with her hands instead of slicing it daintily with her knife. She slathered it with butter …using a knife of course, she wasn’t a barbarian! Then she took a big bite, closing her eyes to better savor the burst of sweet cake and tart blueberries.
“Oh my, this is really good.” She took another bite, then opened her eyes. “You’re not eating your fruit, Sylvia.”
Her sister stared at her with open-mouthed horror. “You’re not really going to eat all those muffins, are you?” she hissed, looking around to make sure that no one was looking in their direction.
Lilly giggled at the absurdity of her sister’s question. “No.” She stared down at the basket, then shrugged. “But I’m going to eat more than one.” She took another bite, then daintily dabbed at her chin when the butter slid down over her lips.
“That’s obscene, Lilliane!” she whispered, picking up her knife and fork to carefully slice a melon ball in half. She put half in her mouth, then sighed as she chewed it carefully.
Lilly polished off the first muffin, then contemplated another one. “You never answered my question.”
“What was your question?” Sylvia asked.
“Are you happy? Not in a momentary, ‘I’m the most powerful woman in the room’ sort of happiness, but a sense of well-being deep down inside of you. Something that you can look back on and say that you’ve done something wonderful that makes this world a better place?”
Sylvia rolled her eyes. “Lilliane, you were always such a dreamer. When are you going to grow up?”
Lilly shrugged slightly, relieved that she didn’t feel hurt by her sister’s insistence that Lilly was still a child. She tilted her head to the side as she contemplated her sister’s question. “Well, let me see. I live on my own, pay my bills, arrive on time for a challenging job every day. I have a group of good friends that I care deeply about and know that they have my back.” She thought about that for a moment, silently adding in that she had a handsome, amazing man who made her laugh one moment, then shiver with sensual thrills the next. Yeah, Drako was definitely part of her happiness equation. “I think that pretty much qualifies me for adult status.”
“You’re a dreamer,” Sylvia sneered. “You think that the world is a rosy place where good things happen.”
Lilly snorted. “Have you ever seen my place?”
“No! Thank goodness! Daddy says it’s a pig sty!”
“He’s probably right.” She took a deep breath. “One of the residents is a retired war veteran who served in the Navy for thirty years. He’s living off his pension and social security, but he has nightmares, so he’s awake most nights, sleeping during the daytime hours because it’s safer for him mentally.”
Her sister’s facial expression seemed bored. “What’s your point?”
“Four months ago, another resident, Mick, a very sweet black man, was arrested.”
“What did he do?”
Lilly shrugged and selected another muffin, cutting it in half. “He went to work. He unlocked the door to the repair shop that he’s owned for the past fifty years.”
This time, Sylvie nibbled on a piece of cantaloupe. “So, why did the police arrest him?”
Lilly looked up and met her sister’s eyes. “Because he was black. He looked like he was trying to unlock the door to a business. It took us four hours to explain to the arresting officers that Mick was the owner of the repair shop and he wasn’t breaking into it.”
“That’s ridiculous. They wouldn’t–”
“They did, Sylvia.” Lilly sighed. “The officers were just trying to do their job. My point is I know that the world isn’t a rosy place. But I’m trying to make it better. With every passing day, I try to do small things to make this world a better place. So please, don’t scoff at me and tell me that I’m naïve. If anything, I’m more aware of the realities of this world than you.”
Lilly looked around, noticing the white linen tablecloths, the white flowers, the white damask chairs and the bleached wood floors. She looked back at her sister in her carefully styled beige dress who still wore a disapproving frown. “I have to go,” she decided. “I don’t belong here.”
Sylvia rolled her eyes slightly. “Of course you belong here. We’ve been coming here for years.”
Lilly reached for her wallet. “That’s not the point.” She took several bills out and laid them on the table.
“Don’t be crude, Lilly. Daddy has an account here. I’m here on his business anyway.”
Somehow, that news wasn’t startling. “Did you have a message for me then?” she asked, stuffing her wallet back into her leather tote bag.
“Yes. He wants you to come to brunch this Sunday. He’s misses you and would like you there.”
Lilly didn’t say a word for a long moment. She just stared at her sister, contemplating how to react. “I’m not sure if I have time,” she finally said. “But I’ll call Mother and let her know if my schedule opens up.”
Sylvia huffed a little and shook her head. “Lilly, don’t be obtuse. This is a command performance. Daddy has requested your presence and, you know as well as I do it isn’t really a request.” She picked up the beige handbag that Lilly knew had cost over fifty thousand dollars. Sylvia had barely eaten two bites of the cantaloupe, but probably wouldn’t eat anything else until she met with the other political wives for a salad at lunch.
Sylvia moved into step beside Lilly and waved to several other diners. Lilly noticed that the only real color in this room came from the ties on the men. The ladies wore blue, black, or tan outfits, just like Sylvia. The men wore charcoal suits with red, blue, or yellow ties. Very few had patterned ties, which seemed odd. As Lilly made her way through the tables towards the exit, she wondered about the men in this world. It was a very political town, but why not wear colors? Why not patterns? The women all wore similar hairstyles as well. Lilly patted her own twist, then sighed as she realized how her mother and sister had influenced even her hairstyle.
But that could be changed, she thought as she smiled to the host who stood sentry at the front door. Before Lilly could utter a word, Sylvia spoke up. “Thank you, Manny,” her sister said with a polite smile, just enough warmth for a minion, Lilly realized. It was an art, she thought. Smiling was a skill. One couldn’t smile too brightly at the hired help, because they might become friendly. But a too stiff smile would come off as snobbish. An off-putting expression might jeopardize one’s prime table status. Every echelon of society had different versions of smiles. Could Sylvia even offer a genuine smile to someone?
Lilly thought back to last night. She and Drako had been working on the contract, zipping through the details and negotiating changes in the language. She’d noticed something. She’d said something to Drako and he’d thrown back his head, laughing. Lilly couldn’t even remember what she’d said. It had been so minor.
Heated Secrets (Rose Garden Apartments Book 1) Page 9