Page 34 of Finding the One (River Rain #7)

“Please, don’t,” I interrupted him. “I think I know what you had with my mother. And now I know she’s dead, the duties you performed for your pay are eternally suspended, and you are occupying a room that’s needed for guests.”

His face set. “She said this is my space.”

“She’s dead, Jeff,” I snapped. “Now, please remove your personal belongings from this room…with haste…and open the windows so we can hopefully air out this scent before someone needs this room.”

Jeff got pissy. “Your mother is not even in her?—”

Oh no.

One thousand percent no .

“Do not fucking pretend you give a shit about her, Jeff,” I bit at him.

“If you did, you wouldn’t treat this like a crash pad you could impress your mates with when she wasn’t around.

If you did, you’d be upset right now, beside yourself with it, and you are not.

If you meant something to her, she’d have taken you with her when she wasn’t here.

If you meant something to her, she’d bring you into the light, not pretend you were her butler.

If she meant something to you, you’d respect her property when she was around.

Let’s call a spade a spade, shall we? She was your sugar momma, and that’s all she was. ”

He sniffed. “You don’t know what we had.”

Seriously?

Gross!

“Jeff, she was old enough to be your late-in-life-birth mother. You’re younger than Alex.

You seem to have no duties here, at least, not anymore, and you get a salary.

If you haven’t clued in to what exactly you are, I suggest you do it now.

Because with her death, your duties have ended.

And if you don’t get your shit together, your employment will too. ”

He swallowed.

“Now,” I kept at him, “over the coming days there will be bags to lug around, cars to park, cars to retrieve, horses to saddle. We’re already inundated with flowers, so also deliveries to deal with.

I don’t know how Christine has it sorted, but undoubtedly, she’ll be needing someone to run to the market more than once.

I’m afraid I’m going to have to tell you you’re demoted.

You’ll take your orders from Christine from here on out.

But I’m the ultimate boss, and the first thing I expect you to do, again, with haste , is move out of this room to an apartment in the employee quarters and open the windows while you do.

Then put on some clothes and report to Christine to see what’s next. ”

“This isn’t what I signed on for,” he sneered.

“Too bad. It’s what’s happening. Your other choice is to pack and leave. Make it. Now,” I demanded.

“Now?” he asked.

“Right now,” I stated.

He glowered at me. He then glowered at Dair. It faltered when he looked at Dair, and that didn’t surprise me. Dair could be scary.

He returned his attention to me when I spoke again.

“To aid in your decision, I’ll also be looking over the estate’s accounts,” I told him, or I would ask Dad to do so and explain them to me considering I’d probably not be able to make hide nor hair of them. “And considering your demotion, your pay will likely be altered and not in a positive way.”

“I don’t have anywhere to go,” he forced out this admission.

“Well then,” I swung an arm in front of me, “you best get cracking.”

Jeff hesitated before he started gathering his stuff.

Dair put a hand to my back.

I twisted my neck to look up at him.

“Go, love. I’ll oversee this.”

I was annoyed our ride was going to be delayed, but I didn’t want to stand in that room another second.

It was the smell, of course.

It was also the knowledge that my mother had me here in this house with her and her much younger lover, passing him off as a butler.

Women should do what they wanted, when they wanted, how they wanted, with who they wanted. I strongly believed that. If you were of a certain age and got off on fucking young studs, and you had one in your bed, more power to you.

Although I found it sad, and perhaps skeevy, that she had a man like Jeff, it was her life, her body, and not my decision.

But she hid it.

She pretended he was her butler, when he was her gigolo.

She didn’t protect me—her daughter—from that.

And that was just…

Foul.

I nodded to Dair and moved to leave the room, but he caught me with an arm across my belly.

I didn’t look up at him because he bent to put his mouth to my ear.

“That was hot as fuck, lassie,” he rumbled there.

For the first time in two days, I felt a smile curve my mouth.

“Ye up for a different kind of ride this afternoon?” he whispered.

I turned to catch his eyes. “Absolutely.”

This time, it was his mouth that curved, and at the look in his eyes, I did a full-body shiver.

I gave him a peck on the lips.

I started to leave but he called, “Blake?”

I looked back at him to see his smile had turned into a sexy smirk.

“Those jeans, baby…” His pause was perfectly timed. “They work perfectly.”

Ugh, he was the worst.

And I was totally falling fast.

I shot him a look, but strutted down the hall, feeling his gaze on me.

Then I skipped down the steps to search for Nora in order to get the lowdown on what was happening with Mum’s funeral and to see if I needed to do anything.

Because Helena Coddington-Sharp needed to be laid to rest.

In a number of ways.