So Now You're Back (16 page)

He came up for air, spluttering water, his hair slicked to his head like a seal, and Trey gave him a round of applause, forcing his mind firmly back into au pair zone and further away from Lizzie Best danger zone.

The good news was that Aldo was a needy kid, who would help to keep him focused for the next twelve days. Until Lizzie's mum got back. If Lizzie was at all interested in him, he very much doubted her interest would last longer than a week. Especially given that she'd seemed to despise him until about four hours ago. Surely this was just a passing fad. And although he didn't relish the return of the frosty drama queen, he had to concede she was easier to handle than friendly bikini babe.

‘That was ace, buddy.' He reached out his arm to lift Aldo out of the water. ‘Come on, let's get some lunch.'

Aldo shook his head, the droplets spraying across the surface of the lake and hitting Trey's knees. ‘Can't I stay in a bit longer on my own? I want to practise it some more.'

‘You're shivering. I think it's time to get out now.'

Aldo gritted his teeth to stop them chattering. ‘Ten minutes? Please?' He sent Trey a winning grin. Trey knew he was sunk. Aldo so rarely showed signs of wanting to be
independent, he didn't feel right discouraging him. He nodded, resigned. ‘Fine, but no more than ten. Tops.' So much for Aldo, the dependably needy decoy. ‘You sure you're OK on your own while I go and get dressed?'

Aldo bobbed his head with undisguised enthusiasm. ‘Yes, tell Lizzie to watch, will you? I want her to see my somersault, too.' Aldo's gaze flicked to their spot on the bank that Trey had been avoiding. ‘Who's that guy she's talking to?'

Standing, Trey shielded his eyes against the glare of the sun. And felt the inappropriate warmth in the pit of his stomach chill. A lanky kid, about Lizzie's age, stood over her, and although he seemed relaxed, his stance loose, Lizzie definitely didn't. No longer lounging on her elbows, she was sitting bolt upright, her knees hugged to her chest. He couldn't hear what the kid was saying to her, but the way she had her face turned away from him made it clear whatever he was saying, she didn't want to hear it.

‘Wait there, Aldo, I'll be back to get you in ten.' He threw the words over his shoulder, not even sure Aldo had heard him, as he headed down the dock at a jog, his eyes trained on the guy with Lizzie.

Then he saw the guy bring his hand from behind his back. It disappeared in front at crotch level.

Lizzie's distressed shout rang out across the park all the way to the water. ‘Fuck off and die, Jenkin.'

The families sitting nearby sent her censorious looks for the language. Trey's jog accelerated into a run when he spotted the hot colour scorching her cheeks. As he got closer, he could see what the kid was doing. He was miming jacking off, right in front of Lizzie's face.

The blast of disgust was quickly followed by an explosion of righteous anger. The dirty little pervert. Whoever
he was, he wasn't going to get the chance to fuck off and die, because Trey planned to murder him first.

‘What's the matter, Queen Lizzie? Liam said you're a sure bet for a good blow job.' Jenkin Sawyer's feral laugh added disgust to the liquid fire in Lizzie's belly.

‘I told you to fuck off. Do you not understand English?' she hissed, mindful of their audience of shocked yummy mummies.

Resentment washed over her, adding a bitter taste to the bile in her stomach.

Who were they to look at her like that? As if she was in the wrong? As if it was her fault her ex-boyfriend was a sexist dickhead and his friend was a perv?

All these yummy mummies with their yummy kids who had cute, comfortable, polite lives and had probably never had to deal with an arsewipe like Jenkin in their entire life.

She hated Jenkin, always had, the way he stared at her—oozing sleaze and speculation—when she was hanging out with Liam. That look alone had felt like cockroaches were crawling over her flesh whenever she was within ten feet of him, like now. But somehow the judgemental stares of all the clean, comfortable, polite people made the harassment a thousand times worse.

‘Stop playing hard to get. You know you love to suck dick.' He cupped his pathetic package again to emphasise the point and she thought she might gag. But as she raised her head to tell him again where he could stick his dick, a shadow fell over her face. And Jenkin's shoulder jerked. His arms flayed and he made a weird squeaking sound before crashing backwards with an audible thump.

Then Trey's big body was blocking her view. His hair-dusted legs akimbo, the wings of his tattoo rising above the
damp fabric of his swimsuit. She could see Jenkin's face, red and sweating and speechless, through Trey's spread legs, gaping up at the man in front of her from his new position on the ground.

‘Who the fuck are you?' Jenkin asked, still squeaking.

Trey reached down, grasped the front of Jenkin's Superdry shirt and yanked him up, until they were nose to nose. Jenkin's feet wiggled, his toes barely touching the ground. Lizzie couldn't see his face, his upper body obscured by Trey's back, but she could hear the choking sound in Jenkin's throat as Trey said, low and ridiculously calm, ‘I'm a friend of Lizzie's. You come anywhere near her again and you're going to be eating that dick you're so proud of. Got it?'

Jenkin hit the ground, hard, as Trey threw him down again. The double thump as his back and then his head connected with the earth was followed by the whoosh of air expelling from his lungs. He groaned, rolled, holding his ribs and swearing.

‘Get up and piss off,' Trey demanded.

Jenkin scrambled to obey, a grimace of pain twisting his face, and raised his hands in supplication. He edged away, the look on his face a picture of shocked panic. ‘OK, OK, you can have her.'

Lizzie jumped up from her sitting position, finally able to get her limbs moving round her own shock. She lifted on tiptoes to peer past Trey as Jenkin limped off, like the cowardly perv he was. The grass stain on the back of his shirt waved like a badge of dishonour as he darted through the sea of gaping picnickers and disappeared round the side of the gatehouse—probably to escape the Lido before he ended up having dick sandwich for lunch.

‘Are you OK?' Trey asked, his face grave.

She had the strangest urge to laugh, which she recognised
as one part shock and two parts relief. But underneath the inappropriate giggle was a huge wave of gratitude.

Not because he had pounded on Jenkin and got rid of him—she could have got rid of him herself, eventually. Jenkin might be creepy, but he was too weedy and full of himself to be scary. And she was used to dealing with nasty remarks from men. Ever since she'd hit puberty, she'd got depressingly used to everything from wolf whistles to lewd suggestions hurled at her every time she walked past a building site or made eye contact with some arsewipe in a white van. It had scared her at fourteen, it just made her mad now, but beneath the anger was the bubbling cauldron of humiliation.

And that's where the gratitude came in. It felt impossibly gallant of Trey, especially considering she'd always been pretty mean to him, to put himself out on her account. That he would be genuinely outraged by remarks that hadn't surprised her. All her friends had been down on her when she'd broken up with Liam—everyone had sided with him instead of her, even Carly—which had always made her feel as if the taunts were sort of her fault. For being stupid enough to latch on to him. And give him head whenever he wanted it. Those taunts had hurt not because they frightened her, or even outraged her, but because they made her feel diminished and insignificant. Right this minute, she didn't feel small or insignificant for once. She felt important. Because Trey had stood up for her.

Which probably meant she was in serious need of loads more therapy. But still, it felt good. ‘Yes, I'm fine. He's just a nuisance, like a bad smell. But he's harmless.'

‘Those things he was saying didn't sound harmless to me.' The tight tone sounded a bit judgemental—almost as
if he were blaming her for not being more outraged. The warmth in her belly cooled. ‘Liam's your ex, right?'

‘How do you know about Liam?' Heat spread across her chest, the way it hadn't when Jenkin had tried to shove his dick in her face.

She'd split up with Liam nearly a year ago, long before Trey had started working for her mum. She couldn't imagine Aldo saying anything about him. He'd hardly even met her ex the whole time they were going out. Liam wasn't the sort of guy you brought home to meet your family.

Instead of replying, Trey bent to pick up the towel and rubbed it over his face and neck, then glanced over to check on Aldo.

She waited for his gaze to connect with hers again, as her chest reached boiling point.

‘Your mum mentioned you'd had a bad break-up with him,' he said finally. He threw down the towel and picked up his polo shirt.

Whaaaat?

Horror gripped her insides. ‘And why exactly was my mum talking to you about me?'

And how much had she said?

Bloody hell, had her mum told him about the therapy she'd forced her to go to? No wonder he'd been so nice to her this morning. He probably thought she was some kind of fruit loop. The humiliation of having Jenkin think he could get her to give him a BJ in a public park was nothing compared to having the lame but hot au pair think she was a nutjob.

He'd ridden to her rescue not because he thought she was important, but because her mum was probably paying him danger money to babysit her as well as Aldo.

He shrugged, his big shoulder stiff, as he concentrated on
running his thumbs along the bottom of his shirt. Good, she was glad he felt uncomfortable, because she was mortified.

‘She worries about you,' he murmured. ‘She wanted me to look out for you while she was away,' he added, still engrossed with the stitching on the hem of his shirt.

‘Don't kid yourself. She doesn't give a shit about me.' Resentment flared anew to add to the tangle of emotions making her guts feel like a pit of vipers. ‘She was probably just worried you'd walk off the job if I said something to upset you. Then she'd have to cut her stupid book tour short.'

‘Why are you so angry with your mum?' The question and the incredulous tone punctured her outrage long enough to make her realise how childish she must sound to him.

‘I'm not angry with her all the time,' she qualified.
Not every single second anyway.
‘I just want her to stop butting into my life. I'm an adult now and she treats me like a child. I bet she's even paying you extra to watch out for me, too, isn't she?' Like a five-year-old.

Way to go, Mum, why not make me feel like even more of a total loser?

A puzzled frown appeared on his brow. ‘I get an hourly rate for looking after Aldo. That's it.'

‘Then why did you decide to help me out with Jenkin?' she asked.

‘Because the guy was a total arsehole.'

The terse explanation should have mollified her, but it didn't. Especially when he lifted his polo shirt over his head. The sight of his eight-pack stretching enticingly round his outie belly button made all the oxygen suck out of her lungs.

Why does he have to be so freaking hot?

He rubbed his hands through his hair, making the short strands stand up in patches—the haphazard style made him
look even sexier, like a model who'd been professionally rumpled for a Hugo Boss ad.

‘Well, just so you know, you didn't have to intervene. I don't need a babysitter.'

‘I believe you said that already.' He had the cheek to sound snotty. ‘To your mum at top volume before she left.'

So he'd heard that, too, had he? The snakes took a greasy turn in her belly. ‘You shouldn't eavesdrop on conversations that have sod all to do with you.'

‘I was the subject of that conversation. And it's not like I could fail to hear it the way you were shouting.'

She decided to ignore that and the prickle of shame at the accusation. He knew nothing about her relationship with her mum, so he didn't get to judge her. Even if he did have bionic hearing.

‘Just for the record, I was handling Jenkin fine on my own.' Which wasn't entirely true, but she'd be damned if she'd let him feel any more superior than he already did.

‘Handling that turd was my pleasure. No guy should ever speak to you like that. And if that's the way your ex treated you—or let his friends treat you—I'm hoping you dumped him from a great height.'

The vote of confidence was so unequivocal and so unexpected, and so unlike the way any of her friends had reacted, her neck got hot. ‘Actually, I did.'

The snakes in her belly slithered smoothly away at his nod of approval. Until all that was left was a slight breathlessness.

‘I don't suppose you managed to castrate him while you were at it?' His terse tone was only half joking.

A smile flitted across her lips. ‘I wish.'

‘Me, too.'

‘Trey, why didn't you come get me?'

Lizzie turned to find Aldo, dripping wet and shuddering, his hands clasped round his shoulders. The accusatory glare he was sending Trey was only slightly weakened by the way his teeth were chattering like castanets.

‘Hey, buddy, I'm really sorry.' Trey grabbed a towel from the pile on the blanket, but as he dropped it over Aldo's shoulders, her brother shrugged it off, the glare intensifying.

‘Get off me. You didn't even tell Lizzie about my somersault, did you?'

Lizzie could see the storm clouds hovering, the prickly shrug a sure sign one of Aldo's tantrums was fast approaching. The towel dangled from Trey's fingertips and he let out a heavy sigh, as if bracing himself for the impact.

Lizzie rested her hand on Aldo's rigid shoulder. ‘Of course he did. I watched you do it. It was great.' She had less than a moment to contemplate the fact she had actually tried to avert disaster for once, instead of fuelling it, before Aldo turned his glare on her.