Chapter 28.

**Narrator’s POV.**

Silence filled the dinning room, the only sound coming from the silverware banging roughly against the China dishes. The two brothers opposite the couple were extremely hostile and feared that they could snap if pushed to their limits. Tessa was visibly rigid, praying for the dinner to end as quick as it started, hardly any words had been exchanged but it was still very uncomfortable for her and surely, Andrew was bound to make it his goal to make it unbearable for her.

“So Tessa…”, he began, dropping his fork and knife and wiped his mouth with a serviette, Tessa’s breath hitched for a second as her fork dropped, clanking loudly on the ceramic, the tension within her rose to a maximum and it did not go unnoticed by Gabriel- he had been expecting his father to question her, he was Andrew O’Connell after all. Gabriel’s hand went to Tessa’s thigh with the intention of soothing her but it did the exact opposite, “How old are you?”,

“Seven- oh my God!”, she could feel his warm hand travelling up her thigh,

“What was that?”, one of his eyebrows went up in surprise at her outburst,

“Nothing”, her voice came out shrill- slightly deafening as she tried to move her leg away from Gabriel’s inappropriate touch, “I’m seventeen”, she finally breathed out, it did not stop her boyfriend’s hand from trailing higher though,

“Seventeen? A few years younger and my sons could’ve been arrested for pedophilia”, Andrew laughed at what he portrayed to be a joke which clearly was not funny, “We wouldn’t want that now, would we?”,

Tessa laughed nervously, “Absolutely not”. A gasp left her lips as she felt Gabriel’s hand push her thighs apart, she looked at him in questioning but he looked completely unbothered- as if he wasn’t touching her dangerously under the table while having dinner with his family.

With her legs wide apart and his hand almost touching her sensitive spot, she found it difficult to focus on the next thing that came out of Andrew’s mouth, “I take it that you have concluded your secondary degree?”, before she could answer, Gabriel closed the gap between his hand and her sex which was now dripping wet over her panties. She let out a low squeal, grabbing Alex and Kevin’s attention,

“Stop being so loud”, Gabriel whispered into her ear but the rapid pounding of her heart blocked his words out, “Tessa!”,

“Yeah?”, her head snapped towards Andrew so fast, you could hear her neck bone crack painfully,

“I asked you a question Tessa”, it was obvious that Andrew was not appreciating the attitude she was portraying, it made him incredibly suspicious.

“What was it?”, Gabriel’s hand left her heated core and trailed up her hips, lifting her dress in the process,

“Are you done with high school?”, he asked again,

“No”, she replied, trying to push her dress down- Gabriel was having none of that. He grabbed unto the hem of her dress for dear life and raised it even higher, so high that if anyone was to walk by, they would have a great view of her hot pink panties.

“Oh, so you are still in high school then?”, Tessa shook her head negative and his left eyebrow cocked up in surprise, “So you are a drop out?”, Tessa could not reply with words as Gabriel’s wandering hand had found its way under her panties and was now touching her sensitive skin, “Why did you drop out?”, he seemed genuinely curious but she did not miss the unimpressed look on his face,

“My father passed away”, at the mention of her father, Gabriel’s hand rubbing on her core paused and moved away from her, he pulled her dress down and retracted his hand. She placed a frown on her face and was tempted to beg him to continue as she had already started enjoying the sinful pleasure he was giving her- he was touching her, rubbing her right under the dining table during dinner with his family- it was so bad but it felt so good and she wanted more than he had given, she had a taste of what he could offer her but she wasn’t contented with it.

“Oh, I am sorry about that”, he clearly wasn’t half as sorry as he claimed to be, “How did he die?”, Tessa became uncomfortable once again, how could he be so blunt about such a question? So uncaring and so unbothered?

“Father that is enough”, Gabriel came to her defense, “You don’t have to tell him anything babe”, his eyes were stone cold and angry, it almost scared her. She moved her eyes way from Gabriel and turned towards her mother who looked twice as uncomfortable as she did,

“Its okay”, Tessa knew she was about to be petty. Her blue pupils turned to Andrew, “He was sick, a few years after my mother left him”, the last part wasn’t entirely necessary but it was a direct dig to her mother,

“Excuse me”, she heard the woman mutter before leaving the room shortly after. Tessa felt part of the tension in her shoulders release as her mother left the room,

“That is sad news”, Andrew said but his features were not in accordance with his words, it baffled her how a person could be so cold and how he could say something and not even mean it to an extent or how he could be a first class asshole, “So, you have seen all of my sons? Which one do you fancy the most?”, the dining fell silent, the clanking of the cutlery stopped and all heads were turned in Andrew’s directing,

“Excuse me?”, Tessa chocked out, was this a trick question?

“I asked you which one of my sons you preferred the most. Who’s the better kisser, toucher, you know?”,

“Father, that is extremely inappropriate”, Kevin said standing up from his seat, the chair scraping on the floor, “You cannot ask such a question”,

“You are just angry because you know she would not choose you”, Andrew smirked at his youngest son who now had a scowl on his face. Tessa had been placed in a very tight spot; how does she just choose one of them? How can she choose one of them without hurting the other?

“I really don’t know”, her voice came out as a whisper, this really wasn’t something she was willing to answer even though she knew exactly who she would pick any time of the day,

“Cut the bullshit Tessa, you do not have to do that”, Alex joined his brother standing up,

“Do what?”,

“Act like we don’t all know who you are going to choose, act like you would hurt us just because you are a selfish bitch. This dinner is crap, I am fucking out of here”, his words hurt Tessa because she knew it was the truth.