When they whined, he piped up. “Best do what my big brother says,” he remarked, “Or else he might ground me.”
The two scampered off toward the small pool house on the other side of the back yard.
PJ sat on the chair next to him and pulled out his cell to call the girls a cab, all the while shaking his head in disappointment and giving his brother the stink eye.
When he was off the phone he started in on him. “What the fuck are you doing, man?” he hissed.
Caleb laughed. “Um, whatever the fuck I want? Why?” He went to take a long draw of his beer, but was too slow in the process, and PJ snatched the bottle away from him.
“Because, man, this…” he said, sweeping his hand around. “This isn’t you anymore.”
Caleb sat up straight and brushed his blond hair off his forehead. “This wasn’t me for a summer, PJ. One fucking summer. And for that summer I turned into a desperate, overly emotional suck. For a summer I lost all of me to someone who was never really mine to begin with. For a summer my heart was repeatedly broken. So no, that me is long dead. Fun, fucking Caleb is back and overdue for action.”
“Yeah,” Pat snorted. “I can see you’re totally over Sydney.”
Caleb’s lips pressed into a tight line. “Don’t ever mention that name again.”
The scantily clad girls came out and around the pool toward Pat. They pouted at him, quite obviously hoping their expression would somehow convince him to let them stay a little longer. Instead of bending to their pouty will, he reached into his pocket and handed them some cash, eliciting shocked and horrified gasps.
“We’re not those kind of girls!”
“Do you think we’re hookers?”
Caleb snorted with laughter and Pat shook his head and held up his hands defensively. “No, that’s not what I thought at all. This is to cover the cab fare home, that’s all. I’ve already called a taxi for you and it should be waiting for you out front.”
With a harrumph they turned their attention to Caleb, each giving him a lingering kiss goodbye. They wiggled their fingers at PJ in a demure wave as they walked toward the side gate then, finally, they were gone.
With his brother’s attention focused on the ladies as they left, Caleb tried to snag back the beer that had been taken from him, but was too sluggish. Visibly annoyed now, Pat grabbed the bottle, walked to the grass and emptied it.
“We all understand precisely what this is really about, Caleb.”
He shrugged.
“Sydney is getting married tomorrow.”
Caleb turned away.
Pat sat again and sighed. “Dude, come on,” he said, his voice gentle. “You’ve gotta come out with it, man. Ever since you found out what Syd has been up to, that she was engaged, you’ve completely shut yourself off from all of us. You totally refuse to talk to me about it. When mom asks me why you’re sad all the time, what am I supposed to tell her? There are only so many excuses I can muster to cover your sorry ass and she gets more and more worried every day.” He threw his hands in the air. “Even Lilly is worried about her Uncle Caleb, and Lord knows I’m right there with her.”
Caleb pulled off his glasses and rubbed at his eyes. He looked at his brother, unshed tears blurring his vision. “I hate that I loved her so much, Pat, you know? I hate that I still do.”
Pat nodded.
“When we were together, when she told me how she felt about me, it was so fucking authentic. I believed she loved me. I honestly thought that was it—she was the one I was going to be with for the rest of my life.” He shook his head. “Never in a million years could I imagine that for the last six months she’d been playing me. Using me as what? Some kind of fuck toy before getting hitched?”
Pat frowned and placed a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “You know I’m here for you, right? That we can talk, or you can vent or we can just kill some time watching a movie until the hurt starts to fade. Whenever you need me, bro, whatever you need.”
“Whatever I need?” Caleb muttered, and let loose a small, pitiful laugh. “I need her.”
Her last day as a free and single woman went much too quickly… The hours seemed as if they were flying by, and suddenly Syd was lying in bed the night before her wedding, tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep. She stared at the ceiling and frowned. She was going to miss this house. She had managed to put off moving in with Brett until after their so-called honeymoon. Once that was behind them, they would figure out living arrangements and more than likely she would end up living with him. The very idea of being under the same roof as him day after day made her stomach roil.
She sighed and instinctively reached out to Puff for comfort, but she wasn’t there.
That’s odd, she thought. The little fur ball was almost always by her side at night.
Her attention turned to the open doorway when she heard the creak of a floorboard in the hallway outside her room. Cara had been sleeping in the guest bedroom—likely she had woken up and had to use the loo or something.
Except the shadowy shape that stood at her doorway was a heck of lot broader than Cara’s lean frame.
She sat rod straight and was about to yell out to Cara when the figure stepped closer.
“Caleb,” she breathed.
“Hush, darlin’,” he whispered. “I saw Cara’s car in the driveway—don’t want to wake her up.” He came into her room and shut the door behind him.
“What are you doing here?” she whispered back. “How did you…?”
He peeled off his black T-shirt and began unbuttoning his jeans. “I said hush. Details don’t matter.”
A hot flush creeped up her neck to her cheeks as he pulled his pants and boxers off in one fell swoop. “But… How… You should hate me,” she started.
He shook his head and climbed into bed beside her. He drew the linen off her body and ran his hand under her shirt and up her abdomen. “None of that matters. I need you and I can’t live without you, baby. I won’t. I don’t care if you’re getting married—I know I’m the man your heart belongs to and I’ll take you any way I can get you.”
She shook her head. “Caleb, you can’t mean that.”
He climbed atop her and spread her legs with his knee. “I can, and I do. Nothing matters, Sydney, except being with you, inside you, loving you.” And with that he gripped the collar of her nightshirt and tugged hard, tearing the thin fabric straight down the middle, exposing her breasts. “I need you, baby,” he said, pushing her shorts to one side and rubbing his rock-hard cock along her slit. “Now.”
She gasped when he entered her with one swift thrust, up and in and buried to the hilt.
“Oh my God,” she moaned, much louder than intended.
“Shh,” Caleb warned, placing a hand over her mouth. “Not a sound or I have to leave you. No one can find out I’m here, Sydney. No one.”
“What’s gotten into you?” she whispered, her voice muffled by his palm.
He removed his hand and leaned in to kiss her. The moment their lips met, fire burned through her. He demanded her compliance and her mouth opened to his, letting him in, sharing each other’s breaths and passion. He grazed the sides of her neck with his fingertips and traced the curve of her shoulder, along her arms, and finally came to rest on her wrists. He pulled her arms over her head and he held her there, forcing her not to touch.
“Caleb,” she breathed.
“Quiet,” he commanded. His voice, though heavy with desire, was charged, and she obeyed without even a moment of hesitation.
He glided his free hand down her side and cupped her breast, instantly finding the nipple and rolling the hard nub between his fingers. Her back arched when he pinched harder, a reaction to the sublime pleasure of feeling him all over her once again.
“God, I missed you.”
His response involved withdrawing from her, then slamming right back in.
“Syd,” he whispered. “I’m not going to make love to you tonight, baby. I’m going to fuc
k you—hard. Right now.”
She whimpered.
He slid his hands under her ass and lifted her hips so she was angled to him. He stroked her slowly at first, each easy glide of his cock making her shudder and bringing her a step closer to release.
“You’re mine and no one else’s, Sydney, do you understand that? Your heart stays with me.”
“Yes.”
“You’ll never forget that, will you, Syd?”
“No, never.”
“Come for me, baby,” he said, his voice wrought with yearning. “I need you to show me how much you love me.” He pulled out of her and crashed back in, harder and faster than before, as if he was desperate for her to experience the kind of pleasure he knew only he could provide.
Syd clutched at him, holding on as he pounded against her, the sound of skin on skin and his heavy breathing combining to push her over the edge. She closed her eyes tightly and spiraled into a series of tremors that caused a chain reaction of orgasms. She came with him moving inside her steadily, over and over again, until she could barely breathe and she had no choice but to let out the cry she’d been holding in since the moment he’d touched her…
“Syd, are you all right?”
Her eyes snapped open and her vision quickly adjusted to the darkened room.
Puff whined, annoyed at her sleep being disrupted.
Cara knocked on her closed bedroom door. “Syddie?”
Caleb wasn’t there.
It was a dream. A goddamn fucking dream.
“Honey, is everything okay? Can I come in?”
She finally found her voice. “Just a dream, Car. Go back to bed.”
“You sure?”
“I’m okay, I promise. Totally fine.”
But that was probably the biggest lie she’d ever told, because she would never really be fine again.
Chapter Forty-One
“Nearly done,” Ester, the petite hairstylist, said, securing the last of the small white crocuses in Syd’s hair.
Syd adjusted her position on the stool and silently appraised her reflection. Her hair was styled in a partial updo, half pulled away from her face and secured by the three white flowers, while the rest cascaded down her back and around her shoulders in a mass of loose, ebony curls. Her makeup was done—the gold undertones of eyeshadow and bronzer making her look radiant and glowing with happiness.
But the downturned corners of her nude, glossed lips betrayed her. She was about to marry a man whose actions she despised. Although the bridal room was adorned with red roses and decorated in elegant, calming tones of creams and whites, Syd felt as if she was trapped in a dungeon.
“Yoo hoo,” Melanie chimed, coming into the room and smiling broadly at Sydney. One look and instantly she realized something was wrong, her smile dissolving on her lips. “Ester, if you’re done here, could I have a moment with the bride?” she asked.
Ester nodded and quietly left the room, closing the door behind her.
“You’re gorgeous,” she said.
Syd stood and turned to the full-length mirror. “Thanks,” she replied half-heartedly. She toyed with the crystal embroidered sash at her waist, making sure it was sitting level.
Melanie came around her and fiddled with the sweeping trail of the chiffon dress, moving it out of the way so that Syd wouldn’t step on it. She stood in front of her and smoothed the sheer straps of the V-neck gown. “One thing is for sure, though. As stunning as you may look, you sure don’t seem all that thrilled to be here. You look anything but happy.” She tilted her head to the side and gazed at her future sister-in-law. “Are you sure everything is okay?”
She didn’t answer and instead turned her attention to the ground in front of her.
Ages ago, when she and Brett had been dating, Syd had formed an easy friendship with the then eleven-year-old Melanie. Although there was a nine-year difference between the girls, they’d gotten along amazingly. These last few weeks, with the wedding coming up so fast and having so much to do, Melanie had been a great help to Syd, tag-teaming and assisting with crossing items off the to-do list. The two had become close again and Syd was certain she was trustworthy.
“Look,” Melanie continued. “You must be sick of me asking the same question all the time, but I’ve got this intuition thing going on. I know, I just know, something isn’t right here. Brett’s my brother and I love him no matter what, but I can admit when he’s being a jackass, and he has been treating you absolutely horribly lately and is bossing you around like there’s no tomorrow. What gives?”
“I know,” Syd whispered.
“Did you guys have a fight?”
“Not one that would be the cause of this,” Syd said, rolling her eyes as she slumped back onto the stool.
“Well then, what is it?” When Syd’s eyes filled with tears she ran to get a tissue. “No tears, no ruining your makeup!” she cried, handing one to her. She dragged a chair over and sat in front of Syd. “Please, whatever it is, you can tell me. I swear it won’t leave this room.”
She glanced up at Mel. There was genuine concern on the girl’s face. Was it the smart thing to tell her about everything, especially after Brett’s threat all those weeks ago? Likely not. She was so tired of all the lies, the façade she’d had to keep up—she was losing strength minute by minute.
I’m on a roll with bad decisions, so why the hell not?
“So, a friend of mine,” she started tentatively. “Her dad isn’t originally from Canada. Back home, many years ago, something happened and some very bad people made it look like he did something very bad, very illegal.”
“How bad are we talking here? Very as in…?”
“Drug trafficking, and…” She hesitated. “And murder.”
“Oh, Jesus.”
“But her father, he one-hundred-percent did not do it. He was completely innocent. This person who set him up and pinned everything on him, he was pure evil, and jealous of her father. He was the one who planted the drugs and murdered my father’s… I mean, my friend’s father’s wife.”
Melanie stared, her expression unreadable.
Unsure if she should go on, but knowing that she had opened the can of worms and it was too late to cap it, she forged ahead. “This guy… He threatened to kill her father’s son, too, if he didn’t get up and disappear from the country. If he didn’t leave, or tried to prove his innocence, he and his son were as good as dead.” She shrugged. “So he did the only thing he could think of—he took his boy and ran.”
“Syd, what the hell is this all about?” Melanie asked, her voice low.
“Now, flash forward twenty-some-odd years later,” she continued. “He has a happy life and a new family. He and his son have been safe and things are going well, until another evil man, a horrible, vengeful, controlling man comes along and finds out about this secret from the past.”
Melanie didn’t even have to ask. “Brett.”
Syd nodded and no longer pretended to be talking about a phantom ‘friend’. “Brett has an insanely controlling nature, and you know how spoiled he is. I think he has always gotten what he wanted—except for me, because I refused to be with someone like that. So he used this new power over me and this knowledge to blackmail us, Mel. If we didn’t do exactly what we were told, he would let the authorities know and Papa would be extradited to Greece to stand trial,” Syd explained, her voice flat and weary.
“Son of a bitch.”
“He didn’t blackmail for money or a stake in the business or anything,” Syd rambled on. “What he wanted was my hand in marriage and a chance to control every aspect of my life. That’s the price we have to pay for his silence and to protect Papa. It’s what prevents him from going back to Greece to stand trial for possession of drugs and the murder of his own wife.”
“What about getting a lawyer or something?” Melanie asked. “I mean, there’s got to be something that can be done to help him, right?”
“Forget that it would take every ounce of mon
ey my family has…”
“I could help, financially, Syd,” Melanie interrupted.
“But we’ve spoken hypothetically to many lawyers, and he would still be extradited and in Greece until everything was all figured out in court over there.”
“Okay, but that’s fine then, right? I mean, at least everything would be out in the open and finally dealt with.”
Syd shook her head. “No, you don’t get it, Mel!” Her voice rose and she twisted her hands anxiously in her lap. “Papa isn’t doing well. He won’t admit it, but just look at him. He’s looking sicker and sicker these days and Theo and I can tell he’s getting weaker, worn out much quicker than usual. The change in his health started the second Brett came to us with this information.” She stared off into space, her eyes filling with tears. “If anything about this gets out in the open, it will kill him, and if he’s forced to go back to Greece to face trial…his health might be the least of our concerns.”
Melanie blinked. “What do you mean?”
“Theo and I have been doing some careful digging of our own. Bacchus, the asshole who framed Papa over twenty years ago, he’s now the head of the Greek mafia family my father was affiliated with. God knows what he did to get there, but he’s in charge now. If he gets wind that my father is coming back home, for whatever the reason may be… you may as well put a great big target on his back. And ours.” She told Melanie about the mysterious—and threatening—letter that had been sent to their father.
“Oh, Syd!” Melanie leaned across to hug her. “We can’t let this happen, honey. I’ll talk to Brett and—”
“No,” Syd pulled back and shook her head emphatically. “No, you can’t do that. I should never have told you any of this. I’m just…I’m so tired, Mel. Tired of lying and hurting. If Brett were to find out I told you, I’m not sure how he’d react.”
“I’ll talk to Mom and Dad, too, and they’ll—”
There was a knock at the door. Melanie got up to open it and was greeted with a grim-looking Theo, his lips pressed into a thin line.
Little White Lie Page 24
