An incident with no justice; Jenny Williams was the university president’s daughter and he’d somehow managed to keep all of the girls out of trouble. They did send Jenny away for a few months though, Emily hadn’t seen her around town since the university had gone on summer break. They had been months of peace but tomorrow, classes started over again. Emily knew the nightmare was a result of her own anxiety but could not shake the fear.
As the hours passed, Emily tried to remind herself why she was going back to the same institution where she’d been so brutally attacked. She wanted to prove that she wasn’t afraid, that she could do it. In the early dawn light, however, she was terrified and unsure of her decision.
“Another day of being afraid of bullying, how can this by my reality, I’m 19 years old, a sophomore student at university, this shouldn’t be happening to me.” she said quietly to herself as she turned off the alarm before climbing out of bed. Turning around she faced the mirror on the back of the door. Emily had been bullied in high school because her breasts were large; the girls at the school hated her for it. She never understood why, it wasn’t like it was something she could control. Nature had given her large breasts, a pretty heart shaped face, and a slim frame. She didn’t flaunt it but the girls noticed and made their own assumptions. She’d started to hide her body then with baggy clothes and large round glasses, hoping that would somehow appease the girls if she was invisible.
Making a face at herself she pulled on similar clothes now, tied her hair up, and brushed her teeth as she continued her musings. After years of being called a slut, a whore, and other degrading names she’d been relieved to get to go to university last year to get away from all of the mean girls. Hoping at last for normalcy and a chance to truly be herself, she’d spent hundreds of dollars on new clothes, changed her glasses, and thought she looked wonderful as she walked into her first class. Unfortunately, one of the mean girls from high school had decided to go to the same university and was sitting in the front row, smiling happily at Emily as she walked in, a malicious gleam in her eyes. Jenny Williams.
Jenny was everything Emily was not. Blonde, outgoing with a great fashion sense, and very popular Jenny seemed to have the perfect life with lots of friends and people that fawned over her. Emily on the other hand was quiet, friendless and introverted. She began to hide her body again; hoping none of the other kids in her classes would notice her breasts, or just how much Jenny hated her. She just wanted peace from the torment after high school and did her best to keep her head down after that first day. She did her work and kept up the grades required by her scholarships. Jenny was always there though, tormenting her in small ways until she finally attacked Emily a month before classes ended.
Emily hoped today would bring some new happiness, that Jenny wouldn’t be there at all. She really hoped the torment was over and that life could finally, finally, start for her. Putting on a pair of trainers, grabbing her backpack, and walking down the stairs to the front door of her father and stepmother’s house, Emily felt haunted. She wondered if the nightmare was a warning of things to come, or just the last dying memory of something that had happened so many months ago. Getting into her car and leaving the house behind, she put a smile on her face and pretended that her knees weren’t shaking or that her knuckles gleamed white and bloodless on the wheel.
Chapter 2
Emily had spent her entire day walking into each class, tensing every time she saw a blonde head in the room. Each time the owner of the hair had turned around, Emily had breathed a sigh of relief to see it wasn’t Jenny. As the day wore on, with no glimpses of Jenny in sight, Emily had started to relax. She was able to concentrate in each class and was almost humming with happiness as she walked into the last class of the day. Scanning the people in the room she didn’t see any blonde heads at all and sat down happily in a chair near the front. Putting her bag down beside her, Emily took out her notebook and pen, preparing to take notes or anything else she needed to write down for the class.
Emily began to hear loud sniffing from the front row and looked up as she heard the noise, wondering if someone was crying. She couldn’t see who it was so she went back to writing the name of the class in her notebook. As the class filled up the sniffing continued but Emily couldn’t tell where it was coming from. It was distracting but she hoped the person would quiet down when the professor came in.
“Do you mind if I sit by you? Seems the class is filling up rather quickly and there’s nowhere left to sit.” Emily gasped as she looked up at the tall, black haired, blue eyed god standing before her. His face looked familiar but she couldn’t place it. She couldn’t know him anyway, he had a French accent.
“Um, yeah, I guess you can, it’s the only place that’s left right?” Why else would you sit next to me, Emily quietly thought to herself.
Emily’s head turned as she once again heard sniffing coming from the front of the room and became tense as the guy folded himself into the seat next to her. He has to be over six feet tall, she thought, and wow, is he built! Emily squirmed a little, trying to work out the tension that seemed to suddenly fill her body. God, he’s hot, she thought.
“And he’d never speak to you if he didn’t have to” a little demon in her brain said. “Yeah, well, a girl can dream can’t she” she shot back at it and frowned a little. “Oh dear, now I’m just losing my mind” she thought.
“Hey, you’re Emily Chambers, aren’t you?” the guy spoke to her with a smile.
Oh no, here it comes, she thought, he’s heard about what happened last year. He’s either going to tell her how hilarious she’d looked; stumbling out of that closet into the arms of a janitor who’d recoiled in horror, or put her on a pity train. Moving to stand and to leave the class the guy put his hand over hers to stop her.
“Just sit down, Emily, it’s alright. I’m your stepbrother, Anton. My mother sent me round to keep check on you today.”
“But Anton’s in Moscow or somewhere, in the nick for smuggling drugs the last I heard. You can’t be him.” She’d heard whispers at family gatherings about Anton over the last couple of years but she’d never actually met him. Gazing over his body, she noted the expensive but all black ensemble he wore. From under the right sleeve of his black silk t-shirt she could see something that looked like a dragon tattoo stretching across the muscles, but wasn’t sure. He had a wicked, sexy gleam in his eye but she turned away, blushing. What if he really was her stepbrother?
“Oh, it wasn’t quite drugs, but yes I was in Moscow. Not in prison either, just not somewhere I could get away from to come to our parents’ wedding. It’s such a shame that it’s taken two years to finally meet you. Who knew I was getting such a lovely sister? Mother told me you’d had some problems last year and asked me to come keep an eye on you, so here I am.”
Emily could only gape at him, shocked that he was her stepbrother, and mortified that she’d been thinking dirty thoughts about him. Please just let me sink into the ground now, she thought, as she heard another sniff coming from the front row again.
“Fuck me, what is that stink? It smells like chicken shit! Is somebody in here covered in chicken shit?” Nervous laughter filled the room as people looked towards the speaker.
With a gasp, Emily recognised the voice. Reaching down for her bag so she could run, Emily looked up to see Jenny’s face surrounded by dark red hair with black lowlights in it. That’s why she didn’t notice her. Jenny had disguised herself.
Emily realised then that Anton’s hand still covered hers. She felt a spark as his hand tensed, and looked down to see what had caused it.
“Don’t worry, Emily. We’ll soon sort this out.” Anton reassured her by squeezing her hand and waltzed down to Jenny.
“Well, hello there sex on legs! Why don’t you come down here and sit next to me and give that little chicken up there some space? I hope you don’t smell like her now. But I think I can forgive you if you do.” Jenny smiled an alluring smile and pushed her hips out t
owards Anton, smiling suggestively.
Running his hand down her face, Anton smiled and gazed into Jenny’s eyes. He bent down, almost as if he was going to kiss her, and kept smiling as he whispered into her ear. Jenny, however, stopped smiling as her face went totally slack. She stepped away from him, picked up her bag, and left the classroom, never looking back.
Emily at least expected Jenny to make a snide remark as she walked past but she didn’t say a word, just kept climbing the steps to get out of the room.
Coming back up the steps Anton sat down beside Emily and whispered to her. “That takes care of that for today but we’re going to have to teach you to take care of yourself my little dove. This simply will not do. No, it won’t do at all.” He then sat down beside her again and quietly listened as the professor walked in and brought the attention of the class to her.
Emily didn’t hear a word that was spoken, simply too stunned to hear anything the woman was talking about. Jenny was back, Anton had appeared, and somehow her whole world had just changed. She wasn’t sure how, but looking over to the quiet but obviously content man, she knew he was going to play a part in it.
As the lecture ended Emily gathered her things and walked quietly beside Anton. Every time their bodies brushed against each other she felt a spark and with that spark came shame. She shouldn’t be feeling like this, he was her stepbrother!
“Do you want to go get something to eat Emily or should we just head home?” Anton spoke as he guided her towards a black and chrome motorcycle. She didn’t know what kind it was but the paint job on it was so beautiful it looked like the paint was liquid and moving. She reached out a finger to touch it but pulled it back before she did. She had a strange feeling the paint might suck her in if she touched it. A real man’s motorcycle, the engine was large, the handlebars gleamed, and she wanted to have the courage to ride it with him. But she didn’t.
“Oh, I can take myself home, my car is in the other parking lot” she spoke quietly, not wanting to meet his eyes. She didn’t want to see pity there. Still, she peeked up at him from under her lashes, eager to drink in the beauty of his face. His skin was flawless, not even a shadow from a beard showed in his skin. She wanted to touch it, but reminded herself: stepbrother dummy!
“Well if you don’t want to eat that’s one thing, but I’ll be glad to take you out if you are hungry. Or we can just go for a ride if you’d like. Whatever you want to do, we can do it.”
Emily had never flirted with a man before but somehow Anton brought out her inner-flirt, making her want to return the wicked smile he was giving her. Feeling bold she climbed onto the bike, throwing her leg over the back like she’d been doing it her whole life and patted the seat in front of her.
“Come on then, take me somewhere. Somewhere I’ve never been before.” She blushed as she said it but he made her feel like she could say such things, even though they’d only just met.
“Oh I plan to, little dove. I’m going to take you to places you’ve never been before and beyond. Just hang on tight.” With that he handed her a helmet, put one on himself, climbed onto the bike, started the engine, and maneuvered them out of the parking lot.
Emily was confused. She’d never even kissed a boy before but here she was with all kinds of dirty thoughts in her mind as her breasts pressed up against Anton’s back. Her nipples were hard little points and she knew he had to feel them, pressed into his silk shirt. The heat she felt coming from between her legs had to be burning him as he was pressed between them, cradled there. Squirming, trying to move away from him a little only made it worse.
“I wonder what it would feel like if he turned the other way” she thought to herself. Trying to concentrate on something else, Emily looked at his arms. Bad idea. There were well-defined muscles there, clenching and releasing as he maneuvered the bike down the road. It looked like they were heading out into the country. Maybe to the lake? Yeah, distraction’s a good idea, where are we going?
Looking around Emily saw they were indeed headed to the lake and wondered how Anton knew about the place. Emily’s father, Michael, had met Anton’s mother Angela at a conference in New York. He brought her back to their home here six months later.
Anton parked the bike in a spot near the water’s edge and took Emily’s hand as she got off the bike.
“Nobody knows us out here; we can be whoever we want to be, Emily.” She smiled, assuming he meant he wasn’t judging her for being bullied and that she could be a brave new person out here.
“How do you know about this place?” She asked as they walked down to the water’s edge, settling on the sand, hoping to change the subject.
“Oh, I’ve been around a few times now, we just never seemed to meet up somehow. You were at school or at the retirement home, passing out cookies to the elderly from what I understand. Very noble of you, that.”
Smiling, Emily pushed the lock of hair hiding her face behind her ear and looked at Anton. What was happening here, she wondered.
“It keeps me busy anyway. And I like the old people, they have stories to tell. They’re also so happy to have visitors, they don’t judge you and none of them have ever been unkind to me. It’s peaceful for me, going to visit them.”
“You should be with people your own age though, not surrounding yourself with the dying generations. You should have laughter, and fun, exciting affairs with older men. You shouldn’t be closeted away from life.” As Anton spoke his hand moved to push the lock of hair back behind her ear again because it was still too short to stay put. Running his finger down her jaw Emily gasped as his finger tilted her face up.
“We’re going to teach you how to be very bad, Emily.” He whispered to her, his face moving closer to her own.
Emily gulped, looking into his blue eyes, every thought but one disappearing from her mind.
“We?” she asked quietly, watching his lips moving closer. Confusion and a feeling of loss settled in as Anton seemed to come to his senses and moved away from her.
“Yes, we, mother and I. She’s watched your torment for far too long and wants better for you. So we’re going to teach you how to stand up for yourself.”
Shaking away the strange feelings, Emily looked out at the lake, refusing to meet his eyes now. She didn’t want to talk about being bullied with Anton. It was shaming enough to have to deal with it on her own, she didn’t want this perfect but somehow tempting bad boy to know she needed defending.
“Well, I don’t need self-defence, I enrolled in a course a few months ago and have been doing really well with it. If they ever come near me again I can take care of myself.” Emily stood up now, feeling defensive and far too confused. “Can we go home now?” She asked as she walked back towards the bike.
“We can, little dove, if that’s what you wish.” Moving to the bike Anton started it, handing her a helmet as she settled onto the back seat. “I’m sorry if I’ve offended you. I didn’t mean to. I’ll take you home.”
“It’s fine, I just don’t want to talk about it.” Relaxing a little Emily could at least admit to herself that her defensiveness wasn’t really from the talk about bullying, it was more about why he hadn’t kissed her.
Chapter 3
“It’s been two weeks now” Emily thought to herself, “Where is he at?”
Emily rolled over in bed, her bedroom dark and filled with shadows as the moon travelled across the night sky. Her every waking thought, her dreams had been filled with Anton but he’d told her good night after the first day of class and she had not seen him since. She’d had powerful, sex-filled dreams about him during the nights that left her filled with longing but a sense of shame. Maybe Jenny was right, maybe she was a freak that deserved to be treated badly.
Emily had gone through a mental inventory of everything she knew about Anton, things she’d heard or seen. Pictures of him drinking with lots of barely clad women on his lap had shown up on his social media but she’d never asked to join him on any of his pages. She thought he�
��d never want to have her in his life. She’d snooped of course, curious about the step-brother she’d never met, but she’d never really come out and asked anybody about him.
She knew he was very smart and had a doctoral degree in biochemistry but that he’d never talked about his job. She knew he was 31, single, and had a home in France. She knew he’d been in trouble with the law a few times as a teenager and that he liked women. A lot. He seemed to always be travelling as well. He’d broken his mom’s heart when he hadn’t come to the wedding, but apparently it was something she was used to: Anton was hardly ever around. That was about all she knew. How could she be so stupid as to think she was in love with someone she didn’t even know?
Rolling to her other side, staring out of her window, she berated herself for being like a silly teenage girl with her first crush. She thought about her dreams, dreams filled with Anton’s smell, his skin, his touch, and wondered how illusions could seem so real.
The dreams were always similar, sometimes they changed a little, but usually they started with Anton coming into her room, picking up her sleeping form, and taking her down into the basement of the house. A large, open room, the basement would be filled with candlelight and people stood in a circle, their faces hidden behind their capes. As Anton would move into the circle the people would part ways and turn the other way, revealing an altar of some sort.
Somehow Emily’s clothes would disappear as Anton placed her on the altar, and she would lay there, naked, bathed in candlelight. She never felt afraid; somehow she always knew it was a dream and that Anton wasn’t going to hurt her. The thought of the people didn’t bother her either, it kind of excited her innocent little mind. A few times she’d even giggled through the first part of the dream.
Kane (Alexander Shifter Brothers Book 1) Page 51
