She took another deep breath and fixed her glare over Lily’s shoulder. “And I fail to see what is so amusing, Cyrus.”
Cyrus’s hold on Lily’s shoulders tightened and he pulled her backward until she rested against his chest. The contact proved wonderfully reassuring, especially as Sloan had gotten off the chair and was once again pacing the diner.
“I wasn’t aware I was laughing, Martha, and besides, I agree with you. My little brother has this unique ability to not see what’s right under his nose. Lily here, being a point in question.”
“Stay out of this, Cyrus.” Sloan addressed his brother. “This is none of your fucking business. Just because you spent all night fucking her does not mean you know her.”
Martha gasped and Lily tried her best to get away from Cyrus, but he’d wrapped his hand in her ponytail, effectively pinning her in place, unless she fancied leaving half her scalp behind.
Lily couldn’t quite bring herself to look at anyone, far too mortified to be talked about like this in front of Martha. God only knew what she would think of her, but she had to put the record straight.
“He didn’t… I mean we didn’t… oh hell.”
Cyrus lifted the hand still left on her shoulder and caressed her neck in movements designed to soothe.
“What our Lily here is struggling to convey is that I didn’t fuck her, as you so succinctly put it, more’s the pity. No, she actually threw me out of her flat, and then gave me the slip again, despite my clear instructions to stay put until I could come and give her a lift. Trust you to go for the bratty one, bro.”
Amusement laced his words and Lily shook her head. Yes, Martha would never talk to her again. What was wrong with these two?
Instead of being appalled, Martha laughed.
“Like I said, our Lily is amazing. It’s a miracle that so called Master of hers didn’t beat the brattiness out of her.”
“He what?”
Sloan and Cyrus said those two words in unison. Sloan stepped up to her until she was surrounded by several hundred pounds of pure droolworthy Doms that meant she would have slid to the floor, had Cyrus not still had a hold of her hair. He seemed to like asserting his dominance like that, and fuck her, if she didn’t find it one of the biggest turn-ons ever.
“Damn it, I’m going to kill the bastard when I find him.” The rough emotion behind Sloan’s words made Lily’s heart beat faster, and she was sure it was going to go into cardiac arrest when he framed her face with his rough hands and tipped her head up to make her look at him.
“Who is he, Lily? Give me his fucking name and Cyrus and I will make him pay for what he did to you.”
Lily would have shaken her head, but with Cyrus’s hand still wrapped in her hair and Sloan’s fingers branding her skin, she couldn’t move, so instead she blinked and whispered, “No. I told you, I don’t want to talk about him. You can’t make me.”
Something hot and dangerous flashed across Sloan’s features, and Cyrus laughed.
“Oh, we can’t, can we? Girl, that is so the wrong thing to say to us, we—”
The chime of the door opening stopped his words, and he swore softly and released her.
Female laughter carried in with the breeze, and Sloan, too, stepped away and greeted the customers who had just walked in. Lily took the opportunity to flee.
* * * *
Fuck. Sloan fixed a smile on his face for the party of young women who had walked in on them. Judging by their outfits and the smell of booze coming off them, this was a hen party who’d been out all night and was now in desperate need of some caffeine. Martha got busy taking their orders and Cyrus charmed their fishnets off them in his usual way, while expertly avoiding the wandering hands of the inebriated women. Sloan joined Martha behind the counter, and they worked together to clear the first wave as the diner filled with their regulars on their way into work. While it was good to see the place busy, Sloan clenched his teeth in frustration. Lily had disappeared in the back ages ago, and had not come back out again. The wounded look she’d worn and desperately tried to hide made his gut churn. He’d come into work this morning determined to have a reasonable discussion with her, but then she’d turned up looking as though she hadn’t slept all week, and all he’d seen in his mind’s eye was Cyrus fucking her. The fact that he hadn’t just made this whole fucked up mess even worse. It meant Cy cared about Lily, and if the furious looks he threw Sloan were anything to go by, he cared a great deal.
Which should please Sloan, of course. It meant Lily was taken care of, and Sloan could get on with his life, but fuck it, he wanted her, too.
A night of no sleep meant Sloan had had plenty of time to examine his feelings, and the talk with Martha had just crystallized his feelings. Martha was an excellent judge of character, and her simmering outrage at his actions had made him feel about five inside. Of course Lily had had no choice about altering her details. No employer would have given her a chance otherwise and many hadn’t.
Sloan swore under his breath as he recalled the day she had first appeared in his life. He’d been engrossed in paperwork sat in the corner booth, when he’d heard her voice.
“Excuse me, Sir, but the lady at the counter said you were the one to speak to. I saw the sign in the window. Do you still need someone to help out?”
It had been the hesitant, yet clear intonation on Sir that had immediately snared his attention, and when he had looked up into Lily’s expressive chestnut eyes something had shifted inside of him. Something that he had thought broken since Annabel’s betrayal, and his walls had gone up instantly.
Instead of acting on his instant attraction, he’d employed her, despite the less than stellar CV she’d offered him with a mumbled explanation.
“I know I don’t have any experience per se, but I’m a fast learner, and I love helping people, so if you give me a chance, I’ll prove that to you.”
Despite her almost painful shyness, and the way she hadn’t managed to raise her gaze past his chin, all obvious signs of who she was, her inner determination had shone through even then. Martha had taken Lily under her wing and she had blossomed under her care over the last two years, and Sloan had fallen hopelessly in love.
Fuck. He didn’t do love, not anymore, but what else was this feeling tearing his gut in two? He slammed the coffee carafe back into the machine with so much force it was a wonder it didn’t break, and swallowed the profanity bubbling on his tongue.
“Jesus, Sloan, go find her and sort this out now. I can manage here.” Martha slapped him upside the head with her wet tea towel, and Cyrus laughed. “And you, Cyrus Cooper, stay out of it. You stirred things up enough around here.”
Cyrus threw his hands up in the air in mock surrender, and his grin could only be described as wolfish.
“Why do you think I’m still sitting here, Martha? As good as your coffee and the titillating company is…” He stopped talking to remove a redhead’s hand from his groin with a shake of his head that made her pout, and helped her back up on the stool she was sliding off. The half-cut member of the hen party tried to get up again, but he pushed her back down with a firm hand.
“Stay, and don’t touch what you can’t afford, sweetheart.” He turned back round to face the counter.
“I suggest you call this a lot a cab, Martha, before they all pass out on us, and you, dumbhead brother of mine,” he flashed Sloan a grim smile. “You go and sort our girl out.”
Sloan nodded, even as his gut churned anew, and Martha looked from one to the other.
“Oh, I see, that’s what it’s going to be like, is it? Shouldn’t that be Lily’s decision?” she asked. “That girl has been messed about enough without you two fighting over her in some damn one-upmanship.”
Cyrus balled his hands into fists and glared at her, but Martha simply smiled and patted his hand.
“Save it, boy. You can’t boss me around like that.” Her voice firmed, and despite the situation Sloan had to laugh. Martha might not be in the lifes
tyle, but she would make a fantastic Domme, if she ever chose to go down that route. Fiercely protective of those she loved, she would never back down from a challenge.
Cyrus snatched his hand from under her and took a deep breath.
“Like I said, I’ve been sat here, even though it’s been killing me, knowing that Lily is back there probably crying her eyes out over that fool of my brother. She loves him, it seems, and I’m not going to get between that, unless she wants me to. Of course, if my fool-ass bro doesn’t want her…”
Cyrus grinned at Sloan’s muttered, “Fuck off, Cy.”
“Show her then, and tell her I’m here, if she wants me, too, will you?”
Martha whistled through her teeth, and Sloan nodded. Time to sort this out once and for all. He just hoped he hadn’t fucked it all up beyond repair already.
Chapter Six
Lily splashed water on her tear-stained face, and taking a paper towel from the dispenser in the corner, she dabbed at her swollen eyes. She looked a state and she was a fucking coward, running away like that. Barricading herself in a cubicle had seemed the right thing to do, but when neither Sloan nor Cyrus had come after her, she had started crying and seemed utterly unable to stop.
What had she expected though? The rational side of her knew Sloan would be busy helping Martha, but a tiny part of her had hoped that Cyrus, at least, would check up on her. Then again, why should he? Despite what he’d said, she was clearly no more than a passing fancy to him, and that thought really shouldn’t hurt that much, should it?
“Fuck it.”
The curse bounced around the empty ladies room, and she flinched when she looked up again to find Sloan stood in the entrance way, watching her.
“Such language, Lily. If you were my mine, I’d gag you for that, until you learnt not to let such foul words past your pretty lips.”
A shudder went through her at the mental image of being bound and gagged and at Sloan’s mercy, and his gaze burnt hotter as he seemed to notice her reaction. Oh, she was such a sap. Might as well hold up a big neon sign over her head that said hopelessly yours.
Instead, she sought refuge in anger and, lifting her chin, stared up at him.
“Yes, well, I’m not yours, or anybody’s for that matter. We’re not in a scene, and you’re not my Dom, so I can swear all I like.”
She crossed her arms for good measure, and to hide her trembling hands at the approval she read in Sloan’s eyes.
“True, and we need to talk, so follow me to my office, please. Somehow doing this in the ladies doesn’t seem right.”
He grinned at her and parts of her just melted, but damn it, she had some pride left and she wouldn’t be that easy.
“You’ve already sacked me, so what else is there to say.” Lily flinched when he raised an eyebrow and widened his stance until he took up the entire door way. Why did he have to be so bloody handsome and domly? Why did she have to pick this diner to work in, and why could she not hold onto her anger? “I only came today to pick up my check and P45, and you can give me that out front, and then I’ll be out of your hair.”
Lily was quite proud of her almost normal voice. So what if there was a suspicious wobble and she had to swallow past the huge lump in her throat.
Sloan looked at her for the longest time and then ran a hand over his stubble covered face. He looked incredibly tired and worn out and Lily fought the urge to step up to him and to smooth his worry lines away.
“Like I said, we need to talk, and I owe you an apology, but I refuse to do it here. If you don’t follow me I accept your decision, and I wish you well.” With that, he turned and left her reeling in confusion.
* * * *
Sloan called himself all kinds of a fucking fool as he walked away from Lily, hoping against hope to hear her footsteps following. When there was nothing but the noise carrying in from the front, he increased his pace and slammed the door to his office shut behind him. He should have just acted on his instincts to haul her up against him and kiss her senseless when he found her in the ladies. She’d been crying and had looked so downright miserable that he’d frozen and come out with that inane comment that he had no right to have made. He hadn’t earned the privilege of her submission, and he likely never would now. Maybe that was for the best though. He was damaged goods after all. The whole debacle with Annabel had left him an emotional shell. Seeking relief at Cyrus’s club with willing subs who didn’t expect anything other than what he was ready to give at the time, had served his physical needs at last, but it had been way too long since he had indulged in even that. Since Lily started working for him, to be precise.
The envelope with her severance pay and her papers sat on his desk, mocking him. He’d prepared all that last night in a fit of temper, his only thought to rid himself of another lying woman in his life. Lily wasn’t Annabel, however.
His ex-fiancé wouldn’t have hesitated to press her advantage. No, she would have jumped at his peace offering and they would have fucked in the toilets like rabid rabbits with not a care in the world as to who might walk in on them. Annabel had been an exhibitionist, as well as a liar and a cheat, who had taken him to the cleaners, and not only cost him his heart, but almost his life.
With a groan Sloan turned and stared out of the window. It didn’t afford much of a view, other than the tiny concreted back garden. He was so lost in thought, he almost didn’t hear the hesitant knock on his door, and he took a deep breath in to calm his racing heart.
“Come in.”
The door opened slowly and he turned to find Lily stood in his office, with her gaze fixed on the envelope on his desk addressed to her.
“That what I think it is?” she asked, and the wobble in her voice that she couldn’t seem to hide made his gut churn.
“It is, but I don’t want you to take that until you hear me out, Lily.”
She flinched and worried her bottom lip with her teeth in such a way that he grew hard as nails. It made him want to step up to her, bury his hands in her hair and claim her lips with his own teeth, until she whimpered in his arms.
After what seemed like a small lifetime she finally looked up at him and nodded.
“Fine, I’m listening.”
Sloan breathed a sigh of relief and gestured for her to sit down as he, too, slid on his seat, and after a moment’s hesitation she complied.
“What has Cyrus told you about me, baby?”
Lily blinked at the endearment he hadn’t meant to utter, and her cheeks grew a delightful shade of pink that spread down her throat and into the high neckline of her T-shirt. It made him wonder how far that blush would go and he swallowed his groan and adjusted his dick away from his zipper. Her blush deepened when she noticed, and she found her clasped hands most interesting all of a sudden.
“He hasn’t really, other than call you a few names.” Lily mumbled the words and Sloan grinned.
“All of which, I’m sure I deserved.” That brought her head up and he lost himself in the shimmering concern in her hazel eyes. Such a beautiful contrast to her blonde hair.
“I wouldn’t say so, Sir.” She bit her lip as though she hadn’t meant to utter that address, and a sense of calm settled over Sloan, as his dominant side broke through to take a front seat.
“No, I would. I let my past experiences cloud my judgment, and for that I am sorry, truly sorry, Lily. You didn’t deserve for me to jump off the deep end like that, not when you trusted me with your story.”
A tear slipped from Lily’s eyes, and it took every ounce of self-control he possessed to not reach across and to give into the instinct to kiss that moisture off her face.
“I’m sorry, too. I shouldn’t have lied about my past, but I was desperate for a job, and no one would take me, and…”
She sniffed and took the tissue Sloan offered with a grateful smile. “I’m sorry. I’m not normally such a watering pot.”
“I know, Lily. You’re one of the strongest women I know, in fact, especially cons
idering your past, and I hope you will be able to tell me all the details one day.”
Lily stiffened and shook her head.
“There’s no point in it. I don’t want to talk about it, and besides it’s the past. I refuse to let it have a hold on me, and there are people in this world far worse off than I was. At least I had a roof over my head and food on the table, and he was kind most of the time.” A shudder went through her and Sloan crunched his teeth, grateful for the distraction when Cyrus chose that moment to step into his office.
He didn’t say anything, seeming to assess the situation with one glance and simply shut the door and leant against it. Only his fisted hands gave away his agitation, and Sloan nodded to him. Yes, his brother cared far too much about this, and they would have to deal with their mutual feelings for Lily soon one way or the other.
If she chose to go off with Cyrus it would break his fucking heart in two, but he would let her go. He could no more stand between his brother and the one woman who seemed to have broken through to his heart than he could stop breathing. It was the least he could do. Cy had been a rock in the weeks and months after the Annabel debacle.
“Most of the time?” Sloan prompted and Cyrus swore. As though Lily had only just noticed his presence she jumped and turned round in her seat. Cy offered her a grim smile.
“Don’t mind me, sweet girl. I couldn’t stay away any more just in case my brother, here, actually owned up to his feelings and you two were making out, because I want in on that.”
He grinned, to all intents and purposes without a care in the world, but Sloan knew him well enough to know that Cyrus had meant every word. It was there in the tight set of his shoulders and the careful way he controlled his breathing.
His brother was also royally pissed off at the asshole who’d forced their Lily into a Master/slave relationship at a far-too-young age. There was no doubt that Lily was submissive but she had a far too independent streak to ever have been truly happy in a twenty-four-seven arrangement like that.
Let's Get It On (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 5
