Lessons Learned (The Gifted Realm Book 2)

by Jillian Neal

  Rainer stared up at the star-strewn sky and tried to think of where to begin. Logan was refusing to meet his gaze.

  “So, not to go all Oprah on you, but it’s kinda been a hell of a week or two. I know we broke up and all, but if you want to get together for coffee and talk, I think I’m probably ready for that now,” Rainer teased.

  Logan finally broke. He began laughing hysterically as he laid back on the quit he and Adeline had been sharing.

  “Ok, but just coffee. You’re not coming back to my place,”

  Logan folded his hands behind his head. “I can’t believe Garrett.” He pricked the surface of the tightly strung vault of hurt and disappointment that he’d been carrying.

  It had had him bound and shackled since the night his mother had been rushed to Georgetown. “I mean, he goes to Brazil and works with orphans. He was named officer of the year last year when he pulled that guy out of that burning car, and then what? He comes home and bangs whoever he wants and passes his girlfriend around for other guys to do whatever they want with?”

  Rainer knew that, as much as he’d always thought of Garrett Haydenshire as the coolest guy he knew, and as much as he’d looked up to him as a kid, it was nothing compared to Logan’s admiration of his big brother. He wasn’t certain which was worse, to watch your parents falter, to know that they’re mortal and that they can’t always make everything better, or to watch your childhood heroes fall from the pinnacle of nobility erected in your mind.

  Deep within Logan, in a place he kept locked tight, Rainer knew he felt his parents had let him down. They’d faltered, and nearly fallen, and the disappointment in his brother was bitter and devastating as the cold cruel world threatened to overwhelm Logan Haydenshire.

  “Maybe he was just bull-shitting Vindico. I mean, I know Garrett likes to party, but,” Rainer offered though he knew Garrett had done everything he’d said he had, and that everything he’d said about Chloe was true.

  Logan shook his head. He knew as well.

  “Ok so he’s a man-whore, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t do all of those great things or that he hasn’t been a good brother,” Rainer willed Logan to believe what he was saying.

  “I guess. I’m just in a bad mood,” Logan quickly shut Rainer back out.

  “Yeah, I got that much,” Rainer wasn’t letting him dodge it anymore. He wasn’t going to stand back and watch reality eat Logan alive.

  Logan turned to study Rainer, his glare angry and resentful.

  “Come on, man. It’s me. I already know half of what’s wrong with you. I talked you through your first time. Just spill it,” Rainer reminded Logan that he’d never let him down, and he had no intention of starting now.

  “It’s just been a while, and I mean everything with Mom, and work, and the election. It’s getting to me,” Logan stared at the sand as if it had wronged him in some way. “What if something is wrong with the baby? I mean, that’s my little sister. I don’t know what to do with that.” He folded his legs in front of him and kept his gaze steadfast on the ground.

  “If there’s something wrong, then they’ll heal her, I guess. I mean, it might be rough at first, but she’ll get the best medical care. You know that.”

  “If she makes it here? If Mom loses her, then I honestly don’t know if she could stand that. It would kill her. What if Peterson wins? What if he becomes Crown?”

  There was so much that Logan hadn’t stated but that Rainer derived from his sentiment. He thought it was cowardly that Carrington had stepped down, and he was angry with him as well.

  “I really don’t think that’s going to happen,” Rainer eased. “Peterson is going to keep up this shit about all of us, your whole family, and I just think he’s digging his own grave.”

  “I hope.”

  He wondered if he should comment on Logan’s admission that it had been a while.

  “How long’s a while?” Rainer stared out at the restless sea.

  “Uh, the last time was that time we were drunk,” Logan choked. He clearly wanted to talk about it, though neither of them had any intention of meeting the other’s eyes.

  “Everything okay?” Rainer swirled his hand in the sand beside the quilt just to have something to do.

  “I hope,” he shrugged. “She works all the time and, you know, she’s had some problems like when she thought she was…” His explanation drowned in his anguish and in his embarrassment. “The Medio who’s gonna deliver Will and Brooke’s kid is going to examine her when we get back. Vindico gave me a couple of hours off to go with her.”

  Rainer’s heart ached. He hadn’t known any of that. He’d assumed Logan and Adeline were just as active as he and Emily.

  Whatever had made Adeline late was affecting their sex life, and Logan was lost and scared and, from the looks of it, doubting his abilities on top of everything happening with his family.

  “I’m really sorry, Logan.”

  Logan finally met Rainer’s gaze. His expression held a mix of terror and grief.

  “Thanks. It was rough for a few days last week, and then she was at the hospital with Mom, but she’s kind of better now.” He seemed to hope that Rainer would find the answer for him somewhere in the distressing details.

  “And now you’re stuck in the room with me.”

  Logan chuckled, though Rainer knew the laughter was to cover the pain.

  “It just makes her kind of weak and really tired. It comes and goes, but it seems like it’s happening more than it isn’t. I’m really worried about her.”

  “I’m sure,” Rainer agreed, though he wasn’t entirely certain what Adeline was experiencing.

  The fact that Adeline was a Valeduto Predilect with the power to heal her own body rapidly made the problem all the more concerning. Whatever was causing this wasn’t being healed.

  Rainer was desperate to find some way to soothe Logan. He glanced back at the house as a slight grin spread across his face.

  “So, whatever it is, it’s gone right now?”

  Logan nodded. “Yeah, she hasn’t had it since the wedding, but she was with Mom in the hospital and then we were just completely exhausted when she finally got home last night after checking on Mom at the house.”

  “Ok, well, as romantic as I’m sure it would be to spend a little time with Adeline in a room with four sets of bunk beds, if you want to, Em and I could hang out in the living room and keep everybody out of there, if they come home anytime soon, which I seriously doubt,” Rainer pointed out.

  “Your mom and dad are already asleep, and Will just took Brooke to bed.” He pointed to the darkened living room. “It’s barely eleven.”

  “She’d freak if she ever knew I told you any of this.”

  “She’ll tell Em. They’re probably talking about all of it right now, and I’d never ever say anything, but I saw the way she was looking at you earlier. I don’t think she’d mind spending some time, just the two of you.”

  “That’d be nice,” Logan glanced back at the house eagerly.

  “Go on,” Rainer stood and brushed the sand off his hands. He pulled the quilt off the sand.

  “If you ever say anything about how freaking fast I’m about to run into that house, I will hit you.”

  “I will never tell Adeline that you were jonesin’ so bad for her bod that you fell all over yourself to get back inside,” Rainer guffawed as Logan hurdled over a pylon and sprinted up the planked boardwalk that led back to the Haydenshires’ beach house.

  Needs

  A little while later, Emily and Rainer were snuggling on the couch watching TV. They both were hoping that Logan and Adeline were enjoying their time alone. Adeline had talked to Emily about the past few weeks as well.

  She was worried that Logan was somehow losing interest, and that her health problems were making her unappealing. This made Rainer all the happier that he’d made the suggestion.

  He decided that he’d probably meddled enough, and that he would let Logan soothe Adeline and vice v
ersa, while he concentrated on Emily.

  Though it certainly hadn’t been several weeks, the world seemed so much heavier that night than it had just a week before. He finally allowed himself to admit that he needed to feel the sweet pulse of her release around him, as he filled her with everything he was.

  Emily was on her back. Rainer was lying on his side on the wide couch. They’d been kissing heatedly. She moaned softly as her body rolled under his. Hunger tensed in her waves. The sound set him on fire.

  “What do you want, baby?” he husked in her ear as he traced his hand under the t-shirt she had on. He caressed her stomach, and felt it clench tightly and quiver in anticipation.

  He slid his hands higher. She was wearing nothing but his t-shirt and a pair of thin, white, cotton panties with delicate lace detailing. The very air around them was thick with need, and the memories, their energy, and love. It spiraled in heat-filled waves around them.

  “Tell me, baby. I know we can’t do anything, but, God, I want to hear you say it.” He couldn’t help himself. He so desperately wanted to hear her.

  A loud moan echoed from her, and he quelled it with his mouth. He captured the desperate need with his lips.

  “I want you,” she panted. “I want to feel you deep inside of me. I want you to grab my hand and make me feel you throb.” Her entire body trembled in her need. “I want you to touch me. I want to come in your hand.”

  A heavy growl evulsed from Rainer. He’d asked, and she’d supplied the fantasy in rapturous accord, just as she always did.

  No one was around. Her parents were exhausted from the hospital. No one would be getting up, and her brothers wouldn’t be home for hours. The press hadn’t even figured out that the Haydenshires had come to the beach.

  They were all alone in a house that was going to hold eighteen people. There were no cameras and no prying eyes.

  Rainer finished his justifications, and then let his mind fill with nothing but Emily, the heavenly way she felt when she tensed around him, the silken column of paradise that enveloped him, so hot and wet, that he owned.

  If she wanted it, then he was giving it to her. He grabbed her hand and forced her grasp around his steel hard cock. Her eyes lit excitedly as she unbuttoned his shorts and slipped her fingers through the slit in his boxers.

  His breath gasped from his lungs as she massaged and caressed him. He kissed her again, and let the exquisite feeling of her hand on him drive him wild.

  In a heated moan, he continued to whisper in her ear as she spun her fingers over the pearly need leaking from his head. If she kept it up, he was going to explode in her hands.

  “I’m gonna take these off, baby, and I want you to show me how wet you are.”

  She writhed wildly. Her eyes flashed in deep desire as “Yes,” quaked from her lips.

  He pulled off the virgin-white panties and shoved them into the pocket of his shorts. He didn’t want them to be left on the floor accidentally if he should need to cover them up quickly. He traced back over her lips, swollen and tight, needing to be penetrated. He spun his finger in her opening as she writhed and bucked in need.

  He felt her body pulse, desperate for him to pull deeper, but he didn’t comply.

  He traced her again and felt her plump, fevered flesh. She spread her legs further, showing him what she wanted. Her body tensed and pitched as she arched her back deeply.

  “Rainer, please,” she begged, and he pulsed hot and heavy in her hand. “Take me, please. I don’t care who sees us. I need you.”

  He raised his head to make certain no one was coming from any of the doors in the house. He pulled his shorts and boxers down just enough to get the job done and hoisted her shirt up slightly.

  “Please,” she continued her heated pleas. Simply unable to stop, Rainer rolled so she was under his body.

  “You sure you’re ready, baby? This is gonna have to be hard and fast. I don’t want to hurt you.” His body pleaded for hers.

  “I want it hard. Just give it to me.”

  With that, he slipped his hand under her backside, lifted her body slightly, and pounded into her. He could recall only one other time that she’d felt so tight as she took him in. And as the first time he’d had her, here in the same house, flashed through his mind, he plunged her depths.

  She’d needed it for some time. She was fevered, hot, and dripping wet as he pulled away slightly and then drove into her repeatedly.

  “Give it to me, baby,” he commanded in a low, fervent growl.

  She clenched her jaw in effort not to scream, her back arching again as her body tugged him rhythmically, nursing away every stress they’d endured.

  He threw her shirt upwards and caught her breasts in his mouth. He sucked in rhythm to his penetrating thrusts. She swelled quickly, and he couldn’t fight it. It had been too long.

  With a final, driving, ragged plunge, he buried himself deep inside of her. He slid her nipple between his teeth, and she spiraled out of control.

  She clawed his back and buried her screaming moans in his chest. She convulsed and he slipped out quickly. He hoisted his shorts back up and snapped them. He pulled her shirt back down and held her tightly to him.

  “Feel better, baby?” He kissed her cheek as she giggled and gave him his favorite mischievous grin.

  “Oh yeah,” she made his entire month.

  A moment later, she was gasping excitedly in the middle of their afterglow.

  “Yay,” she trilled as Rainer whimpered.

  “Watch them with me… please!” Father of the Bride with Steve Martin, Emily’s all-time favorite movie, had just started on the small TV screen in the living room. The commercial preceding it stated that Part II would be on next.

  Rainer had watched these movies with her dozens upon dozens of times. He chuckled as he recalled her asking him what a condom was and how you fastened one, several years earlier when they’d watched it after their exams on the last day of school that year.

  “And do I need to remain awake for it to count as watching with you?” He turned her on her side in front of him so she could see better, and he could hold her back to his chest.

  “Yes, but if you’re good and watch them with me, I’ll make us popcorn, and I’ll even let you play during the commercials.” She thrust her chest out, showing him what she was offering. He cracked up as he agreed to the terms.

  She scooted to the kitchen and grabbed a bag of microwave popcorn, and then returned to the living room with a large bowl as the champagne bubbles began floating to the top of the screen.

  “Here, you watch. I’ll pop it,” Rainer took the bag.

  “Aww, you’re the best!”

  “I know,” he laughed as he summoned the radiant heat energy from the air around him and used the electromagnetic energy from his body. He heated the bag until all of the kernels popped, then opened it and dumped it into the bowl. “And I will not even point out how many, many, many times I have watched this movie with you.”

  She giggled, “Uh, all of the times that I made out with you through it don’t count. And,” she threw popcorn in her mouth and swallowed before she continued, “I would like to remind you, Mr. Lawson, of the sheer number of times I’ve been forced to sit through Redline and The Fast and the Furious with you and Logan.”

  Rainer wrapped his arm back around her and waggled his eyebrows. “Hey, baby, it’s not how you stand by your car, it’s how you race your car.”

  “Would you shut up? I’m trying to watch the best movie ever.”

  “Oh, so sorry. Don’t worry, if you missed anything, I can quote it to you,” he laughed and kissed the side of her head.

  Brothers

  As it turned out, neither of them managed to stay awake through Kimberley Williams and Diane Keaton giving birth on the same fateful night.

  Rainer awoke to someone shaking him. He blinked confusedly, lifted his head, and stared into Garrett’s eyes.

  “Hey, man, you might want to get your hand off her as
s, and put her to bed. I don’t think you want Dad to walk in and find you two like this with these in your pocket,” he pulled Emily’s panties out of Rainer’s pocket. The white lace had been peeking out when they’d fallen asleep. He dropped them in Rainer’s face.

  Rainer sat up quickly, grabbed her underwear, and pulled the t-shirt back down over Emily’s backside where his hand had been fully on top of her exposed right cheek as they’d moved in their sleep.

  Garrett chuckled and shook his head.

  “Baby,” Rainer kissed Emily. She stirred, but just grabbed his hand and wrapped it back over her. This time she landed it on her breast. “Em,” Rainer jerked his hand away. Half of her brothers were watching the display.

  “Ok, I will never be able to sit on that couch again,” Connor pretended to gag.

  “Em,” Garrett leaned down and whispered sweetly in Emily’s ear. “Let Rainer take you to bed before Mom and Dad get up, okay?”

  She sat up with a deep yawn. Katie and Chloe headed to the girls’ room.

  “Wait!” Rainer yelped. He nearly leapt off the couch as Emily tried to determine what was happening.

  Garrett started laughing again. “Em, go get Logan out of there. I don’t know what Adeline’s wearing.”

  Garrett was able to think much clearer than Rainer at the moment. Emily stood with Rainer’s help and moved to the girls’ room.

  Logan appeared a minute later. He looked as bedraggled as Rainer felt, and stumbled into the room he was supposed to be sleeping in. He collapsed on the bunk nearest to the door.

  “Thanks,” Rainer sighed. He knew he owed Garrett big time.

  “No problem,” he followed Rainer and Levi into the boys’ room. Garrett switched on the light. Logan groaned angrily as he’d been awoken again.

  Garrett shook his head. “It’s like Mom and Dad have sent me to summer camp in hell.” He pulled off his clothes and climbed up to the bunk above where Logan was attempting to sleep.

  Rainer, Connor, and Levi laughed as they disrobed and each took another top bunk. After glancing at the clock just before he fell back asleep, Rainer noted that it was almost four in the morning and that he still had Emily’s panties in his hand. He stuck them under the covers and decided to return them in the morning.