I gave him a level look. “Don’t tell me you forgot what I told you already?”
“Can you be more specific?”
“You’re arrogant and cocky. Possessive. Dominant as hell. But I love your ass. We’re endgame. I’m not going anywhere, not ever.”
“Not ever, huh?” He grinned.
“Nope. I mean, I admit there’s been a few times I’ve wondered if this was going to last. And like you I didn’t know how to turn my family down, but they’ll get over it. Not to mention the gorgeous girl we have waiting for us at home. I’m not sure Helena would be okay if either of us left.”
“She’d be more liable to fix whichever one of us was left behind before hunting down the other,” he joked.
“I want to laugh but I think she would seriously do that. Actually, I think she may have gotten worse.”
“She has,” he replied casually.
Of course, he noticed. He watched her like a hawk. If Helena breathed wrong, he would know.
“So, what do we do about it?”
He was quiet for a moment before replying. “I think we’ve been going about it the wrong way.”
“And that means what?”
“We had no right to try and quarantine the very thing that makes her so peculiar. The sickness inside her is a blessing, not a curse. Without it, I’m not sure she would have survived as long as she had.”
I agreed with all of that.
Helena had been dragged through the depths of hell and come out this sweet, beautiful girl who only wanted to make everything whole.
“I have an idea. It didn’t come to me until last night, but I think it will make everything for her much better.”
A thud came from the trunk.
We glanced at one another, both shaking our heads.
“What are you going to do with them?”
He made a sound and shrugged. “I honestly just wanted to get them from the motel and leave everything exactly as we did. No forced entry. No stuff missing. The car abandoned. Just in case.”
“That was wise, in my opinion, but now we need to get rid of them.”
He cut me a look and put the car in drive. “I thought you were all for reuniting Helena and her sister?”
“As far as I know, Helena doesn’t have any siblings,” I replied coolly.
He grinned and pulled back onto the road. “I’ve contaminated your purity.”
“Like I was pure to begin with?” I joked before turning serous. “You heard what she was referring to us as. Imagine how she’ll feel about Helena. I doubt Dakota told her about our girl’s hobby.”
He tapped the steering wheel with his fingers. “I don’t fully understand what Dakota was after or where she found this girl. Or how. If we’re not bringing Helena deeper into her clusterfuck, I don’t want to know. I’m ready to get these two out of the way and move the fuck on with our lives.”
I frowned. He sounded genuinely exhausted. I couldn’t relate to his familial woes, but I felt for him. I sincerely hoped Luca would wash his hands of his wife. It wasn’t as if they had some deep passionate connection. He could better, he deserved more.
“Sounds good to me. We just need to make a solid plan for our future.”
“We can’t predict what’s going to happen five seconds now, but we can live for whatever moments are right in front of us.”
“Like dealing with the two people in your trunk.”
“We aren’t dealing with them. You’re going to grab my phone and call my Dad. He can deal with them and Dakota and all the shit that’s being dredged up. I have more important matters to focus on.”
The lone road that ran right past the Dahlia loomed in the near distance. The main part of town fell behind us and growing smaller until it vanished from view altogether.
“Care to share?” I asked, locating his cellphone in the cup holder.
“It’s nothing too drastic. Get Helena past this. Prepare to bust our asses at the Dahlia. Make you and Helena legitimate Andreous. Then…well, before I get ahead of myself, we can see what happens from there.”
My finger hovered over Luca’s contact number. I had a hunch on what the last part of that meant. I was more than ready to immerse myself fully into the Dahlia’s structural hierarchy alongside him.
As for making Helena and I legitimate, I wasn’t sure if he meant by marriage or simply changing our names, but it didn’t matter to me. It would be an honor to be brought fully into their dysfunctional world.
The Andreous had malice swimming through their veins. They were unashamedly obscene, flat out depraved. But no matter how malevolent they tended to be you’d never find a family more genuinely loyal and devoted to one another.
Chapter Fifteen
Helena
The pitter patter of rain served as a soothing soundtrack as I sorted through all my supplies. Sitting naked on the floor Indian style, using Hannibal as a prop, I laid dolly gently on the floor and popped open my container that held the red pins. I replaced the three I’d given to Ian then put her back in my tote bag.
Hannibal’s tale started to wag, prompting me to look over my shoulder. Declan padded into the room, dressed in clothes I rarely seen him. I liked it.
“How long have you been up?” he asked.
“A while.”
He sat down on the floor beside me, and I was able to see his clothes were damp. His cologne and the scent of rain filtered into my lungs.
“Why were you outside?”
He regarded me for a silent moment, his pretty eyes sweeping over my face.
“I had to help my Dad and uncle unload some things from the car.”
Stretching my hand out, I touched the side of his face. He was still beautiful. Ethan too.
He turned his face and kissed the center of my palm, he pulled me closer. I straddled his lap, feeling a lingering ache from what we’d all done just hours ago.
“Declan,” I said softly, slipping my fingers through his dark, silky like hair.
“Helena,” he replied in the same tone.
“I love you.”
“Do you?” He brought his hands to rest on my hips, causing the skin to rise where his fingers settled.
“And Ethan.”
“We love you too.” He placed a light kiss on the column of my throat. Then another.
“I never understand emotions, they’re such complicated things, but you’ve made me feel so many of them. You helped me see I’m more than a sickness. Because of you I know I can be strange and different, and someone will love me no matter what.”
He pulled away and grinned at me, showing all his perfect white teeth. “You’ve changed so much.”
“I didn’t change yet Declan. I’m still trying to accept who I am.”
“You don’t need to be anyone other than who you are right now. You’ve always made sick look beautiful”
His words made my chest warm. I needed to accept myself too, for me. I loved that he did already. I think he and Ethan always would.
I brought my mouth closer to his until I felt the softness of his lips. He pressed back, his tongue teasing until I granted him access.
I felt his cock hardening and began to rub myself against him, the fabric of his pants making it easier to than jeans or slacks did.
Fingers went between my legs, touching my clit with gentle strokes, rolling the nub in a circular motion. I sucked a quiet breath into my lungs when they slipped lower, rubbing fresh arousal up and down my sore labia.
“You’re seconds away from being drenched,” he rasped.
“I want you to fuck me,” I replied.
His motions paused only for a second. He braced a hand behind my head and lowered me onto the rug. When he stood it was to drag Hannibal out of the room and shut the door.
He pulled his shirt off, then lowered his pants. He’d been wearing nothing beneath them. His cock jutted away from his body, hard and thick.
Crouching down, he parted my legs and settled between them. I bit dow
n on my inner cheek as the soreness increased.
“You sure wanna do this, sweetheart? I’d be just as happy eating your pussy.”
“I want you,” I answered, reaching for him.
“You’ve got me.” With that, he thrust inside me, creating a euphoric burning sensation, forcing reluctant walls to stretch around his hardened girth.
I buried my face in his neck, moaning from the feel of that alone. He started moving, rolling his hips so every inch of him hit the sweet spot inside me. I reached down and grabbed his ass, trying to force him deeper.
“Fuck Helena,” he cursed, picking up his pace at my urging. His new pace created a friction between us, one that had my pussy growing wetter, causing a sloshing sound to fill the air, mingling with the slapping of our skin and his balls as they hit my ass.
He adjusted again, placing both my legs over his shoulders, fucking me into the floor, making me feel him in ways I wasn’t used to.
The skin on my back began to rub raw from the rug. I didn’t care.
I was going to come. I whimpered, clawing at his wrist. He dropped my legs lower, hitching them over his forearms. Feeling pressure rising in my lower stomach, I lifted my hips to meet his thrust.
A heat abruptly pervaded up my spine, making my toes curl. I called for him, unable to move as my body went taut. He continued to fuck me, lurching down to capture my moans with his mouth. I felt when he came, the way his cock jerked inside me. He released a low moan and a curse, pushing deeper to ensure my pussy was fed every drop of his come.
It was beautiful watching him let go.
We didn’t immediately separate, lying together on the rug.
It wasn’t until a consistent beeping and the sound of Hannibal barking reached us that we finally began to unwrap ourselves from each other.
“What is that?” I asked, examining the stickiness between my legs.
“That’s Ethan attempting to make pancakes without me.”
He grabbed his shirt from the floor and brought it to me.
“Why are they making that noise?” I asked once my head was through the hole.
He put his soft pants back on and laughed lightly, helping me up next. He didn’t answer my question, deciding to show me instead.
Epilouge
Declan_
I could hear them arguing before I reached the end of the room.
Glancing out the patio doors, I shook my head and kept walking. Aunt Morgana smiled from beside Aunt Tony, knowing I was avoiding the debate taking place. Uncle Julian and Dad had been going back and forth about how to position the grill for going on thirty minutes.
Ethan should have been the one out there. This whole cookout ordeal was his fucking idea. Instead, he was hiding out in the kitchen with Babs and India, ‘assisting’ them with seasoning meat.
The redhead had been coming around a lot more frequently. Helena and Katie seemed to like her enough, and with Mason moving back home next month it wouldn’t hurt the two of them to have another companion.
Ethan swore she had a thing for my father, though. I wouldn’t have given a fuck, I didn’t really in general, but as he’d pointed out before, she was only a few years older than Helena. If Dad ever decided to replace Dakota, I would have liked the woman to be older than me, not significantly younger.
I took the stairs quickly, entering the Dahlia’s second wing in record breaking timing. In a room directly across my office, I found Helena.
She’d gotten a lot done in such a short amount of time. I’d only been gone twenty minutes, but already she had all her sewing stuff put away.
Hannibal, ever the faithful sidekick sat near the base of her custom chair.
“This space suits you,” I said, looking around. It was the most feminine playroom we’d ever had, but if this kept her growing urges sated and my need to know exactly where she was placated, it was a win-win.
“I like it,” she replied.
“I’m glad, but do you think you’re going to join the rest of the family anytime soon? Ethan planned this all for you, Mrs. Andreou.”
She turned towards me with a beaming smile on her face. It didn’t do shit to change the lifelessness of her eyes, but we were getting somewhere.
I couldn’t get enough of seeing it. Ethan and I made a deliberate effort to bring it out as much as possible. Saying their new surname seemed to always do the trick.
We’d technically hyphenated her last name when we got married, but I liked to pretend I had gotten final say.
“Is Katie here?” she asked, coming to take my hand.
“You mean are the twins down there?”
“Yeah.”
“They should be.”
I led her into the hallway and back towards the main wing. We were passing room five when the door swung open, my Uncle Porter appearing. There was a flash of blonde hair from the odd contraption he had in a far corner, followed by a low moan that was cut short when he stepped into the hall and closed the door.
I raised my brows at him. That didn’t sound like it was from pain.
“Who was that?” Helena asked. She’d been somewhat curious about Tessa for a while now, but we’d been making sure that’s all she was. Mildly Curious.
Porter wouldn’t keep her alive forever…
At least, I fucking hoped not.
“Let me see that huge rock,” Porter evaded, his tone as upbeat as ever. He wrapped an arm around Helena’s shoulders, winking at me. I let him steal her away for a moment, and trailed behind them, half listening to their conversation.
For the first time in weeks, I briefly began to wonder what Dad had done with Clarice and Dakota, but the thought fled as soon as I spotted Ethan lingering at the bottom of the stairs, waiting for us with his customary boyish smile on his face.
This was now my main priority, being with my family. Anyone toxic to our wellbeing, that came with their judgements and ill-intent, they deserved everything that came to them. In the wise words of Johnny Cash, may they rot and burn in hell.
Just not this one.
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He would be the death of me.
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Read chapter one
CHAPTER ONE
An annoyingly consistent buzzing pulled me from a dream that had been as vivid as the barking dog down the street. I reached blindly towards my nightstand, skimming my fingers over its surface until I found my cellphone.
Rolling onto my back, I stared at the screen through squinted eyes, an attempt to combat the bright glare. The sequence of digits created a number I had ignored twice the day before.
The caller showed as Unknown and was located in California. I considered sending whomever it was to voicemail, but then they could call right back. I wasn’t in the mood for playing a game of telephone tag. I swiped up, placing the phone on speaker, too lazy to hold it to my ear.
“Who is it?”
“Hello…is this, Catalina Haven?”
I don’t know if it was the sound of his voice that had me waking up a little more, or the fact he used my first and last name. Either way, he’d captured my full attention.
“Uh, yeah.” I cleared my throat, “This is she.”
“Were you sleeping? Did I wake you?”
“It’s almost twelve-thirty in the morning, so what do you think?”
“Right.” A slight pause but no apology followed. “This is Alaric Schuyler. I’m calling about your sister.”
“My…sister?” I questioned slowly.
Another pause.
“Catalina,” he stated my name again, confidently this time. “Jonathon Penn is your father, correct?”
Unfortunately. “Yes.”
“Then that makes you my wife’s sister.”
His wife?
“Oh! You’re calling for Meg
an?”
He sighed, and I mentally slapped myself on the forehead. I was so glad he wasn’t in front of me. The man probably thought I was an idiot. Not to mention….
Shit, I’d forgotten Meg was even married. I sat up a little taller and took him off speaker. “Is everything okay?”
Of course, it wasn’t. I already knew that. Nothing good came from phone calls received after midnight.
“Things are…” he expelled another breath. “There’s no easy way to tell you this. Megan—your sister—she’s passed away.”
My spine straightened, total silence expanding from my end of the line. I had no idea what to say. “I’m sorry,” didn’t feel fitting for the situation.
“How…when?” I stumbled over the words, this too seeming like the wrong response.
“Tomorrow marks one week since her service. I’ve tried to reach you by phone and email.” His tone became sympathetic.
I didn’t want that—his sympathy. It was undeserving and unnecessary.
“Thank you for letting me know. Is there anything you need?”
I hoped he would say no. I had absolutely nothing to offer him, not even a shoulder to cry on. They were both preoccupied by tiny devils likely to spear him in the face, but I still felt the need to add something supportive to this conversation.
“If you can arrange things on your end, I would like to fly you out so you can go through her belongings before they’re donated or sold off.”
My current train of thought came to a crashing halt. His request was entirely unexpected. “Um, that’s okay. I’m sure you know what’s best to do with it.”
“This is me doing precisely that. I’m honoring her wishes.”
I didn’t expect that either. Or understand my sister’s reasoning for it. Why would you leave all your things to someone you didn’t truly know? My delayed response had him continuing.
“If it’s because of your schedule or reluctance to fly, I can ship everyth—”
“No!” I objected. “No,” I repeated much softer, scrubbing a hand over my face. “You don’t have to do that.”
Iniquity (Dahlia Saga Book 5) Page 11
