"I am?"
"Yeah. You bite me and now you're trying to drain me."
She grins, takes hold of me, and her face slackens as she takes me inside her again.
"Just making up for lost time," she purrs, running her hands up my chest. "Just relax. It's my turn."
Chapter Seven
Julia
There is a terrible, naked moment of horror when I first sit up and realize that I'm alone in the bed. It takes a moment for the fear to pass. No, it wasn't a dream. My body is covered with marks from his lips and hands, and my butt feels funny when I scoot to sit up, from the spanking. Stretching out in the morning light, I let the joy wash over me. Ryan is in the shower, and puts on a hell of a show. Through the frosted glass, I watch his powerful form move and flex under the hot water.
Unable to resist, I slide out of the bed and squirm out of my wrecked garter belt and torn stockings, biting my lip and shivering at the memory. When I throw the glass door open, Ryan turns and looks at me.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm all sweaty and some jerk left red hand prints on my butt."
"Just marking my territory," he says and grabs ahold of my ass cheek.
He shakes it a little before I bat his hand away.
"I just want to get cleaned up."
"Yeah, you just got in the shower with me buck ass naked to get washed up," he says dryly.
I muscle past him into the spray, shivering with delight at the touch of his wet skin, a new sensation I'll want to explore with him. I really do need a shower, though. I'm sore and stiff from, uh, exertion, and the hot water is a blessing.
He reaches for the knob to turn the water down from scalding hot, but I lightly slap his wrist before he can.
"I like a hot shower."
"Will you marry me?" he asks, playfully.
I smirk at him. "Did you see what time it is?"
"Huh? What? I was too busy staring at the wet naked girl in my shower."
I cross my arms over my breasts and glower at him playfully.
"This is my shower. Your room is across the hall."
"Well, maybe I should go back there."
I curl my fingers around his cock.
"Oh no, you don't."
He blinks at me.
"Are you seriously trying to lead me around by the dick?"
"It's working, isn't it?"
He grabs me and kisses me and heat floods through me from between my legs, but there's a loud knock at the door. I flinch back and we both freeze. Hurriedly, I step out of the shower and throw on the hotel-provided bathrobe, wrapping and belting it around myself.
More pounding at the door.
Shit, my clothes are all over the place, and, more importantly, Ryan's clothes are all over the place. As the knocking intensifies, I throw his tuxedo pants and shirt behind the sofa and grab his jacket, tossing it on the floor behind the door.
I open it to Karen, dressed in a one-piece bathing suit with shorts on over it.
"Where have you been?" she demands, arms folded, as she shifts testily on her feet.
"Um," I say.
"Um indeed," she says. "First you disappear from my wedding reception hours before it ends, and now you don't answer your phone. I was tempted to tell everyone who asked me where my maid of honor went that you had the shits."
"Sorry," I mutter.
"Half the guests have already hoofed it for the airport, but Dad insists we have one more dinner for the family tonight at another restaurant. We were supposed to go to the beach today."
She means me and her.
"Have you seen Ryan?" she asks, her voice inscrutable. "I can't find him either, and he wandered off before you did."
I work my mouth and freeze.
"I'm over here," he says, walking out from the bedroom in a towel.
Karen looks at him, she looks at me, at him again, at me again. Her mouth opens, closes. Her eyes widen, and her face darkens—literally. She's turning purple.
"What the FUCK?" she screams.
"Wait," I say. "This isn't what it looks like!"
"It looks like you slept with my brother!"
I duck my head in the hallway, look around, and yank her inside, throwing the door shut.
She glares at me.
"Are you naked under that robe?"
"People don't usually shower with their clothes on, sis."
Karen grabs my dress from last night, examines it, then stares at Ryan's clothes on the floor. She scuffs her foot in the sand all over the carpet.
"Please don't tell me you had sex outdoors."
"Not yesterday specifically," Ryan says.
She glares at him, and I sense what he's doing. He's drawing her anger to deflect it from me.
"How dare you," she snarls at him.
"How dare me," I say, behind her.
She glowers over her shoulder at me, rosebud lips twisted in a delicate sneer. The fury in her expression is shocking, even more than I expected, but there's something behind it, a kind of trembling horror.
"He seduced you," she says, already twisting it to be his fault.
I shake my head. "No, Karen."
"Oh Jules," she half whimpers, a little hysterical chuckle sneaking into her words. "On my wedding night? Really?"
I swallow, hard. Then Karen's eyes flick to my hand.
She darts forward and snatches my wrist, lifting my hand. Her eyes go too wide as she stares at the gold band.
Then she grabs it and yanks.
"Ow!" I shout.
Ryan rushes forward, grabs Karen's wrist, and gently, but firmly, pulls her off me.
"Sis, calm down."
"Is that a fucking wedding ring?" she hisses, a strange pleading in her voice.
"Yeah," I whimper. Where's my confidence now? I sound like I'm about to burst out sobbing.
"Tell me you didn't marry him. Tell me you didn't."
"She did," Ryan says in a flat, neutral voice. "Technically, you're sisters now. By marriage."
"How?" she snaps, wriggling loose, then more pained, "Why? Why him?"
"Why does it matter if it's me?"
Karen, not almost hyperventilating, backs towards the door. I don't know whether she'll collapse or explode or claw my eyes out, but I reach for her and take her by the shoulders. She shivers all over and lets out the most pained sound I've ever heard before I finally set her on the couch.
"Ryan, get dressed, will you?"
"Um," he says, "All I have is the tux."
"Then put it on," I say firmly.
"Yes, dear," he says, not a hint of sarcasm. I glare at him anyway.
A few moments later, Ryan returns, barefoot, still damp, dressed in tuxedo slacks and his white shirt, untucked. He sits down on the coffee table and pats his sister on the shoulder.
Karen bursts out sobbing.
"Karen," I murmur, "Talk to me. What's wrong?"
"Yeah," Ryan says, "I know you hate my guts, but this is something else. You look like someone died."
I glare at him and he shrugs.
"Let me handle this," I whisper.
"Maybe I should leave you two alone—"
"No, don't go," she says, angrily brushing at her tears. "I need to talk to you both."
Ryan sits back down, and I wait.
"Can I get you something? There's drinks in here. I can even order us some food if you want."
Karen snorts. "Really?"
"I'm sorry."
"Stop apologizing!" she snarls.
"Okay. I'm here. I'm listening. When you're ready."
"First you insult my intelligence, and then you get married behind my back."
"I—"
"Don't," she says. "Just don't apologize for five goddamn minutes in your goddamn life, Julia. I'm tired of you having 'I'm sorry' stamped on your forehead like the whole world is your fucking fault."
I recoil, as if hit. I blink a few times, tears welling in my eyes now.
"Wait," she says, grabbing my wrist
, "Please wait, don't. I'm sorry, don't!"
"I'm not moving," I tell her, gently peeling her fingers from my arm. "Just take a deep breath and talk when you're ready."
Ryan looks at me nervously.
Karen looks at the floor.
"There wasn't any fucking arcade. I cornered Todd and he told me everything." She sniffs.
"Karen—" Ryan says.
"What?" I blurt out.
"I caught Julia up in the lie,” Ryan cuts me off.
"How? You both told me independently. You had to be in on it—"
"No. You asked me how the arcade was in my room. Julia was, uh, in the closet."
Karen's head snaps up.
Then she starts to giggle.
The giggling grows to chuckling.
The chuckling bursts out into pained, torturous laughter, not from joy but from agony. She grabs at her own throat and is still hooting and sobbing a moment later.
"In the closet. That's rich."
"Karen?" I say. "I don't understand."
"So you were hiding ten feet away when I was looking for you. Karen must be so stupid. I take it you guys were going at it before I knocked on the door?"
"No, we'd just woken up. The night before, yes. That's when this happened." He taps his ring. "It was a spur of the moment thing, and we were drinking. It just kind of happened."
"You're going to undo it, right? It's just a goof up. A prank, right? Right?"
I shake my head. "I'm sorry, K, but I can't do that."
Ryan sighs sadly and nods.
She looks at both of us in horror.
"We swore we'd be each other’s maids of honor."
I nod, tears welling in my eyes now. "I know. That part is his fault."
"Hey!" Ryan says.
"You're the one who proposed. Look, Karen, we can have another ceremony. We probably will. We have friends to invite and stuff like that."
She shakes her head. "You're missing the point. I know about the strip club. You lied to me."
"I was scared I'd ruin your wedding," I say. "I know you and your brother aren't on the best of terms."
"Oh, trust me, I hate my brother."
Ryan scrubs his hands over his face and runs his fingers through his wet, dark hair.
"Why?" he says, finally. "What did I do for you to say that?"
Karen shifts in her seat and hugs herself.
"I have to move out because I'm getting married. Now here you are playing Prince Charming, stealing my best friend out from under me. I didn't want any of this."
Ryan shifts closer.
"I don't understand."
"Dad told me I had a year to get married or he'd shut us down."
"Shut you down?"
"A lot of our capital came from him when I started the business with Julia. He's pretty much the owner, and he can force me out any time he wants. He said I needed to move on and get married by the end of the year or he would destroy everything we did."
Karen swallows, hard.
"He wanted me to throw you out right away," she says, looking at me. "He said he's sick of me keeping one of the help and paying your way."
Livid, I sit up straight and scowl.
"I've paid my own rent since we moved to Seattle, and I paid you back every penny of my tuition from my cut of the profits."
"Julia," Ryan says, sadly. "Trust me, it won't matter to our father. He doesn't have any concept of paying rent or anything like that. Money isn't real to him. I don't think anything is real to him. We're all just toys to him. Objects he can manipulate to produce the outcome he wants."
Karen nods, shuddering. "He really is. He's a monster. You don't know what he does to us."
I blink a few times.
"But—"
"At the end of the day, you went home with your mom," Karen explains. "He never laid a hand on me, but I was in hell anyway. You were the only thing that kept me sane. Mom is responsible for that."
"So how does this come back around to hating me, again?" Ryan asks, a little angrily.
"I started fearing it when I saw her watching you out at the woodpile. I knew it was going to happen when I saw the way you looked at her that one time. Sooner or later you would whisk her off and I'd be alone again forever."
"What about Bruce?"
"Bruce," she snorts. "Bruce sees me as a bank account with tits. We have a very clear understanding of our relationship. I need a marriage and a kid. After the kid part is dealt with, I don't care what he does." She waves a dismissive hand. "I was only worried on Thursday night because I didn't want him playing the field before I knew I got what I wanted out of the bargain."
I swallow. "What is that?"
She looks up.
"I'm not showing yet, but I'm pregnant."
I stare. Ryan stares. Karen sniffles and touches her flat stomach.
"What the hell am I going to do?" she whimpers.
I take her hands in mine.
"You're my best friend. I owe you so much. How could you think I'd ever walk out on you?"
"I know how you look at him," she says. "He gets everything. The name, the money, the respect, a career in politics. What do I get? I get threatened to have a baby or I'm screwed, and I still have to hear about how I won't pass on the family name like I'm trash because I was born without a dick."
"It's not fair to put that on me," Ryan says. "I don't blame you, but it's not fair."
"What are we going to do?" I ask.
"We don't need him," Ryan says. "You and I already made that decision. We can't force Karen into it, though."
"Wait, what do you mean?"
Ryan sighs. "If I get involved with Julia, he's going to cut me off, too."
"It's a little late to call it 'getting involved,’" I say.
"Yeah."
Karen looks at Ryan.
"You'd give everything up for her?"
My chest tightens. It seems like it takes a year for him to reply rather than a split second.
"Yes, I would."
Karen swallows, hard, and cringes, shaking with the effort of holding back tears.
"I don't love him. I don't want to be married anymore. I hate all of this. I hate myself."
"Why?"
"I'm a coward."
"No, you're not," I say, touching her shoulder.
I shift from sitting on the table to sitting with her.
"Ryan, give us a few, huh?"
"I need to get dressed, yeah. I'll head back to my room."
He gathers his things but stops at the door. Karen is looking at him.
"Do you hate me?"
"No," he says, gives me a nod, and steps out.
Karen starts sobbing again, and I put an arm around her and let her cry for a while.
"We said we'd hang out for a while today. Let's do that."
She nods.
"Want to clean up? You can use my bathroom if you want."
She nods, trembling, and stands up, slowly padding into the bedroom. A few minutes later, she comes out, toweling off her damp face.
"I'm such a bitch," she sighs. "I should be happy for you. If we had a normal family and not a weird fucked up hell family, I'd be happy for my brother and my best friend and know that you'll take care of each other."
I nod. "I know."
"Just promise me you won't let him hurt you."
I can't tell her what's already transpired. What he told me last night made me want to cry for a million years. He came back physically unhurt but with a wounded soul, and now I feel the pain in my own, like a phantom limb. I don't know how long it'll take for him to heal from that, if he ever can. Karen only sees the competition between them, the anger, the resentment she holds for taking her friend away, because despite all the riches she's always been surrounded with, she has nothing.
"Where's Bruce?"
"With his friends," she says. "We're spending the rest of the week together. I'm tempted to sneak off back to Seattle and enjoy the peace while everyone thinks I'm here.
"
"You really had to have a baby to keep your dad from buying out our business?"
"Not just have a kid, get married. I specifically floated the idea of just getting it done all scientifically and shit and he flipped his lid. It's not enough to get what he wants, he has to erase me. I think he's offended that I've done more than he ever will, and Ryan doesn't give a shit about his nonsense."
I frown. "So, you and Bruce?"
"It's a business arrangement," she says bitterly. "Like Mom and Dad, now that I think about it. At least she was kind."
"They were like that?"
"Yeah. You didn't notice?"
"I was twelve, I guess. I saw her a lot but not really him. I think he preferred me out of sight."
Karen snorts. "Of course."
"Let me get dressed, and we'll go hang out. Come on."
She sighs, and I rush into the bedroom and dress and comb my hair as quickly as I can, putting it into a loose ponytail. Karen is pacing when I emerge from the bedroom, frowning.
"I need air," she says.
I nod and rush her out of the room and into the elevator, where she continues pacing. She leads the way, storming through the resort and away from it. The area all around it is pretty touristy, but the air is warm, and there's a nice breeze and I don't care.
"What's it like?" she asks.
"What?"
"Having real feelings for a guy."
I open my mouth, close it, and walk for a while. What do I say to that?
"Are you sure you want to talk about this?"
"Yes," she says.
"It makes me feel light," I explain. "It makes me feel like the world isn't spinning out of control under my feet anymore."
Karen lets out a long, sad sigh.
"I want to feel like that."
"You will. You don't have to rush things."
"I'm not sure I can. I don't know how. My whole life has been a struggle with everyone around me." She brushes at her eye and blinks back tears. "I know I have a lot. I know I'm privileged. But sweet God I get so lonely. Without you I don't know what would have become of me."
I nod. "It's okay."
"It's not, though. It's not fair to hold you so close that it squeezes off your whole life just to make me feel better. You deserve a life, too. I should be happy for you."
"You're not?" I ask.
"I don't know. I'm trying to be, but it's hard. Even letting myself feel good for another person feels like rolling over and turning my belly up to the world's claws. I wish I was brave like Ryan. I can tell his mind is made up. He's sticking with you and he doesn't care."
Unexpected Bride Page 12
