Wild: Savannah Heirs

by June, CoraLee

  Finally, Aaron leaned back in his chair and broke his silence. “Well, luckily for you, Nurse Taylor, it wasn’t in her chart that she was allergic to penicillin after all.”

  My lips parted in surprise even as my brow furrowed. That was the last thing I’d expected him to say. “Wait, what? I thought it wa—”

  “It wasn’t.” Dr. Carmichael snapped out his response, stopping me like the crack of a whip.

  He tossed over her file, and I barely caught it as it slid across the desk. I opened it in my lap, and sure enough, all traces of her allergy were gone. My eyes flicked back up to him and his stoic face. He was lying. It had been in her chart. I saw it earlier after she’d been pronounced dead—he’d made sure I’d seen it. But now he’d taken it out and was covering for me. Why?

  “Why are you doing this?” I asked warily.

  Aaron stood up from his desk and walked around it to stand in front of me. I wondered if he could see how red my eyes were or that I felt like falling apart. At least I knew Aaron understood a bit of what I was going through. He worked in this industry, and he’d lost patients before. Sure, it hadn’t been from him overlooking something as simple as an allergy, but I was soothed all the same. And yet, I wasn’t stupid. I knew he was up to something.

  He leaned up against his desk and gently rubbed his hands up and down my arms. I peered up at him, feeling both vulnerable and comforted at the same time. There was a crawling sensation traveling up my spine, warning me to run away, but I was too dulled from what had happened to really sink into the unease.

  “You didn’t mean to,” he said quietly before pulling me up from the chair. He held me against his chest, and I froze, my arms trapped at my sides, not sure what the hell to do. His hands rubbed little circles along my spine as he clutched me tightly against him. “It was an accident, Royal.”

  “Yeah, but the file—”

  His hand drifted lower to my hip, and he dug his fingers into my skin. I gasped when his lips found my ear, his whisper causing dread to hit me like a bucket of ice. “I took care of it. I can take care of you, too. Why don’t you let me?” His fingers dipped below the waistband of my scrubs, and the alarm bells in my head were blaring now. When I tried to pull away, he held me in place.

  “This is inappropriate, Dr. Carmichael,” I said, though my voice was hoarse from all the crying.

  I felt so numb, so burdened with my thoughts that I didn’t even have the strength to stop him as his fingers traveled down to my panties. He started stroking me there, and my body involuntarily shivered at the contact, more out of disgust than lust.

  “We’ve already talked about inappropriate things in the workplace,” he reminded me. “You killed a woman, Royal. I helped you. I risked my career to save your ass. You should repay me.” Without warning, he shoved my panties aside and inserted two fingers inside of me, making me wince and gasp from the twinge of pain, since I was dry as a desert and not at all turned on.

  “No, we can’t do this,” I replied, my numbness wearing off enough to wrench my arms up and shove at his chest. The chair toppled behind me in my haste to back away from him. “What kind of sick person wants to get off after what just happened?” I asked incredulously.

  I knew he was a horny, persistent fucker, but this was too far. Way too fucking far.

  Just as I was turning to leave this hospital and get a one-way ticket to Savannah, Aaron grabbed my wrist and yanked me closer to him again.

  His face had lost all warmth and patience as he sneered at me. “Listen here, little slut. You’ve been teasing me for months. Fucking months! I risked my career for you, so the least you could do is wet my dick.”

  I slapped him across the face. Didn’t think. Didn’t pause to question the consequences, just reared back and landed one on him. His cheek flared a bright red color. “I didn’t ask you to do that for me,” I gritted.

  He surged forward. I flinched as Aaron pinched my cheeks between his thumb and index finger before spinning me around and slamming me up against the wall. “I will end you, you understand? I’ll have you thrown in prison for your fuck up. Let them know that you’ve been stealing meds and popping pills on the job.”

  “That’s a fucking lie!”

  “Who are they going to believe? You?” He gave a mean, humorless laugh, and angry tears welled in my eyes. He leaned in so close I could smell the coffee on his breath. “I suggest you be a good little girl and wrap those perfect lips of yours around my cock before I shove it down your throat and make you suffocate as Señora Almendarez did.”

  I gaped, stark terror flooding through me. This could not be happening to me. My brain kept misfiring, trying to keep up with the nightmare that had somehow become my reality.

  “I-I...” I stuttered, not knowing what to say to his threat.

  He didn’t give me time to answer though, because his lips crashed against mine with a painful vengeance as he clawed at my breasts. I already felt like I was being smothered. Brick by brick, my mistakes were piling up on me, and pretty soon I wouldn’t be able to breathe. Maybe he was right. I’d die just like she did.

  I tried to wrench my mouth away from his, bile rising up in my throat, but he just started ripping at my scrubs instead.

  “No…”

  I tried to scratch him anywhere I could get to skin, tried to knee him, tried just to get him the fuck away, but I wasn’t strong or fast enough, and my fight seemed only to spur him on. Groans escaped his chest with every slice of my nail or plea to stop.

  I was about to scream for help when the door to his office suddenly surged open. We looked over at his wife, Mrs. Carmichael, walking into the room.

  Aaron jerkily pushed away from me while wiping his lips, and I looked down at my outfit, shame filling me as I took in my torn top and the pants which were now hanging below my hips. It looked incriminating. My lips were bruised, and my hair was a mess. She’d walked in on what had looked like a steamy moment when really she’d saved my ass. The only indication of that was the tears that hadn’t fallen from my eyes. The shock had frozen them solid.

  Mrs. Carmichael slammed the door. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me! Again, Aaron?” she seethed.

  She stalked over to me, and just as quickly as I’d slapped him, she slapped me. The sting of her anger sunk through my skin, and her long red nails clipped my cheek in the process. “You little slut. Your career is ruined, do you hear me? Pack your bags, princess. You’re going home.”

  I knew I should have corrected her. Should have sobbed and crumbled to her feet and told her that Aaron had been forcing himself on me. But I was just so thankful to have an escape that I couldn’t even think straight. “Yes, Mrs. Carmichael,” I replied, my throat scratchy.

  I could still feel his mouth on mine. His fingers inside of me, thrusting aggressively. If Penelope Carmichael hadn’t come in...

  No.

  I couldn’t think about that yet. I just needed to get the fuck away.

  I pushed past her, rubbing at my cheek as I hurried out of the office. Their eyes followed me as I went, and I knew what they saw when they looked at me. Murderer. Adulterer. Fuck up.

  I wanted to run away as far and as fast as I could. But not from a place. I wanted to run away from me.

  Chapter One

  Present Day

  Royal

  The ground was too hard to bury my father.

  A week ago, my mama got a call from the funeral home. When they’d started to bulldoze the hole for his grave, they’d discovered that the plot she’d bought was impossible to dig in. There was a dozen or so feet of solid limestone stuck in the ground where my father was supposed to go.

  It seemed that not even the earth wanted him.

  They would’ve had to dig up the neighboring plots, and on a much larger scale, in order to get the stone out to fit his coffin. My mama had been about to pay thousands of dollars to do it, but my brother Godfrey told her to let his body burn.

  Which is why we were standing ove
r his grave not with a coffin, but with an urn buried inside. Mama didn’t want anyone to know we’d cremated him, so we kept up the pretense with newly laid grass.

  The people of Savannah would talk if they knew we’d burned his body to nothing but ashes. Maybe even pretend to be worried about his soul and all that. But we all knew the truth. It didn’t matter one lick whether we’d preserved his body or burned it. If there was a hell, he was in it either way. Gerald Godfrey Taylor II had been an evil man. An unethical lawyer. A cheating husband. An abusive father.

  No, if there was a hell, then he’d had his seat saved there for years.

  Of course, the devil had a full funeral. It looked like half of Savannah’s elite had shown up. Judge Palmisano, the other partners at his law firm, criminal clients, dirty cops, the mayor, and even a few of his mistresses were standing around the grass, murmuring and pretending to act mournful.

  The reverend had finished his spiel five minutes ago, and he was now talking to my mama over by the oak tree, both of his hands clasping one of hers. I watched them together as she dabbed at her eyes beneath the black hat she wore. It had a short veil across her face and matched her black Chanel dress. Reverend Joe was in his clerical clothing, murmuring to her while his thumb swiped back and forth over her hand.

  My brother stood beside me in khaki slacks and a bright yellow shirt, as far away from mourning clothes as anything. He had his girlfriend, Rachel, tucked against his side, and the small blonde was wearing black jeans and a tank top, showing off the tattoo on her arm.

  I knew this was the last place my brother wanted to be, but he’d come for two reasons. One, because our mama asked him to. And two...because he wanted to prove that he could.

  Savannah, Georgia, was full of gossips. Everyone knew that Godfrey Taylor had wanted his father dead—some probably even knew that he played a part in killing him. They expected the broody Heir to make a statement and not show up, drink himself silly at the Salvador Bar. But of course, my brother never did the expected. Instead, he showed up with bells on.

  “Mom looks ready to jump the reverend’s bones,” he said loudly enough for Mrs. Widdlesworth to hear beside us, the eighty-year-old socialite with hair full of secrets. The gasp she let out made me wonder if we’d give the poor old debutante a heart attack. Maybe the funeral home would provide us with a two-for-one discount.

  “Good. She needs to get laid,” I replied in a crass tone, not at all feeling sorry for encouraging my mama to have her body worshipped by a man of God the same day as her husband’s funeral. Lord knows my father was never faithful to her.

  “How long do you think we have to stay? I’ve got shit to do,” he said with irritation, his cold blue eyes sweeping over the socialites with distaste.

  Rachel rubbed his forearm, wordlessly reminding him to not take his anger out on me. She was good at that, taming my brother’s demons while simultaneously fueling the fire.

  “I’d say we’ve paid our PC respects. How about we get out of here and go celebrate?” he asked.

  He may have seemed like a bastard for saying something like that at our own father’s funeral, but honestly, after almost nineteen years of abuse, Godfrey had every right.

  I glanced in Mama’s direction again, noting how close the reverend was standing to her. He was known for flirting with the wealthy women of this town while bidding for church donations. Funerals made them prime for the picking.

  “Yeah, I’m ready.”

  I turned away from the entire scene and followed Godfrey and Rachel to his car. Before I could make it off the grass, a smooth, slightly accented voice stopped me.

  “Your Majesty, I’ve got your carriage parked right across the street if you’re ready to leave.”

  I whirled around, and there he was—Luis Salvador.

  Looking impeccable in jeans and a navy Henley, sunglasses perched on his nose, and his skin looking that delectable shade of mocha, Luis stood smirking. Godfrey gave him a chin lift, probably thankful to be rid of his older sister so that he could do the dirty with Rachel. Godfrey and Rachel were always glancing at each other like they had this silent conversation going on through their eyes, and for the most part, that conversation was sex. Figures my father’s funeral would put them in the mood.

  “Umm, no, I’m just going to go home,” I said warily.

  It wasn’t a good idea for me to be in the same space as he was. It was one thing for me to look at his social media and daydream, but it was something else entirely to be in the same air. Ever since I came back home last month, things had been...challenging. What happened in the hospital haunted me day and night. It was shackled to my ankles with every step I took.

  I’d killed someone, and Aaron had almost raped me.

  It still didn’t feel real. Maybe because I hadn’t told anyone. If I didn’t admit what had happened, perhaps it would fade away. I didn’t really believe that, but lying to myself made it possible to get up in the morning and look at myself in the mirror.

  Still, I had to be careful where Luis was concerned. The wild that my mama desperately tried to squeeze out of me had come back with a vengeance. I wanted to forget Ecuador had ever happened, which was why I’d been partying every night, hooking up with random guys I didn’t even know, and trying to erase all the memories from my mind. Distractions. I needed distractions.

  But Luis? He was too off-limits. The last thing I needed was to be even more fucked up by getting involved with my brother’s best friend. That put him firmly on my list of abso-fucking-lutely nots. But Luis had helped my mama and me get away from my dad that one night—the night that Godfrey had confronted our dad and finally hit the bastard back.

  But since then, Luis had been around a lot. He made sure mama and I were okay, and he checked in more often than he did while I was in Ecuador. It was sweet, but it was really fucking difficult for my shaky willpower. I knew he was interested in me. I could feel it every time his dark eyes swept over my body. So whatever attraction this was, it went both ways. But that way was forbidden. Too bad forbidden paths were always the ones we wanted to take.

  Luis held his arm out to me, like the perfectly polished Savannah Heir he was. “Come on, Majesty. I don’t bite,” he said with a grin. “It’s just a ride.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him and the way he’d purposely stressed the word ride.

  But when I looked back at Godfrey, I saw that he was still walking towards his car, and he was now grabbing Rachel’s ass while saying something into her ear. I sighed and inwardly debated what to do. As much as I knew I needed to avoid Luis, I’d learned very quickly since coming home that Godfrey and Rachel would be all over each other without any care about an audience. By the looks of it, things were probably going to get started in the car, and I wasn’t in the mood for another uncomfortable family event so soon after my father’s funeral.

  “Fine,” I said, relenting.

  I took Luis’s offered arm, mostly because the heels I was wearing were making my ankles wobble. We headed towards the other end of the street to an ostentatious red sports car I didn’t know the name of. It was loud and bright, kind of like Luis. It was the sort of car that made you sit up and notice who the driver was.

  “I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist me,” he joked.

  I rolled my eyes, but I felt my cheeks heat with an embarrassing and way too transparent blush. “Did that line work on the girls you were with at your bar the other night?”

  The words were out of my mouth before I even realized what I was saying. Because apparently, just touching Luis’s strong, corded arm was enough to turn me into a flustered idiot who doesn’t know when to keep her mouth shut.

  Of course Luis pounced, turning us around as soon as we got to the car door. “So you’re checking out my feed, huh?” he asked, arching his black eyebrow. “Keeping tabs on me, Majesty?”

  “No,” I answered quickly. “I just happened to see it when I was scrolling.” Lie. Such a lie.

  “Mmm-hmm,” Lui
s hummed, not at all convinced.

  I needed to change the subject immediately.

  “Enjoy the funeral?” I asked, quickly glancing over my shoulder at the dispersing crowd.

  I could feel judgmental eyes on me, so I quickly pulled my hand away from the crook of Luis’s arm. The entire town was already gossiping about why I was back home and talking my mama’s ear off about my recent partying proclivities. The scandals on our name were piling up, and I didn’t want to add cradle robber to my list of dirty laundry.

  “I thought the second act was a bit of a drag,” Luis quipped, finally moving and opening the car door for me so that I could slide in.

  The corner of my lip twitched as I watched him close my door, walk around the front of the car, and get into the driver’s seat. The engine purred when he started it up, and he smoothly turned onto the road, enabling me to breathe freely for the first time all day.

  Luis looked at me from the corner of his eye. “You know, you look like you could use some fun, Majesty.”

  I snorted and shook my head. My mama would disagree profusely. As far as she was concerned, fun was the last thing I needed. “For the hundredth time, can you stop calling me that? My name is Royal.”

  “My nickname is better.”

  “You’re an idiot,” I said, but I couldn’t stop my lips from tilting up. But when he turned the car east, my lips turned back down. “My house is the other direction.”

  “Glad you know your geography.”

  Always such a smartass.

  I sighed. “Where are you going, Luis?”

  “To my club. Today must’ve sucked for you. I want to buy you a drink.”

  To be honest, a drink sounded fantastic, but it only added to my dilemma. The last time I’d gone to his club with him hadn’t ended so well. I’d gone crazy with jealousy that I shouldn’t feel, and Luis had kept pressing my buttons on purpose, so I’d tried to make him jealous right back. It was a dangerous game that we both knew we shouldn’t play, but we kept skirting that line anyway.