Episode 136
EPISODE 136
GHOSTLY NIGHTMARE
Brett
Alex and Sebastian take off shortly after River and Emily, leaving me alone with Misty, which, I have to admit, I don’t hate.
I know she’s not Jake.
She’ll never be Jake. But she looks so much like him. He always favored his mother, Lisa. Hell, I never met his father, but he looked a lot like his mom, and Misty sure looks a lot like her too. Same blond hair, same blue eyes, same cowlick.
I take her hand. “This has been a rough night for you. Do you want me to walk you back to the mansion?
She gazes at the ocean. She’s still wet from her swim, and so am I. Frankly, I wouldn’t mind peeling off all these clothes and getting down and dirty here on the sand.
But that’s my dick talking.
I need to use my head.
My heart.
My heart wants to believe she’s Jake’s sister. That some part of Jake lives on .
And my head?
My head doesn’t know what to fucking believe. Part of me wonders if Seb and Riv are right. Is Misty playing all of us?
But what would she have to gain?
If she’s telling the truth about her birth and about her adoptive father’s abuse, then she deserves our sympathy and our comfort.
“I don’t want to go back,” she finally replies. “Not yet.”
“What do you want then?”
She turns toward me. “You.”
I touch her hair again, right at the cowlick. “I’m right here, Misty. But I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t...”
“Wouldn’t what?” she asks.
That promise not to have actual sex with any of the women until I actually fall in love with one. I broke that promise earlier with Sienna. But that was different it its way. We were both mourning the loss of love.
And honestly? That’s what I’d be doing if I fucked Misty right now. I’d be doing it because I am still mourning Jake.
That’s not fair. To her or to me.
“Wouldn’t let myself be driven by lust,” I finish.
She studies me, her gaze so like Jake’s that it sends jitters down my spine. What do the jitters mean, though? Am I truly attracted to Misty? Or am I displacing feelings for Jake? Or both? Or neither?
A long silence stretches between us. Only the sound of the waves crashing against the shore fills the air. The moon is high, its light glimmering over the ocean surface.
“I... I understand,” she says, her voice barely a whisper above the wind.
“Trust me,” I say. “It’s not that I don’t find you attractive. You’re beautiful, Misty. Achingly so. ”
She gives a weak smile. “I’m a mess.”
I push some hair behind her ear. “A beautiful mess.”
“The other women hate me.”
“That’s their problem. Not yours.”
She sighs. “It’s kind of mine. I haven’t been the easiest to get along with. I told them all to stay away from River. I see that hasn’t stopped Emily.”
A rock hits my gut. “Why River, Misty? You say it’s because he still lives in the town where we grew up. But there’s got to be more than that.”
She shrugs. “Well, he’s hot.”
I can’t help myself. I grab her then. “I’ll show you hot,” I whisper in her ear before sliding my tongue over her lobe.
She sucks in a breath. “All of you are hot,” she whispers. “I just thought River was my best chance at...”
I shove my tongue into her ear canal, eliciting a moan from her. “How long has it been, Misty?” I demand. “How long has it been since someone licked your pussy on the beach?”
Her legs give way. I steady her and pull back, meeting her gaze.
“About as long as it’s been since you’ve had your cock sucked on the beach?” She gives a half smile.
I chuckle. Sienna and I were technically on the beach during our dinner last night. And before that, it was a week ago. I went on a pussy binge in LA before the guys and I arrived here on the island. I truly wanted to find a life mate here, so I figured I’d sow as many oats as I could. After all, when I do find my soulmate, I plan to be faithful.
I pull her close, our wet clothes clinging together. I want to kiss her, but something in me hesitates.
I sigh, sit down on the sand, and pat the spot next to me. What the hell? I already have sand in my ass from running into the ocean after Misty.
“Tell me,” I say. “Tell me what happened to you.”
“I don’t talk about it.”
“You told us how your father forced you to swim until your lungs wanted to explode. Then, you agreed with Emily that it was only the tip of the iceberg.”
“So my father’s a tyrant,” she says. “So what? Poor little rich girl, as they say. No one has ever felt sorry for me a day in my life, and I sure as hell don’t expect you to.”
“Misty...”
“At least I don’t have his genes,” she says, drawing circles in the wet sand with her fingers. “Something small to be thankful for.”
“Tell you what. I’ve got one of the best PIs in the business on salary. So does Seb. Between the two of them, we can find out who your biological father is, and we can find out what happened to your mother.”
“You knew my mother?”
I nod. “If she is indeed Lisa Patterson, then yes, I knew her. All four of us did.”
“Then you must have known the son. My half-brother. I can’t find anything else about either of them. Like I said before, it’s like someone has made all information about them vanish.”
Guilt crawls up my spine and threatens to eat me from the inside out. I don’t know anything about what happened to Lisa or to Misty’s biological father, whoever he may be.
But the brother? Jake?
I know why she hasn’t been able to get her hands on any intel about him.
I shake my head to clear it .
I can’t go there.
I just can’t.
But the fact is that I don’t have a choice.
Because all four of us are still living that day over and over again. A ghostly nightmare.
And we may never wake up.
I rise then, sucking in a breath. I need a break from this, and losing myself in Misty is just what the doctor ordered—whether it’s the right thing to do or not.