Chapter 30
C onnor
The fast-acting sedative swept through my system, and I dropped onto the bed with my muscle tone lost but my mind wide awake. Fucking hell.
A hundred emotions passed through me. Fear for her safety being the top one. Then pride at her besting me and soul-deep panic over what she was going to say.
I didn’t want to hear it. She left me no choice.
In a heartbeat, I flipped that around. I’d given her no choice. I had this coming.
Everly straddled my naked body. “Ten years ago, the most beautiful boy I’d ever seen showed up on my doorstep as my new stepbrother. The sun couldn’t hold a torch to how brightly he shone, and I was blinded. You were beautiful, Connor, in every way. Never in a million years did I think you would be interested in me in the same way that I instantly wanted you. We couldn’t be a family in the true sense of the word. There wasn’t enough time, and our parents fell apart quickly. And yet with you, I found home. I found the only person who could make me feel safe and valued when I’d known only hate and control. I’ve never told you what it meant to me when you’d come home and I’d tell you about my day, and you’d listen. You’d congratulate me for acing a test or just coping with an exam.”
She pressed her fingertips to my body and stroked upwards, over my abs and tracing my tattoos. “You made me happy. And all I wanted was to do the same for you.”
My heart thumped out of time.
A cry came from the screen. Pleasure playing out in the game. I wouldn’t have looked away from Everly even if I hadn’t been turned to stone.
In a fast wrangle, she removed her underwear and positioned herself over my dick. For a moment, she toyed with me, watching the place we were almost connected and sliding my smooth piercing in and out of her cunt.
Then she sank down on me with a groan of need, taking what she needed. Just like I would to her when I fucked her either barely or completely unconscious.
“I thought you saw me as a sister until I confided in you about my assault, and you took it upon yourself to right that wrong. You killed for me, Connor. It changed everything. I already loved you, but when you told me what you’d done, I fell so hard, I knew I’d do anything to protect you.”
Darkness swirled in her eyes. Her hips worked faster.
“Then my father bruised you. I can’t even remember what threw him into a rage that day, because I was used to it. I’d handled him for years. But the moment he took his fists to you, it broke me. It killed me to see you go up against him and defend your mother from his rage. You’d told me in the darkness of my bedroom how her previous boyfriend had been handy with his fists. How she stayed regardless. I knew your mother wasn’t going to be the one to save you. I had to get the two of you out of the house and away from my father for good.”
Her breathing shuddered. My disquiet turned to horror. I didn’t want to hear this. I couldn’t stop her from speaking.
Everly didn’t let up in her explanation or in her efforts to use her body to drive me insane. Though I couldn’t move, I felt every lift and slide. Every pulse of her body claiming mine.
“I asked my father to let you and your mum go. Want to know what he said? That he didn’t have time to train somebody else up in her assistant job. I begged him. He refused. I needed to come up with another tactic.”
A flash of anger swept through me. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t grab hold of her.
“Your plan was us all leaving together. Your mum already told you she planned to run and warned you to get out. You intended to take me. I knew it couldn’t happen in all cases. My father told me so the day before you left. He came home early and found me packing my bag. Unequivocally, he informed me he knew his wife’s plan and she was insane if she thought he’d give her a divorce so easily. He didn’t give a damn about her, only the continuity of her working for him because it was mid-campaign season. Then he joked, the bastard, with his hand around my throat, about the kind of person you were. Like he wasn’t the devil compared to your avenging angel. He knew about Phillips, the man you’d killed for me. He’d found your knives and said the police had come to him with concerns. I realised he’d use you. Whether he could prove that you’d killed someone or not, he’d exploit your dark side for his benefit. Lastly, he pointed out that I was only seventeen and legally still a minor. He’d have the cops bring me back again and again and arrest you for kidnapping me. In short, he made a case against each of us and presented it to me alone.”
Her voice cracked. My fucking heart did, too.
“I spent the night terrified and unable to sleep. You held me and slept with a smile at the thought of leaving. I couldn’t let him hurt you. Then I worked out what my father had meant by talking to me alone. I was the solution. So I went to him and offered to take your mother’s job. I pled my case, the terms being that he’d release the two of you, and I’d change my studies to part time. He said yes. That’s the reason I let you go because I had no fucking choice. If I told you, you’d never have gotten away from the man who’d hurt you. If you’d stayed for me, he would’ve made you his puppet. And somehow, he still did. You’re working with him and in his thrall anyway. I hate that but nowhere near as much as I love you.”
Tears streaked her cheeks. She dashed them away. Kept fucking me.
“You were mine, and I claimed you with my whole heart. I never stopped loving you, Connor. You’re wanted, needed, loved . We owned each other, but I set you free, and it was the worst mistake of my life. If you forgive me, I will never say no to you again.”
The orgasm she’d been stealing crashed into my mind, blitzing out thought, my balls working to spill cum into her. Everly’s pussy squeezed me, telling me we’d fallen together. Of course we had.
On the TV screen, an announcer called out the last of the women fucked.
Thoughts swam through my head, none of which I could express beyond heartsick sorrow at what she’d endured. A lifetime ago, I’d blamed her for being shallow and fickle, for not caring about me in the way she’d pretended she did.
I’d been so wrong. She’d given it all up for me and my mother. And the woman had stolen my ability to tell her so. Fucking hell did I need to punish her.
For doing this. For existing. For being the single source of my lifeblood, my heartache, and my love.
When the drug that held me in its grip released me, I’d show Everly exactly what her revelations meant.