Chapter 33 Everett
EVERETT
What the fuck?
What. The. Fuck.
The question plays on repeat as I stalk Aurora across the main floor. Every step is a word. A beat of a drum.
Lotus’s daughter is here?
She’s my fucking wife?
For years, I haven’t let myself go this far in my head. Haven’t let myself imagine what I would say to Lotus’s child if I ever found them.
I haven’t, because I never believed they survived.
No one did. The police and the crew we’d hired canvassed the area and came up empty. They concluded that an animal must’ve gotten to them before us.
After that, I stopped searching for them.
But now, when Aurora put my sister’s face up next to hers, I saw the resemblance. It was there, in the nuances. A similarity only a closer inspection could reveal.
Whoever her parents were, though, makes no difference to me.
She’s mine.
And she’s trying to get away from me.
She’s rushing toward the garage with my album pressed to her side, running faster than ever. The hem of her nightgown dances around her slender ankles.
I won’t run. There’s no need. I’ll be on her soon.
Nothing could ever keep us apart. Not even death.
I do lengthen my stride though. Each step eats up the space between us.
Between me and Aurora. Me and—
Fuck.
We’ll have to get her tested. Compare her DNA to the hair on Lotus’s hairbrush that I’ve been keeping in my safe in case I ever needed evidence. To prove what, and how? I never knew, until now.
If Aurora and Lotus are a match, there’d be no hiding Winston’s crime. I’d have him tested next. No one could deny what he’d done to Lotus.
I’ve always believed what was written in Lotus’s diary. I’m not the one who needs proof or convincing. The jury, however, will need more than my word.
Destroying a man as strong as Winston requires hard evidence.
Evidence I’m going to get if it’s the last thing I do.
First though.
My runaway wife. All that matters now is taking care of her.
She refuses to listen to me, and I don’t blame her.
How can I? She’s convinced herself that we’re blood-related. That’s enough to make anyone panic, no matter how brave they are.
And she is brave.
Running from me, it’s a selfless act. She isn’t doing it to save herself from an incestuous relationship.
I’m the one she’s trying to save.
Aurora cares for me. She loves me.
She knows I won’t let her go even if we are blood-related.
Fucking cute, is what it is.
Cute and unacceptable.
The door to my garage lurches open. Aurora throws herself into it, taking a hard right. Disappearing from my sight.
She goes for the key locker, no doubt. While she’s never been to the garage, it’s impossible to miss. It’s also left unlocked. There’s no use when the garage is impenetrable and we keep the remote in a safe on the other side of the house.
I’m almost there. And here she is again, running with her hand clenched. She must have one of the fobs there.
Technically, I could go back to the remote I left in the library. Use her collar against her.
Or I could pick up my pace and catch her before she gets to either of the cars.
However, watching her proves to be far more enticing.
Her frantic moves, the stress on her face.
My fucking God, I get hard from that.
Can she even drive? Probably not. But I can’t imagine she’d let that stop her.
I’m inside the garage, walking around so I’m one car behind her when she starts the SUV.
Her hands are shaking as she adjusts the rearview mirror, where her eyes meet mine.
Hers are wide, glossed over by tears.
Mine are narrowed. Determined.
It would be nothing to walk over to her. To reach the door she hasn’t closed yet, snatch her out of the car, and show her she could never run away from me.
What I do instead is slide into the passenger seat and throw the photo album she left there into the back.
“Get out.” The tremor in her voice is something I’ll never get enough of. “Get out. You’re not thinking straight, so I’m doing it for both of us. I’m leaving. You—you—fuck. Get out!”
“I won’t.” Grabbing her by the waist earns me a growl that verges on a scream.
Little fists pound at my arms, my chest. I pull her onto my lap, anyway. She can keep punching me while she straddles me.
One hand around her throat, the other on her hip.
Aurora isn’t going anywhere.
“Go away.” Her face goes red when she feels my cock throbbing beneath her. When I dig my fingers into her sweet flesh and press her down on me. Hard. “This is sick. This is wrong.”
I don’t say a word, tightening my grip on her.
“Let me go.”
“Never.”
Her gaze, there’s so much pain in it. But I’m not letting go. Not backing down.
She snaps her lips shut, realizing she’s lost the war.
I kill the engine, returning my hand to her hip just when she lets her body sag against mine. Her tears run down her cheeks.
This—her silence—is my cue to tell her the truth.
Except her terror looks good enough to eat.
After I’ve had my fill, I’ll tell her Lotus was my adopted sister.
There’ll be more truths to share with her. Once I have the DNA evidence connecting the two of them, I’ll tell Aurora about Winston.
For the slim chance she isn’t a product of rape, I’ll keep my mouth shut for now. I won’t poison her mind for no reason.
“Go on.” I skim my fingers over her throat. Grazing her collar and back up again. “Tell me how wrong we are.”
Fuck, her skin. Every inch of her.
“Please.” A wretched sob. Her doe-eyes will be the end of me. “The damage is already done. We’ve been together like family members never should. But we can stop now. Now that we know.”
There’s a trembling quality to her voice. To her pleas. Such a good little wife.
“We don’t know anything.”
“Yes, we do, Everett.”
I shake my head. That’s all I give her.
“Stop lying to me!” Her scream lands her another punishment.
My hand curls around her throat and squeezes. “Being choked is such a good look on you.”
The slight blue shade that tinges her lips grows more pronounced the longer I squeeze. I see it, even with nothing but the dim light from the house casting its glow on her.
Her gaze is frantic. Her fingers clutch onto my T-shirt.
After a minute or so, I loosen my hold, leaning in and tasting the sound of pain on her mouth. Aurora resists me, barely. Tiny bites. Little nos.
As soon as I loosen my hold further, she growls at me, snarling, “I hate you.”
I drag her face close to mine. Our foreheads press together. Aurora’s breath is hot on my skin.
“I don’t care.” A few more seconds of those shaking hands on me. Of that terror she can’t hide anymore. Then I’ll relieve her of her fear. “I already told you. I don’t care. I’ll love you anyway. You’ll always be mine.”
“You’re my uncle.” Touching me is as vital to her as it is to me. Her palms are on my jaw, her fingertips begging me to help her, to make this pain go away. “We’re blood-related.”
In the short time she’s been here, she’s learned how to beg. I fucking love that.
I’m going to reward her for it. “We aren’t.”
“There’s no use denying it.” In her desperation, she sinks her nails into my skin. A last-ditch effort to wake me up. “I saw your face in the library. I’m her daughter. Your sister’s daughter.”
“I have my suspicions, yes. Still.” One last glance at those tortured eyes before the truth unburdens her. “We aren’t blood-related. That’s a guarantee.”
“What?” Her eyebrows shoot up. I feel the movement on my forehead. “You said—you said she was—”
“My sister,” I cut her off, pushing her back a few inches. This part of our conversation is serious. I’m treating it like one. “Before you let me finish the story, I told you she was my sister, and it’s the truth.”
“And?”
“Ever since she’d been left on our doorstep, that’s what she was to me.” I take a deep breath. “Blood or not, she’ll always be my sister.”
A range of emotions flashes over Aurora’s face.
First, her eyes narrow in confusion. Then widen as realization sinks in. A moment later, her nose twitches and her chin dimples.
A new wave of tears follows. “So we aren’t blood-related?”
“No.”
“God!” Growling, she lands one small punch after another to my chest. I let her. It’s adorable. “You’re insufferable. Couldn’t you just start with that? What is wrong with you?”
“I warned you.”
She whimpers from how hard I squeeze her throat. I yank her to me, putting my lips to her ear.
“I’m many things. A son. A brother. Your husband. The man you’re stuck with for fucking life. But I’m not a good man.”
“You’re the worst. I hate that I love you. I— Oh,” Aurora breathes out. Her body stiffens. Then she tries to push off me, her cheeks darkening further. “Oh.”
At the confusing reaction, I lift an eyebrow. “Oh?”
She shoots both her hands down her body. Cupping her pussy that’s spread out on top of me.
“Fuck,” she cries out, tremors racking through her.
That does it. “Tell me right the fuck now. What’s wrong?”
“Let me go.” Not waiting for me to obey, Aurora wriggles until she manages to break from my hold. She twists to the side, both hands still cupping her pussy. Her expression is tormented. “Let me go.”
“Never.”
“Ugh!” she huffs, her enraged eyes meeting mine. “Well, you brought this on yourself.”
It doesn’t make sense until it does. Until her fist connects with my crotch, twice and—motherfucker—hard. My instincts fuck me over, sending my hands to my cock.
Aurora doesn’t waste a second.
“Sorry,” she squeals as she scrambles out of the car.
“Aurora!” I’m not upset that she’s tricked me. It’s the way she doubles over as she sprints back to the house.
The pain I witnessed on her face. My heart can’t take it.
I’m out of the SUV, taking off after her. “Aurora, come back here right this minute.”
“Sorry!” The word rips out, clipped and broken. “I’ll see you t-t-tomorrow. Dammit.”
“The fuck you are.” I break into a run, but she’s already too far ahead. “Get back here!”
She doesn’t listen. She sprints, every inch she puts between us tearing me apart.
The last thing I catch is her blur disappearing into a bathroom on the main floor.
By the time I’m pounding on the door, it’s too late.
The lock clicks.
She’s gone from my reach.