Seven
Draven
T o be honest, I don’t have a fucking clue why I’m in father’s office with Alex, but something tells me it’s just another attempt to torture me. His office is as mundane as he is, a beige and white picture from a catalog without an ounce of originality. “I feel like this could have been an email.”
Both of them look at me with annoyed expressions. “No games today, Draven. You have to start taking an interest in something,” father chides.
I have plenty of interests, but none of them lie here. “It’s too early for this. My head is pound—”
“It is 1:30 in the afternoon,” he hisses, walking over like he’s about to slap me the way he used to when I was young, but he seems to think better of it. “How late were you out last night?”
Good thing too, I’m really not in the mood to embarrass him the way I did the last time he attempted to put hands on me or Alex. “Not that late actually, probably got home around five. I was still hungover from New Year’s so I called it an early night. Is this really why you called me here?”
“No, I called you here because over the coming weeks, you’ll need to take on more of your brother’s responsibilities. That means less ecstasy-riddled orgies and more time acting like an adult.”
Sounds lame as fuck, but he can’t tell me what to do once the sun goes down. That’s when he turns into a gremlin. “You’d be surprised at how much I can actually get done when I’m rolling. Made three girls squirt in a row with just my pinky last night.”
I’m lying, but I’ll say anything to make the asshole mad.
“At least you’ve accomplished something,” he mutters.
Alex clears his throat before I can go into all the fake dirty details. “Can I ask why? Have I failed you?”
“Yes,” Father says simply. “The staff tells me that in the week Miss Harbough has been here, you haven’t spent more than two hours with her. She’s your future, Alexander. Our future.”
“Wait, you haven’t hit that?”
I know the answer and I also know why, but he isn’t one to lag on father’s orders. I was always convinced he’d stick his dick in a horse if he was commanded to.
“Forgive me for wanting to get to know her first. I don’t have the skill to make a woman squirt with only a pinky, so some of us have to lay a little groundwork.”
Scathing tone aside, there’s some truth there. Father hears it too. “But you’re not laying groundwork. You’re ignoring her, and ignoring your duty.”
“No, I — we went on a walk just the other day and talked about her interests.” He’s panicking. I can see it on his face, so as much as I find his squirming entertaining, I decide to help.
“I get it.” They both turn toward me again, making me wish I’d kept my mouth shut. “She’s been pawned off twice now to dudes and the last one used her like a fuck doll. Alexander is trying to be different for her so she’s more comfortable. He’ll rock her world soon enough.”
Every magic eight ball ever would say not likely right now, but whatever, I did my brotherly duty for the day. Or maybe I should just fuck his fiancé for him too? The thought alone has me picturing it even though I’ve been trying hard not to, but because I know what that pretty little mouth can do, I can’t help but to want to know more. I wonder if she’s thought about it too.
“He’s right. If you want me to marry her, start a family with her, I need to give her time to adjust. I’m prepared to ask her to be my wife when the Chief comes for dinner. Once the wedding is over, we’ll start trying to get pregnant.”
“No, you’ll start now. Today. You’ve wasted enough fucking time.”
Daddy dearest has laid down the law, whatever will the perfect son do?
Will he do his duty and fuck his betrothed while the love of his life hides away in the servants quarters? Or will he finally take his balls back from his father’s pocket?
Time will tell.
But when he swallows down all of his true feelings and nods, I find myself disgusted with him.
I’m far from a role model, but I’d never sell my soul for our father’s bullshit legacy. The devil can keep mine.
“Well, I guess that settles it. Can I go now?”
Alex looks defeated as my father waves a hand to dismiss us both, but I don’t wait for my spineless big brother to move.
I’m out of there like my ass is on fire, and I don’t have it in me to look back. He won’t get my sympathy, not right now.
––––––––
I spend the rest of the day wondering if Alex had it in him to pull the trigger, and the more time that passes, I convince myself he doesn’t. He’s helplessly in love with someone he can’t have, someone beneath our father’s standards, and I’m convinced the reason they can’t stay away from each other is because it’s forbidden. Maybe that’s why I can’t stop thinking about his fiancé? It has to be.
No other woman has haunted me the way she has, made it impossible to even care to fuck someone else because all I can think about is the way she sucked my cock. The drunken, drugged out college chicks can’t blow like that even if they’re current students of St. Andrews, but I also have to admit it’s more than that.
Yeah, I wanna fuck her.
But I also want to know every single thing that makes her tick, and before the sun has even set, I’ve driven myself crazy enough to go seek her out.
I know exactly which wing she spends the most time in because it’s hers, and she’s so well trained she knows the best place for her to stay is where her future sackless husband can find her.
Only she isn’t there.
I don’t know why, but it makes me smile. Good girl. Keep us all guessing.
When I do find her, she’s outside running around the grounds in a fucking sports bra and leggings so tight, I see how perfect her ass is. Immediately, want to fall to my knees and bite it.
The fuck is wrong with me?
“Little keeper,” I call, strolling casually up to her so I can stare at the sweat gathering on her beautiful chest. It’s far too cold for her to be dressed like this, but I don’t mind it at all. “Having fun?”
She slows to a stop, heavy breaths making her perfect tits rise and fall. “No. I fucking hate running.”
“Me too,” I agree, letting her see the way I stare at her body before meeting her gaze again. “So why are you?”
“What else am I supposed to do?” she asks. “Shay went home for the day, Leo won’t let me bake, and I’ve been scolded twice already for cleaning my own room.”
Chuckling, I nod my head toward the house for her to follow. “Come with me.”
She hesitates. “Why?”
“Because I’m going to show you who really owns this house, and you’re going to bake me those cookies.”
Sully squeezes a stitch in her side and nods, gesturing for me to lead the way. “Alright. I’ll make some for Alex, too. I’m supposed to go to his room tonight and I’m weirdly nervous about it. Maybe bringing cookies will help.”
Not likely, but I can’t find it in me to try and make her feel better or say anything at all about what Alex might like. There’s a strange feeling in my gut at the thought of her trying to seduce him tonight with my cookies, and I don’t want to look closer at it. It’ll just piss me off. “Maybe. Did my father tell you to go to his room?”
She shakes her head. “Alex did. Not directly, but through Eve. I think that’s her name, anyway. The pretty girl with the buzz cut? Or was that Lina?”
“Lina, and they fuck sometimes.”
I didn’t have to tell her that, but I want to see her response to it.
“Eve and Lina? Good for them.” She smiles almost knowingly, but it fades quickly. “Why did you ask if Ephraim’s the one who told me?”
So Alex asked her to come, but didn’t explain why. “Because he was pretty upset about how little time you two have spent together. Guess you two haven’t fucked yet, huh?”
I turn slightly to see her better as we’re walking. Her brows are furrowed like she’s confused, hands on her hips like she’s annoyed. I guess I would be too in her situation.
“Oh.”
“Oh,” I toss back. “Not interested?”
“Of course I’m interested. I just thought he finally was too.”
“Maybe he is,” I say with a shrug. “I don’t know how he couldn’t be.”
“He will be.” Her confidence makes her stand straighter. “He is. Everything is fine.”
I stop walking so abruptly she runs straight into me, turning so we’re face to face, and she can’t hide from me at all as I ask her something I’ve been dying to know. “How did you feel finding out who I was?”
She doesn’t answer me right away. Her short, heavy breaths fill the space between us as she flicks her eyes between mine. “It felt like you set me up. Like it was a test.”
“A test? And did you feel like you passed?”
Was her throat always this tempting? Fuck, I want to wrap my hand around it and be her favorite necklace.
“It depends on who was testing me. If it was Ephraim, no. I failed. If it was you... I kept your secrets. Both of them.”
Of course she did.
“That was sweet of you, but I wasn’t testing you, Sullivan. I just really needed to know how good your mouth was. I couldn’t fight it.”
“And killing Jacob? Stealing my engagement ring?”
“I can’t tell you why I killed Jake, but I can tell you why I stole your ring. It didn’t belong on your finger. Do you really care to have it back?”
I manage to step in a little closer, so close I can see the sweat beading on her nose. It’s almost too close.
“No, I don’t. I didn’t want it to begin with.”
“I know. And you don’t want this one either. Wrong brother, huh?”
I offer her a cocky smirk to try and put her more at ease, but the look she gives me could freeze just about anyone.
“He hasn’t lied to get me into bed yet, so I’d say no. I got the right one.”
Yikes. Fair, but also yikes.
Nodding, I slowly back away to lead her toward the kitchens again and replay her words over and over until they’re all I hear. I got the right one.
He didn’t even have to do anything and she’s fawning all over him, but why? Wishful thinking? Or does she honestly fucking think he’ll love her one day? That he’ll touch her at all?
Even if he did, he wouldn’t ever be what she needs, what her body craves. I know the truth. She can deny it all day, but I saw it in her eyes as she swallowed my cum.
He’ll never be what she needs, but maybe deep down, he’s what she thinks she wants. The stability, the freedom he gives when he’s off doing whatever else. Who knows?
All I do know is it doesn’t make me want her any less.
“Everyone out,” I command the second we enter the kitchen, all of them freezing at the sight of me and then rushing for the door without a word. “Go ahead. Bake.”
Her cheeks flush. “They’re scared of you.”
I plop my ass up on the counter and shrug. “I don’t know why. Verna’s the scary one here.”
She ignores me and starts moving, rooting through Leo’s cupboards and the three refrigerators until she finds what she needs. It’s intense, the way she moves. Like she has a purpose.
It’s kind of hot.
I’ve never actually watched someone cook or bake anything before, and I never realized how focused someone would have to be to do it. “How long have you been baking?”
She doesn’t answer me. Her tongue is stuck between her teeth as she mixes a bunch of white powdery shit together, and it makes me think of the party tonight. “Have you ever done coke? I’m just going to keep asking questions until you answer one.”
“Of course I have,” she mutters without glancing up. “Theo made sure I could handle pretty much every drug out there, including Sway.”
That’s the question she decides to answer. Before I respond, I take note of the cinnamon she adds to the mix and smirk. That must be the secret ingredient. “I don’t know how you’re supposed to handle Sway, but I guess that’s a good thing. When’s the last time you did ecstasy?”
Finally, she looks up at me. “He made sure I knew what it felt like so I wouldn’t panic as bad. It didn’t work. But to answer your question... not since my first week with the Keepers. They didn’t like it when I was mindlessly happy and too horny to obey directions.”
“Of course they didn’t. Do you want some?”
The thought of doing E with her has my dick taking it as an invitation, but I manage not to get a boner in the middle of the kitchen.
She stares at me for so long I think she might say yes, but she snaps out of it when the oven dings and shakes her head lightly. “Something tells me it would be wasted on me now. At least until...”
Until my brother decides to start fucking her.
Not happening.
“Well, if you change your mind, you know where to find me. I’ll hook you up. We can have more secrets.”
Placing the first tray of cookies in the oven, she bites her lip. “I don’t think it’s a good idea, Dray.”
Did she just give me a nickname? Do girls do that if they don’t want your cock inside them? I might be getting ahead of myself, but fuck, I want to breed her right here covered in sweat and flour and then I want to eat her cookies knowing for once I’m the brother that got something first. It’s dumb, she’s more than just a prize, but that has to be the reason I’m becoming obsessed with her. We just need to fuck it out.
“But you would? If you didn’t think it was a bad idea?”
“Would I want to be mindlessly happy and ridiculously horny?” she asks, eyebrows raised. “No, why would anyone want that?”
“I don’t know, some people are lame. Glad you’re not one of them. Why aren’t you asking me any questions?”
“Would you tell me the truth if I did?”
“Why wouldn’t I? I thought you’d at least be curious about the Creed family seeing as it’s about to be your family soon too.”
She scoffs. “You haven’t told me the truth once yet.”
“How so? Name one thing I lied about,” I argue, hopping off the counter to move closer.
“That you’d help me. That I was promised to you. That Jacob had to die, that you were just some random bastard, I can go on.”
Oh shit, she has me there. “Yeah, you’re right,” I chuckle lightly. “To be fair, I am just a bastard around here if that counts for anything. I think you saw the truth behind that one first hand. Also, Jake did have to die, and I will help you. We just haven’t figured out how yet, and the promised to me thing, that was a lie, but... let’s just call it wishful thinking.”
Her hands move expertly as she rolls a second round of cookies. “You want a girl from St. Andrew’s? Why?”
“I don’t want just any girl from St. Andrews, but maybe it would be nice to feel important enough to be given one.” That’s not what I meant to say, and I don’t know how to take it back without stumbling over my words. “That came out wrong, I— never mind. You wouldn’t understand, and I don’t know how to explain it anyway. But it’s fitting Alexander gets to have you. That’s all. How long do these cookies take in the oven?”
“The first batch should be done in a couple of minutes. But I do understand. I may not have firsthand experience, but I can imagine that being a bastard in Ephraim’s world is... lonely.” She sets the cookie tray aside and wipes her hands. “What would you do if you were given one? A girl from St. Andrew’s, I mean.”
Honestly, probably nothing at all because it would mean he forced someone on me, but like I said, it’d be nice to feel important every so often around here. “If she was you? You’d already have my baby inside of you.”
She huffs. “Funny, I’m starting to feel like your dad did this to punish all three of us.”
“Now you’re beginning to understand Ephraim Creed.”
The oven dings before our conversation can go further, and when she sets the tray aside, I have to hold myself back from eating one of the steaming cookies calling my name.
“How long do I have to wait now?”
“At least ten minutes. Fifteen if you want it to hold together.” She slides the second tray in the oven and sets the timer, then gets to work cleaning up her mess. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry he treats you the way he does. It doesn’t seem like Alex is much happier, though.”
“That’s because Alexander is still convinced he can please him, and I learned it was impossible by the time I was five. He tries to be perfect every single day, and it’s too fucking much on him. He needs to let that shit go and he’d be happier. Ephraim Creed would never actually do anything to cast his precious heir in a bad light. My brother has more power than he realizes.”
She fixes her sports bra and wipes a little bit of flour off her stomach. “Power is an illusion. People like Ephraim only have it because others choose to give it to him. I don’t have any because I choose to give it up. No one’s really better or more powerful than anyone else when it comes down to it. We all turn to the same shade of dust in the end.”
More pretty words from such a pretty girl. Go figure I can’t stop thinking about her. She’s so much more than the accessory my father is trying to make her. So much more than all of this.
I came to seek her out and quickly learned I need to keep my distance, because the more time I spend with her, the more tempted I am to steal her away from this place and everyone here.
Yeah, I have to go. I’m not waiting fifteen minutes for this damn cookie so I snatch one off the tray and cuss when it burns the hell out of my hand. “Fuck!” I growl, shoving it into my mouth anyway and then have to say goodbye to her sounding like an idiot who can’t work his tongue. “I have a party. Stop cleaning up after yourself and save me some cookies. Good talk, little keeper.”