Chapter 26
TWENTY-SIX
HARLOW
“You’re doing what?” my mother asks, her voice shrill as she narrows her eyes at me.
I drag in a steady breath, trying my best not to lose it in front of Robert and Sterling who are finishing off their meal as we sit in the dining room together. I’m feeling extra out of sorts today after receiving that latest message from my stalker, and the last thing I need is a confrontation with my mother.
“Ben asked me to cover for Princetown Bandits who are in London right now. It’s no big deal,” I explain, refusing to feel intimidated by her obvious disapproval of me singing tonight.
“You’re singing at Benedict Pike’s bar ?” she repeats incredulously.
“Yes, Mom.”
This is the third time I've reminded her this week, but it's as if she has a switch that turns off her attention whenever the conversation isn't about her. God knows I've spent the entire week listening to her talk about her honeymoon, her plans to renovate the mansion's south wing, how she's going to buy a horse with Robert tomorrow, and how far behind I’ve got with my work.
The truth is, even if I wasn't performing tonight, I would probably be out somewhere drinking to settle my nerves and numb my frustration. My patience has been pushed to its limits, not just by my mother, but also from trying to hide my feelings for Sterling. Since our parents returned home from their honeymoon, he has been pretending like we haven’t been intimate on numerous occasions, and worse, acting like a jerk. I understand the need for secrecy, of course I do, but his coldness towards me is unexpected, and has been like a knife to my heart, especially after everything he’d said.
“I wish you’d told us earlier,” Robert interjects. “We would have both loved to hear you sing again, wouldn’t we Melody?”
I don’t bother to tell him that I had told my mom on several occasions.
My mother’s scowl drops as she evens her features and gives him a smile that most definitely doesn’t reach her eyes. “We’ve already confirmed to the Olderburys that we're dining with them this evening. We can’t cancel now.”
Robert nods. “Indeed. Perhaps another time?”
I mumble something in response before pushing back from my seat as I stand. “I should probably get going. Ben wanted me to arrive a little earlier to set up…” My voice trails off as I look at Sterling. He runs a hand through his hair, avoiding looking at me.
“Sterling, you will accompany Harlow,” Robert demands.
“I have plans,” he cuts back, and I can’t help but flinch at his response.
He’s been like this all week whenever we’ve been around each other. Apart from that brief moment in the kitchen the other day when he’d stuck up for after my mom was being her usual bitchy self, he has acted with the same kind of disinterest. It’s like he’s a different person, and I’m reeling from it.
“It’s fine,” I mumble.
“Your plans have changed, Sterling,” Robert cuts back, a note of warning in his voice. “Take Harlow to Bandits Bar. Stay for the performance. Then bring her home safely.”
Sterling huffs out a breath, then stands. “It would be my pleasure,” he replies sarcastically, plastering on a smile that would ordinarily make me melt, but instead makes me feel cold inside.
Was everything he said to me a lie? God, I feel so foolish.
I cringe. “It’s fine,” I repeat. “I can take a cab there and back.”
“Absolutely not,” Robert snaps. “I shan't have my step-daughter entering Bandits Bar unaccompanied–”
“Harlow is a grown woman, she doesn’t need a chaperone,” my mother interjects, but I get the distinct impression it isn’t to support my right to travel without someone babysitting me, and more about Robert showing concern for my well-being. Which he has been doing a lot of lately. It’s confusing given everything Sterling has told me about his father, but right now he’s the only one who seems to give a damn about my happiness.
“Sterling will take Harlow, and that’s the end of it,” Robert replies, brooking no arguments.
“Then let's go,” Sterling adds, striding around the dining table and heading towards the door.
When I don’t immediately follow, he turns around and says, “Are you coming?”
“See you both later?” I ask, flicking my gaze between Robert and my mother, feeling more than a little awkward as Sterling glares at me impatiently.
“Actually, we’ll be staying at the Olderbury’s tonight. Stuart is accompanying us both to the breeders tomorrow, he is quite the equine expert according to Robert,” my mother trills, her voice pitching with excitement.
“I’ll see you tomorrow some time then,” I reply before following Sterling out.
A couple of minutes later we’re climbing into Sterling’s silver Tesla, the air thick with tension as he drives us down the private road that runs through the grounds of Adaga Hall and onto the main thoroughfare.
“Harlow,” he begins, the tone of his voice apologetic.
“It’s fine. I get it,” I reply, waving my hand in the air between us. “Next time I’ll just get a cab.”
“That’s not what I was about to say,” he says, reaching over and palming my knee, squeezing gently. My body instantly reacts, and I hate that my cheeks flush from his touch.
“Then what is it?” I ask, willing my pulse to calm down.
“It has to be this way right now,” he continues, his thumb gently rubbing circles over my jean clad thighs.
“Treating me as though you hate me?” I ask, feeling the pinch of my unhappiness sharpening my response.
“You know I don’t hate you, Harlow.”
“Do I? You’ve barely said a word to me since our parents came home, and any time we’ve been in the same room it’s as though it’s torturous for you.”
“It is torturous!” he shouts, causing anger to bubble inside my own chest.
“I’m so sorry to be such a fucking burden!” I yell.
“A burden? You’re not a burden. Damn it, Harlow. I’m trying to protect you!”
“Protect me?” My pulse quickens as he flashes me an agonised look. “I thought you didn’t want me anymore.”
“No! Fuck, no! Of course, I want you.”
Sterling releases my thigh and presses his foot on the gas, only to turn the wheel sharply to the left at a small road a minute later, leading to what looks like a secluded picnic area. Parking the car, he pulls up the handbrake, switches off the lights, but keeps the engine running. The outside world is pitched into darkness, the only light coming from the full moon that’s shining brightly in the night sky.
“Sterling what are you doing?”
“I want you Harlow,” he says, unhooking his seat belt and turning to face me.
“But–”
“I want you,” he repeats, reaching over the centre console and cupping my cheek, the heat from his palm instantly soothing. “If our parents hadn’t walked in on us, I would’ve continued to show you how fucking much. I’ve been acting the way I have to throw my father off. He suspected something.”
“He knows about us?” I ask, eyes widening.
“If he knew the truth, there’s no fucking way he’d insist on me spending time with you. My father hates to see me happy.”
“I don’t understand.”
“That night when they returned home from their honeymoon, and my father wanted to speak with me, I pretended that I disliked you so he wouldn’t know the truth. I told him that I didn’t want to play happy families and in return he threatened to cut my mother off, saying he would stop paying her monthly allowance following their divorce if I refused.”
“He did what?” My mouth drops open as Sterling’s gaze fills with a mixture of anger and pain.
“This is what he does, Harlow. He uses what you love most against you. I’ve had to act this way so he doesn’t suspect the depths of my feelings for you. If I were too eager to spend time with you, he’d know. This way he thinks he’s forcing me to spend time with you, when in actual fact it’s all I want.”
“God, I’m sorry,” I say, my anger retreating as quickly as it came.
“Don’t be. None of this is your doing. Do you hear me? None. This is the first opportunity I’ve had to speak to you about this without either your mother or my father interrupting us. But that isn’t an excuse. I should’ve found a way to get you alone to explain.”
“I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions. It’s just hard for me to believe that…” You actually care , but I don’t say that out loud. Instead I sigh.
“You think after everything that I said to you, that I would willingly hurt you? Do you really think that I don’t want to tell your mother where to stick her nasty comments, or wrap you in my arms and protect you from them? Harlow, I meant everything that I said. Just bare with me, okay?”
“So what are we then?” I ask after a beat, needing to know what this is exactly. I feel so out of my depth, and I’ve no idea how we move forward. There’s so much stacked against us.
“What do you want us to be?” he replies, leaning closer as he brushes his lips against mine.
“Each other’s?” I offer. It’s the best I can do. We can’t be official in any capacity, so it’s not as if I can call him my boyfriend, but we’re more than lovers, that much is becoming abundantly clear.
“Yes, we are. But for now, in secret, okay?” he says, brushing his lips against mine.
“Okay,” I agree, sighing against his lips, wishing we didn’t have to hide. “What about your friends? What are you going to tell them?”
“They already know how I feel about you,” Sterling answers. “But at this stage it’s too risky to let them know any more than that. As far as they’re concerned I want you, but that’s it. I’m not going to tell them that we’re together. Not yet, anyway.”
I frown. “You don’t trust them?”
“It's not about me not trusting them. I don't trust my father, and if he suspects anything, they'll be the first people he'll put pressure on. They've got enough going on in their own lives right now. The last thing they need is my father's attention."
“What if I were to talk to Robert?”
He shakes his head, his fingers digging into my scalp, as his eyes flash with concern. “Absolutely not. No, Harlow.”
“But maybe I could?—”
“I know you think you have a good relationship with him,” he says, cutting me off, “But, Harlow, please believe me when I say that he has no redeeming qualities. None. You have to trust me on this.”
“Okay,” I reply, understanding his reasoning but feeling more than a little uncertain, not about how I feel for Sterling–I’m past the point of fighting this–but because his father seemingly holds so much power.
“I’m sorry,” he says softly, sensing my discomfort. “It won’t always be like this. Once I’ve figured out how to deal with my father, we can be open about our relationship.”
I nod, trying to brush off the uneasy feeling in my chest as he presses a tender kiss against my lips, a kiss that soon turns heated.
“Harlow,” he groans against my mouth, his hand dropping to cup my throat in the way I like. “Fuck, Harlow. All I want to do right now is strip you naked and bury myself inside of you.”
“I want that too. But we really should go,” I reply, every single part of me wanting to give myself over to him, to find comfort in his arms but I reluctantly place my hand against his chest and gently ease him back. “Ben is expecting me.”
“What time is he expecting you?”
“In about twenty minutes,” I reply.
“Then we have at least ten minutes to spare,” he says, his voice husky as he grips my throat a little tighter.
“Sterling, we’re in the middle of nowhere,” I protest weakly, my pulse spiking even more.
“Exactly. There’s no one here but us, Harlow.”
“Sterling–”
He slams his mouth against mine, cutting off my protest.
I don’t fight it.
Kissing Sterling is like drowning and floating all at once. I can’t breathe, and that isn’t because he’s giving me a hand necklace, it’s because he makes me feel lightheaded with his lust-filled groans and talented tongue. When we kiss I forget about our parents, about my arsehole stalker. I’m lost to his heat, his desire and my own spiralling need. Groaning, he pulls back slightly, then reaches around my side, pressing a button that has my seat slowly edging backwards.
“What are you doing?” I whisper, my clit throbbing just from the way he’s looking at me.
“I’m making the most of the next ten minutes,” he replies, releasing my throat, and reaching for the zipper of my jeans, undoing them. “Did I tell you how fucking incredible you look in these jeans?”
“You just did,” I reply softly, gasping as he slides his fingers beneath the waistband of my panties, knowing that he’ll find me soaking for him.
“Fuck, Harlow. Are you always this ready to be fucked?” he groans, his finger slipping between my folds and swiping against my sensitive clit.
“Not usually, not for anyone but you,” I admit. Around Sterling I’m in a perpetual state of arousal. I’m so attracted to him, it’s ridiculous. I’ve spent most nights bringing myself to orgasm just thinking about him touching me, tasting me, fucking me.
“Damn straight,” he replies, focusing his gaze on me as he gently strokes my clit. “This pussy is mine. You’re mine, Harlow.”
I gasp at his possessive words, at how he so easily makes me melt beneath his touch. God knows I’ve tried to fight this. I’ve tried to be a good daughter. I’ve tried to do the right thing. He’s my step-brother, he’s off-limits, and yet knowing that turns me on even more. It shouldn’t. I know it shouldn’t, and logically my head tells me that we met before we became family, but I have to admit to myself, to the deepest, darkest parts of me, that it only makes me want him more.
“Tell me you’re mine. Tell me that you’ll never let another man touch you like this. Tell me that there is no one else for you, that from this point onwards we are each other’s, no matter what.”
But his fingers are so talented, his gaze so intense, that I can’t seem to bring myself to answer as he teases my clit. I’m too lost in the overwhelming need to give myself over to him, to receive the pleasure that he’s so determined to give me, and that I’m more than willing to accept.
“Harlow, tell me!” he demands, his whole hand cupping my pussy possessively.
There isn’t much give beneath the confines of my jeans, and the heel of his hand is firm against my clit, making me moan loader.
“Harlow,” he insists.
“Yes, Sterling,” I groan, rocking my hips as I search for relief. My eyelids flutter shut as I whimper, “I’m yours. We’re each other’s, no matter what.”
“You’ve left out an important part,” he adds with a growl, my eyes snapping open as he leans over me, his face inches from mine. It’s so dark, and he’s so close that I can barely make out his features as the moon slips behind a swathe of cloud. “If you want to come you need to promise me that there will never be anyone else.”
“There won’t!” I cry, so close to coming that I’m panting.
“Promise me!”
“I promise. There will never be anyone else. Only you. Just you!”
He nods sharply then his mouth crashes against mine as he shoves two fingers inside of me with one firm thrust.
I come apart, an orgasm rushing outwards from my core in a shockwave of intense pleasure that makes me shudder and shake. He swallows my cry, kissing me roughly, his fingers still pumping inside of me, coated in my cum. Sterling drags out every last drop of my orgasm until I have to twist my head to the side and suck in much needed oxygen.
“And I promise that I will never look at another woman as long as I live,” he states, nipping my earlobe as he withdraws his hand and captures my jaw with his sticky fingers.
Slowly, he turns my head to face him, and through the fog of lust, and lingering pleasure, I’m rewarded with a smile so pure, so brilliantly beautiful that my heart swells with something more than lust, something more than like, something that feels close to love.
“Good,” I reply softly, accepting the gentle brush of his lips against my own before he leans over me, and presses the button that makes my seat shift upright once again.
“We should probably get going,” he says with a rueful grin, as he settles back into his seat and clips in his seatbelt.
“What about you?” I ask, my gaze dropping to his crotch and his erection.
“Our parents aren’t home tonight, so I was planning on accompanying you to your room and having my wicked way with you,” he retorts, flipping the headlights back on as he puts the car into gear.
I bite on my lip, my cheeks flushing a deeper pink at the thought. “Then I hope you’ll let me return the favour,” I say, thoughts of his thick dick shoved so far down my throat that I’m choking on it.
“The favour?” he cocks his head, grinning.
My eyes flick to his erection once again, and I lick my lips. “I haven’t tasted you yet,” I reply.
His eyes widen. “Fuck, Harlow, are you trying to make me come in my pants?”
“I’d rather you come inside of me,” I deadpan.
“Jesus-fucking-Christ,” he grumbles, gripping the steering wheel tightly. “Do we have to go to Bandits Bar?”
I can’t help it, I laugh. “I’m afraid I promised, and I happen to keep my promises.”
“Fine, fuck. Let’s do this.”
I settle into my seat, smiling to myself as Sterling manoeuvres the car so that we’re heading back out onto the main road, the headlamps momentarily lighting up a dirt track that cuts through a bank of tall pinewood trees. I notice that it’s wide enough for a vehicle to pass through.
“Where does that lead?” I ask, pointing in the direction of the partially hidden road.
“That leads to Craven Mount-Black’s estate,” Sterling replies.
“That’s a name straight out of a historical romance novel if ever there was one,” I reply, eyebrows hitching.
“I don’t think Craven has left his estate in years, let alone in a relationship as far as I’m aware. That man is not ‘social’. Rumour has it he prefers animals to humans.”
“Colour me intrigued,” I reply. Sterling flicks me a look, his brow hitching as I grin at him. “What?
“Actually you met his nephew, Blake.”
“Wait, Craven Mount-Black is Blake’s uncle, the taxidermist, ?” I ask, eyes wide.
“Yes, and extremely wealthy. Years ago my father once tried to do business with him, but Craven refused, and he’s been an outcast ever since. Not that I imagine he cares. Like I said, he barely leaves his estate, preferring his own company for the most part. Frankly, I don’t blame him. The whole billionaire circuit is fucking draining to be a part of.”
“So Blake is his only family or does Craven have any other relatives?” I ask as we head out onto the main road, towards town.
“As far as I’m aware, yes. Blake’s dad passed away a few years ago which actually makes Blake heir to the Craven-Black fortune. Ben told me that when Blake arrived in town a couple years ago Craven set him up with a job at The Cosy Chord , and bought him a house in Princetown. Blake’s mother was so heartbroken from his father’s death that she took her own life. Craven is all the family he has left. Though I don’t think they have a particularly good relationship from what I’ve heard.”
“That’s terrible,” I reply. “Poor Blake.”
“Don’t feel too sorry for him, that flirtatious bastard uses the orphan angle to get women into bed,” Sterling replies, pressing his foot on the gas as we speed towards the centre of town.
“Sterling, I’m sure that isn’t true! He seemed lovely when I met him.”
“Just ask Ben, he’ll tell you the same. Anyway, let’s get off the subject,” he says, shooting me a look that tells me he’s still a little put out that I spent time with Blake a few days ago. “What songs are you planning on singing tonight?”
For the rest of the short drive I reel off my playlist. All of them covers, and every single one having some kind of meaning for me.
“You’re singing True Colours by Cindy Lauper?” he repeats, side-eyeing me briefly.
“Yes, why? You don’t like that song?”
“On the contrary,” he replies softly. “I happen to love that song.”