Chapter Twenty-One
Spencer
I can”t fathom why I blurted that out. Tabitha has a way of making me feel so relaxed and comfortable with her that I wind up saying things I shouldn”t. But now that I have spoken those words, I owe Tabitha an explanation. It”s bloody hard to talk about my brother, though.
Get a grip, man, and tell her everything.
”You know about Kendall”s former career as an exotic dancer,” I tell her. ”When Bindy saw our brother in action at the club, that opened the floodgates. Bindy wouldn”t have told anyone else about it, but her mates who were with her that night also saw Kendall, ah, strutting his stuff. One or two of them apparently spread the news.”
”And then what happened?”
”Kendall was humiliated. Though he quit his job, the gossip mill had already begun to churn. Soon, everyone in Tottenham knew about Kendall”s dancing days, and our family was ostracized for a little while.” I rub my eyes while I take a moment to figure out how to explain the rest. ”Kenny disappeared.”
”What? He was missing? Like on one of those posters?”
”No, no, nothing like that. He vanished from our lives for a few years. Only later did we learn that he”d taken odd jobs for a while, until he saw an advert on a notice board. The Parrish family were looking for a butler.”
”Did you try to find Kendall?”
I cover my face with my hands and groan. Then I sit up straighter, looking straight into Tabitha”s eyes. ”I didn”t try to find him because I had no idea how to go about that. I”m not Sherlock Holmes. Eventually, my brother got in touch with Bindy to let her know that he had a job at a country estate and he was doing fine. I only found out about that from my sister. Kendall never rang me.”
Tabitha combs her fingers through my hair, and the gesture does make me relax a bit more. ”When did you finally speak to your brother again?”
”Bindy called to tell me that Kendall wanted to meet us both for lunch at a pub in Chelsea. That was the first time I”d seen or heard from Kenny in several years.”
She goes on combing her fingers through my hair for a moment or two without saying anything. I can”t deny that just sitting here with her makes everything else in the world seem unimportant. As long as I have her, what else do I need?
Tabitha murmurs into my ear, ”You know what you need to do.”
”Yes,” I groan. ”I need to tell Kendall that I feel as if he cares more about Hugh Parrish than he does me. But it”s bloody humiliating to confess to something like that.”
”The most important things are always the hardest to say.”
”I”m aware of that. Kendall doesn”t like to discuss feelings, though, and neither do I.”
She smiles a little, shaking her head. ”Men are all the same. Talk about feelings? Ew.”
”Have you ever heard me say ”ew”? No, because I wouldn”t use that pseudo-word.”
She nuzzles my cheek. ”But I made you feel better, didn”t I?”
Of course she did. Tabitha has the unerring ability to figure out what I need and then give it to me. Clearly, I needed her to tease me about a word that isn”t a word. Her silly nature was the perfect medicine.
”When you go home for Kendall”s wedding, will you have a serious conversation with him? For me?”
”About my feelings?” I pretend to cringe. ”Not sure I can handle that level of torture.”
She settles a hand on my thigh, gliding it up and down. ”I”ll give you a reward when you come back. Something steamy. I”ll talk dirty and go down on you like no woman has ever gone down on a man before.”
”I see.” Now I”m developing a problem that”s growing larger by the second. Maybe that explains what I say next. ”Come to England with me for Kendall”s wedding.”
Her head pops up. Her eyes fly wide. ”Are you inviting me to be your date?”
”Yes. What do you say?”
She bursts into raucous laughter, smacking wet kisses all over my face. ”Yes, yes, yes, of course I”ll go home with you, Spence.”
Tabitha behaves as if I”ve just asked her to marry me. But it”s my brother who will be tying the knot. While showering me with kisses yet again, she climbs onto my lap and throws her arms around my neck.
And then she kisses me. Not on the cheek. On the mouth.
She dives her tongue between my lips, moaning and laughing all the while. How anyone can laugh and kiss at the same time is beyond me. But I can”t resist her seduction, so I match every flick of her tongue until we”re both completely out of breath. Well, I”m out of breath. Maybe Tabitha has the magical power to stay conscious even while not breathing. When my ears begin to ring, I pull my mouth away from hers and kiss a trail up her throat.
I clamp a hand on her arse.
She makes the sexiest little grunting sound.
”Ow, yeah, Tabby! Go for it with the British stud.”
My head jerks up.
Tabitha freezes with her lips glued to my cheek. But instead of being embarrassed that we”ve been caught in the act, or almost the act, she glances over her shoulder at her sister. ”Have you always spied on me while I”m kissing a guy, Sabrina?”
”You aren”t exactly trying to be covert about it.”
Their parents walk out of the house, rounding the corner just in time to see me and Tabitha. Barry holds his hand over Connie”s eyes. ”Don”t look, honey. Your eyes might be scalded.”
”Why don”t you guys go for a walk?” Tabitha suggests. ”Spence and I have unfinished business.”
Sabrina snorts out a laugh. ”Is that what the kids are calling it these days?”
Tabitha climbs off my lap and gently cups my chin with one hand. ”Let”s go back to my house.”
”It does seem more private.”
Connie, Barry, and Sabrina watch us walk away until they can”t see us anymore and we can”t see them either. Tabitha and I waste no time, though. We don”t stroll casually toward her home. Instead, we break into a sprint. By the time we reach the door to her tiny home, we”re both slightly out of breath. She flings the door open and rushes inside with me right behind her.
Despite the fact that her home is one room, and the bed is ten feet away from the sofa, we still can”t make it to the bed. We fall onto the sofa in a haphazard heap, pawing at each other”s clothes, desperate to get naked. She nearly strangles me in her haste to remove my shirt, and I scratch her arse while trying to rip her knickers away. Finally, we”re sprawled on the sofa in the nude.
But we”re both too out of breath to shag yet.
”Sorry, Tabby,” I say while gasping for breath. ”Just getting our clothes off has left me knackered.”
”Me too. After a few minutes, maybe we”ll have more stamina.”
I let my head fall back against the sofa. ”I”m only thirty-eight, but I feel ninety right now.”
She”s lying half on top of me with her head just above my groin. As she glances down at my cock, one side of her mouth kinks upward. ”Bet I could make you feel eighteen again in a few seconds.”
”That”s quite a grand claim.”
”You don”t believe me?”
I chuckle. ”With you, I can believe anything.”
She slithers down my body, positioning her mouth directly over my groin. Then she licks her lips. ”You have the most beautiful dick I”ve ever seen. Can”t wait to taste you again.”
I believe she genuinely does want to go down on me again and loves doing it. My pulse accelerated the moment she slithered down my body, but now I”m having trouble pulling in a full breath. The look on her face, a mixture of lust and sweetness, makes my cock twitch.
Then my mobile rings.
I groan. ”Bloody fucking hell. If that”s your sister---”
She snatches my mobile off the floor, where I must have dropped it during our desperate attempt to get naked. ”Actually, it”s your sister.”
”What?” I grab the mobile and swipe to take the call. ”Bindy? Is everything all right?”
”Hello to you too, Spence. Why wouldn”t everything be all right? You sound as if you”re expecting to be arrested and hanged.”
”Don”t be ridiculous. I”m glad to hear from you, but it”s late where you are.”
”Thank you for pointing out the obvious.” She pauses. ”Why do you sound so out of breath?”
”It”s nothing. What did you want, Bindy?”
”Mum and Rosalyn are driving Kendall mad. He”s getting very anxious.”
Tabitha crawls to the end of the sofa and draws her knees to her chest. Yes, I”m sure she has realized this call with my sister might take a while.
I scramble to get upright on the sofa. ”Kendall is always anxious. What do you want me to do about it? Fly home to pour whisky down his throat?”
”Oh, no, that would be the worst possible thing you could do.” My sister exhales a long, gusty breath. ”You see, Hugh already tried that. Kendall got so pissed that he started singing ”Pour Some Sugar on Me” while, um...I can”t say it, Spence. It”s too bizarre.”
For a moment, I have no idea what Bindy means. Then the truth hits me, thanks to that song she mentioned. ”Was Kenny trying to do a striptease?”
”Yes.” She virtually whined that single syllable. ”I had just walked onto the patio, and I caught Kendall in the midst of his...routine. Don”t think I”ll ever get that image out of my mind.”
”I thought you were over the embarrassment years ago. You did see him on stage once. After that, you swore it didn”t bother you at all.”
”Well, it didn”t. Until today.”
”Please tell me Hugh wasn”t pissed too.”
My sister makes a series of throat-clearing noises. ”I don”t like to lie, Spencer.”
”So, Lord Sommerleigh was in on the shenanigans. Let me guess. It was his idea to pour liquor down Kendall”s throat to ease his anxiety.”
Oh, I can just picture how Rachelle and Rosalyn responded to Hugh”s asinine attempt to support my brother in his time of need. For pity”s sake, Kendall should know better. I have never seen him drink more than half a pint of beer. And that only happened once.
I sag into the sofa and rub my eyes. ”Please tell me that at least Kenny didn”t actually strip.”
”No. He, um, tripped and fell onto one of the patio chaises.”
”What spurred this little bout of temporary insanity?”
”Rachelle showed Kendall the plans for the wedding reception.”
Why should that send my brother into a death spiral? That doesn”t sound like a reasonable response, not even for an uptight bloke like my brother. ”I don”t understand, Bindy. Kendall attended Hugh and Avery”s wedding, as well as the one for Dominic Rigby and Chelsea Vance. He knows what a wedding is about.”
My sister huffs. ”Men are so oblivious to emotional things. Rachelle showed Kendall the seating chart. When he saw how many people are coming to the wedding and the reception, he went pale. You know how Kendall feels about public events.”
Yes, I do. His aversion to such things must have stemmed from his humiliation after Bindy accidentally saw what would become his final performance. ”What would you like me to do? I can”t run back to London tonight. I have a job that I”ve only just started.”
”I know. And I”m sorry for bothering you. But I hoped you might have some idea of how to handle the situation.”
”Let me think about it. In the meantime, don”t worry about Kendall. He”s a grown man, and we can”t treat him like a child. Trust me, Bindy, everything will be right as rain.”
But even as I say goodbye to my sister, I have no idea if my prediction will come true.