Chapter 38
CHAPTER
THIRTY-EIGHT
Stephan
I stare at Heath, a little sweaty from the work we just finished and probably a little exasperated. “C’mon man, I could use your help.”
I figured now, with him feeling good about a little manual labor, I could bring up the scripts, but no.
Heath’s got his ducks in a row in his head and probably all with lists. Even down to Rue. Pros and cons and the kind of mates she might attract once she’s of age.
I know fucking Heath, I know he’s now getting things ready for the rest of them, checking out Alphas who aren’t even close to the next Season.
The scripts should be a good distraction, one in particular, to anyone but him.
“And it’s the kind of thing you want to do,” I add .
“I looked them over, and I know which one you wanted me to focus on. I took time out of trying to keep my sisters from exploding into a sea of scandal, one of which you facilitated?—”
“And got out of.”
“Not cool, dickwad.” Heath frowns and crosses his arms, leaning against the wall in the living room. “Besides, I handed you my notes. I’m not about to pack up and leave my family in the lurch to gallivant on some fucking movie adventure for months. Or years. Or however long it takes to tell this tale. I know you?—”
“It’s a good opportunity. It’s one you wanted.”
“Want ed , past tense. Responsibilities exist. Something you need to keep under your hat. You know my sister wants a big family, and I don’t know what the fuck your plan is there, but you have to man up. She’s not an Emporia girl. Those people will eat her alive and you know it.”
“Violet and I have talked. And it’s between us so don’t go sticking your nose in.”
“I don’t want to know about your sex life with my sister.” He shudders like he bit into something incredibly bitter. “It’s a violation on every level. Just…if you hurt her, I will kill you, understand? Vi is special. They all are, but Vi ’s…”
He flounders, and I get it. The three eldest have a special bond. Especial him and Violet. But he sees her as delicate and breakable, and I think she’s a lot stronger than that.
Just like her quietness hides a lot of depth, and her willingness and drive to please houses not just a slight kink, but shadows over her keen observation and bluntness and humor.
She’s the full package, and she’s more than he’s willing to see.
Fuck, I sound like I have it bad.
“We talked, that’s it. Pages aligned.” That’s true, now. And if I had to twist the truth a little, take some matters into my hands then…
“And Emporia?”
I sigh. We haven’t discussed that yet. Heath and I have spent half the day chatting and finishing some of the fixes I wanted on the ground floor. It’s still her playground, but it should be solid before she plays.
Instead of answering him immediately, I pour us each a drink. He snatches it, and eyes me with dislike that can only come from a place of brotherly love. A violent place that has resentment and all kinds of other things in there.
Anyone but Violet and this would be an open, honest, normal conversation.
Now I have to spend time stepping around landmines.
“This isn’t my home, Heath.”
“But it’s hers.”
“I live in Emporia.” I take a sip and rub the back of my neck. “Look, I could spend time between both places, and yeah, okay, I’m doing that, as you know I’m fixing this up as a home for us.”
“We. We are doing that. And a holiday home? A visit for a week each year home? A stop by when you might feel like it home? Or a dump Vi here while you do fuck knows elsewhere home?”
He’s dangerously close to meeting my fist .
“I’m not cheating on Violet, and I’m not about to. So if you even put those ideas in her head, I’ll…”
“What? Hit me? Bring it the fuck on.” He downs his drink.
I thrust the bottle at him. “I like my mate. I don’t want her upset if I kill her stupid brother.”
“So what are you gonna do? You can’t take her away from her family.”
The words why not play at the edges, but I keep them tucked inside. “I’m not planning to, but do you want her to just be like all the other Omegas here?”
“I’m not?—”
“You don’t have a say in our lives, Heath. I’m a successful actor. I’m trying to shift to a more serious career which means more selective roles, behind the scenes shit, things that I want to do rather than just go with the money-making flow.” I look at him. “Don’t you think Violet deserves to find herself?”
He studies me for a long time then pours a large drink, shaking his head. “You’re heading out of here, aren’t you?”
“Clea called early this morning.”
Heath finds the bottle label suddenly interesting, and I say, “Maybe she’s why you don’t want us to go? Are you scared?”
He scoffs. “We had sex. She didn’t threaten me. And is she my type, yeah, to a point. But she’s definitely a woman who doesn’t want anything serious. I don’t have room for that. The ‘to a point,’ before you say it, comes into play over the fact I’m here and she’s there. I can’t go there. Family. ”
“Well.” That’s…a lot of information. And Clea was just as cagey. Maybe?—
But they can sort their own shit out. I don’t have the bandwidth, not with my princess there because he’s fucking right. I’m not sure Violet wants to handle Emporia fulltime.
Personally, I know she can. Violet’s so much stronger than she gives herself credit for.
And now I have my own anxiety-control methodology with her…
“Stop grinning. I don’t like where your thoughts might be.”
I pick up a cushion and throw it at him. “Jesus, I can smile. Not all of it’s about sex.”
He grabs the cushion, tosses it to the sofa, and then flops down. “I think Violet might love you. And she shines like she used to before her anxiety started to eat at her. Mostly before Dad died.”
“You noticed?”
“I’m her brother, asshole. Of course I know she suffers from panic and anxiety.”
“I’d like her to get therapy, and maybe in Emporia…”
“Don’t tell Mom.” He shrugs. “She’s not against it, but the pressure on Violet over all this has added to it, the Season I mean. And Mom probably feels like it’s her fault, too. She just wants the best for us all. Mom already asks why Vi quit dance.”
“Because she doesn’t think she’s good enough. I first saw her running to a dance class, y’know.”
He holds up a hand. “Keep your meet-cute shit to yourself.” But he winces. “Money. She quit because the lessons cost money, and she thinks Dahlia needs the money spent on her. Vi’s a beautiful dancer. You should see her, really see her dance, on the stage. She’s excellent.”
I don’t say a word because I get the feeling anything I say will be taken wrong. Shit, it will be wrong. My private dances are not things anyone else should know about.
So I change the subject.
“I’m going to take Violet to Emporia for a few days. I have some meetings. I was meant to stay away the whole summer but being mated changes things.”
“And a little press opportunity no doubt. How you’ve changed now you have your good girl Omega, and no more women, booze, drugs.”
Anger flares. “I’m not?—”
“I’m just repeating rumors. I’ve never known you to be out of control. Not since?—”
“Where are your sisters?” I don’t need him to finish the sentence about Cecilia and the baby. Saying it just makes the terror of it happening again too real. “Whatever Omega thing they’re at has to be over by now.”
He frowns. Texts. Then texts again. Finally, he texts a few more times. “Rue’s not texting back. Or Vi.”
I try Violet. “Maybe they’re not near their phones.”
“Or Mari or Iris took them.”
I nod at him. “Don’t you have some tracker on Rue?”
“Oh, fuck.” He opens an app. “Son of a…” He looks at me. “She’s in the Lower fucking Side.”
“Heath, wanna go get a drink downtown?”
He tosses down his dregs and stands. “Try and stop me. Come on. We’ve got some bad Omega sisters and one idiotic Beta girl to wrangle.”
I wince. “Do not say that to them if you want to live.”
“You are drunk.”
I try to sound stern, but I fail.
Violet grabs at my face, stroking my beard, her cheeks pink, lips inviting, and so fucking pretty it almost makes my knees give way.
“Nooo,” she says, “I’m not.” Then Violet goes up on her tiptoes and whispers, “Just a little tipsy. Quinn brought some vodka. Dahlia and Rue didn’t have any.”
It seems there was some kind of outdoor jazz concert here in the gritty little park near the water in the Lower Side.
A lot of the Sabine college students were here and enough well-heeled society so the girls were fine. When we arrived, it was clear they’d sat away and kept in a group, not that that stopped Heath.
I knew he wasn’t going to drink when he got here. His sisters and their wellbeing, not to mention reputations, were on his mind, so they were grabbed and hauled into the limo we’d taken.
Violet and I are walking back.
“Let’s go to our special place,” she says.
Our…? I don’t know what that means, but I’m bemused enough to go with it, and we take off arm in arm along the oceanfront, the neighborhood changing as we walk .
It hits me where we’re going and I just let her lead me, past other couples, until they thin out and we finally reach the boardwalk with the old abandoned boathouse.
She pulls me inside and kisses me.
This is dangerous, thrilling, how she rubs on me, her hands all over, undoing my pants and?—
“Violet.”
“I don’t want to be me for the evening.” She puts her hand on my dick and grabs me, motioning with her head to the darker, sheltered back of the place.
“Princess.”
“Tell me I’m your good girl.”
“Are you?” I ask, trailing a hand down her spine to her ass. She starts to slide down me, and I let her.
She frees me and my back hits the wall as her cool fingers slide over my hot cock. And then she sucks me into her mouth, going down on me as she does so. Damn, has she come a long way in a short time.
My princess chokes herself on me, all on her own, bobbing in shallow bursts that keep me buried against the back of her throat; her swallowing as she does so is almost too much.
I grab her, pulling her off me.
“You’re a good girl, Princess. My good girl. Such technique, such sexy little noises. Fuck.”
Christ…that shiver running through her sets the fever in my blood to boiling.
My control is slipping fast. I lift her and turn, and she hits the wall, and I claw between her thighs, pulling at her panties. Something rips, and the panties are loose in my hands. Fuck it, I’ll buy her more. A whole fucking shop of them just so I can rip them from her.
I start to shake as I devour her mouth; her taste is sweet, addictive like a drug.
I’m lost to it, and I can’t get enough. The scent of her is so strong that I move from her mouth to her throat, and as I do so I thrust into her.
She’s tight, welcoming and so fucking slick, the fever in me boils over. I start to pound into her, not caring where we are, who might see. All I care about is this, being inside her, marking her in every way I can.
I can’t stop.
I don’t want to stop.
She’s in my blood, in me.
This is rough, harsh, fast, and she grips me tight, so tight, all the while sucking me deeper into her, and she comes alive like never before. She’s clawing at me, her nails digging into the back of my neck, her mouth on me as she starts to come.
Hard cock-breaking spasms, the type I have to clench my teeth to stop the howl of yes that’s inside me.
And then I feel it, the surge of the knot coming up and filling, my cock growing, going deeper. She screams as she starts to buck and shudder on me as we’re locked in place and my knot swells inside her.
Her little frantic movements set off my orgasm and I come so fucking hard, I almost collapse. I have to catch her and myself from slamming to the floor.
“Fuck! Princess!”
She’s whimpering, crying out. Her entire body is shaking as she soars right along with me. “Oh, God, Oh, God. I love you, Stephan!”
Incredibly, her words make me come harder, longer, and I don’t know how long the pleasure washes through us, wave after wave. It’s a wild ride, and I don’t want to be anywhere else.
As it finally starts to ebb, I stay knotted as I rock her on me. Her tremors of what seems to be a never-ending orgasm ripple over my dick, until finally I start to deflate, and as I ease out of her, she crumples into me. I hold her close.
Just hold her.
When she said those words to me, something stirred, something big, and I think… Oh shit.
What if I love her, too?
Slowly, I rearrange her clothes, then mine. I try not to think about how I ended up knotting and what that might mean. She’s been on the contraceptives for a while now, and they should prevent anything from happening, but…
Now what I’m doing secretly feels more real. More cruel.
When we can both walk, I lead her out, tucking the ripped panties away.
“Stephan…that…that was knotting?” she asks, still bleary-eyed.
“Uh, yeah.” I’m not usually one to be lost for words, but I sure as fuck am now.
We walk, heading slowly to where I can call for one of Pen’s cars. I pull Violet against me and search for something to say.
She just told me she loves me .
“I have to go to Emporia. We. We’re going, for a few days,” I say.
My princess just nods.
What if I love her, too?
Because that’s what it feels like inside.
Shit.
What the actual fuck do I do now?