Wicked Hearts - A Dark Stepbrother Bully Romance (Wicked Hearts At War Book 1)

by Mallory Fox

  “With the hottie? Who was he anyway? Was that Mr smoking-hot Baudelaire himself?”

  My cheeks redden, betraying my thoughts. “He stayed on the sofa all night.” It’s partly true, I closed the doors on him at about 4am after he’d passed out on the sofa. Technically, he didn’t know he was being a gentleman.

  “So nothing happened?”

  “Nothing. He was a gentleman.”

  “What about a kiss?”

  “Well yes, there was a kiss.” There were a lot of kisses but Flick doesn’t need to know that.

  “And?”

  “And what?”

  “Tongue or no tongue? Was it just as you imagined or hotter? Please tell he’s a good kisser, I couldn’t face it if he was terrible.”

  “Levi is a good kisser.” Not as good as Seth, but I’m never in a million years admitting that.

  Speak of the devil, Flick gets right to the punch.

  “Seth was livid after you went. Although not too livid, he lightened up and ended up chatting to some mystery blonde all night. He hasn’t been seen since.”

  I listen to Flick chat away, poking at my omelette while she tells me about the rest of the night. I don’t care about that or about Seth, all I care about it getting enough credits to get the grades I need to inherit my place on the board. Not about who the mystery blonde might be, or where Seth stayed the night. I do not care about that at all.

  My phone pings during breakfast so after we finish eating, I go outside into the winter garden to get some fresh air and check my messages. We have a few hours before the ceremony starts but I don’t want to go back to my room just yet. Levi is probably still up there and I don’t quite trust him while I’m getting changed.

  It’s a message from Sully.

  We need to talk. Call me asap.

  I stare at the screen for a second, scrolling through the last few messages from Sully, noting the missed calls. He doesn’t like to chat or mince words that I know, but his message is super direct my mind reels at what he could possibly have to tell me.

  I could delay the inevitable and call him tomorrow after the wedding, but I’m not here to have a good time. I’m here so my best friend can get over her last fling and find a new man crush and lay the plans for my forthcoming event. I’m definitely not here to enjoy myself.

  I should call him. In fact, there’s no time like the present.

  I move to a place that’s more secluded and tap out his number. He picks up after a couple or rings.

  “Sully, you wanted to speak to me?”

  “Pearl, I’ve been trying to reach you since last night.”

  “Yes, I know. I was flying yesterday and must have left my phone switched off. What’s up?”

  “There’s a letter for you. I sent it via email. Did you read it?”

  “Not yet.”

  “You must read it.”

  “What is it? Can’t you just give me a summary?”

  “Read it and then we can talk.” He sounds so strange I almost don’t want to read it. Why can’t he tell me over the phone?

  Pulling my phone away from my ear, I scroll through my email until I get to Sully’s name and open it. Attached are two letters. One from Sullivan’s law firm detailing a claim that is being made against me for inheritance fraud. The other is an order from the crown court.

  I read both three times, slowly, before it sinks in.

  Seth is suing me.

  Chapter 12

  Pearl

  “Pearl, are you there?”

  Sullivan is still on the phone, on speaker. I croak a yes and then take him off speaker phone and hold it back up to my ear.

  A mother and her child are strolling through the garden, stopping to admire the decorated archways all long the path with fake snow on them. It’s going to be a beautiful wedding.

  “Pearl?”

  “Hold on, I need to…” I walk away from the mother and child and go back inside the hotel. What do I need to do? I’ve no idea. My mind has gone blank. There’s a churning in my stomach and the pounding in my head has become worse.

  I find an empty love seat in a bay window which has moderate privacy, being off to the main reception, but it’s the best I can do.

  I wet my lips and exhale. “So let me get this straight, Seth is… Seth is suing me?”

  “Well, yes he is making a claim against you.”

  “Just tell me, can you make this go away?”

  Sullivan sighs the other end of the line. He doesn’t speak. That’s when I know there’s more to come. Sully always has a word to say even if it’s a bad one.“Pearl, I’ll be frank with you…”

  “Yes, you do that.” My voice is low and distant sounding. Inside, I feel numb. Like I’m not really part of my life, like the whole world is passing me by. Around me people are leaving or arriving, using the walkway to get to or from their rooms. Most of them passing don’t offer me a second look.

  “I’m sorry Pearl, but I can’t represent you anymore.”

  “What? Why?”

  “There’s a conflict of interest.”

  “What do you mean?” I’m aware my voice is getting louder, drawing attention.

  “You’re a bright girl, you understand that I can’t represent the both of you don’t you?”

  “You’re taking Seth’s side, aren’t you. You’re the firm that’s suing me.”

  “Pearl, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry…”

  Then he hangs up.

  I close my eyes, count to ten, and then open them. For a moment, the hallway is empty and I’m alone. But it doesn’t last long. It fills up with more people coming and going, dragging their luggage behind them, knocking into me as I try to push through and escape.

  And I need to escape.

  My room at the end of the hall is the last place on earth I want to be, but I go there anyway. Levi is still in his three piece suit leaning by an open window, smoking a black cigarette while on the phone, speaking quickly and softly in French. So quickly, I can only make out a few words such as ‘delays’, ‘dagger’ and ‘terrible’. He must be talking about the tower.

  As soon as he sees me though, he hangs up.

  “This is a non-smoking room,” I say lamely and sit on the bed.

  “And you look like you’ve seen ghost. You’re as white as sheet, Ma Cherie,” he pronounces sheet like ‘shit’ which makes me giggle. And once I start I can’t stop.

  “Fuck… I think I have…” I say and start to laugh and cry. Literally, tears are streaming down my face while I crack up. Levi watches me with his brow all creased, looking at me like I’m insane. This only makes me laugh more.

  Until I’m no longer laughing but weeping hard. Screw it if Levi is watching. I don’t care. The bastard can go or stay I don’t give a flying fuck. This is my room and I’ll break down in it if I want to.

  But after five minutes of sobbing my heart out, I’m done. Nothing more, no emotions or tears, or weird laughter, seems to want to come out. Sniffing, I sit up and wipe the ruined makeup from under my eyes.

  To give him his due, Levi is still in the room. Completely ignoring my outbreak, muttering in French under his breath about ‘women’, he heads to the mini bar and pulls out all the small bottles he can find and proceeds to make us both a stiff drink.

  “Here, you look like you need this.” He hands me a glass filled with at least three of the tiny bottles and one mixer.

  “It’s ten am in the morning.”

  “Who gives a fuck, you need this. And after what I’ve seen, so do I.”

  I give a dry laugh, totally wiped out of any sort of emotion, and knock back the whole glass in one.

  “Now,” says Levi, a devilish smile on his face as he comes to sit with me on the bed. “Tell me what happened?”

  He want to fuck me and this is his way of playing white knight.

  If that’s true maybe I could use it. Levi isn’t too awful to look at, in fact just the opposite. Sitting across from me, waistcoat unbuttoned,
tie loose around his neck, unshaven and disheveled, he looks absolutely devastating. Like an angel of death come to reap me away after a night of sin, except there was no sin and I’m not going to heaven.

  How could I be so stupid. I trusted him or was starting to. I thought he wanted his own inheritance but now I see his true colors.

  I could let Seth win by crying away my troubles in this room, or I could declare war.

  Of all the people I could ask for help Levi is not ideal, but he has connections and he is powerful. Maybe more powerful that me. If I let him see a part of me I keep hidden most of the time, a part that might appeal to him, the damsel in distress, it might work. All men want to be the savior, especially if they get to use their sword too.

  I stare at my glass and then finally look up at Levi, fluttering my lashes as I do.

  “I need a fucking good lawyer.”

  I was right, the wedding is beautiful.

  Seth’s cousin, Emerald Montfort is dressed like a fairytale princess and Gerald Dunningham, her soon-to-be husband, is looking like he’s the happiest man on the planet. Beside me, with my arm linked through his, is Levi.

  I don’t know how he managed it but he pulled enough strings to get himself on the guest list.

  Bloody French mafia.

  We’re way back in the rafters though, so far away from the altar that I can hardly see Seth at the front. I know he’s there as he walked up the aisle earlier with the mystery blonde Flick was telling me about, and took a seat in the second row with the rest of his family. As the guests filed in, a woman with a big hat sat in front of me and that was the end of my bird’s eye view.

  It doesn’t matter though, the flask of whiskey Levi snuck into the ceremony is enough to keep me occupied.

  I glance over at Flick a few rows forward, on the arms of some Scottish hunk. I haven’t told her yet about what Seth is doing to me. Why ruin her weekend? She looks happy which is enough to make this trip a success. And if all else goes well, I’ll get my lawyer.

  I’ve no idea how I’m going to pay for one. Since I’m not on the board yet I can’t attribute the expenses to the company. I’m not sure if it would be another conflict of interest if they were.

  As it stands, I’m going to have to fund this one myself, and since my personal inheritance accounts are frozen as I haven’t fully inherited yet, I’m sort of screwed.

  The only thing I can do is find a lawyer and hope he or she will accept a deferred payment.

  I’ll worry about that later.

  Right now, I just want to enjoy myself. Seth tried to take that away by having that creep Sully tell me while I was here. I bet he wanted everyone to see me break down in front of them.

  But what he didn’t count on was Levi being here to distract me. And distract me Levi does very well.

  If the wedding is beautiful, the reception is lively. There’s a lot of dancing and bottles of rose wine that never seem to end. By midnight, my feet feel like that might fall off after dancing with Stan the security guard once, Flick twice, and Levi the rest of the night.

  At odd moments, I catch Seth, looking disgustingly handsome dressed in his usher morning suit, watching me from afar as though I’m untouchable. I can’t help but blow him a kiss when he does and then snog the life out of Levi.

  Yes, I’m petty, so sue me. Oh wait, Seth already did.

  My joy quickly evaporates when I see Seth and the French blonde, who seems stick to him like glue, turn in for the night.

  The best part of the evening was giving Seth something to see. That I’m not upset or crying in my room. I’m here, having fun with a hot guy who fancies the pants off me. With Seth gone, my raison d’être falls through and I just want to go upstairs and sleep for a thousand nights. Or at least until I’m no longer being sued.

  At the smaller bar near the back the reception area, away from all the revelry, Levi orders another whiskey for himself and looks in askance at me. I decline and stifle a yawn. Away from all the music and dancing, my feet have started to ache.

  “No more, I’m done.”

  Levi tips his head back and laughs. “What? No way. The party is just getting started, Ma Cherie.” He spins me around and kisses me. Since he hasn’t shaven, around my lips is bright red and starting to to feel sore. The last thing I want to do is kiss him some more, so I push him away.

  “You should stay. Enjoy the party. Honestly, I’m beat.”

  “No, no, no. You still owe me a date.”

  I throw him a strange looks. “What did you call last night and tonight. Me, exclusively, for both nights. That’s more than a date.”

  He laughs again, so loud it echoes around the small bar area. He turns, trapping me against the bar with his body. He so close I can feel the length of him pressing into me.

  “Not in my book Ma Cherie. Friends kiss each other goodnight and go to bed, lovers kiss until the sun rises and they no longer cannot.”

  “As lovely as that sounds, I’m tired and can no longer stand so if you’ll excuse me…” I try to push him off but he won’t budge.

  “One more drink. That’s all I ask. We can talk about your plans for my Tower.”

  I roll my eyes. “Fine, one more.”

  Levi pecks me on the cheek and orders a bottle of whiskey from the bar to go, with two glasses. It’s a little more than I was excepting but I can always just drink one shot and then go to bed.

  Hand in hand, Levi leads me outside to the veranda overlooking the sea and coast, where the wedding took place earlier in the day. The alter and archways leading up the aisle is just it was left. Even in the low light, the flowers adorning it are beautiful, giving off a heady scent of jasmine and rose. Such a lovely place to be married.

  Levi sits on the raised altar and pats a spot beside him. Grateful to sit down, I plonk myself beside him. I’m just enjoying the quiet when he reaches over and picks up both my legs, and puts them on his lap.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Giving you a massage,” he says as he unbuckles my shoes.

  I go to shake my head but pause when he starts to rub my naked feet. Within minutes he has me in ecstasy with his fingers, unlocking stress I never knew I had, in places I never knew existed.

  As I lay back and watch the stars I feel all the pain and tension just melt away. I’ve never had a foot massage before. If this is what they’re like it won’t certainly be my last.

  I’m just drifting off, enjoying Levi’s strong fingers making small miracles, when he starts moving up my leg. At first I don’t react, it’s just as nice as the foot massage, if not better.

  Slowly, he moves up until he reaches my thigh, parting them so he can kiss my leg while he rubs. His kiss is light at first, teasing like his fingers. It’s not unpleasant, not as he creeps higher, inching my dress up and out of the way so the cold breeze makes me shiver. I’m not ready for him licking the thin silk of my panties. The moan out of my mouth is real though, and I’m suddenly aware of how much this turns me on.

  Levi though? Pearl, seriously?

  Through my drunken haze, I try to sit up but he pushes me down with his hand on my chest, gripping the front of my dress in his hand, while he other one sweeps the material between his tongue and my clit aside and down as he buries his face between my legs.

  The heaven I’m feeling is real but the reality is not. I don’t want this, not from Levi. I’ve known from the moment he kissed me hard in the cloakroom and maybe even long before, that I want Seth.

  And now…

  With effort, I hold Levi’s hand on the front of my dress and pull myself to sitting.

  Levi’s head is between my legs still, under the skirt of my dress.

  “Levi… stop.”

  He appears from under my skirt, eyes dark and drunk with lust.

  “You drive a hard bargain Ma Cherie,” he says, as he moves from between my legs to sit next to me on the altar, rearranging his package with a disgruntled sigh.

  I have to laugh because what el
se can I do. Standing up, I offer him my hand. “Come on, let’s go to bed.” Levi’s eyes twinkle as they look into mine. I shake my head as I take his hand and help pull him his feet.

  “I mean to sleep… nothing else.”

  Chapter 13

  Pearl

  News of my legal situation spreads like wildfire.

  It doesn’t matter that I didn’t tell anyone, by end of lectures on Monday due to the searchable nature of court claims, everyone knows that I’m being sued and it’s all anyone can talk about. As soon as I enter any room, be it a lecture or dining hall, the students either stop talking or stare at me and whisper.

  What makes it worse is, not wanting to ruin her good spirits or make the trip awkward between her and Seth, I didn’t confide in Flick on the way home. And now she won’t even speak to me.

  I did point out to Flick that she spent the entire flight back in the cockpit with Seth. And once we got to the lake house, because I’d had enough of hearing them get like a house on fire, I’d gone to bed.

  I planned to tell her at breakfast, but Denise coming over and asking me if I was alright as soon as we sat down ruined any chance I had to tell Flick first.

  So I spend the week avoiding them both; Seth and Flick. And after a full week of nothing but studying and researching old court cases on inheritance fraud, I feel restless. Like I need to run a marathon just to sort out the mess that is my mind. Usually, I’d message Sully to talk things through but he’s Seth’s lawyer now.

  I really really need my own lawyer.

  Levi still hasn’t delivered the goods so I send him a reminder of what he promised. It doesn’t take long for him to ping me a reply back.

  Patience my little flower, I will have what you need by tomorrow.

  When I get home, the house is empty as it usually is these days, so I grab my coat and leave too. Flick probably isn’t back from her last lecture, and Seth… well he’s probably on a date or rolling around in hedges. If that’s the case, there’s no way I’m hanging around the house to mope alone.