by Lucian Bane
“Five minutes ago.”
“Okay, good. I’ll get the bags after introductions. Is that okay for you guys?”
“Yes,” we both said together.
He looked at both of us, his face crimped. “Can you both…get along for this? It would help the situation if you could.”
Again we both agreed together and then got out of the car. We made our way to the front door and stood like the three stooges. My heart slammed my chest, wondering who would open the door. Part of me wanted it to be a family member and another part of me hoped it was the help to remind me how much they didn’t want to really see me. Except my mom. And she would not come, just to appease my father.
The door opened and my mother gasped and put her hands over her face. “Lucian!” she hurried out the door and hugged me tight.
The unexpected immediate affection threw me, making it awkward. “Mom, you look beautiful.” Surprise made my voice a little higher than normal. Had she gone against the old man?
“Oh, I’m an old hag!” She turned to Tara. “Who is this?” She looked back at me, a twinkle in her eyes.
“This is Tara.”
“HI, Mrs. Bane, it’s a huge honor to meet you. Lucian has told me so many wonderful things about you. And you are as beautiful as he described you.”
I raised my brows at her, impressed and… wait, not impressed, she was putting on a show. Of course. “Tara is a life coach. She specializes in helping people feel good about themselves, achieve their goals.”
“Oh? Is this how you two met?”
She looked at me, and I panicked at not knowing the answer to that. “Yes! It is.” Tara rubbed my back in mechanical circles. “He was—”
“Mom, she’s a jester. We met at the library. She was holding a seminar and I was completely enraptured with her. I asked her on a date and we’ve been together since.”
“Since?”
“January,” Tara said. “Right after Christmas. Perfect start to a new year.”
“Ohhh, give me a hug then.” She hugged Tara. “Welcome to the family.”
She pulled away and looked at Steve. “I’m Steve, madam.” He bowed his head a little. “The chaperone.”
“Chaperone?” My mother sounded humored.
“Orders of Tara’s wonderful sweet grandmother. To protect Tara’s chaste reputation.” Steve nodded ever so slightly again.
I nearly snickered at that one.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t my big bro and his…” my brother looked at Tara and I put my arm around Tara’s shoulder.
“Tara. My girlfriend.”
He gave a shocked look at me. “Girlfriend? You settling down Don Juan?” He flashed that perfect Jock grin on his perfect Jock face.
“My mother’s instincts say he’s in love.” Mom sighed, dreamily.
Tara leaned her head on my arm. “He’s my soul mate. I do love this man.” She stroked my chest with her other hand and I couldn’t bring myself to smile despite the joy his expression gave me.
My mother clapped lightly and spoke in hushed tones to Steve while Jared sneered. “Love, huh?” He stepped back and eyed Tara up and down. “I can dig that.” He gave her an openly seductive smile and approving nod. “I can really dig that.”
It was practically a fucking sexual assault with words.
“And I’m Steve.” Steve shoved his hand between us as though breaking up a fight and Jared stepped back. He held his fist out to Steve for a knuckle tap. Steve looked confused before doing the same.
Jared turned his cocky lopsided grin to me. “Dad’s waiting for you to come see him. In the family room.” He turned to Tara. “How about I show you around?”
“How about no,” I said. “I can give her the tour just fine.”
He held up both hands as though I was attacking him. “Easy bro. I’m not trying to get your girl.” He slid his gaze to her. “Yet.” His laughter hit my muscles like an assault. “Bro, I’m kidding, quit with the death looks. I got babes.”
“Rebekah?”
“Nah. She’s history.”
“Good for her.”
“I can’t wait to meet your father, Lucian.” Again Steve broke up the silent grudge match, stepping forward. “Let’s go, shall we gentlemen?”
“Yes, let’s,” my mom said. “You boys still fight like children. When will the two of you grow up?” Mom kept rattling to Steve about how Jared and I fought about everything like it was just the cutest thing. She was in denial. Pretending it wasn’t what it was. No, nothing had changed.
We finally made it to the family room where King Tut rose from his throne recliner. “Well, well, well, look what the cattle drove in. My wayward son.”
“Hey old man,” I said, “long time no see.” I went over and hugged him roughly before returning to Tara’s side. “This is Tara, my girlfriend. And Steve, her chaperone,” I added quickly, giving him more than one thing to address, praying it would be Steve.
He eyed Tara. “Girlfriend? Is that what they call you girls nowadays? I thought it was call girl or show girl or something of the nature.”
I grit my teeth.
“Tara is educated Harold,” my mother sang. “She’s a…” her face fell in sudden loss.
“Life coach,” Tara said, sticking her hand out to my father. “Mr. Bane. It’s such a privilege to meet you. I’ve heard many amazing things about you.”
He boomed his laughter. “Honey, that’s cute, but flattery will get you nowhere with me.”
Tara laughed with him. “It wasn’t flattery, sir. It’s just amazing. Like the as the amount of miles flies will travel to reach a pile of shit.”
The room went silent for a few seconds before Steve’s baritone laughter rang out. “I’m Steve,” he stuck his hand out to my father. “Tara’s chaperone.”
“I heard. What the hell does she need a chaperone for? She’s clearly not royalty.” My father put his hand in Steve’s who shook it boisterously.
“On the contrary Mr. Bane. Tara is indeed royalty. Her sweet grandmother considers her a princess of pure blood. And I am here to ensure her chastity remains intact.”
My father’s laughter boomed like a canon. “Well good luck with that!” He shook Steve’s hand back just as boisterously. “I hope you brought one of them chastity belts.” My dad eyed me. “‘Cause that boy right there has a hankering for sick little bedroom activities.”
“Lucian is only ever a gentleman with me, sir. And if he wasn’t, I’d kick his ass myself. Steve is really here for his protection, not mine.”
It was my turn to laugh. Fucking brilliant, baby. “She’s right about that.” I looked at her and winked. “She’s kicked my ass before just for looking at her wrong.”
“I hear you’re military, Mr. Bane,” Steve stepped back to his spot next to me. “My father was Navy. A Navy Chaplain. He now pastors a modest Episcopalian church outside Athens, Georgia.”
“‘Piscopalian huh? Well, we’re Baptist in this house.”
“Speaking of house,” Tara said, “You do have an amazing home.”
“Oh amazing you say?” my father drawled.
Tara wagged a finger at him and did her cute pig chortle. “Yes indeed. Like the Rocky Mountains or Northern Lights. Definitely not to be confused with an amazing hog wallow.”
Jared walked up to stand on the right side of Tara, chuckling. “I like you much better than Lucian’s other call girls.”
“Jared specializes in spotting sluts, so I’m surprised he likes you at all,” I said. “Let’s take that tour now.” I pulled her with me toward the arched opening between the family room and the living. “Glad to be home mom,” I called back without looking.
“Ohhh, I’m so happy to have you, son. And you Tara. And Steve!”
“The pleasure is all mine, Mrs. Bane.” I realized Steve had followed us. Couldn’t blame him.
“Oh, call me Millie.”
“Call her Mildreth.” My father’s mumble could easily be heard, “Don’t you te
ll a man to call you Millie.”
My spine went cold at his acidic tone and I hurried up the stairs before I gave into the urge to take him apart. How dare he talk to his wife that way?
I led Steve to my old bedroom. “Can you go get our things while I show Tara around and bring them in here?”
“Sure thing, boss.”
“Thank you Steve,” Tara said. “It’s a comfort having you here.”
“Awww darling, being with you two is like a vacation in the Bahamas. In a hurricane.” He let out a contagious giggle and we laughed with him. He eyed both of us, suddenly serious. “I’ll go get our things,” he whispered and headed out.
I hurried and locked the door before anybody could intrude and turned to find Tara scoping my room. She paced along the walls, arms crossed, like she were at an art gallery. I watched her for a bit, wondering what she was thinking. I was suddenly sick with the need to hold her. She studied the buck head high on the wall. “I shot that when I was eight. Hunting with my grandfather. He was a…much better man than my father.”
She turned to me and the look in her eyes made the need worse. I made my way closer to her until I stood a few feet away. “What an amazing place to grow up,” she said. “I’m sorry your father is such a dick, though,” she mumbled, rolling her eyes with a hint of a smile.
I stepped closer to her and she looked up at me, the easy expression on her face slowly replaced with a guarded one. Pain stabbed me and I looked down, wanting to scream. I put my hands in my pockets. “Thank you for…” I swallowed, suddenly not knowing where to start. “For being here. With me. I…wish it was under different circumstances.”
“What’s wrong with these circumstances?”
I looked at her to read what was behind her casual tone and found that impenetrable Tara fortress. “You’re pissed at me for one.”
“And I have every right to be.”
“I just wish you weren’t.”
“Why?”
I struggled to get my mind out of my bleeding heart before the wrong thing found its way out. “Because… I love you and… wanted this to be enjoyable.”
“Did you forget… that this is your demon domination?”
“So?” I looked at her, silently pleading. “Does that mean I can’t have you to support me?”
“I am supporting you.”
“I mean love me Tara,” I whispered, my voice breaking.
She lowered her head and it hurt to see that she couldn’t look me in the eyes. “I love you.”
I snorted at the huge but left unspoken in her tone. “If I can’t have all of your love, I’d rather have none.”
She angled an angry glare at me. “I’d say the same for you.”
“You do have all of my love.”
Her finger shot up into my face. “Do you want to do this here? Do you really want me to bring up the shit you’ve done to me? Here? Now?”
I shook my head. “Is that all you can think about Tara? Is there nothing more than that? Bigger?”
She gasped. “Fucking no there isn’t. How would you like me to say those things to your brother? Who happens to be very good looking, by the way.” Fury hardened my jaw and she smiled and nodded. “No, see? See how you’re being a big hypocrite? I just mention it and I can feel the murder stabbing into me. Well, try living it.” She poked my chest with a pointed finger.
“Fine. Okay. I did that. What about the other things I’ve done for you?”
She gasped. “What. Is wrong with you?” Her head shook as she stared at me. “I mean…who… are you?”
“The man that loves you more than you will ever know, it seems.”
She snorted and looked away. “And you know what hurts me the most?” She looked back at me, the pain in her eyes stealing my breath. “You’re not…even sorry.”
“I’m sorry you’re hurting. It kills me when you hurt.”
“I don’t understand, Lucian. Help me, please. Why are you doing this to me? To us? I thought… we were heading in such a good direction? Is it something I’ve done?”
I pulled her in my embrace at the threat of her sobs. “No baby, it’s not you. I promise it’s not you. You’re beautiful.”
“Is it my past?” she cried into my chest. “The way I’ve treated you? Are you finally sick of it? You finally realize I’m not that amazing?”
I took her face in my hands and kissed her with a barbaric hunger to demolish her fears. She surrendered in seconds and I took ruthless advantage, locking my fingers in her hair. I suddenly needed nothing more than to make her forget everything but who I was to her. What I was to her. What she was to me. “Every fucking thing,” I breathed in her mouth, “you are everything to me.”
Her nails clawed desperately at my neck, pulling in my hair. I yanked her flimsy blue skirt up with one hand, refusing to tear my mouth from hers, fearing I’d lose the fire she ignited in my soul when we kissed. I found my way into her panties from the top and she gasped in my mouth, hiking her leg onto my hip as I went for her hot core like it were the ultimate life line. When I hit it, I knew she was mine, lost to me, to this, us. This is what we were, reckless passion with no meaning and name, riding us through the fucking universe until I couldn’t think, I could only be. With her, in her, God so fucking in her.
I commanded the power, thrusting in and out of her until she was overcome, singing its song so perfectly. I didn’t care that she was being way too loud, I was fucking glad. Lose yourself to me, love. Fucking lose yourself to me.
She fought to get herself closer and I lifted her on my waist and found the nearest wall for support. Holding my face, she kissed me back, I fucking loved when she did that, like I was the best thing she’d ever tasted. I fought to free my cock while she ripped her blouse and bra off.
“Oh God yes,” she gasped, watching me position her on me. “Fuck me. Right here baby, in your room.” I slid my cock in deep and she cried out. The sight of her thrashing her head while I had her against the wall, helpless, brought my dominance in animal doses.
I grabbed hold of her upper thighs and she locked her feet on the front of my legs, giving me perfect pumping leverage. I looked down between us. “Play with your pussy. You’re coming so fucking hard with me.”
She buried her fingers in her folds and rubbed fast little circles on her clit.
“Fuck, yes.” I kept myself buried inside her and rolled my hips as I watched. “Play with your nipples.” She obeyed me, squeezing the tight peaks then rubbing her finger over the tip. Her core clenched down on me and I growled. “That’s it, make it fucking hot. Then I’m going to fuck you until this entire house knows you’re mine, and you never fucking forget that fact.”
She whimpered and squirmed her hips, her cries beginning to peak as she moved herself on me. Just when she was close enough, I began to move in her, faster and faster until her adorable fucking tits bounced for me and her arm aimlessly sought purchase to hold something.
“I’m coming, come with me!”
The universe roared downward, around us, toward us, enveloping at breakneck speed. It would swallow us whole and bind things forever. Again. More each time. Like a perpetual heat that reinforced all things irrevocable. That was us. We were forever.
Chapter Thirteen
So much for fucking sense into Tara. The next morning at breakfast, she sat, three chairs down from me, cool as a snow queen. And my so-called brother just had to come to breakfast with no shirt and put me on standby for murder in cold blood.
Why the fuck did she have to wear something so sensual? The fabric of that clingy white sundress with the skinny take me off straps was the quality of finely spun cotton. It clung to her like a possessive lover and begged to be touched. You’d think with no make-up or jewelry, she’d be a plain jane. Instead, she looked like some goddess descended from ecstasy heaven, beckoning your every erotic fantasy.
And there my father sat at the head of the table, the noble King Tut, eating the best steak Texas had to offer. He a
lways reminded me of a disgusting bulldog loudly gumming his food to death. And my mother sat next to him, his regal slave queen, smiling in joy and rapture, happy in her prison.
My brother was second in line for disgusting table habits. However this morning, he appeared to be molesting the food in his mouth while keeping his eye on Tara and her chest.
I looked over at her and froze at spotting a vague show of her nipples through her dress. I stood. “Excuse me, please. Tara, can I see you in the kitchen?”
“No need to pretend you’re royalty Lucian.” My father’s words came out garbled around his mouth full of food.
“Honey, it’s manners,” my mother said.
Amazing. When would my father learn that I did it to piss him off and please my mother? Dense bastard. He’d not mentioned the racket I’d caused in my room and I was sure they were all doing the it didn’t happen routine. That’s what they did when things were too bad to deal with. Just pretend it didn’t happen. But I knew it was only a matter of time before my father would retaliate. That’s how he fought. Stealth. And when he got you, he’d let you know what that was for. So, usually, his silence meant deadly things were coming.
I guided Tara into the kitchen with a gentle touch on her elbow. When we were alone, I found myself locked up with jealous fury.
“What?” she asked, annoyed with my silence.
“Do you have a bra on?”
“Yes I have a bra on!” She looked down at her chest then back up at me.
“An air bra? Your nipples look like they’re one wrong thought from cutting through the fucking fabric.”
She gasped and yanked one side of her top down. “Does that look like an air bra? What is wrong with you?”
“Don’t look at my brother.”
She quirked a bored brow. “Really.”
“Yes, really. He’s a sexual predator, one wrong look can invite things you don’t want.”
She cocked her head. “Are you sure I don’t want it?”
I stared at her, speechless, then stepped close enough to pin her to the counter with my body. “Don’t fuck with me on this, Tara. I mean it.”
“Ohhhh, I’m scared, Mr. Bane. Trembling.” She slid her fingers seductively along my chest. “How about I handle my own shit. And you handle yours?” She smiled sweetly at me.