It’s not. It’s been six years in the making.
“What would I do for work?” It’s a stupid question. I can wait tables anywhere. Or maybe... maybe I could finally go back to school. Revisit some of my older dreams.
Seth arches an eyebrow at me. “You can do whatever you want. The only thing I would expect from the woman I love is that she be happy.”
“The what?” The top of my head collides with his chin as I jolt.
Did he just say what I think he said?
“You heard me.” He grins, but I see the flutter of anxiety pass through his eyes. He’s nervous.
Seth Thorne, the domineering, badass billionaire, is nervous because of me.
It melts the last sheen of ice that surrounds my heart.
“There’s never been anyone else for me but you.” It hurts, saying these words—putting it out there. I’ve been hurt so much in the past.
And now I’ve said it. He’s said it. The world hasn’t shattered.
We sit in silence for a long moment. I’m the one to break it.
“What about Sam?” Most women my age are long out of their parents’ houses, I suspect. But my family has always been different.
“He’s a grown man.” Seth sounds a little bit amused, and I mock punch him in the arm. “I think he can survive without his daughter doting on him.”
This is true. Plus he’ll still have one child with him. Which of course begs the question...
“What about... Theo?” My thoughts have solidified on this front. I don’t think that Seth has made this all up. But no matter what Theo’s intentions are...
He’s my brother. He will never hurt me.
“Allie.” Seth runs a finger over my cheekbone, and I arch into the touch. “Think about it. If you truly think that Theo can change—if you truly want to help him—doesn’t it make sense to stay away?”
Yes. It does. It absolutely makes sense, and I know in an instant that I’ll do it. But just in case, I take a deep breath and keep that decision to myself for the moment.
Cupping his cheek with my hand, I bring his mouth down to mine to kiss him. “I need to think about it. Is that okay?”
He nods, though disappointment clouds his face. I wonder if he expected me to say yes immediately.
I want to and I know that Seth needs, deep down, the validation that comes from being my knight in shining armor.
But I’m not a princess. Or if I am, I’m more along the lines of Princess Fiona than Cinderella—I need to save myself.
I don’t want to think about that though. I don’t want to think anymore, period, so I kiss him again, this time drawing my hand down to his cock. Within seconds he’s hard and I wrap my leg over his hip. He enters me in one fluid stroke, groaning as he moves. I grip his shoulder as he works himself inside me.
We rock together, and I close my eyes and let him take me away from the truth of our situation. It’s simple and beautiful, if only for a little while.
***
I blink open my eyes and turn my head slightly to see Seth fully asleep beside me. His one hand is over my hip, and the other is flung high and wide, and his legs are spread. I purse my lips with amusement as I wonder at the fact that I wasn’t pushed out of the big bed. Picking up his phone on the side table, I squint at the time. It’s only nine o’clock at night. We made love for at least three hours, and I’m pretty sure we’ve slept for a few hours at least.
I want to snuggle back into his warmth, but I’m fully awake. My mind is going a mile a minute. I have a lot to think about, and I can’t do it cuddled in a warm, soft bed beside a hot, hard man that sets me on fire.
Careful not to disturb Seth, I roll out of the bed. I need some alone time so I can properly think about everything. The man just clouds my mind and makes everything so complicated.
I suppose it is. But that doesn’t help me think.
Naked, I pad around the bedroom in search of clothing. The pool that I can see outside the windows beckons, but don’t have a suit, so instead I pull on one of Seth’s t-shirts and a pair of his sweatpants. They’re a little long, but fit nice and snug. I’ll go run on the treadmill in the gym for a while. Running always clears my head, and I don’t mind doing it in bare feet.
After I scribble down a note for Seth, I take one of the key cards for the room and head down to the gym. Thankfully it’s empty save for the hotel employee who hands out the towels. I give him a little smile and take the offering before getting onto one of the machines. I program it for a few hills and start pumping.
It’s not long before sweat drips down my back and dots my forehead and upper lip. There’s nothing like extreme physical exertion to clean the mind of cobwebs and lingering sexual haze. Sex has never before muddled my brain, but I can see now that it’s because I wasn’t having the right kind. Or rather, I wasn’t having it with the right man.
Sex with Seth turns my world upside down, shakes the very foundations of my being. There is no thinking when he’s buried so deep inside I don’t know where he ends and I begin.
And that is the problem. We are a whole being when our bodies are locked together. Outside of the bed, we are two very different people. Not an insurmountable problem... but I have to figure out exactly what I want.
After climbing five hills and valleys, I slow my pace, walking briskly to cool down, and then get off the machine. My legs feel like limp noodles, and my mind is clear, just what I was hoping for. The towel guy is nowhere to be seen, so I can’t ask him for a bottle of water. Maybe I’ll just take one off his station. He’ll never know.
When I’m just about at the counter, the lights snap off, plunging me into darkness.
I stumble and smash my knee into one of the recumbent bikes, swearing loudly as the steel collides with bone.
“Fuck.” I blink, waiting for the lights to flicker and turn back on, as they usually do after power blinks out, but the room remains shrouded in darkness. I had my eyes fixed a few years ago and my vision is pretty decent, but if I squint I can still only make out vague shapes. Not enough for me to safely make it to the door without tripping on something and killing myself. “Hello? I’m still in here. Anyone have a flashlight?”
As soon as I make the decision to get down on my hands and knees and crawl my way out of here—less distance to fall if I run into anything—I sense movement behind me.
I whip around just as a hand grips me at the waist and another comes down hard on my mouth. Adrenaline shoots through me, and just as Tristan and I have done in drills, I stomp down, searching for a weak instep, throwing my elbows and my head back at the same time, hoping to connect with something tender.
Whoever has me seems to be expecting my moves. He or she holds tight as I struggle, their large palm muffling my scream for help.
Then all the will I have to fight drains out of me as words are whispered into my ear, quickly replaced by shock.
“You’ve been naughty, Allegra Jayne. I’m going to punish you.”
Chapter Five
SETH
When I finally wake up, I find the spot next to me on the bed empty. I run my hand over the sheets and pillow where Allegra had been sleeping to find them cold. Her scent still lingers though. She must’ve gotten up hours ago. Sitting up, my nerves relax a hint when I see that her clothes are still on the floor. She can’t have gone far.
I strain to listen for the shower but don’t hear anything. In fact¸ it’s uncomfortably quiet in the hotel room. I don’t like it.
Without putting any clothes on, I walk out of the bedroom and into the living room. “Allie?”
No answer. The living room is empty. As is the bathroom. I’m alone in the suite—Allegra isn’t here.
Restless. Went down to the gym. Wore your T-shirt. Hope you don’t mind. She drew a smiley face to go with it, which makes me smile, even as anxiety builds again in my gut.
There seems to be no convincing her that she’s in danger. Maybe she’s right. Theo might have an unhealthy obsessio
n with her, but if she feels so strongly that he won’t hurt her, maybe, just maybe, he won’t.
Doesn’t mean I can’t oh so casually join her in the gym. Keep an eye on her without her knowing it.
The hotel is quiet, and I pass only a few people on my way down to the gym. When I push through the glass door, I nod to the attendant.
“Good evening, Mr. Thorne. Do you need a towel? Water?”
I appreciate that the staff here takes the time to know their patrons—I’ll leave this man a good tip.
“Thank you.” Before I take either offering, I look around, but the gym is empty, which makes me frown. “Has a woman with red hair been in here recently? On the smaller side, wearing clothes that were too big for her?”
The attendant nods. “She was in here about an hour ago.”
An hour ago... I check my watch to find that it’s now a few minutes after ten. The gym closes up at eleven.
Where else would she be?
“Did you see her leave?” I don’t think she’s left the hotel, but the idea of chasing her all over it is frustrating.
The attendant frowns, and I can tell he’s thinking about something. “I didn’t. I had to go to maintenance for a moment, and when I came back she was gone.”
“How long were you gone for?” Shit. My heart starts to pound hard and my throat tightens.
“Fifteen minutes maybe.” He seems startled by the intensity of my question.
I survey the floor. I know what I’m looking for but don’t want to give credence to it by naming it in my mind.
“Was there anyone else in here when she was?” I try to make the question sound casual, but the look on the other man’s face tells me I haven’t succeeded.
He shakes his head. “No, sir. She was alone.”
Without replying, I circle the gym while the attendant looks at me like I’m a lunatic. As I scan the floor for something, anything—a discarded towel, a red hair, a spot of blood—I wonder if maybe he’s right.
I won’t jump to the worst conclusion yet. Allegra could very well be sitting in the bar having a martini and chatting up the bartender.
“If you see her again, could you please call me?” I write down my cell number on one of the hotel business cards and give it to him. With it, I give him a hundred dollars, and he acknowledges the denomination with wide eyes.
“Yes, I will, sir.”
His reassurances don’t do anything to alleviate my nerves. Leaving him in the gym, I sprint down the stairs to the bar, and instantly recognize how underdressed I am. Since they’re well aware of who I am here, they might just serve me dressed in workout clothes, but a stranger? There’s no way they would let Allegra in if she was only wearing my T-shirt.
“Good evening, Mr. Thorne.” The bartender keeps his eyes on my face, which tells me he’s aware of how I’m dressed and is choosing to ignore it.
“Have you seen a redheaded woman in here in the past hour or so?”
“I have not.”
“And you’ve been here all night?”
“Yes, I have.”
I look around the bar, then turn and survey the lobby.
“Is there something wrong, sir?” The man turns to follow my gaze.
There’s nothing there to see.
“I don’t know yet.” But I do. The urgency is growing. Allegra may not think that she’s in danger, but she wouldn’t want me to worry like this. I’m sure of it.
Something has happened.
To cover my bases, just in case I’m crazy, I give him my cell number as well, and then hit up the concierge and the woman at the check-in counter. Neither of them have seen Allegra, at least not since she showed up at the hotel hours ago. I check out front as well with the porters and the valets. None of them have seen a good-looking redhead leaving the hotel.
I go back to the room, to make sure she hasn’t come back while I was down in the lobby looking for her. For a brief moment when I open the door, I imagine she’s sitting on the sofa, waiting for me. Preferably naked. She asks where the hell I’ve been and what took me so long. I close my eyes and pray for that. But when I open them again, the room is empty. Just as I left it. Her clothes are still on the floor, her purse is still on the table in the living room, and her phone is still inside one of the flaps.
I always have my phone.
Hands shaking, I reach for my own and dial the Flynn house. Sam answers on the fourth ring. His voice is rough with sleep.
“Sam, it’s Seth.” I listen with barely veiled patience as he sputters.
“You’re dumber than I thought you were, calling here after this morning—”
“I’ll let you kick my ass later. Now listen. This is important. I need to know if Theo is there.”
There a moment of silence that seems like an eternity. “I’m not answering your questions.”
I close my eyes and count to five.
“If you care about your daughter, Sam, you will walk your bony old ass up those stairs and find out if Theo is at home.”
Something in my voice seems to get his attention. He’s silent for a moment, and I can hear the squeak of the fourth stair as Sam walks up them to the second floor. I hear the sound of a door opening, then closing. Another door doing the same. Then he comes back on and I know he’s starting to wonder.
“He’s not here.” His voice is still a bark, but there’s a trace of worry beneath it. “Neither is Allegra.”
“Allegra was with me, Sam. She was just here, and about an hour ago she disappeared.” This is it. It’s happened. I did my best to protect Allegra, and yet I still failed.
“What are you saying?” Sam demands, and I appreciate the heat in his voice. “What the hell’s going on?”
“I’m saying get out your damn shotgun, Sam. We’re in big trouble.”
Chapter Six
ALLEGRA
I feel like I did the time I had my wisdom teeth out—that disorientation that comes from waking from a drug-induced haze. Every time I move, my head pounds and my stomach roils. My body doesn’t even feel like my own. I’m curled into a fetal position on the floor—a hard floor, if the ache in my side is any indication. When I try to move my leg, my head twitches. It’s as if all my brain messages are going to the wrong places.
My lips are swollen and dry, and there is a horrid taste in my mouth. What the hell did I consume that made me feel this way? Did I relapse and drink? Am I now lying on the hard ceramic in the hotel bathroom?
The understanding comes slowly, a determined root working its way through the softness of my mind. There was no relapse—this isn’t the aftermath of some big party. I’m not in Seth’s hotel room. I’ve been drugged.
Drugged and kidnapped by my own brother.
No, Theo. No. I don’t want to believe that Seth was right all along, that the brother who once pushed me on the swings has taken me with the intent to harm. The thought revolts me and I shudder. It takes everything I have not to turn my head and vomit. Instead, I roll onto my back and try to gather my wits. I’m going to need them to get out of this situation, though it’s not yet apparent what that situation might be.
By the look of the ceiling and walls, I’m in an old rundown house. Wooden beams are visible through the holes in the stucco. Ripped and torn ribbons of wallpaper hang down from all the walls. I run my hand on the floor next to me. It comes away dirty, flecked with dust and grime and God knows what else. From the looks of things, I’d say I am in some abandoned house that was boarded up and forgotten long ago.
Swallowing down the bile rising in my throat, I try to sit. I lift up with my head, and then fall back down. My eyesight swims and I see black and white spots dancing before me. I try again, engaging my core to lift me. It’s a good thing I do a hundred crunches a day to stay fit. I’m finally sitting, which enables me to see the entire picture.
It isn’t pretty.
“Do you want some water?” From his chair in front of me, Theo reaches over with a bottle of water.
&
nbsp; “Not from you.” My voice cracks. I rub at my throat. It’s strained and dry, but I’m not drinking anything he gives me.
“There’s nothing in it. I promise.”
I glare at him. How dare he promise me anything?
He takes a drink from the bottle, and then hands it to me. “See? It’s fine.”
I don’t want to take it, but I need to flush this drug out of my system. I need my strength if I’m going to fight back. My brother is going to regret offering me the water after I knock his teeth out and smash his nose up into his brain.
I drink down most of it, but nearly choke. I cough, but don’t give the bottle back to him, instead setting it down beside me. “I will scream if you don’t let me go.”
“Go ahead. No one will hear you. We’re a long ways from home.”
I rub at my eyes. My eyesight is getting better—I don’t see two of Theo, which is probably a good sign. The ache in my head has lessened a bit. I clench and relax each muscle in my legs and arms, willing them to move, like Uma Thurman in those Kill Bill movies. She willed herself out of paralysis—I can, too.
Finally, my body starts to listen to me again.
“Why?” I suppose it’s cliché, asking this, but I have to know. He just looks at me as if I’m asking him some hard algebraic question from high school. “You said you’d never hurt me.”
He snorts with derision, a glimmer in those icy eyes. “And you said you wouldn’t see him again. I guess it’s an eye for an eye, because you looked me in the eyes and promised me, Allie.”
That nickname on Theo’s lips makes me cringe. “Don’t call me that.”
“Right. Because only your other brother gets to use that name.” Theo sneers. Agitated, he jumps to his feet and paces in front of me. “Only the brother that you spread your legs for. Is that right?”
“Yes.” Hearing what Seth and I have reduced so crudely has rage trickling in to replace fear. “That’s right, you lying sack of shit.”
He stops dead and scowls down at me. I can see his hand fisting and releasing, like he’s trying to refrain from hitting me.
The Other Brother Part 3: Illicit Page 4