After sitting for a while to try and gauge just by looking at him whether the man that held the key to a possible future fortune for her was going to die before dinner time, Pandora gave up and went to find a qualified opinion. If the good looking doctor couldn’t give her that, she thought she’d try and see if he wanted to give her something else instead.
Gracey held her stepfather’s hand. He hadn’t always been there for her, but she certainly didn’t hate him for it in the same way her sisters seemed to. Being there at all was a start, and besides which, Philip had only just recently promised to put her through University after the summer, which was something he never did for the other girls. That in itself was worth sitting beside him while he convalesced, hoping he would get better to make good his word.
“Do you think he’ll pull through?” Isabella asked, her eyes going instinctively to her mothers in the absence of her older sister.
“I hope not”, Alexis bemoaned. She dug into her handbag and fished around for her cigarettes. “I don’t think I could take the disappointment.”
“Mom!”
Isabella’s cheeks reddened with embarrassment. She may have been feeling it, but she didn’t quite have the balls to say it.
“What?”
Alexis held her thin arms up in defense.
“How can you be so cruel?”, Gracey complained. “He’s right here.”
Alexis rolled her eyes and put a cigarette to her lips.
“Oh I know where he is alright, you can hardly miss him.”
“You know, maybe it’s best for everyone”, Isabella interjected, her eyes going quickly again to her mother’s for appraisal. “You know if he-. I mean, he’s not always been the-”
Alexis nodded. “I’d turn off the machine right now if I could”, she said, filling in where her daughter failed to find the words.
“The machine isn’t keeping him alive”, Gracey noted with disdain.
“I’d still turn it off”, Alexis retorted. “It might help.”
“It’s a monitor. It monitors his vital signs.”
“How do you know so much about this anyway, little miss clever clogs?”
Alexis lit her cigarette, took a deep pull and blew a large smoke cloud out over the bed.
“Mom”, Gracey complained, waving the smoke away. “You can’t smoke in here.”
“If I’m paying for the room, I can do whatever the hell I like in here.”
“Somehow I doubt that”, Gracey said, but quiet enough she hoped for her mother not to hear.
“You think by sitting beside him and mopping his brow like some little goody two shoes you’ll somehow make your way into his will?”
A stack of ash fell onto the bed by Philip’s feet.
“Let me tell you something, darling”, Alexis intoned, leaning over and squashing her surgically enhanced tits against her knees, her smoking hand up for emphasis. “When this fat, horrible man is gone, and Lord knows I hope it’s soon, all of that delicious money will be coming to me. Do you know why? Because I’ve earned it.”
Isabella put her hand up in the air, careful not to break the cultivated silence her mother had contrived to create.
“This is a blessing” she went on. “The sooner he goes, the better. For all of us.”
“Everyone except him”, Gracey said.
Isabella still had her hand up and seemed eager to ask her question.
“Yes, Isabella.”
“Can I have another pony?”
Gracey rolled her eyes.
“Yes you can have another pony”, Alexis confirmed.
Pandora came back into the room, her hair messed up and her make-up smudged. She sat firstly on the edge of the bed, pushing her stepfather over to try and make some room and then hovered by the window when she found she wasn’t comfortable. She knew Isabella and her mother had their eyes on her, much like they always did. She was used to that, used to being the sexiest, most important daughter. Used to getting what she wanted.
“Well, what did he say?”
Gracey took one look at her older sister and felt disgusted. She had nothing in common with this family, which was one reason she felt even closer to her stepdad. If she didn’t know better, she would have sworn she was adopted. The problem was, she knew she wasn’t. She was Alexis’s daughter and the youngest sister of Pandora and Isabella. There was no way she could change that.
“He said thank you”, Pandora joked.
“About this blubber guts, you imbecile”, Alexis chastised.
“Are you going to fuck everyone who smiles at you?” Gracey spat out venomously.
“Are you going to fuck anyone, ever?”
Isabella sniggered. It was entertaining when her two sisters went at it, and fun to see that do-gooder bookworm Gracey humiliated.
“Have you been smoking, Mom?” Pandora detected.
“Never mind that, what did Dr Kildare say?”
“Who?”
“Oh, It doesn’t matter. Is he going to die?”
“They don’t know yet”, Pandora said. “It depends on the coma. They said being around him might help.”
“What to keep him alive, or to speed up his imminent death?”
“The first one”, Pandora said.
“Then we’ve done all we can here”, Alexis said, already collecting her things. “Come on girls, visiting time is over.”
Chapter 2
Leighton was mid fuck when the phone rang. Shirt half undone, tie still hanging around his neck, trousers barely low enough to let his cock escape. This had obviously been a matter of urgency.
“Don’t you dare”, Esmeralda warned, but she knew Leighton well enough to know he’d already made up his mind. “Fuck”, she complained as he pulled out of her, his cock still hard and slick with her juices.
“When are you ever going to fuck me long enough to make me come?”
Leighton rolled his eyes. With his cell phone in one hand, the other pulling his trousers over his sizeable cock, he moved into the kitchen to take the call privately. A lesser man would have looked awkward, embarrassed even. Leighton moved with the expertise of a panther on the prowl.
“Asshole”, Esmeralda mouthed to herself as she fell flat against the bed, frustrated to be left hanging. A moment later, Leighton came back to her, and leaned in the doorway until she did him the courtesy of looking up. Even when she was mad at him she couldn’t be for long. She hated that he had that over her, but there was no denying it. Leighton Tempest was a God amongst men. Undeniably sexy, extremely rich and very, very powerful, the man collected superlatives like other people collected parking tickets, and he knew how to get what he wanted. Esmeralda was one of those things, and she certainly wasn’t the first. She hoped she wouldn’t be the last either, but she was intelligent enough to know that probably wasn’t true. No one got Leighton, not for keeps anyway. They just looked after him for a while until the next best thing came along.
Leighton Tempest. Even his name made him sound super-human. Dark eyebrows that perfectly lined stormy, brooding eyes. Lips that didn’t so much beg to be kissed, as demand it, for the sake of humanity. A torso so perfect it looked like it had been chiseled out of stone by a renaissance artist and then brought to life by some visiting deity, only it was somehow better than that. Somehow more perfect than perfection itself.
Then there was his cock, which only the privileged few got access to, and had to be seen to be believed, and his bank balance, of course, which was just as large, and just as exclusive. Esmeralda had heard all of the rumors before she became one of the privileged members, and the rumors turned out to be more accurate than she could possibly have imagined.
“Put your clothes on”, Leighton commanded. “I need you to book me a flight.”
“To book you a flight? I thought we were on vacation together.”
Leighton raised his dark eyebrows, and even before he said it, she knew that it was coming.
“Vacation just got cancelled.”
&
nbsp; “Fucking hell, Leighton. You always do this to me.”
“And every time I do, I always make it up to you.”
“How about you make it up to me now?” Esmeralda purred, but Leighton was already buttoning up his shirt. She had no choice but to wait for him to want her again, but she knew better than most the improbability of that ever happening.
Whoever was on the other end of that call was someone more important to him that she was. If he wasn’t even going to finish fucking her, she figured it must have been about money. That was the only thing that could have taken his attention away. That’s what made him so dangerous. When he had his sights set on something, absolutely nothing could get in his way. Making him change was mind was more difficult than turning around the Exxon Valdez.
Chapter 3
Pandora spread her arms out and pushed back into the soft velvet of the cushions behind her. To her right sat her younger sister Isabella, a less attractive less intelligent version of her older sister, while their mother, Alexis, occupied little of the enormous space to the left. The VIP section was separated from the rest of the club by an unhookable cord of knotted red fabric, and protected by two large chested bouncers.
“I could get used to this.”
“As soon as he croaks you won’t have to.” Alexis commented. “Why do you think I married him? It certainly wasn’t for his good looks. It was so you three blood suckers could get a decent start in life. I never thought he’d last this long in the first place.”
“He’s definitely going to die though isn’t he?” Isabella asked, thinking about her new pony. “I mean, for real?”
Alexis began plucking at thin, wiry fingers. “Number one, he’s had a massive heart attack. If it wasn’t for someone ringing for an ambulance he wouldn’t have even made it to the hospital.”
Pandora held up her hands but avoided her mother’s glare.
“Number two, he’s been in a coma now for five days, and it doesn’t look like there is any chance of him pulling out of it.”
“Number three”, Pandora butted in while Alexis took a pause to puff on her cigarette. “He’s pretty much brain dead now anyway.”
Now she caught her mother’s glare.
“It’s what the doctor said, when he didn’t have his mouth full, of course.”
Pandora held up her hands while her sister stifled a giggle.
“What else did the sweet doctor say about his condition?”
“Nothing”, Pandora said, distracting herself with her nails. “Just that. He said he’s pretty weak overall and it could be any day now. I thought that’s why we were here.”
“It is why we are here, isn’t it? Mom?” Isabella looked confused.
“Drink your champagne, Isabella”, Alexis commanded. “We are here mourning the fact that my husband, your stepfather is in the hospital, on his deathbed.”
“And we have his credit card”, Pandora added.
“Exactly”, Alexis confirmed, allowing herself a little smile. “With any luck, I might be able to find you girls a replacement in here. Not that we need one now anyway.”
“You might for Gracey”, Pandora huffed. “She’s worse than that poodle-brain Alexander.”
“I heard poodles were the most intelligent dogs.”
“Shut up Isabella, you know what I mean.”
Isabella looked at the fizzing bubbles at the bottom of her glass, her skin hot from being chastised.
“What will happen to Alexander? We’ll keep him won’t we?” Isabella said, suddenly worried.
“Look, If Gracey wants to make a choice between her family and a stepfather who spent most of his life ignoring her, then so be it. It means less money to split between the rest of us. And as for Alexander, he’s all yours, but he’s not putting another damn paw in the house as long as I’m alive.”
“What does the will say exactly, Mom?” Isabella asked. “I mean, does it say how much we are going to get?”
“Don’t you worry your pretty little head about that my sweet little cherry, you let Mommy sort out all of our finances. And we are going to start with another bottle of that deliciously expensive champagne courtesy of your recently very generous, hopefully not-alive-for-much-longer stepfather.”
Alexis alerted one of the bouncers by throwing a drinks coaster into his back, and a moment later a waiter came over with the order.
“Life is going to be nothing but expensive champagne and superior quality from here on in ladies, you can be sure of that.”
Alexis raised her newly filled glass and her daughters followed suit. “I’m so glad to have you two with me”, she said. “Gracey was always a little different, but you two I knew I could always count on.”
Pandora and Isabella exchanged a glance and then looked back to their mother.
“The future”, Alexis said and drained her glass in one.
***
Gracey had been sleeping and woke with a start to see Leighton standing over her stepfather’s bed looking at the fat, unresponsive man lying on top of it as if he couldn’t make sense of the shape. She had to blink twice to realize she wasn’t still dreaming.
“Hey“, Leighton said upon seeing her. “Sorry for waking you up.”
Gracey rubbed her neck where the edge of the hospital chair had made it sore.
“It’s ok, I shouldn’t be sleeping anyway.” He didn’t look like one but she thought it best to ask anyway. “Are you a doctor?”
“No”, Leighton confessed.
This confused Gracey even more. If he wasn’t a doctor, what was he doing in here stood at the edge of the bed staring at her stepdad?
“Then, I mean, I don’t mean to be rude, but what are you doing in here? It’s a private room.”
“I’m sorry to intrude. I can leave if you like. I haven’t seen Philip for a long time, but we used to know each other very well, in a past life if you like. I heard about the incident and I was in the area so I thought I’d pop in. I don’t think we’ve had the pleasure of meeting before though.”
Gracey softened. A little bit more awake now, she could see just how good looking this man was.
“I’m sorry for being cranky. I’m Gracey, Philip’s youngest stepdaughter.”
“Not at all”, Leighton said and took her hand in his. “I’m Leighton.”
A moment passed while they both looked at the graying man, lying prostrate in the bed.
“What happened?” Leighton eventually asked.
Gracey sighed.
“Last week he had a heart attack brought on by a stroke and smashed his ribs when he fell over in his office. When we brought him here, they could do little else but stabilize him. Since then he’s been in a coma and getting worse day by day.”
“Where are the rest of your family?”
“They’re the ones that should be here not him”, Gracey mumbled, too low for Leighton to hear her. “Out celebrating”, she added, louder this time.
“Celebrating?”
“My stepfather wasn’t well liked”, Gracey explained. “In fact, you’re the only one outside of the family who has come to see him.”
“It doesn’t surprise me”, Leighton said. “Your stepfather had a knack for making enemies and not friends.”
“They’ve taken his credit card to The Exchange with every intention to max out the limit.”
“The Exchange”, Leighton scoffed.
“You know it?”
“I know of it”, he said. “Philip must have done well for himself. That’s a members only bar.”
“He wasn’t all bad”, Gracey confessed.
“Is that why you’ve spent every day here while the rest of your family go off and celebrate?”
Gracey didn’t feel like she needed to answer the question. “Do you want some time alone with him?” she said instead.
Leighton shook his head. “He wasn’t good to me either. I just wanted to come in and see him before he died. I heard he was pretty bad, and looking at him now, he doesn’t look
like he’s got much time left.”
Gracey reached for her stepfather’s hand and squeezed it tightly in hers.
“There’s still a chance he’ll pull through”, she said, even though she didn’t truly believe it herself.
Leighton watched this act with curiosity. He had no idea just how pretty Gracey was going to be, and it threw him a little. What was meant to be a very quick visit to say goodbye had the potential to turn into something else entirely. And Gracey had already said she was the youngest daughter, which meant there was at least one more.
“Is your sister as upset as you are?”
“Which one?” Gracey said. “Pandora and Isabella don’t give a shit about Philip because he never gave a shit about them. As far as he was concerned, we were the trade off he had to make to ensure Mom would marry him. He was under her spell, and he wasn’t the first. Just not under it well enough for him to care about us.”
“I still don’t really understand why you’re here then”, Leighton asked.
“He doesn’t deserve to die alone”, Gracey said. “Besides which, he was warming up. We were beginning to get along.”
“It’s a shame he left it so late then.”
“Yeah, it is.”
Silence hung in the air momentarily while Gracey studied the stranger she was now revealing intimate parts of her life to. It was the kind of thing that happened around death, people became more honest about their own lives.
“So, what’s your deal then?”
Leighton smiled at her. For some reason she could feel herself going red. His look was so intense, she could almost feel him looking around inside her. Gracey pushed the thought away. It was the kind of dirty thing her sister Pandora would think. Then she thought it was a good job Pandora wasn’t here, because she’d have already wrapped Leighton around her little finger. Pandora was a good looking girl, and men seemed to go crazy for her.
“Philip and I were partners in a business a long time ago”, Leighton said.
“Business partners? You don’t look old enough to me.”
“Well, that was probably one of the reasons it didn’t work out.”
DONKEY: A Stepbrother Sports Romance (With FREE Bonus Novel Charged!) Page 26