The Final Twist Untwisted Series Book Five

by Raine, Alice

  ‘It was your first time back there, and I wanted to make sure you enjoyed the experience and had good memories of it.’ He licked his lips and smiled down at me sweetly. ‘Not everyone reacts in the same manner, so I couldn’t be sure that I could make you come that way, but I know for sure that I can make you come when I fuck you normally, so I decided we could do a bit of both. Start with the new, and then move back to the tried and tested so you got a climax, too.’

  When he put it that way it was rather sweet of him. It also explained why he had wanted the condom on, because going from the back hole to the front wouldn’t be the most hygienic of acts.

  He leaned in close to place a kiss on my lips then grinned smugly. ‘For the record, from the way you reacted to me just now I’m almost 100 per cent certain that I can make you come from anal penetration, too, so next time, I won’t bother with the rubber. If there is a next time,’ he added quickly, flashing me a wink before sobering his face. ‘So, how did you find it?’

  Blinking, I licked my lips and tried to assess my feelings. It had all been pretty surprising, in a good way. The build-up swum in my mind; that incredible session in the kitchen. My arse certainly hadn’t forgotten about Nathan’s use of the crop, that was for sure, but I’d loved it. Then we’d moved to the bedroom for round two. He’d been so thoughtful, making sure I was comfortable and relaxed the entire time. I’d come harder than I had in a long time, too, which was never a bad thing.

  ‘It was … amazing.’ I caught Nathan’s eye and saw from his expression that he wanted, or perhaps needed, more reassurance from me, so I gave a self-conscious shrug as my cheeks bloomed with heat. ‘I’d been worried that it would hurt, but you did everything perfectly, Nathan. You made it really special for me. Thank you.’

  Nathan seemed to let out a relieved breath, then placed a kiss on my lips. ‘Plus, you came so hard you ripped our new sheets,’ he commented lightly, before brushing some stray hairs from my face.

  What? Bolting upright, I looked down at the crumpled bed sheets. To my horror, he was right. There was a gaping hole where my hands had been. I didn’t even know I had that kind of strength within me.

  ‘Oops …’

  ‘Oops indeed,’ Nathan murmured in amusement as he rolled onto his back and tucked my body in by his side.

  As I lay there for a few more minutes to get my breath back I suddenly found myself giggling. The first little bubble of laughter rippled up my throat, followed by another, and another. It must be the adrenaline from what we’d just done escaping my body, I supposed, but whatever it was, I found that once I’d started I just couldn’t stop.

  ‘What?’ Nathan sounded perplexed. He sat himself up and stared down at me.

  ‘Well, I was thinking that we only moved in here last night and not only have I just ripped a set of brand-new sheets, we’ve already christened the bedroom and the kitchen with sex.’

  Nathan watched me giggling for a second more then joined me, his handsome face creasing at the corners of his eyes as he laughed along with me. He gave the side of my hip a tickle. ‘Don’t forget your arse. That just got christened, too.’ His cheeky remark had me gasping, then laughing with embarrassment again, before he offered me his hand and pulled me from the bed.

  ‘Come on, let’s shower. I want to get some arnica on those marks to make sure you don’t bruise.’

  Accepting his hand, I allowed him to lead me into the huge walk-in shower. This side of him never failed to amuse me; he liked – no, he loved marking me with a nice circular hickey, a reddened hand print, or a crop mark, but would be absolutely beside himself if he left other associated bruising on my skin. He was so contradictory on this area, and he knew it, and I found myself shaking my head in amusement.

  I didn’t comment. Instead, I let him sweep me into his arms under the hot spray of the water and kiss my laughter away.

  Chapter Twenty Seven – Nathan

  After that unexpected turn to the morning’s events I was feeling fucking fabulous, but there was still one thing playing on my mind. My brother. Even though we were grown men now, I’d always looked out for him. Always. The last few days had been stressful enough for me, but he’d had it so much worse; he’d had all the shit to deal with regarding the sudden return of our parents, and in addition to that, he had Rebecca still in hospital. I could hardly imagine how he was feeling, but I needed to make sure he was OK.

  ‘I’d like to pop back to the hospital today and check on Nicholas.’

  Stella finished the last bite of her sandwich and nodded. ‘Of course.’

  ‘I was thinking we could save your parents a trip and drive down to St Albans. I’ll drop you off so you can see William and your folks, then I’ll head on to the hospital from there.’

  Stella’s parents had offered to come and stay with us for a few days to look after Will while we dealt with the fallout of this nightmare week, but as much as I liked them, and was grateful for their support, I really wanted to avoid having them over to stay.

  Parental meet-ups were something I was only just getting acclimatised to, and I generally managed a few hours with the Marsdens before I got twitchy, wondering when Mrs Marsden was going to corner me and give me another talk about marriage. If they were staying here, I’d be on alert 24 fucking hours a day, which was not a thought I relished.

  As if reading my thoughts, Stella smiled. ‘On the way back, you can get me and Will, and then the three of us can spend our first night here all together as a family.’

  My family. Swallowing around a sudden lump in my throat, I nodded. ‘Sounds good.’

  As I had suspected, Nicholas hadn’t wanted to leave Rebecca’s side, and I didn’t want to talk about our parents in front of Rebecca, so I’d had to wait until an opportunity arose. Luckily, that hadn’t taken too long, because a specialist came in wanting to do a private assessment and had ushered both Nicholas and me out of the room.

  ‘Quick coffee?’ I’d asked hopefully, sighing in relief when Nicholas nodded his agreement.

  Once we had located the cafeteria and both had a cup of coffee we found a table and sat in silence for a second or two. As siblings went, Nicholas and I were close, but with our background and all the issues surrounding our upbringing, emotional outpourings were still relatively few and far between.

  Nicholas took a sip of his coffee, grimaced, and pushed the polystyrene cup away. Seeing his reaction, I didn’t even bother to taste mine, because I was even more of a coffee snob than my brother, if that was possible. So I simply moved the cup aside and focused my attention on him.

  Pulling in a deep breath, I decided to get straight down to business. ‘So, how are you feeling about everything now?’

  Running a hand through his hair, Nicholas let out a long breath and made eye contact with me. ‘Well, Rebecca and the babies are definitely OK, so I guess I’m all right.’

  I tugged at my shirt sleeves in agitation and rephrased my question. ‘I actually meant about seeing our parents again … and … what happened to Father …’

  Nicholas’s nostrils flared as he drew in an angry breath and shook his head adamantly. ‘He put me, us –’ he reinforced this correction by rapidly waving his hand between the two of us before leaning closer and dropping his voice to a whisper ‘– through years of hell with his abuse. Then, to top it off, he nearly killed my babies, Nathan.’ Sitting back, he folded his arms, appearing calmer now. He briefly closed his eyes. ‘All I feel is relief for his death. I’m glad he’s gone, and I don’t even feel guilty for saying that.’

  Wow. When did my little brother get so kick-arse and strong? Jesus, he’s dealing with Dad’s death better than I am. I almost laughed at how the tables had turned, but instead I did something I hardly ever did; I decided to reveal a weakness to him. I had always tried to be the stronger older brother, a good role model for him, and someone he could look up to, but today I really needed to share this with him. Stella had been amazing at listening yesterday, but nobody except for Nichola
s could ever really understand how I was feeling, because they hadn’t been there when we were growing up.

  They hadn’t experienced Dad and all his ugliness first hand.

  ‘I had a bit of a meltdown,’ I admitted, averting my eyes out of embarrassment.

  Nicholas immediately stood and came around my side of the table. He slipped into the seat beside me and placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder. ‘Are you OK?’

  His concern affected me far more than it should have, and, to my horror, I felt a brief burn of unshed tears at the back of my eyes. Blinking several times, I got a grip on myself and nodded. I might be feeling a bit fucked up by all of this, but I would not cry again.

  Nicholas understood the screwed-up relationship I’d had with Dad better than anyone else, and while he had felt nothing but hatred for our father growing up, he knew that on some level I’d idolised Dad for a while. I’d been in awe of the power and control he’d been able to exert, I’d believed his beatings were to make me better, and for a short time, perhaps, I’d even wanted to be like him.

  The very thought of that now made me sick to my stomach.

  ‘I am. Stella was incredible. She knew exactly what to do to help me.’

  There was a moment’s pause, then I finally made eye contact with him again.

  ‘You know he got exactly what he deserved, don’t you?’ Nicholas asked quietly, his calm seeping across the gap between us. It was infinitely reassuring for me.

  ‘I do now, yes. Yesterday I … I was upset.’ I saw Nicholas’s jaw tense at my admission, so quickly set him straight. ‘Even after all these years, I’d held a shard of hope that he might suddenly see the errors of his ways and apologise.’

  Closing his eyes in understanding, Nicholas nodded. ‘Be the dad we’d always wanted?’ he said hoarsely.

  ‘Yes. It’s stupid, because nothing could ever have made up for how he treated us, but now he’s gone I have to just accept him for what he was; a vile excuse for a man and the worst possible example of a father.’

  ‘When I was a kid and the beatings first started, I used to hope he’d change too,’ Nicholas admitted quietly, before a frown creased his brows. ‘But I gave up that hope a very long time ago.’

  We sat in silence for a second, both lost in memories, no doubt, before Nicholas broke the peace and spoke. ‘It’s up to us to put it all right, Nathan. We need to do the complete opposite of what he did to us – be the best fathers we possibly can. You’re doing such a good job with Will, you’re going to have to help me out when the twins come along.’

  I could see the excitement in his eyes, even if it was accompanied by a touch of nerves, and I nodded, smiling as I did so. ‘Of course, brother. I’m always here for you.’

  Flicking at the faded table surface, Nicholas bit on his lip. He was unable to meet my gaze. ‘So, uh, did you speak to Mum at all?’

  That was a whole other pot of confusion, wasn’t it? But, somehow, I was hopeful that in the future we might be able to build some bridges. I didn’t have any gilded visons of us becoming a perfect family – too much had passed between us for that – but perhaps we could be on speaking terms and make up for some of the hurt.

  ‘I did.’ I wondered where to start, when Nicholas beat me to it.

  ‘Was she working with Dad, or what? Because everything was utter chaos, but I remember seeing her clutching a knife in her hand and it really looked like it was him she was going for.’

  My eyes fluttered shut as I recalled how she’d said she couldn’t let him hurt us any more, and a strange pain circled my heart as I slowly told Nicholas all that had occurred, from Father blackmailing her to stay with him, right up to Stella’s invitation for us all to meet for coffee.

  Turning my head sideways, I saw that Nicholas’s face had drained of colour. ‘All that time we thought she didn’t care about us, but he was basically forcing her to stay with him?’

  I nodded, not keen to think about Dad for a second longer than I needed to.

  ‘Beating her just as he did us?’ Nicholas slammed his hand down on the table then dug it through his hair. ‘Fuck!’ He seemed to be having a similar reaction to that news as I had. If only we’d known, we could have worked as a team and got out of there.

  ‘She used to sneak me chocolate biscuits,’ he said. ‘ On a Sunday after lights out she’d open the door and put an envelope on the dresser, then leave without saying a word.’

  A strange chill of remembrance skittered across my skin. God, the envelopes. Until he mentioned it, I’d forgotten about them. ‘I got them, too. Bourbon biscuits,’ I replied, my voice suddenly thick and raspy.

  Now we knew that Dad had banned her from overly interacting with us, things were becoming clearer. She hadn’t been all bad.

  Nicholas smiled sadly. ‘And I remember we got waffles on a Friday morning for breakfast because Dad always had to be at the base so was never home.’

  Waffles with maple syrup. It was all coming back to me. Mum never spoke much as she served them, but she always smiled as me and Nicholas had tucked in with gusto.

  Fuck. Closing my eyes, I started to feel quite overwhelmed by the flood of memories. Somehow, in the fog of time the few good memories had been lost among the torrent of bad. But now we’d started discussing them they seemed to be flooding back.

  ‘Do you remember the comic books?’ I asked, smiling genuinely for the first time in our conversation. ‘Dad banned them from the house, but once a month Mum would sneak two in for us to share.’

  It continued like this for several minutes, both of us picking out the good things we could remember and sharing some smiles until Nicholas’s phone interrupted us with a beep. He glanced at the screen, then pocketed the phone and looked across at me. ‘It’s Rebecca. They’ve finished the examination and she asked me to take her back a sandwich.’

  We both stood a little awkwardly after our deluge of sentimental talk, but then Nicholas laughed and gave me a half-hug, patting me on the back firmly before standing back. ‘Enough of this soppy shit. I need to feed my woman or she’ll get cranky.’

  Grinning at how under the thumb he was – how under the thumb we both were these days – I gave him a hearty pat on the shoulder, feeling a million times lighter after our talk.

  ‘Thanks for the chat, Nicholas, I needed it.’

  ‘Any time, bro, you know that.’ I was about to turn away when Nicholas touched my arm to stop me. ‘Let me know when you’re having coffee with Mum, and I’ll … I’ll come, too.’

  Drawing in a deep breath, I nodded, immensely thankful that I wouldn’t have to meet her alone. Then I strode from the hospital, keen to head back to Stella and my boy.

  Chapter Twenty Eight – Nicholas

  My eyes were fixed to the restaurant door. I stared at it obsessively as I waited for our mother to enter. As yet another stranger came in and moved to a vacant table, I drew in a calming breath to try to relax. I even thought about doing one of Nathan’s patented calming countdowns, but it was no good. My stomach was still churning, and I could feel my heart rate accelerating by the second.

  ‘OK, brother?’ Nathan asked beside me, pulling my gaze away from the door.

  ‘Yeah …’ Shaking out the nervous energy in my system, I turned to Nathan and saw him sitting passively, but watching me with concern. ‘I just … Seeing her still brings a real mix of emotions, you know?’

  Today would be our third meet-up with our mum since all the shit had happened with Dad, three months ago. After an initially tense coffee where we’d all tried to come to terms with what had occurred, Nathan and I had agreed that we’d meet with her once a month in an attempt at rebuilding some bridges. It was tough going. Reliving my horrific childhood was probably one of the hardest things I’d ever done in my life, but we were getting there, slowly but surely.

  Nathan’s nostrils flared as he also took a deep breath, but he nodded. ‘I do, I totally understand.’ Running a hand through his blond hair he then drummed his fingers on the
table several times, giving a small indication that he was feeling just as agitated as I was, even if his expression didn’t show it. ‘ Whenever you have doubts, just remember that my best security guy checked her out. Everything she has told us is true. Her claims about being abused and hospitalised by Dad were real. He did hit her, on more than one occasion. It’s all on record.’

  At first, Nathan had been very cautious about Mum’s reappearance into our lives, but she’d been checked out by his security team so thoroughly now that she could probably get clearance to work in Buckingham Palace.

  We shared a moment of quiet, presumably both caught up in the tumble of emotions that always came with thoughts of our father.

  ‘I know. I can’t believe we didn’t realise,’ I added quietly, my voice filled with the regret of what could have been. All three of us could have escaped and been free of him, and our lives could have been so different.

  ‘There’s no point dwelling on it, Nicholas. We’ve been dealt our cards; now we need to make the best of them,’ Nathan murmured, correctly interpreting my broody expression. And he was right. After years of thinking the worst of her and then finding out it had all been wrong, these meetings with Mum were a small step in the right direction.

  Nodding, I sipped my coffee, the warmth of the beverage going some way towards calming me. ‘I’m slightly regretting my decision to leave Rebecca at home, though. She makes me feel so much calmer,’ I admitted quietly, embarrassed by my confession, but able to voice it because I suspected that Nathan felt a similar bond with Stella.

  Closing his eyes for a second, Nathan nodded. ‘ Yeah.’ He went silent, but from the way he suddenly tugged on his shirt cuffs I knew he had more to say. Expressing our feelings still wasn’t exactly our finest skill, but we were improving. ‘I … I’m the same with Stella. Independently, we’re both strong, but when we’re together I feel almost invincible.’ Blowing out a breath, as if the emotional statement had been too much for him, he then turned and nodded at me. ‘You were right in your reasoning, though. Rebecca’s so far along in the pregnancy now that she doesn’t need any undue stress.’