Delusive

by Courtney Lane

  While Elias networked beside his father, I sat alone and watched the cars perform laps around the track.

  “Whose daughter are you?” A woman with big brunette hair and even bigger breasts pushed up to the sky asked me.

  “No ones,” I replied. “I’m here with Elias.”

  “Oh yeah? Natanael was such a big star. It’s a shame what happened to make him retire.” She leaned forward and whispered, “There were rumors. The man has a lot of secrets. I’m not surprised he’s in Miami. It’s convenient.” She smiled at my stunned and confused face. “Money is money, I suppose. Might want to trap the son before he gets snagged by another woman who is hungrier for him than you are. Set yourself up for life.”

  She suddenly had my undivided attention. “What do you mean?”

  “You know…get pregnant.”

  I blinked at her, unsure of how to respond.

  “Mark my words. If he’s anything like his daddy, that’s the way to go, hun. I gave Natanael my virginity, got pregnant, and look at me now.” She gestured over her body grandly while wearing a proud smile. “My bills are paid and all my other needs are met. I may not have all of him.” She glanced back at Elias’s mother. “But I have more of him than Kirsten does. How do you think Miss Beauty Queen got him? It wasn’t love, I’ll tell you that. She had a son and that trapped him for life. Too bad for the woman before Kirsten.”

  Shrugging her shoulders, she touched her lip and scrunched up her nose. “I can’t remember if he married that first girl or not. When news came out that the son she had might not have been Natanael’s?” She brought her palm across her throat in a straight line, pantomiming someone’s throat being cut.

  I slanted toward her and lowered my voice, “Do you mean Roth or Keith? Because I thought Elias only had one older brother.”

  “He only has one that he hangs with, I think.” She touched the corner of her mouth with her index finger and curled her lip. “Natanael has so many kids, I can’t keep up. Natanael has so many children or women claiming they fathered his children, he can’t, either. The older boy’s mother is no longer with us because that older boy isn’t Cari blood. I bet the only reason he has the money he does is because of Elias.”

  “If you’re talking about Roth, that can’t be true. Elias doesn’t know who Roth is,” I informed her, “and Roth’s mother is still alive.”

  “Maybe it isn’t Roth. Maybe it’s Keith?” She shoved me in a playful manner. “Girl, I don’t know. You’re confusing me.” Her smile began to temper as she looked at Elias. “Poor boy, he’s so starved for a family he tries to find every half-brother and half-sister he can find to bond with. He’s going to be searching for a really long time. His father doesn’t believe in condoms or monotony.”

  Her gossip confused me more than it seemed to confuse her. How could it have been that Elias had no knowledge of who Roth was—according to what I knew after spending time with Roth—if Elias tried to seek out all of Natanael’s children? It made me question who was legitimately Natanael’s son—Keith or Roth? “You mean…monogamy?” I asked, referring to her last comment.

  Garnering the attention of Mrs. Cari, she laughed. “I bet if I had twin sons instead of a daughter, I would have a rock ten times the size of hers. I would need a splint to hold my hand up it would be so heavy. Oh well. Guess I’ll settle for this.” She flashed a ring on her finger that nearly blinded me.

  “Lula,” Mrs. Cari’s voice startled me. She came beside me and stared Lula down. “You’ll never learn, will you? You don’t belong here. Not only that, you are violating the conditions of your gag order. Do you want to be countersued for the money you greedily took? Or would you rather I put you in the hospital again?”

  “I have a right to be here.” Lula poked her chest and placed her hands on her hips. “And you can’t touch me! That’s a part of my deal, too, ya’ psycho bitch.”

  “Hanley,” Kirsten addressed me while keeping Lula locked under her dagger-eyed stare, “why don’t you go find my son?”

  Nodding my compliance, I left the two women to hash it out and sat with Elias at one of the dining tables. The conversation at the table immediately stopped. The men sitting with him dispersed to do other things in the skybox. Elias grabbed me and pulled me to sit on his lap. Sitting sideways, I draped my arm behind his neck and gave him a gentle kiss.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Lula leave the skybox in a huff.

  Elias pulled my chin to look at him. “Did you hear me? I asked if you were all right.”

  “I’m fine.” I gave him a faint smile and glanced back at his mother.

  She looked wearily back at me with a frown. Shaking her head, as if trying to wake from a daydream, she disappeared from the skybox.

  I ROLLED OVER, stomach down, in the bed that seemed to cradle me in the right places. I looked toward the window—beyond the smoky imprints of body parts, thanks to the hard and hungry way Elias fucked me against the glass earlier—of our suite overlooking the gorgeous water at night. The shimmering multicolored lights reflecting from over the water and from the various boats and yachts docked at the marina served as the only source of light inside the dark hotel suite.

  Elias’s fingertips brushed up my naked spine, making me shiver. He pushed my hair from over my shoulder and kissed it. “I thought I fucked”—his kisses began to trail down my spine—“licked”—he placed one tongue-laced kiss on the small of my back—“and sucked you dry.” His hands slipped down the fissure of my ass until he found my sex and began to rock up and down. “But you’re wet again.”

  I moaned, closing my eyes and sinking into the expert way Elias mastered control over my body.

  Events were forgotten. Missions were abandoned. I’d begun to feel desperate to keep up a feeling I thought I’d never be able to experience.

  “I wish I could stay here forever,” I said softly, taking a break to whimper at the sensation he pulled out of my body with his touch. “This bed is…incredible.”

  Immediately removing his hand, he repositioned himself, sliding his nude body completely over mine and sucked on the shell of my ear. “Do I have this right? The bed did all the work to put that smile on your face?”

  Feeling his deep voice reverberate down my neck, a pleasurable rush went straight to the base of my skull. “Most of it,” I joked, closing my eyes.

  His lips stopped their teases. His heat moved away from me, making me turn around to find out what happened. I sat up with my legs spread, surrounding his seated position on the bed. “Elias?”

  His eyes found mine and he slowly smiled. “I think I want to meet your father.”

  Thrown from my escape into a world where I could forget everything, I was thrown mentally off balance. My expression lit up, but it was for all the wrong reasons. Meeting my father was part of the mission, but now it felt like something else. An act on the part of the person I’d been dating to show me the severity and depth of his feelings for me. Or at the very least, I hoped it meant that. “Are you sure?”

  He clasped the back of my head, bringing me closer. “It’s important to you. I have to do it.”

  “Isn’t it important to you? Isn’t family important to you?”

  He shrugged. “It’s really not.”

  His answer left me befuddled. While Roth seemed to want for nothing, he didn’t know about Elias and I had no reason to think Elias knew about Roth, either. I could safely assume Lula referred to Keith when she spoke about the Cari’s secrets.

  Knowing the way Elias was with Keith, I wondered why he’d bother to hold on to a man who wasn’t his blood—yet he referred to him as if he was—if family didn’t matter. I shouldn’t have taken much stock in a woman who willingly slept with a married man in hopes of receiving a payout.

  “Is that why you haven’t met your half-sister?”

  He looked toward the window and abruptly switched positions to sit on the edge of the bed with his legs dangling on the side. “Cunt bitch and her enormous m
outh. Seems she hasn’t stopped the habit of boasting about her gold-digging. What else did that whore manage to tell you, Hanley?”

  Gasping at his acidic words, I gaped at him. “Elias!”

  “While I believe her daughter, Lurdes, is innocence personified, I’m not going to respect a whore who threw herself at a married man to gain a stake in his fortune. It’s not for that reason alone. I met my sister and was only allowed to be with her for a few weeks before Lula literally tore her from me.

  “She placed a restraining order against me and bribed my parents into working out a deal with her. As a part of her gag order, the one I’m sure she conveniently forgot to tell you about, she made sure I was never allowed to see Lurdes again. Normally, I wouldn’t comply with anyone’s request concerning what I should and shouldn’t do, but my father”—he swallowed hard and his face became shrouded in sadness—“wants her demands met. Needless to say, I stopped caring about finding my siblings after that happened.”

  “Don’t let her stop you from connecting with your family.”

  The melancholy completed faded away, changing to an ice-cold mood that was so tangible, I could feel it against my skin. “I consider it a lesson learned. I no longer care.”

  A person who affectionately labeled their half-siblings as a full brother and sister obviously cared very deeply.

  “Then why are you still upset over her request or the fact she slept with your father? You know it takes two, Elias.”

  The expression behind his eyes faded for the look he carried during his more deviant acts. “Are you calling my father a philanderer, Hanley?”

  “No,” I backpedalled, keeping my tone soft. “It’s just that—”

  “If you throw your pussy at a man a million times, eventually he’s going to want it. Even if it is only once.”

  My body turned completely cold. My bottom lip detached from my top in awe. Elias, the distraction, became a reminder to keep my feelings guarded. Feelings I could no longer control, but I would at least continue to pretend our feelings were unequal.

  He grabbed my waist, directing me straddle his lap. “Erase that look from your face, Hanley. It doesn’t apply to me. Only my father. I would never and have never been that kind of man. Another woman could throw herself at me repeatedly and it would only be you I want.”

  “Would you really have that much self-control?” I croaked.

  “You have a firm grip on a place that used to be elusive. I couldn’t want anyone else if I tried. I only see you. You block out so much it’s beginning to get me into trouble. Believe me, I couldn’t care less about what I’m missing, with you at the center of my world.” Brushing his hand against my cheek, he kissed me until my concerns disappeared.

  SEVENTEEN

  THE GALLERY WAS PACKED with people browsing the black and white erotic photos of a local artist Elias told me he had invested in—whatever that meant. The space was open with a loft-like feel due to the vaulted ceilings and brick accent walls. The building was split with varied statues on the lower level. Photographs and paintings were affixed to the white walls on the upper level. A grand staircase led to a darkened area I could only assume were offices.

  The occasion was formal, but the atmosphere and the people made it feel very informal. It was a gathering of friends a little too intimately involved with one another.

  The only excuse for their behavior I could find was they were all given a passion drug and didn’t share it with me. I’d never seen so many couples provocatively canoodling in public before. It was a sex party with fully clothed guests.

  “You’re blushing and staring, minha amada.” Elias raised an amused brow and ran the back of his curled index finger down my cheek.

  I turned my attention back to him. “This is not the best place to meet my father. I wish you would’ve taken him up on his offer to cook dinner.”

  “It’s perfect.” He squeezed my hand—the one that was conjoined to his the entire time we’d been inside the gallery. They were almost glued together from the way my clammy hand clung to his cold, dry one.

  I looked over the crowd again and finally spotted my father. I waved at him as he ascended the stairs directly in front of the vestibule. It would be the first time we’d been face to face since our blowout some weeks back.

  “Never leave my side,” Elias whispered in my ear, reminding me of what he said to me in the car on the way to the gallery. He gave me a kiss, pressing for a reply.

  “Okay,” I said, giving in.

  Elias threw on a tepid grin and greeted my father, “Mr. Harper.”

  “It’s not Harper. It never has been.” He extended his hand to Elias. “Just call me Marcus.”

  Stunned my father used his real name, I studied Elias for a hint of recognition or alarm, but there wasn’t any.

  They shook hands like gentleman and sized each other up for a while. Elias studied my father the way he did when he spoke to people. To the paranoid, it could be intimidating. You could easily feel the way he dissected your mannerisms and the way you spoke from the unshakeable way in which he looked at you.

  “I’m sorry I’ve taken your daughter away from you.” Elias kissed the side of my head and brought me near. “I can’t be without her lately.”

  “I’m not surprised.” My father’s posture turned rigid as he averted his eyes from the crowd around us, but lacked the capacity to directly regard Elias. “She’s a wonderful girl.”

  “She’s a wonderful woman,” Elias corrected him.

  Visibly uncomfortable, my father scanned the room, specifically focusing on one of the photographs along the wall. Upon seeing one of the more graphic photos, he gulped and set his gaze to the tile beneath our feet.

  “Are you embarrassed, Marcus?” Elias snickered. “Hanley told you that this was an erotic exhibit, didn’t she?”

  “She didn’t,” he replied.

  Elias hadn’t told me about the nature of the art we’d see until we were already headed up the steps of the gallery. By then, it was too late to call and cancel with my father.

  “Do you have issues with beautiful images depicting sex?” Elias asked, regarding my father with a mocking smile. “How else could she have gotten here unless you fucked her mother? From what Hanley has told me, it seemed you couldn’t get enough of fucking her mother. Since you're a gentleman who obviously enjoys sex like any virile, normal man would, there’s nothing to be uncomfortable about. After all, your daughter and I have had sex in your house while you were home. That leaves very little room for embarrassment, doesn’t it?”

  “Elias,” I hissed, “what the hell are you doing?”

  His hold on my hand firmed tightly, hurting me and warning me to keep quiet without stating a word.

  My father took notice of the grimace on my face and looked at Elias’s grip on my hand. His friendly yet uneasy smile tempered. “May I talk to my daughter alone for a moment, Mr. Cari?”

  Elias’s eyes were like lasers as they darted to the artist, Matt Cremin, standing in the corner as if awaiting orders. Matt began to call everyone’s attention to him. A table was wheeled out, and a woman in a red silk robe trotted down the grand stairs to meet the crowd on the gallery’s level.

  “Later, Marcus. There’s something I want you to watch.” Elias guided me by my hand, and my worried father followed soon after us.

  “My next and last live exhibition is called The Masturbation,” Matt announced to the crowd. “It’s the most beautiful piece of art ever created.”

  My father immediately moved to leave, but was blocked by Jaco. Elias clamped down on my hand, ensuring I couldn't leave his side to usher my father away.

  The woman removed her robe and lay down on the table. When Matt spread her legs and began to masturbate her, my father grew just as uneasy as I did. Broadening his shoulders, my father turned to leave again. He glared at Jaco, who stood in his way, willing him to move out of his path.

  “Marcus,” Elias sneered, “you need to see this. I’ve don
e some semblance of the same thing to your daughter. Actually…this is tame. There are dirtier things I've done to her body. Some of which while you were sleeping down the hall."

  Shaking with anger, my father gritted through his teeth, “Please, allow me to leave.”

  I dug my nails into the skin on the back of Elias’s hand, intending to make him bleed. "Let him go and let me go."

  Elias nodded to Jaco, who moved out of my father’s way.

  I attempted to remove my hand from Elias’s hold to follow my father. Elias pulled me back, snarling in my ear, “What did I tell you, Hanley?”

  “I’m not your fucking property,” I snapped, glaring at him. “Don’t treat me like I am.” I glanced at my father’s trail and shook my head. “I can’t believe you did this to him—to me. To us.”

  “It’s time he stopped treating you like a little girl and realized you are a woman,” he stated through his teeth, his voice gravelly. “You also have a problem with letting go of that title.”

  “Fuck you, Elias,” I shouted, loud enough to embarrass him and call everyone’s scrutiny. My shout echoed throughout the space of the lobby area, calling all attention on me. I pushed further. “You’re hurting me. Let me go.”

  Under the pressing stares, he whispered, “This is nothing. Wait until you experience the punishment I’ve planned for you,” and released his death grip on my hand.

  I quickly turned away to search for my father.

  Sitting on the steps, his hands clasped over his lap, my father gazed into space. He was so enraged, his hands shook violently. I sat next to him, my head filled to the brim with regrets and unable to find the right things to say.

  “He knows who we really are,” he whispered.

  “No. Can’t be possible. Even when you said your name, he didn’t flinch. And you weren’t there at the accident. His father has never seen you, only me and I’ve changed since then. Elias was just being a jerk.” I lied to him in the moment. I had suspicions after my interaction with his father, but I was too far in to back down. The last thing I needed was for my father to worry about me. He was fragile as it was. Filling his head with things to cause further concern would’ve driven him into a darker state.