Mariang’s smile filtered through her whole body, lifting her posture as she pulled away to look at me. “Yes! Tomorrow? Maybe we can go shopping or something. Anywhere you like.”
Sweet girl didn’t know I hated shopping. “Sure. Sounds great. You pick the place, and I’ll be there. Let’s leave around ten. I don’t think Von will wake up any earlier.”
Her aqua eyes grew serious. “I’ve never seen Von like that, and I’ve known him a while. He all but kidnapped Ollie and dragged him all over the place looking for you.”
“Yeah. He was almost responsible. No wonder you barely recognized him,” Danny groused, sipping his decaf. “Of course, he lost his charge in the first place, so there’s that. Good old Von.”
“Hey,” I snapped. “I ditched quicker than any of you could find me. I’m tired of you always ragging on Von. He’s trying to do the job right. He’s actually making strides here, but you’ll never see it with your nose stuck up in the air.”
“Spoken like a girl in love who’s only known him a few months. Give it time. That halo he wears is probably stolen.”
“Shut up.” I turned to Mariang, who looked distraught that her sister and her boyfriend were at odds. “Look, shopping with you sounds great, but your boy needs a leash or something if it’s going to be anything other than a day of fighting. If he can lay off, I’m there. But if Danny’s going to put Von through the ringer just for showing up, I won’t make Von go through that. I would never let anyone talk about you the way Danny rags on Von. It’s gone on long enough.”
Mariang nodded, her chin lowered in sadness she didn’t bother hiding. “That’s fair.”
I walked away and heard her say to Danny, “She’s my sister, Danny. You have to try harder to get along with them. I need this. I need a sister. Please don’t take that away from me.”
“Whatever. Fine. I’ll hang toward the back and keep my mouth shut tomorrow. But I hate him, love. I can’t stand to look at him. All I see are all the times he pulled a Von and didn’t show, didn’t explain, didn’t apologize, didn’t think. He’s going to wreck that girl, and I’m going to have to pick up the pieces.”
“He’s your brother, Danny.”
“Don’t remind me.”
25
Sexy Appendix
I dropped Von’s bag on the bed and took my turn in the shower. Though it wasn’t my own bed in my own home, it was a bed, and not the hard ground of Silo. When I’d dressed for sleep, I was ready to forget all about the worries of the day and the detainee bracelet I couldn’t get rid of. I’d forgotten about my incarceration when I suggested a day of shopping out with Mariang. I hoped she wouldn’t be too put out that our girl date would have to be postponed.
Von was texting and smoking as he leaned against the headboard, the light green comforter covering his lap. His naked chest stared me in the face, and I knew his good looks would be a problem for me. He glanced up at me when I stood at the side of the bed but refused to get in. “What’s up, buttercup?”
I addressed the ceiling as I spoke, too embarrassed to look at him. My arms were crossed over my chest as I scratched at the bandages, wishing I could claw at the skin beneath. I shuffled my feet from where I stood on the other side of the bed from him, wearing my lavender tank top and matching cotton shorts. “Okay, this is… I don’t know how to say this the right way, so try not to make a big deal out of it.”
Von put his phone and cigar down on the nightstand and gave me his undivided attention. “Why do I get the sneaking suspicion the roof’s about to cave in on us when you talk like that?”
“It’s nothing dramatic as that. It’s just… Could you put on a shirt? I’ve had a long week. I’m still catching up on my sleep, and things are going to start getting confused if you keep being half naked around me.”
“Confused? How does me being without a shirt have anything to do with you not sleeping?” I heard him put the pieces together as amusement swept over him. I cringed and kept my eyes affixed on the ceiling. “Ah, I see. I’m too sexy for my shirt? So sexy it hurts?” He moved to the center of the bed and rubbed his chest seductively like a male stripper. “It was only a matter of time. I knew you wanted me from day one. All the good girls want me for my body. I think it’s my appendix. I have a sexy appendix.” He climbed out of the bed and started dancing suggestively next to me, shaking his butt and shimmying his shoulders to earn a laugh.
I batted at his body, my pink cheeks dimpling at his antics that I couldn’t help but find funny. “Yes, that’s exactly it. Cover up your appendix before I faint from lust overload.”
“You’re blushing! You’re actually blushing. You really do want me for my appendix! I didn’t think you were capable of being attracted to a bloke unless he came with buckets of emotional baggage.” He stopped his dance and scratched his head. “Hey, wait a minute. Is that what you want me for? My baggage, not my total package?”
I was so grateful he made a joke that I didn’t fault him for his totally wrong assessment of my type. “Ha, ha. Laugh it up, clown.”
He fished through his bag, slinking down to look through it like he was putting on a show for me, his stellar backside drawing my eyes away from the ceiling to gawk. I would not become one of his many adoring fans. I swore to myself I would not. He pulled a white t-shirt over his head with a dramatic frown. “Is that better? Am I Clark Kent enough for you now, or are you still dreaming of my Superman hot body?”
“I’m never gonna live this down.”
“Nope. Made my day. Made my whole week, actually. The next time you disappear and scare the living daylights out of me, make sure to always tell me I’m too steamy to get into bed with. That’ll solve everything.”
“I never said that.”
“Yes, you did. You said, and I quote, ‘Von, you’re a gorgeous specimen of the most perfect kind of man. I can’t be too near you when my loins are burning like this. Either throw me down on the bed and have your filthy way with me or cover up the sexiness. I simply can’t take it another second.”
“I cahn’t?” I said, mocking his accent. “Wow, I sure said a mouthful.”
His proud grin nearly split his face as he sat back down in the bed and kicked his legs under the mint green comforter and matching sheet. I made to get in, but he stopped me. “Not so fast. Your turn.”
“My turn to what?”
“If we’re going to keep things platonic, you can’t be flashing me your bare arms and legs like that. You know I have an elbow fetish. Come on, November. Be a professional.”
“You have an elbow fetish?” I asked dubiously, my arms akimbo. “What is it about my elbow you find particularly appealing? That it’s bony?”
“Tone down the rated-R language, baby. If it gets too hot in here, I’ll have to take my shirt off again, and then where would we be?”
“I should never have said anything. You’re enjoying this way too much.”
He shrugged and made himself comfortable, leaning against the headboard as he resituated his pillow. “Who wouldn’t enjoy a compliment from a beautiful woman? Tuck on in here, Peach. I was only teasing you.” When I hesitated, he cocked his eyebrow at me. “You want I should fart on your pillow? Would that diffuse the sexual tension in here?”
“Pass.” I slid into the bed after turning out the overhead lights. I was overthinking things, subconsciously scratching my arms as I laid down on my side, making sure not to touch him.
Von disregarded the tension and settled in next to me, draping his arm around my waist and drawing my back to his front so he could spoon me. He was quiet for a moment, and I could tell he was working up to saying something. “Peach?”
“Yeah, Von?”
“I know I said so before, but I’m truly sorry I unleashed on you. That’s not me. I’ve replayed it over and over, and I don’t know why I was such a wanker.”
“Here’s a tip from me to you. When you want me to forgive you, use plenty of those fancy British words. Makes you too cute to be mad at fo
r long.”
“Oh yeah? Bangers and mash, pip-pip, bloody brilliant. Did that help?”
“What were we fighting about?” I asked dreamily, pretending I was caught in a haze of mind-meld. “Are you James Bond? Where am I?”
“You’re in my arms,” he whispered, pressing a kiss to the back of my neck. “Right where you should be.”
I shivered through my bashful smile I was glad he couldn’t see. “Well, you went and made it all sweet.” I snuggled my body into his. “I shouldn’t have run.”
His hand snuck under the hem of my tank top, his fingertips dragging up and down across my navel. The seduction was slowly driving me mad and sending goosebumps all over my body, pushing me into an unhurried writhe. “No, you shouldn’t have. I had nothing but nightmares and walking daymares about Finn selling you off to the highest bidder.”
I didn’t know whether or not to tell Von that I’d developed a totally wrong crush on Finn. I knew Finn was trouble, but I still lost my brain and kissed him. No, I definitely wouldn’t tell Von about the kissing. He didn’t need to know.
“Do you remember that night where I told you all my stuff? That I’d sold myself for a few months to pay off Boston’s gambling debts?”
I answered slowly, bracing myself for the bomb. “Yeah. I remember.” I placed my fingers atop his under the blanket that were stroking my navel. “I don’t like to think of you selling your body. I like your body.” I closed my eyes, gripping his hand under the covers.
He paused, and I could feel him pulling some of my increasing worry from me. “King Banak’s son Julius is a sick bastard, and Finn knew it. He knew it and he still gave me to him for three months. I was scared out of my mind, thinking of you out there with Finn. I kept picturing him taking you to Dagat and giving you to the king. I saw you doing all the depraved things I had to do to survive. Finn has no will when it comes to Banak. Banak controls him completely.”
I turned in Von’s arms and saw the scope of his agony painted on his handsome face. “Oh, baby. Nothing like that happened at all. Finn was just my guide through Silo. He knows not to mess with Ezra’s daughters. And he was actually fine. Friendly, even.”
“Finn’s fear of Ezra was the only thing that kept me from going insane. That’s when I knew.”
“Knew what?” I stroked the side of his freshly shaved face, admiring his earnest eyes and the arches of his upper lip that always managed to arrest my attention.
“I knew that I loved you. I knew you were my best friend. That I’d search everywhere for you until you came home to me. That I couldn’t relax unless you were safe.”
My mouth fell open, his pledge leaving me breathless. He brushed his nose back and forth across mine as our legs tangled together in a messy web I knew we’d never get out of unscathed. “I’m safe,” I promised him. “I’m right here, and I’m not going anywhere.” I knew I was unbalanced, because I wanted to kiss him, to taste his tongue and suck on his lower lip. His mouth had never been so sweet to me, and I wanted what I shouldn’t have. What I couldn’t have.
Von saved us both by rolling me over so he could spoon me again. “Goodnight, Peach.”
26
Nightmares and Confessions
In the middle of the night, a frantic octopus swam through my dream, thrashing wildly against the Mermaids that were screaming for me to help them. The octopus was flailing, his tentacles tangling through my legs as he pulled me under. A noise of distress escaped my lips, jerking me from my underwater surroundings, and back into the bedroom I’d been assigned in Ezra’s home.
The octopus faded from view and was replaced by Von, who was twisting in the covers due to a bad dream. He was sweating and fighting with the comforter for a freedom it wouldn’t grant him. I leaned over to the nightstand and fumbled for the switch to turn the lamp on. The moment the light shone down on Von, he jerked three more times and cried out in what sounded like heartbreak and physical pain. I pressed my hand to his chest to anchor him before he started flailing around again. “Honey! Von, wake up. It’s not real.”
Von’s eyes flew open, his shallow pants taking several additional breaths to calm as he examined his surroundings with a skeptical worry. “You? And then he… And I was… It was a dream?”
“Just a dream,” I confirmed, brushing my fingers through his hair to unstick it from his sweaty forehead. “You’re alright. Here, sit up. Let me get you a glass of water.”
Von was trembling as he obeyed. I returned from the bathroom with a wet washcloth and a glass of water that I tipped to his lips. I watched his throat constrict and dabbed at the back of his neck with the washcloth to cool him down. “Thanks.”
“You want to tell me about it?” I asked slowly, not caring that my hair was no doubt a tangled mess of curls.
He pulled his knees up to his chest like a little boy. “I was back in Prince Julius’ chambers. Just reliving stuff, but you were there too. Same foul nightmare I’ve been having all week. Couldn’t save myself. Couldn’t save you.” He shook his head, his eyes haunted. “It was dreadful.”
“It wasn’t real,” I assured him. “We’re both safe. Hey, we’ve got each other, right? I take care of you, you take care of me?”
He offered a hollow smile that didn’t touch his eyes. “Something like that.”
“Lay down, sweetie. I’m not going anywhere.”
Von was lost, so I guided him down to lay his head on the pillow. “It was so real. I never want you to see me like I had to be back then. Talk about the gutter.”
I laid next to him on my side, smiling with swelling affection when he rested his cheek to my breasts before I could settle myself properly in the sheets. I combed my fingers through his hair, listening to his breathing even out. “I don’t know why you don’t set Danny straight about what happened. He acts all smug when he talks about your escort days. If he knew you were trapped into it all and did that to save Boston, maybe he wouldn’t use that to tear you down.”
Von’s arm draped around my hips. “I don’t care what Danny thinks about me. He needs someone to hate, someone to blame for the things that go wrong in his life. If it’s not me, it would be Mum, and I don’t want that. She can’t handle his anger like I can.”
“What would he blame your mama for?”
“Mum told Dad to leave when he hit her, and he wouldn’t. So I thrashed the lowlife and threw him out. The boys only know that Dad couldn’t handle me anymore. They don’t know he knocked Mum around, I hope. It’s better Danny hates me. He needs Mum every now and then. I wouldn’t want to cut him off from her.”
My hand stilled in Von’s hair. “Are you serious? You’re taking too many bullets, Von.”
“Better they’re shot at one person than all of us. Danny made up his mind years ago. And all he’d hear in the truth would be the part where I let Boston get in over his head with gambling. That I let it get out of hand between Dad and Mum. Then I’d never hear the end of that. Plus, he’d lay into Boston, who can’t handle it like I can.” He nuzzled my breasts with the side of his face, making my heart flutter. “No, Danny hasn’t earned the right to know me. I don’t have it in me to hope he ever cares that he doesn’t know me, and most likely never will. It’s not his job to know me. I’m the eldest. It’s my job to look after him.”
I scraped my nails across Von’s scalp, smiling softly as he melted in my arms. I prayed that Ollie didn’t carry this same weight around, and was glad I’d made a point to touch base with him again on the phone before bed. “That’s a sad story, sweetheart.”
“I’ll be cheery in the morning, but for now the sad kind’s all I’ve got.”
“That’s alright.” I ran the washcloth across his forehead to cool him down. “I love you when you’re on top and I love you when you think you might crash.” I set the washcloth on the nightstand and ran my knuckles over his cheek again. “But I’ll never let you crash, Von. I’m right here, and if I’ve got you in my arms, nothing can touch you, not even Prince Julius.”
Von’s eyes squinched shut at mention of Banak’s son’s name. “Then promise you won’t let go of me.”
I reached across him and snatched his phone off the nightstand, careful not to loosen my other arm from the embrace. I flicked through his contacts and found Bishop’s number, not caring what time it was in London. Bishop picked up on the second ring. “Did you find her?”
I softened, glancing down at Von’s quizzical face, no doubt wondering what I was doing. “If you mean me, then yes, Von found me. Everything’s good now.”
I could hear the relief in Bishop’s voice and felt a new pang of guilt. “Oh, good. Von was going mad trying to find you. I wasn’t sure if I should hop on a flight to help out. You’re alright, sis?”
I loved that I’d had just enough conversations with Bishop on the phone that he’d finally stopped calling me ‘Lady October’. “I’m actually calling for Von. I think he’s a little homesick. Could you tell him a joke or something?” I handed the phone to Von, who gazed up at me as if I was the sun and the moon. I couldn’t believe anyone looked at me like that, and hoped I wouldn’t do anything to screw it up.
Von didn’t discuss serious things with Bishop, but the levity of talking to his younger brother made his shoulders relax. The phone call proved a great distraction from his demons. Bishop was with Boston, and Von laughed a few times when Boston took his turn to crack dirty jokes with his big brother. Von sat up, leaning against the headboard with me tucked tight to his side.
It was five minutes well spent, and five minutes Von had desperately needed. When he ended the call, he set the phone back on the nightstand and turned to me with an expression of pure wonder. “How did you know I needed that?”
Tempt (Terraway Book 4) Page 14