“Thank you for the dance, Ellison.” Logan brings my hand to his mouth and kisses the top. “I look forward to making my claim official.”
I might not know a lot about Logan, but he has made one thing very clear: he is possessive of his woman. And I’m guessing his next wife will never leave his sight after the end his first one met.
I recall this brother speaking up to voice an interest in me after Logan made his public announcement and intent to claim me.
“May I have the next dance, Miss Ellison?”
Dammit. I wanted a minute to myself so I could search the crowd for Jamie, but it’s clear that isn’t going to happen any time soon. In fact, I’m guessing I don’t get a moment of peace without some brother bugging me about a dance or a conversation.
“Of course.”
This brother doesn’t pull me close like Logan and I’m grateful. “I’m Alan Douglas, the pit boss at the casino.”
Ah. He’s the replacement for Todd Cockburn—Bleu’s biological father.
“It’s nice to meet you, Alan.”
“Are you enjoying Edinburgh?”
“I am. The wet weather is a bit of a change for me but I’ve fallen in love with Scotland. I definitely see why my sister had no problem with leaving the U.S. behind to move here.” Life is different here. Simpler. Better.
“I’m very fond of Miss Bleu.” Miss Bleu. That name makes her sound sweet and cute and innocent like a kindergarten teacher. She’s anything but sweet and cute and innocent.
“Becoming Fellowship was a good move for my sister. She fits in perfectly, much more than she ever did with people in Tennessee.” No doubt her smooth transition into the brotherhood is because it’s in her blood.
“I’ve never met a stronger woman than your sister.”
“She’s her own brand of an amazing lethal weapon. She has the ability and skills to kill a man with her bare hands. I highly doubt I’ll ever fit into The Fellowship as well as her but I’m going to try.”
“Don’t worry. You’re going to fit in with us just fine.”
“I hope so.” Because there’s no getting out if I don’t.
“Miss Bleu has been teaching my sisters how to defend themselves. I’ve been impressed with the way her strength and fierceness has rubbed off on them. She’s proven to be a true asset.”
“Yes, she is passionate when it comes to protecting the women of the brotherhood.” She saw a problem and spearheaded a crusade to make the women stronger. More resilient. More driven to be something besides a claimed woman who hid inside her home so she didn’t risk being attacked by The Order. She has given many Fellowship women the strength they didn’t have before.
“She’s respected and beloved by all.” This guy likes talking about Miss Bleu a little more than I’m comfortable with.
“My sister is pretty lovable.”
Alan is going on about how much of an asset Bleu is when I look over his shoulder and catch a glimpse of Jamie at the bar… with a woman by his side. A pretty blonde who appears intent on gaining his attention judging by the way her hand is petting his arm.
What. The. Actual. Fuck?
Chapter 7
Jamie Breckenridge
Kenrick from Duncan’s is behind the bar tonight. “Guinness for you?”
Kenrick has been serving me drinks for years and knows I’m typically a Guinness man. But I’m not in a stout mood. I need something stronger to get me through what I’m forced to endure tonight. “Whisky.”
“Coming right up.”
I’m watching Ellison be pursued by brother number two of the night, and I want to rip his skinny arms out of their sockets.
Alan Douglas is a pit boss at the casino. I’d love to hear how the hell he proposes he’ll protect Ellison when he’s tied up all night at work. I’d also like to know if he plans to break his dirty habits—cocaine and cocktail waitresses—if Ellison becomes his wife.
Fuck. No.
She is not marrying a man who snorts coke and fucks any woman who will spread her legs for him.
I’ve been inconspicuous while watching Ellison. Controlled. Restrained. Careful to not appear angry. Careful to not look too long. Careful to not appear interested. But I swear to God if Alan moves his hand any lower on her back I’m going to go over and break it off his arm.
Everything about this is fucked up. I can’t stand watching Ellison with my brothers. But not looking would be so much worse.
“Jamie, can I have a minute?” Fuck. I know that voice, and I don’t have time to deal with her right now.
I turn around and I’m right. “Good evening, Adaira. What can I do for you?”
“Could we go somewhere away from the crowd so we can talk?”
Mother. Fucker. I know Ellison will be safe but I still don’t want to leave her with these horny bastards. “Can’t talk here?”
“I was hoping to have a word privately.”
I can predict with one hundred percent accuracy that this conversation will include her asking me to choose her over Ellison. She doesn’t understand that will never happen.
I take the whisky Kenrick has poured for me. “Fine, but make it quick.”
Aye. I sound like an arse but it’s impossible to be nice when she’s taking me away from Ellison at this pivotal moment.
Adaira leads me away from the canopy toward the guest house. I suspect this conversation is about more than a job. And truth be told, it isn’t about a conversation at all.
I stop when I see her intention is to take me into Thane and Isobel’s guest house. “I think this is private enough. We can talk here.”
“The only reason I’m in nursing school is so I could become your assistant. You knew that, but you chose her. She’s not even Fellowship.”
Neither Adaira nor her father approached me to ask if I wanted or needed a nurse. They went straight to Thane with their plan. Thane approved her request to go to school, but my uncle has never told me I have to take her as my assistant. I owe them nothing.
“I’m sure you’ll make a fine nurse when you finish school, but I need someone with experience at the infirmary. I can’t waste valuable time teaching you how to be a nurse. I need someone who already knows what they’re doing.”
“I have experience. Lots of it. And I know exactly what I’m doing.” This conversation is going in the exact direction I expected.
“This is about the brothers and their well-being. Ellison was a better choice because she has worked in a busy emergency room where they had a high rate of gunshot wounds and trauma. I need someone with that kind of experience. You’re a first-year nursing student, and although I’m sure you’re doing well, I don’t have time to train you.”
Adaira steps forward and her hands go straight for the button and zipper of my pants. “I’m a fast learner, Jamie. And I give a quality blowjob. You’ll like the kind of skills and knowledge I have. Promise.”
A year ago, I’d have let this girl suck me off—and I’d have probably fucked her afterward—but not today. Not after Ellison.
I push her hand away. Damn. I don’t think I’ve ever turned down a blowjob. “No.”
Adaira laughs. “Well, hell. She’s been helping you less than a week, and you’re already fucking her.”
“We aren’t fucking.” What Ellison and I are doing is far more than that.
“I don’t believe that for a second. And those horny fuckers out there squabbling over your girl’s pussy are dumbasses if they believe you aren’t fucking her.” Adaira takes my whisky from my hand and downs it before returning an empty glass. “Just so you know, I didn’t want to blow you anyway. I’m into girls.” What the hell?
Not what I was expecting from the lass who just tried to undo my pants. “Why did you try to suck my dick if you’re into pussy?”
“My dad’s health isn’t great. He’s convinced he’s going to die soon, so he’s trying to push my sisters and me into being claimed and married as soon as possible. He wants to know he’s giving u
s over to husbands who will protect and care for us after he’s gone.”
Bruce Lowry has six daughters. I can see why he’d feel the need to encourage them to marry if he isn’t well but some of them are still very young, including Adaira. “What kind of health problems is he having?”
“High blood pressure, cholesterol, and triglycerides out the roof. He thinks he’s going to have a stroke or heart attack any day now.”
Sounds like he could. “I can see where he’d be anxious about leaving so many daughters without the protection of husbands.”
“I’ve told him I don’t need a man to protect me. I do just fine on my own.”
“Does he know you like women?”
Adaira groans. “Yes, but he still wants me to be married to a man. He said I could have my womanly fling on the side. Can you believe that?”
“From Bruce? Yes.” He’s set in his ways—like most Fellowship men. “What about nursing?”
“I care nothing about it. My girlfriend wants to be a nurse so we enrolled at the same school. It’s an easy way to spend time with her without causing an uproar with my dad.”
“Your girlfriend isn’t Fellowship?”
“No.”
She’s dating a woman and she’s an outsider. Interesting.
The role of brothers have been defined within a relationship based on gender so what happens when a couple isn’t male-female? I’m not sure. There’s never been an open female-female or open male-male relationship within The Fellowship.
“Ellison is hot as fuck. I bet you shag her every chance you get.”
I’ve had her four—no five—times in twenty-four hours. Aye, I definitely shag her as much as possible but that’s no business of Adaira’s. “No comment.”
“Whatever. I don’t need your confirmation. I already know you’re burying yourself between her legs.” If Adaira makes this assumption, does that mean everyone else probably does too?
Adaira gestures toward my empty glass. “Let’s go get you another drink. You’re going to need a few of those to keep from turning possessive alpha when you see your brothers going after your girl.”
I won’t argue with that. I already want to clean some clocks.
Adaira and I part ways and I return to the party. I’m irritated as fuck when I see Ellison dancing with Lyle Campbell, the brother who opened the topless dance club. The same brother Leith threatened with a slow, painful death if he let Lorna anywhere near his stage again. He has no business putting his filthy hands on Ellison. They aren’t fit to touch something as beautiful as her.
I place my empty glass on the bar. “Another whisky. Make it a double.”
“Coming up.”
This is so much worse than I expected. I’m not tolerating seeing Ellison with my brothers, and it’s making me fucking crazy.
“Fuck the double, Kenrick. Give me the bottle.”
Kenrick chuckles and passes me a half-full bottle of Johnnie Walker. “That’s the last of Sin’s whisky. He won’t be happy it’s gone.”
“Fuck. Sin.” This is his fault. He’s the one who insisted on doing this introduction tonight—presenting the woman I love as fair game for our brothers while I’m forced to sit back and watch in agony.
I take the bottle of booze and retreat to a table in the corner where I can wallow in misery as I watch Ellison with her many suitors.
I’m going to feel like hell tomorrow at clinical.
Chapter 8
Ellison Macallister
Bleu bumps my hip with hers and I nearly topple over in my four-inch heels. “Boy, do The Fellowship brothers lovvve you. I knew they would.”
I grab her arm to steady myself. “I’ve never felt more like a piece of meat in my life.”
“I was afraid they might make you feel that way.”
“Oh my God, Bleu. The last brother I danced with was so creepy. He had a kill tattoo. He took his jacket off, unbuttoned his shirt, and pulled his arm out of his sleeve to show it to me. It was a winding staircase that wrapped around his arm and each step represented a rival he had taken out. There were a lot of steps, Bleu. A whole staircase.”
“You have to remember that this is a different way of life, Elli. He’s proud of that tattoo and probably thought you’d be impressed by it since Fellowship women are attracted to a fierce fighter.”
A different way of life. That is the understatement of the millennium.
“I swear I may scream if one more man comes up to me and says he’s interested in claiming me.” Claiming. Marriage. Those words have been thrown around far too loosely tonight. Frankly, I’m sick of hearing about it.
“Would you scream if it was Jamie?”
“I don’t even know how to address that right now.” Not after he let Sin offer me to his brothers. Not after he happily handed me over to Logan. And definitely not after seeing him leave the pavilion.
With. That. Woman.
I wanted Jamie to see me with his brothers so he’d get a taste of what me with another man felt like. I never imagined it would provoke him into reaching out to another woman.
“I’m sorry, Elli. Sin and I were so certain Jamie would tell him to not make the announcement.”
I’m gonna come inside you.
I need to know you have a part of me in you when you’re with the brothers tonight.
“I could tell by the things he said before we left that he had no intention of stopping Sin.”
“How do you feel about that?”
“Hurt. Angry. Confused. Very confused.” I lower my voice and lean in to whisper to Bleu. “We’ve been together.”
Bleu grins, and I can tell she’s happy about it. “I figured as much.”
“We did it a lot. Five times since yesterday afternoon and not once with a condom.”
“Elli… I know you’re on the pill but that’s risky.”
“I didn’t want anything between us, Bleu. And he didn’t either so we did it bare. And I loved it.”
“Of course you loved it. Who doesn’t?”
“It was so good and he was so possessive and so alpha and was telling me I was his.”
“I love when Sin turns possessive alpha.”
“I loved it too but then everything felt like it shifted right before we came to the party.”
“How?”
“I was getting ready in the bathroom and he came up from behind and watched me in the mirror for a minute. He told me I looked beautiful and in the next breath said he needed to be inside me. He basically jumped on me and damn near ripped my panties taking them off and…”
Bleu is my sister. We’re close and I’ve always told her everything but I feel a bashful twinge about sharing the intimate details of what Jamie said and did to me.
“Annnd?” She stares at me in anticipation. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. “Come on, Elli. I need details.”
No one is more possessive than Sin so nothing I tell her should come as a surprise.
“He said that he wanted me to smell like him and have a part of him inside me while I was with the brothers tonight.”
Bleu grins and nods; she knows what that means. I don’t have to explain that he didn’t pull out.
“It felt like he was marking me, which was hot, but it ended up feeling like he did it so he could have the satisfaction of knowing he’d just fucked me right before I was to meet the brothers.”
You’re wearing my brand tonight. “I could tell that he loved me coming here with that still inside me.”
“Wow. He has it bad for you.”
“But not bad enough to stop Sin from making that announcement.”
“I spoke with Jamie earlier. I could tell he was hurting and didn’t want the announcement to happen.”
“And yet he didn’t stop it.”
“I think he truly believes letting you go is in the best interest of your safety.”
“I’m sick of hearing about the best interest of my safety. How ’bout we consider what’s in the best interest of my happiness
?” I’m really at a point where I want to say screw all of this and let’s just be together. In the end, what good is being safe if I’m miserable without him?
“Has he told you he loves you?”
“No.”
“He does. I see it when he talks about you.”
Sin comes up behind Bleu and wraps his arms around her waist as he places a kiss against the side of her face. “Hello, beautiful wife. Enjoying your free time while our children are being passed around?”
Bleu holds up her glass of wine. “I’m having a lovely time, husband.”
“Mmm. I love when you have that kind of lovely time. It’s a good indication I’ll get to have a lovely time.”
It doesn’t matter that my brother-in-law is second-in-command to one of the largest criminal organizations in Scotland. He is so damn cute with Bleu that it’s ridiculous. And the two of them with those three babies are cuteness overload.
I quickly scan the room for Jamie, but again, can’t find him. “Have you seen Jamie?”
“Not in a while.”
I spotted him with a bottle of whisky at a table in the corner—staring a hole through me and the brother I was talking to—but that was a while ago. “I haven’t seen him in over an hour.”
“Kenrick is manning the bar tonight. I saw Jamie visit him a few times so you might ask him.”
I’m a little embarrassed to bring up my earlier observation but he’s Jamie’s best friend. He might be able to shed a little light on the situation. “I saw Jamie leave with a woman earlier. I think they went to the guest house.”
“What woman?” Ain’t that the question of the hour.
“I have no idea. I’ve never seen her before tonight.” But then again, I’ve not seen most of these women here.
“What does she look like?”
“Blonde. Blunt bangs.” I touch my shoulder. “Straight hair cut to here. She was wearing a fifties-style emerald-green dress. The kind that’s tight at the waist and then poofs out.”
The woman could be a friend. A family member. A fuck buddy. I have no idea. I only know I hated the way it made me feel to see him leave with her.
Complete Sin Box Set Page 78