She didn’t want to. Lily loved Ethan’s dominance more than she ever thought was possible, she just wished their relationship didn’t have to come at a cost to all the other aspects of her life.
“I’ll take you to call them after the ceremony.”
His assertion caught Lily off guard and she turned from the passing houses to look at him once more.
“Your parents,” he clarified. “You should call them later and give them the good news.”
Lily’s heart leaped at his verdict. “Really?” she asked. “Do you mean it?”
Ethan glanced at her with dark, serious eyes. “Do I often say things I don’t mean, Lily?”
She shook her head. Ethan rarely ever did.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Ethan
Lily settled after that, and Ethan sensed a calmness spreading through her aura as she absorbed his words. He might be a lot of things, but Ethan wasn’t stupid. He’d known her parents would still be on her mind, and even though a part of him was still concerned about the fall-out from Jody, he knew he would have to address it. Ethan also needed to be in touch with Kitty again soon. The thought of his sister pining for him was one of the few reasons he’d missed the south at all. So, he meant what he’d said. After they were married, he would find somewhere for them to make the calls, and Lily could tell her parents the news. He wondered wryly how impressed they’d be when they found out the reason for their little girl’s absence.
“Is this it?” Lily’s excited tone captured his attention, and his focus shifted to the area ahead.
“This is it,” he confirmed as he looked for somewhere to park the car. Not that he’d been to the place before, but the lady on the telephone had given pretty specific directions.
“I can’t believe we’re really going to do this!”
Pulling on the handbrake and cutting the engine, Ethan reached for her hand. “Nervous?”
Her eyes darted back to him. “A little,” she conceded. “But that’s got to be normal, right?”
Ethan smiled at her, once again in awe of her age and comparative innocence. Sometimes, he wished he could see the world through Lily’s eyes—if only for a few moments. She had a way of making everything seem so engaging and carefree, and Ethan envied it.
“Of course,” he soothed, but then his lips curled into a smirk. “Especially when you’re about to marry a serial killer.”
Lily blinked at him for a second, before she slapped his shoulder playfully. “Don’t,” she insisted. “You know that’s not how I think about you.”
“But, it’s what I am,” he reminded her. “Regardless of how astonishing we are together, I can’t change who I am, Lily.”
She pulled in a deep breath. “Neither of us can, sir,” she agreed.
“Well, I’m not so sure about that,” he argued, twisting his body to face her. “You’ve changed me, little one. I haven’t had the same needs since we met.”
Lily looked even more beautiful than usual in the small white dress he’d bought her. A part of him had wanted to go the whole nine yards. He could imagine her in his head, getting married in a large church with a flowing white dress. She probably deserved that.
“That’s not what I want,” she assured him as she reached for his hand. “I only go to church because it makes my mum happy.”
Ethan sighed at her comment, completely unperturbed at the fact she’d just read his thoughts again. Lily seemed to know what he was thinking a lot of the time now. It was one of the reasons Ethan knew the truth would need to come sooner rather than later.
“I can relate,” he muttered. “My mother was the same.”
Lily regarded him with inquisitive eyes. “Really?” she asked. “You’ve never mentioned much about her before.”
Ethan closed his eyes briefly, an image of his mother appearing in his mind. She had been beautiful once, too. Before she’d married his father. He shuddered at the irony of that comparison.
“She had a lot of faith,” he told her. “Not that it did her much good in the end.”
“Is it important to you?”
“What?” Ethan queried. “Religion?”
Lily nodded.
He shook his head. “It certainly shouldn’t be, I suppose,” he admitted. “A man like me can’t be God-fearing, can he?”
She shrugged her small shoulders. “I’m not sure it’s as straightforward as that, sir.” Lily’s voice was little more than a whisper. “Faith isn’t especially logical.”
Ethan studied the woman seated beside him. The one he was about to make his wife, and his heart swelled at the notion for the hundredth time that morning. She could be quite the intelligent little thing when he gave her the chance, and he already knew how intuitive she was. It was almost a shame that he intended to keep her gagged and leashed for most of their married life.
Almost.
“Perhaps I believe,” he conceded as the thought flittered away. “Perhaps meeting you means there really is a God, after all.”
She bit her lip at the compliment, squeezing his hand. “Perhaps you’re right, sir.”
Ethan grinned, throwing her a wink. “I’m always right, aren’t I?”
Lily
Although the day was nothing like the one she had imagined in her head, Lily was swept up in the history of the Gretna blacksmiths and as they exchanged vows, she couldn’t help but be caught in the emotion of the moment. Only a few months before she would never have expected this to be her fate—to be married at eighteen—it was everything her parents had ever wanted, and everything she had resisted at all costs. Yet now, here she was, marrying the man who held her heart in his hands. Ethan was the master of her destiny now, just as he had been the master of God knows how many other women’s, and even though that thought should have been perturbing, it barely penetrated Lily’s consciousness that sunny Scottish morning.
Lily gazed down at the two bands of gold at her finger. “You decided to let me have your mum’s ring, after all?”
Her voice was full of awe as she played with the metal idly.
Ethan smiled. “You seemed to like it,” he answered. “But I’ll get you one of your own if you prefer?”
She shook her head. “It’s perfect. Thank you.”
There was a pause as she blinked up at him outside of the place they’d just become man and wife.
“What is it?”
Lily bit her lip. She’d grown so used to him helping himself to her thoughts that it was amusing he even had to ask. “I was just wondering. Should I call you sir now, or husband?”
A low chuckle left Ethan’s lips. “I still think sir works,” he told her with a wink. “But you may use husband if you need to, because that’s what I am now.”
He drew her in for an embrace and as their gazes locked, something about his words resonated. Ethan was her husband now—not only her lover and the man she adored, but her legal partner. Lily’s heart raced as she absorbed the thought.
“We’re moving to a hotel tonight.”
His tone had slipped into that low seductive purr again; the one that spoke directly to her sex.
“A hotel?”
“Mmmm,” he confirmed as his lips grazed the side of her face. “For our wedding night.”
Lily smiled. She hadn’t even thought about their wedding night. After all the debauched and delicious things they’d enjoyed together, the concept of a wedding night at all seemed odd. Wasn’t that supposed to be the night she threw off her innocence? The night her husband claimed his new wife? Lily wanted to laugh at the idea. Her innocence hadn’t stood a chance the moment Ethan had come into her life. It was like a piece of ripe fruit fit for him to pick.
And he had picked it.
“What about our things?” she murmured, her thoughts returning briefly to the few possessions she had here in Scotland.
“They’ll stay at the bed and breakfast,” he advised. “We won’t need much tonight, and I’ll pay for anything we don’t have.”
Ethan snorted. “Oh? And how do you figure that much? Have I spoiled you by declaring my insidious past? Or, perhaps by snatching you away from your life in England?”
A ball of pressure tightened in Lily’s chest at his words. Ethan was speaking in jest, and yet his words rang true, and she gulped at the way he made her fate sound.
“I hadn’t thought about it that way,” she mumbled.
That was a lie. Lily had thought about it plenty of times, but in the euphoria of her wedding day, the reality had slipped her mind.
“It was supposed to be a joke.” Ethan pierced her with the intensity of his gaze, his lips curling slightly at her awkward response.
“I know, but…” Lily’s voice trailed away.
“Thinking about your parents?”
She nodded as he reached for her hands and offered them a gentle squeeze.
“Want to make that call now?”
Lily pulled in a deep breath. Did she want to make that call? What the hell was she supposed to say to her mum and dad? Hi, sorry I haven’t called, I’ve run away with a charming killer and got married? There were no good ways to present that news to people like her parents. Whichever way Lily looked at it, they were going to be worried sick, and devastated by her choices.
“I was hoping you could find a more diplomatic way to tell them.”
She lifted her chin to find Ethan’s face smirking down at her. There he was—back in her head again—just like he always was.
Just like he always would be.
“Right,” she replied in a whisper. “I need to, but I just can’t think of one.”
Ethan’s expression softened. “Time to think then, beautiful,” he soothed, raising one hand to stroke the underside of her chin. “If you want to call them.”
“I really should do,” she admitted, though the reality of the call she had to make tore at her heart. “But they’re going to be so upset with me, sir.”
“They’ll be happy to hear from you,” he told her in a firm tone. “And if you’re not ready to tell them about me, then don’t. We have time, little one. We have forever.”
She swallowed at the way he made that seem.
Forever.
More than a lifetime of loving Ethan.
Her heart pounded at the mere idea.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Ethan
Ethan drove them to a telephone box he’d spotted just outside of the village. Anxiety gnawed at him as he considered Lily making the call home. What reception would she find? Would her parents be hysterical or angry? Had they called the police? And perhaps more critically, would they tell her about Jody?
She inhaled beside him, the sound capturing his attention as he switched off the engine.
“Do you want to do this?”
Lily sighed. “No, but I have to, sir. I’m their daughter and they deserve that much.”
He nodded, trying to ignore the painful tension twisting in his gut. Something about the sensation was sending warning signals to his brain, and Ethan didn’t like it. His every instinct was to pull away and leave the damn call box, but he knew he couldn’t do that.
He couldn’t have her love by making her his prisoner, but fuck, it was tempting.
Too tempting.
And if it came to it, Ethan knew he could damn well try.
“Come on then.” He gestured toward the passenger door. “Shall we?”
She offered him a coy smile. “Will you come with me?”
“Have I ever let you come alone?” he asked her with a smirk.
Lily shook her head with an embarrassed grin. “No, sir,” she conceded. “And I hope you never do.”
Ethan lunged for her then, her words stirring him, and he caught his new bride off guard as his lips claimed what was now rightfully his. They’d exchanged a brief kiss after the ceremony, but this was the first real kiss since they’d married, and as his tongue snaked into her mouth, Ethan intended to relish it.
My wife… His cock leapt at the thought as a carnal groan escaped her throat. She’s my wife. All mine.
He growled, a guttural noise that made Lily’s eyes widen. “We should do this now,” he instructed in a low, throaty tone. “Before I change my mind and strip you right here.”
She panted from the place he’d pinioned her to the seat. “Okay,” she agreed. “Let’s telephone now, and then you can take more of what you need.”
He threw her one of his devastating smiles—the sort that had caught Ethan more than one prey in the past. “You’re on,” he promised, hoisting them both back to an upright position. “Now, get out of this car before I change my mind.”
Lily
“Here’s some money for the call,” he told her, thrusting some coins into her palm as they crossed the road toward the telephone box.
Her heart continued its rapid rhythm as she accepted the cash. “Do you need to ring your sister, too, sir?”
Lily could hear the quiver in her voice as she asked the question and she instantly despised how nervous she was, but the concept of talking to her parents again seemed like a mountain she could barely climb.
“I should,” he admitted in a wistful tone.
“Then you should go first,” she told him. “I need more time to think about what to say.”
“You are stalling for time,” he told her in a sardonic tone. “Seems like maybe my new wife needs a little impetus…”
She gasped at that idea, her cheeks flushing into a satisfying red blush. “Maybe,” she admitted in a husky tone. “But not here, sir. Not in public”
Ethan’s brow arched at her inference. He’s always quite enjoyed the concept of a little public humiliation, and he reckoned with some time and persuasion, Lily could too, but this wasn’t the moment. Unfortunately…
“Alright,” he decided after a moment. “I’ll call Kitty first, but then, you’re up.”
Lily stood huddled in the dank little telephone box while Ethan made his call home. She couldn’t hear much of the conversation between her husband and his sister, but based on Ethan’s responses, she guessed Kitty was shocked and emotional to hear from him. She supposed that was normal, but she didn’t relish receiving the same from her parents. Her mum and dad had always been difficult enough to talk to about most normal things, she couldn’t even imagine how they were going to react to the news of her runaway engagement and subsequent marriage. Obviously, she wasn’t going to tell them the other information about Ethan. She wasn’t sure there would ever be a good time to relay that communication.
When he finally hung up the receiver, Ethan turned to gaze down at Lily.
“Your turn,” he told her in a tone that made her sex clench. “Let’s get this over and done with.”
His words were so reminiscent of the way he’d spoken to her the night he’d first taken her to his father’s house in the countryside that an involuntary shudder passed up Lily’s spine, and her throat dried.
“Sorry,” he grumbled. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
Lily’ lips curled, despite the insistent raging of her heart. “I know,” she replied, meeting his gaze. “But that was a little like déjà vu.”
Ethan grinned at her, beckoning her toward the black telephone with one crooked digit. “Come on, little one.”
He thrust the receiver in her direction, and Lily grasped it with trembling fingers as she moved in the direction of the dial. Slowly, she twisted the correct sequence of numbers into the box, and waited, her heart thundering in her chest as the ringtone rang in her ears.
“Hello?”
The sound of her mother’s voice seemed to make her heart stop completely, and for a moment Lily just stood there, her hand grasping the dark plastic telephone.
“Hello?”
Her mum sounded weary, and Lily’s belly lurched as that registered in her brain. She knew without having to ask that she had caused that sound. Lily’s absence had made her m
other weary, and she was instantly filled with remorse.
“Mum.”
Lily’s voice was tiny as she replied, and she turned away from Ethan, pressing her palm against the dirty glass of the telephone box.
“Lily!” Her mother gasped at the recognition of her daughter’s tone. “Oh, thank God, Lily. It’s you—how are you—where are you? We’ve been worried sick.”
She closed her eyes at the barrage of questions she’d been expecting. Somehow, it was so much worse hearing them in real life. “I’m fine, Mother,” she answered, swallowing back on the guilt that rose as she replied. “Honestly, everything’s good. You don’t need to worry.”
“Lily?” Her father took the phone then, his concern evident even with the obvious relief mingling in his voice. “Is it really you?”
“Hi, Dad.”
The emotion bubbled in her throat at the sound of her father’s voice, and for a moment, all Lily could do was pull in a breath as she steadied herself. Ethan’s palm caressed her shoulder, as though he could sense her pain.
Of course, he probably could.
“Yes, it’s me. I’m fine and it’s good to talk to you.”
“My God.” Her father’s voice broke as he replied. “It’s so good to hear from you. After Jody, we’ve been so worried.”
Lily blinked into the grubby glass. Jody?
What about Jody?
The hand at her shoulder tensed, and she turned her head to glance down at Ethan’s fingertips.
“Lily?” Her father sounded in a panic.
“Yes, I’m here, Dad,” she answered. “Sorry, I just didn’t know what you meant. What’s wrong with Jody?”
“You haven’t heard.” That was presented as more of a statement than a question, and Lily’s chest tightened at his words.
Oh, God, what hadn’t she heard?
“What?” Lily could barely get the word out. “What’s happened to her?”
Ethan’s hand slipped from her shoulder, but somehow it didn’t matter, and as Lily pressed against the dirty interior, her entire focus was on her father’s voice. Whatever he was about to say next was critical. Lily didn’t know how she knew, but somehow, she did, and as that thought resonated, she already wondered if she didn’t know the answer. Hadn’t Jody gone missing just before she’d left the south? Just before Ethan made his shocking confession?
Fallen: (A Psychological Dark Romance) (The Dark Necessities Prequels Book 2) Page 20