I felt his arms slide around me, albeit slowly, hesitantly, buthe did it all the same. He dipped his head down until I felt his hot breath on the top of my head, disrupting my hair. “He’s your half-brother,” he said quietly.
I pulled away and found his eyes, my heart thudding against my ribs, my mind frozen in a state of shock. “I said lie to me,” I whispered, my chest tightening.
His eyes searched mine, his unreadable. “I did.”
“’Cuse me.”
I inhaled sharply and turned away from her, Everett’s arm remaining around my waist as if he suddenly didn’t have the balls to let me leave.
I didn’t mind. Not right now. I felt as if I were going to collapse at any second, I didn’t trust myself to keep standing.
“My mom says ice water helps every time.”
“Thank you,” Everett said, using a type of gentle voice I had never heard before.
“Why are you wearing a mask?” Baily asked. “It’s not Halloween. Not yet anyway. We got at least 42 days before Halloween.”
That almost made me smile. Almost.
Yeah, kid, at least 42 days, give or take a few months.
“It’s to protect my secret identity,” he answered. “Give us a moment?”
She gasped. “Okay, I promise I won’t tell anyone. I’m good at keeping secrets.”
A moment later, I felt his hand thread up into my hair from the base of my neck, sending shivers down my spine as he carefully closed his grip into my roots. He tilted my head back and brought a cold glass to my lips, his cool silver eyes finding mine. “This means nothing,” he hummed as he tipped the glass forward.
I didn’t know what he was talking about. What he had said, what he was doing, what he said about the mask, but what I didknow was that his pupils were dilating, and his moon-eyes were an anchor keeping me from spiraling into the depths of Hell.
He pulled the glass away and gently tipped my head forward, using his knuckle to close my mouth. “Swish and spit.”
I swished it around as violently as I could before he guided my head forward and I spit it out.
He repeated the process twice more before finally telling me to swallow.
He kept hold of the hair at the base of my neck as I swallowed the water down and finally looked up to face him.
He tilted my head back, his eyes falling to my lips, a muscle in his jaw feathering. “You are here to get answers. Shut down everything else in your mind and focus. Focus on only that.”
I swallowed, the tears burning my eyes again. “She looks just like me,” I whispered, my stomach churning again.
“It’s a coincidence, Olivia. She has no relation to you, not even a single cell.”
I swallowed, searching his eyes, my hands clenching at my sides. I wanted to be angry at him for having enough information to know that, but I was too relieved. It was a coincidence, nothing more. Just a coincidence.
His hand slowly tightened in my hair, as if he couldn’t help himself. “I want to erase everything he did to you, so I had to find all the pieces to the puzzle. If you’re going to be ruined, Olivia, I want to be the one to ruin you. Nobody else gets that privilege but me.”
My body warmed, my pussy throbbing at the way he said my name. Caressing each syllable as if they meant something. As if they were worth something.
“Now, go get your answers. I don’t like babysitting.”
I sneered. Yup, there he was. I shoved out of his grasp, fixed my clothes and wiped the back of my hand over my mouth. “Screw you,” I said under my breath.
But as I turned back to the porch, I did what he wanted. I focused. What else could I do? I was relieved, but I still ruined a family. I still had to face them.
I could collapse later. When I was all alone, under my covers, with a big bottle of cheap wine. That’s when I would collapse. But for now? I had questions and I needed answers.
21
