AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“And you threatened to expose him?”
One more nod.
Dom’s sudden laugh made me jump. It was so unexpected coming from him it made me stare. He high-fived Izzy in triumph, and something sinister came over his face. “I think we’re about to find out just how far he’s ready to go to protect his lover.”
*
A week later, I stood in the room we were given, weighing my options in a tall silver-framed mirror. I could go with the little blue dress that matched my eyes to perfection but clung a bit tighter to my body than I was used to, or the pink chiffon that hung free and easy down my mid thighs. Both were stunning and must have cost Izzy a fortune. I knew designer clothes when I saw them. My father only got me the best. Nothing was too costly for his little girl, he told me, and I believed him. We were rich. It was what I, and everyone else, believed. But in reality, he was in over his head, drowning in debt he avoided by doing jobs that would have gotten him locked up for life. If he hadn’t sold me as a guarantee for his freedom…
I shook the dark thoughts off, focusing on the dress. Marc’s cold attitude during the last week made me chose the blue. If it wouldn’t snag his attention, I didn’t know what could.
Izzy got me a whole wardrobe. The day after our arrival, I came back from dinner and found everything I needed in pretty bags spread out over the king-sized bed.
She got things for Marc and Johnny as well.
I barely had time to step into the dress and zip it up before Izzy knocked on the door.
“Come in!” I called out.
She entered, and my eyes widened. She looked like a dark fairytale princess. Her long black hair hung free, flowing over tanned shoulders and a strapless black dress that was just as tight as mine. It barely covered her ass, slowing off long killer legs. I gulped. She was too beautiful. The sliver of jealousy bothered me. She was nothing but nice, but the looks she gave Marc… I swallowed the uneasiness and smiled at her.
“Ready to party?” she asked with a wink, adding, “You look stunning in that.” She eyed me up and down. “You’re almost makingmehot for you,” she giggled. “I feel bad for Maddox.”
I chuckled, turning back to look at my reflection. Izzy was right. The dress was prefect—if I wanted to show every curve and a big portion of skin. I smiled nervously at Izzy through the mirror. “It’s not too much?”
“Are you kidding me?” She came to stand next to me, lifting my hair off my shoulders to study me. “Let me do your hair.”
She led me over to the vanity, pushed me down on a stool and gathered the items she needed. While she attacked my hair, I battled the mixed feelings inside. Looking back at her through the mirror, a wide circle with round lights spreading a soft white light over my already pale skin, guilt simmered in my gut. “How can I ever repay you?”
Her hands stopped moving and came to rest on my shoulders. “You already have, by being here.”
I glanced up at her through the reflection. She must have seen the doubt in my eyes because she smiled, adding in a soft voice, “I like having you here. We all do. I’ll miss you like crazy when you leave.” She continued, slowly making it across my head with a curling iron, and the soft dark locks that fell over my shoulders increased my confidence a notch with each one.
“I mean it, chica,” she said. “It gets lonely here. I can’t go out like a normal girl, not with our asshole brother breathing down our necks. I have no real friends because of him. No boyfriends. The closest to romance I ever get are one-night stands and casual flings.” She put the iron away, studying her work and smiled a bright white smile.
“That’s why you’re throwing this party?” I asked. “To have somefun?”
She giggled. “No such luck.” She caught a few locks, pulling them from my face and fastened them at the back of my head, fluffing them up for maximum volume. “Dom forgets to live sometimes. I’m doing this for him.”
I didn’t understand, but before I could ask, she changed the subject and went on. “You’re like the baby sister I never had.” She grinned. “Let me enjoy this while it lasts.”
A sudden sadness filled me. Her words touched something in me, something I tried to deny. But the truth was, I knew how she felt. The loneliness. The longing for something deep, whether it be friendship or love. I buried it in a dark corner and pretended it didn’t exist. Growing up thinking I was sick, I never tried to connect. Why should I? When I was going to die, anyway? When a future was not in my cards, what was the point of such things? It didn’t matter how I missed it, how I sometimes cried into my pillow after reading a romance novel and wishing I was the main character.
I never dared to think I would experience this feeling. I never did. Not even once. My father had many guests, men, old and young. They admired me from afar, their looks fluttering my belly and filling my mind with dirty thoughts. But it was never more than that. I never felt something real. Not even a spark. Then I met Marc, and it was fireworks from the start. He was as forbidden as every other man before him. The only difference was that with him, I wanted what I couldn’t have.
“Ready!” Izzy snapped me back to the room, and I looked into the mirror and gasped.
“I don’t think I ever looked this good,” I breathed. Standing, I turned to her with a smile on my lips. “Thank you.”
“Now let’s go turn some heads.” She winked at me, holding out her arm so I could hook mine in hers. Being short, everyone was taller than me, but in her five-inch heels, Izzy was almost as tall as Marc. Even with my own borrowed, frightening high heels, I only reached her chin.
I gulped, praying I wouldn’t fall and embarrass myself, then followed her to the awaiting party.
The last thing I wanted was some fucking party. But Izzy insisted, claiming we needed to live a little. I couldn’t deny that, but no shiny lights and champagne bubbles could brighten my mood. The week at the twin’s mansion passed slowly. Izzy’s medicine made me feel like a zombie, and the inability to focus on anything except the pain and how to best avoid it, slipped me further down that dark hole of despair.
Her doom still echoed in my head, further souring my mood. And the little part of me that blamed Kaylie for my fucked-up situation made me nauseous. It was wrong, and I fucking hated myself for even thinking like that. Kaylie was the sweetest little thing. The goddamn candle in my night. If she burned out, I’d be lost in the dark.
That alone made me hold on to her despite the ugly feeling toward her, and no matter how twisted it was, hating her, even on a microscopic level, was better than loving her. If I allowed myself to fully love her, to let her become what I already knew she was, I’d be fucked. I felt it with every fiber of my being. But resisted it, fought the feelings as if they were something vicious, dragging me under.
