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Autumn crosses to us and places a washcloth and a glass of water on the coffee table for her. "Just in case," she mouths, and then squeezes my arm before slipping out of the room. She glances back at us once, her expression indecipherable, and then heads upstairs.
"Your sister probably thinks I'm a crazy person," Catriona mumbles.
"My sister knows what it's like to be in your shoes," I say, tucking silky strands of hair behind her ears. "Our father was a selfish man. He viewed the world as his playground and people as his toys. He hurt a lot of people, our mother and Autumn the most."
"I met him a couple times."
"I'm sorry," I say, meaning it. I doubt it was a pleasant experience for her. God knows, it wasn't for most people who crossed paths with him.
"Was he always like that?"
"Usually," I say. "But my mom loved him once. I figure that means he was someone worth loving at some point even if I never met that man."
"Oh. What happened between them?" she whispers, her voice raw.
I lean forward, grabbing the glass of water. "Here," I murmur, "drink this."
She obediently turns her head, allowing me to hold the glass up to her lips. She takes a couple small drinks before waving me off. "Thank you."
I replace the glass on the table. "My mom's family used to be in the shipping business in Greece. My father started gobbling up smaller companies over there, but he promised to leave their company alone if she married him. She believed him," I say, running my hands down her back. "He kept his promise for a while after they wed, but it didn't last long. Once he was sure she was in love with him, he took it without a second thought. By then, she was pregnant with me. I guess he thought she'd be too blinded by love to care, but it didn't work out that way. It destroyed her relationship with her family, and their marriage."
"Oh, wow." Catriona shifts in my lap, cuddling closer. "What did she do?"
"Named me Andreas," I say, smiling. "Her family never forgave her, but she never forgot them and never let my father forget either. She made sure he remembered what he did every single time he spoke my name—her family name."
Catriona lifts her head, blinking red-rimmed eyes at me. "Her family name was Andreas?"
"Mmhmm."
"You're serious."
"Family never meant much to him, but it meant everything to her." Oddly, he never tried to call me anything else. I'm not sure if using the name she gave me was his way of owning what he did or if it was a reminder to him that she felt something for him once. With him, who knows? He thought he could bully her into loving him again or buy his way into her heart. He tried everything under the sun except the one thing that might have actually saved their marriage. An apology.
"My parents died when I was twelve," Catriona says quietly. "Connor raised me."
Jesus.
I brush my thumbs down her cheeks, tracing the trails her tears left. Her skin is soft and warm.
She swallows, her pink tongue darting out to wet her lips. She doesn't ask me to stop, nor does she try to crawl out of my lap. Unable to resist, I trace the same path her tongue just took across her bottom lip, groaning at how soft it is, at how wet it is. My dick stiffens. And then stiffens again when her tongue peeps out, touching the side of my thumb.
"Little one," I whisper.
"Sorry," she says. We both know she doesn't mean it though. She wants me, perhaps as badly as I want her. But I don't want her in my bed because she's mad at her brother. When she gives herself to me, I want it to be because she knows this is where she belongs. I want it to be because she can't imagine a future without me in it. Until then, I can't lose my head. This is too important.
"What happened tonight, Catriona?" I ask, steering us carefully away from the danger zone.
She deflates like a sad little balloon. "I asked Connor about the woman. You were right," she says sadly. "He knew about it. He was more upset that someone told me than anything else."
I want to ask for details, but I don't. As much as I want to know exactly what he said and what he knew, I can't ask her to betray her brother. Putting her in that position when she's already hurting would be wrong. I didn't bring her here to manipulate her into betraying him.
If I do that, I'm no better than the Vipers or my father.
I am who I am because I hold myself to higher standards. I refuse to be weak and selfish and take what I want, regardless of who gets hurt along the way. Far too goddamn many men in this world are like that. I won't be one of them, not when I've seen just how much damage they can do. My father trapped my mother by holding me and Autumn over her head. He had the money, the power, everything. Had she left, he would have taken us simply to punish her.
I was in college when she died. Autumn wasn't. He took his grief out on her, trying to mold her into a more obedient replica of the woman he'd lost. My sister was a toy to him, an instrument he used to get his way. He fully intended to turn her into a polite society wife and sell her into marriage to whichever family could do the most for his company, regardless of what she wanted.
She went through hell because she didn't trust that I'd protect her. She thought I'd side with him. The day she told me that, I made a vow to myself that I would never let myself become him. I'd do everything I could to be something better, and to fix everything he broke. People would always come first to me, no matter what. I won't change that now, not for any reason. Not ever.
