Authors: Michelle Congdon
The next few days were tough. Not only had I not been able to get the image of Evangeline out of my mind, which resulted in my pitch being off during games and practice, but also the whole team had been informed of a great man’s passing.
I’d been privileged enough to meet the fashion tycoon, Rupert Montgomery, a handful of times during charity events and knew he was a brilliant and extremely generous man. His death was a huge loss not only to the Yankees and the other sporting teams he supported but also to the world. Even though I knew a lot about the guy on a professional level, his personal life remained a mystery. What I knew was common knowledge was he had tragically lost his wife and a child in a car accident a long time ago, and he had a love for sports. I’d felt for the man, but I also admired his ability to move forward and continue working toward helping others. If only my own father had been that way.
It was Friday and the managers had given us the day off to pay our respects to the late Rupert at his funeral. Instead of going with the rest of the team, I asked if Annabelle wanted to come with me. She’d met the man a handful of times and, like me, he’d made a huge impact on her. She admired him, too. She adored his work, in fashion mostly, but also the way he carried out his charity work. He really
was
loved by most.
I went to pick Annabelle up at the new apartment I’d bought for her earlier in the year. It was the first time she’d moved out of home and I wanted her to be close to me in case anything went wrong. It was also because I refused to let her live on campus with those self-absorbed airheads she called friends and all the testosterone-fuelled teenage boys who had their eyes set on her. They were never going to get close to her while I was around. My sister was not only beautiful, but she was also kind and caring. She was the type of person who’d walk past a homeless person on the street and instead of offering money, she’d walk into the nearest convenient store and buy them a sandwich and a bottle of water. She greeted everyone she met with a smile and always used her manners. She was innocent yet so much wiser than her years. But that made her a vulnerable target to the cruel, manipulative, sick fucks of the world. She didn’t notice the way they looked at her, and she sometimes didn’t notice when her friends took advantage of her, but I did. And while my sister hated my over-protectiveness, she knew she had no chance at getting me to change. Zero chance.
Waiting for Annie to get dressed was a nightmare. I practically had to drag her out of her apartment despite my constant warnings of, “If we’re late, you’re never coming to another event with me!” and “You have literally two seconds to get your butt out here before I take this apartment away from you!”
“You enjoy seeing me this way, don’t you?” I groaned, tapping at my watch impatiently when she finally emerged.
“Are you kidding? You’re always like this,” she teased, poking her tongue out at me.
I didn’t bother responding. I just rolled my eyes and adjusted the sleeve on my black suit to hide my watch before holding the apartment door open.
“Oh, I’m not sure about these earrings anymore,” she started, walking past me and through the open door.
“Too late,” I replied, slipping through the door after her and quickly shutting it. I could feel her narrowed gaze burning a hole through the back of my jacket. As siblings often do, Annie and I enjoyed tormenting one another. “No one is even going to notice your stupid earrings.”
“Clearly not you, anyway,” she muttered, stepping up beside me as we entered the elevator. “You got me these for my birthday.”
I tilted my head and eyed the oversized, emerald-cut diamond studs in her ears.
Huh
.
So I did.
They were my gift to her for her eighteenth birthday along with a matching white-gold dress ring, which I noticed she was also wearing on her finger.
“And you were about to go and change? I spent a lot of money on those bad boys; the least you can do is wear them.”
Now, it was
her
turn to roll her eyes.
When the elevator came to the final stop, we exited and made our way across the lobby. However, I came to a halt when I noticed a familiar figure dressed in a black dress by the fountains.
Of all the hotel lobbies in New York, this is the one Evangeline had to be standing in? What luck.
I was so surprised I accidentally called out her name before I could stop myself. She spun around immediately and I swear my heart jumped a few times as I caught sight of her beauty. She really was a beautiful thing, angelic…almost perfect. I say ‘almost’ because there was sadness about her which I noticed on the very first night I laid eyes on her. And looking at her now, dressed in an elegant, slim-fit, black dress, with a thin, short, black veil lightly covering her eyes, I could see the sadness still there.
I cleared my throat and adjusted my suit before making my way over. “What on Earth are you doing here?” I asked, stopping barely in front of her.
She didn’t answer; she was too busy staring at me, clearly with something on her mind. Picturing her undressing me with her mind sent a small thrill through my body, especially down
there
. I leaned in closer until I almost touched her ear and whispered, “Are you just going to stand there and act like you don’t know me? I’m finding it a little embarrassing.”
When I pulled back, I caught her eyes flutter closed and she swallowed. Knowing I caused that reaction brought a huge smile to my face.
When she opened her eyes a few moments later, they widened, surely due to the way I was staring at her with a wicked grin.
“Hello, Ryan. Sorry…I’ve just got a lot on my mind right now,” she finally replied, blinking repeatedly.
“I can definitely see that. I hope I appear in there somewhere,” I teased. Just as expected, my words caused her cheeks to flush.
I took a step back to allow the poor girl to breathe. I really enjoyed being so close to her, but I knew it left her feeling flustered. I wasn’t sure where she was going, but dressed the way she was it was probably somewhere where looking hot and horny was an inappropriate way to arrive.
“Are you going to keep me waiting while you flirt?” I inwardly cringed as Annabelle’s high-pitched voice filled my mind. “You are such an ass sometimes, Ryan.”
I’m going to mess up that pretty, half-hour hairstyle of hers once we leave the building.
I refused to turn away from Evangeline, ignoring my nuisance of a baby sister, even when Evangeline temporarily looked away. I let out an exasperated sigh. “Annabelle, will you just shut it for one minute?” I knew what the little brat was doing, and I wasn’t going to fall for it. I wasn’t going to let her embarrass me in front of
this
girl.
I kept my gaze locked onto Evangeline’s even when my sister whined about telling her to ‘shut it’.
Out of nowhere, Annabelle nudged past me, causing me to stare at her in shocked horror as she held her hand out toward Evangeline.
“Hi, I’m Annabelle. I don’t often like introducing myself to any of the women Ryan has slept with, but he’s acting rather strange so I thought I’d see what the fuss was all about.” My mouth dropped.
What the hell is she doing?
I had to put a stop to it.
I heard Annabelle mutter something under her breath but chose to ignore it, looking at a stunned Evangeline instead as I said, “Annabelle, you’re such a brat. Stop terrifying the poor woman and quit embarrassing me. Evangeline, I’m sorry, this is my loud-mouthed and extremely-nosey baby sister.” I jerked my head back, indicating I was talking about Annabelle.
I had no idea my sister had walked away from me until I heard her voice from a few feet away. “Now,
that
...I have never seen you do before!”
What now?
I turned to my sister with a fierce glare in place. “Quit it!”
But the brat thought it was funny. She threw her head back and laughed her usually-cute laugh, but right this moment it was making my blood boil.
“You must have used some incredible bait to catch this fish, Evangeline. He’s never bothered introducing me to any of his women before, and I have never seen him blush this much in my life!”
Oh, I am going to
kill
her later!
“Just get out of here, will you!” I growled, stepping toward her and pushing her away with a little force. She slapped my hands away but took the hint and made her way toward the revolving doors.
“Err…I’m sorry about that,” I tried to say casually but there was an awkwardness in my tone. At least looking back at Evangeline and seeing she’d gone completely red in the face made my little embarrassing moment seem like nothing. Wait, why was
she
blushing? “Well, I need to get going. It’s an important day and it’s not something I want to be late for,” I said, trying to break the awkward tension in the air.
What is happening to me?
“Yeah, me, too,” she replied with a smile. Then suddenly she frowned. “Except I will be if someone doesn’t turn up in the next two minutes.”
“Do you mean your ‘boyfriend’ from that night?” guessing that was who she was referring to.
She frowned again while I smiled. “Ha, ha,” she said, rolling her eyes. “For the record, he’s my best friend, but if you must know then, yes, that’s who.”
“I thought it was him,” I muttered. I remembered the familiar-looking dark guy I saw hugging two men out front of an apartment as the elevator stopped on their floor. “He and some guy were saying goodbye to another man―”
Her hands flew to her ears and her eyes squeezed shut. “I don’t even want to know.”
I let out a laugh. “Well, I guess I’ll see you around some time then? Perhaps at the Inferno club again?”
“Yeah, perhaps,” she answered unconvincingly.
I studied her for a moment, deliberating on whether it was a good idea to ask her for her number or not. After all, I didn’t want to seem too eager, and asking for girls’ numbers wasn’t my style.
Get over yourself; you’ll regret not doing it!
It took me a moment to make up my mind. In the end, I decided on saying, “I’ll see you around, Evangeline,” then turned around and walked away before I could make an ass of myself.
Too late, Annabelle already did that.
Wait, what am I doing?
Ask her for her damn number!
I looked back over my shoulder with the intention of scoring her number but seeing her standing there, looking so innocent and sexy, had me completely lost for words. As soon as our eyes connected, all I could think about was the little black dress on the floor of my bedroom. And before I looked like a fool, I said, “Oh, and by the way, you look smokin’ hot in that dress. If you had been wearing that on the night we’d met, veil and all, I’d have had you bent over the bar in a matter of seconds.”
Seeing her delicate face turn from pink to bright red was just about the cutest thing I’d ever seen. I grinned, turned away and walked toward the exit knowing whatever happened today no longer mattered. She’d just made my day.
“You like her, don’t you?”
I turned my head to face Annabelle and frowned. “Shut up, will you?”
An annoying little smirk rose on her face. “Oh, my God, you do! I can tell.”
“As if you can, Annie,” I said with a snort, then turned back to face the window. “And anyway…I don’t even know her.” I shrugged.
“Yes, but you
want
to, and it bothers you that she doesn’t behave like the rest of them.”
Ugh.
Sometimes I felt like my baby sister was too smart for her own good.
We were in the car on our way to the funeral. I’d been staring blankly out the window for a few good minutes before Annabelle had decided to interrupt.
“It won’t take her long before she does. Women can’t resist
this
for too long,” I joked, trying to lighten my strange mood.
“But here’s the thing,” she began, ignoring my smart-ass remark. “You don’t want her to, do you? You don’t want her to be like the rest of them. There’s something about her.”
I turned back to face her. “Who
are
you? And what have you done with Annabelle Lyndsey Fox?”
She giggled then smiled. “I’m just reading the clues, which are plainly obvious to see.”
Plainly obvious?
Was I really giving away that much? No, I wasn’t. It was just Annabelle and the scary ability she had to read people; read me in particular. I turned away back out toward the window, and watched the traffic go past. Annabelle was like me in a lot of ways. Besides having blonde hair, our personalities and mannerisms were very similar. She was just a much sweeter-looking, more innocent version of her older brother.
“I can’t wait to be loved by somebody,” Annabelle muttered absentmindedly.
My head jerked very quickly in her direction and I glared. “We, your
family
, love you,
Bambina
,” I replied, calling her by the nickname I’d made up for her when we were younger. I didn’t understand much Italian, but I knew that word meant ‘little girl’. When we were younger, I used it to tease her, but we’d both grown attached to it as the years passed.
“You know what I mean. I want to have a boyfriend.” She glanced back at me with a dreamy look in her eyes.
Oh, no.
“You’ll never have a boyfriend.”
This time she frowned. “Yes, I will.”
“I won’t let anyone near you. No boy will be de-flowering my baby sister. Not while I’m alive, anyway.”
“Did you just use the word ‘
de-flowering’
? Okay, gross! You are my
brother
! You aren’t supposed to talk to me about this sort of stuff!”
I grinned slyly, proud my comment made her uncomfortable. It seemed to be the only way to stop my teenage sister from talking about boys these days. “I certainly did. You know what? I’m thinking about buying you a chastity belt for your next birth—”
“Stop, Ry! I feel sick!” she squealed, slapping my wrist.
She was trying so hard to be angry but she couldn’t hold the giggles in, which ultimately made me laugh. “You’ll thank me when you’re older.”
“I’m sure I will,” she groaned. “Now, can we change the subject? You’ve officially freaked me out.” She crossed her arms and pouted.
“Yes, please.”