“Hundreds,” Lilah says from behind me, and my stomach cramps at how slimy that makes me sound coming out of her mouth.
“Think about that number, Lilah,” Destiny says, holding her sister in a hard gaze. “
Hundreds
. That’s staggering. What makes you think you’re not going to be just another number?”
“She’s not just—” I start, but Lilah cuts me off.
“I’m not stupid, Destiny. I know Bran might break my heart. But if I have to choose between never taking the risk on something as intense as what I feel for Bran and nursing a hole in my chest, I’ll take the hole every time.”
Destiny shoots me a warning glare. “You took her to see our mother. Why would you do that?”
“Because she asked me to,” I answer honestly. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for her if she asked.”
“My mother nearly ruined us both. She’s toxic. Lilah shouldn’t be anywhere near her.”
“I think that’s Lilah’s call.”
Destiny’s head shakes adamantly. “It’s mine. I’m the one who looks out for her. I’m the one who protects her.”
“I don’t need protecting,” Lilah says. “Especially from Bran.”
“I don’t like this, Lilah,” Destiny warns.
“Are you going to report him to the cops?” Lilah asks.
“I should. This is wrong.”
“But you won’t.”
Lilah can obviously read her sister, because Destiny blows out a breath. “Not unless he gives me a reason to.”
Lilah takes my hand. “Even then. Promise me.”
Destiny’s jaw tightens when she glances at our interwoven fingers. “You’re asking a lot, Lilah.”
“Promise me,” Lilah pushes.
Destiny spins on me. “She’s only sixteen. She doesn’t get how thoroughly a guy can ruin a girl. Do the right thing, Bran. Walk away.”
“Destiny, stop!” She squeezes my fingers and tugs me closer. “I love Bran and this is happening.”
Destiny drops into a kitchen chair and takes a long drink of coffee. “So, what now?”
Lilah shrugs. “It’s Christmas. I guess we eat turkey.”
“We can see if the PackMart has frozen dinners,” Destiny says, tapping her nails on her mug.
I glance around their apartment. No tree. No gifts. And now, frozen dinners. “Come to Mom’s with me.”
They both look at me.
“It’s just Brenda, me, and Mom and she’s got this twenty pound turkey.”
They look at each other, Lilah’s face filled with hope and Destiny’s with trepidation. At the same time, they nod. They may not be twins in the true sense, but they’re sure as hell in each other’s heads.
“When?” Lilah asks, turning to me.
“I’ll be back for you at two?”
“We’ll be ready.” She takes my hand again and guides me to the door. We step through and I let her go first down the narrow stairs. She stops at the bottom and waits for me. “Thanks.”
I tug her to me, pin her between me and the steel security door, and kiss the shit out of her. When we’re both starving for air, I draw back and stare into her eyes. “I love you, Lilah. Don’t fucking forget it.”
She smiles up at me, holding up my key. “Got it, Sergeant Serious.”
I open the door and head for the Torino, and it’s hours before I can wipe this damn smile off my face.
Chapter 34
Lilah
The house smells like baking cookies and when I come out of my room dressed and ready, Destiny’s putting plastic wrap over a plate mounded with little brown balls.
“Are you going to be good with this?” I ask, slipping on my boots. “We don’t have to go if it’s going to be weird for you.”
She pulls back the cellophane and pushes the plate across the counter to me. “If you and Bran are a thing, I’m going to have to get used to being around him.”
I pluck a cookie off the top of the stack. “I know how lame it sounds, but everything with us just clicked, you know? I mean…I know he’s older and that should be a thing, but it’s really not. I didn’t mean for you to get hurt.”
She pops a cookie into her mouth and chews. “I wasn’t really hurt, Lilah. All I ever wanted to do was make sure you were safe and provided for. If you feel safe with Bran, then I’ll try to be happy for you.”
I take a bite of the cookie in my hand. It’s like a little bit of heaven on my tongue. “Oh my god. What are these?”
“I improvised with what we had,” she says with a shrug.
“You just made this up?” I ask, my mouth full of the rest of the cookie that I just crammed in.
“It’s not hard,” she says. “If you’ve got flour, sugar, baking powder, and butter, you can add a little of this and that and always come up with something that works.”
I shake my head. “But not as good as this. You have a gift.”
She smiles. “I got a job at Ambling Rose Bakery. Took some things I made over there and talked to the owner. I’m starting after New Year’s.”
I squeal a little and jump up, wrapping her in a hug. Not usually my thing, but this is so perfect for her. “This is so awesome. Everything is going to be amazing.”
“She said Bran had already talked to her about me,” she says against my shoulder. “He’s been looking out for us, Lilah, and it’s because he cares about you. I need to start trusting that you know what’s right for you.”
“You’re not still mad that he took me to see Mom?” I ask.
“You needed answers. I get that.”
“So, you won’t be mad if I ask him to take me back?”
I’ve been thinking about how things happened that night. Mom nearly killed us in the fire, but I don’t think she meant to. She was a shitty mother, but she took the brunt of Dad’s temper so we didn’t have to. And when push came to shove, she did what she had to do to save us.
She pulls away and looks at me. “You know what happened now. There’s no reason to have to see her again.”
“But I want to.” I hold her gaze. “And I think you should come with me.”
She starts shaking her head before the sentence is fully out of my mouth. “I can’t.”
“I didn’t think I could either, but she’s clean now, Destiny. She knows she let us down.”
Her head is still shaking an adamant no. “I’m not giving her the satisfaction of feeling better about all the shit she did by letting her get it all off her chest. She needs to live with what she put us through.”
“She is, Destiny. I don’t think telling us she’s sorry is going to clear her conscience.”
The doorbell rings.
“That’s our ride,” she says, slipping on a sweater.
I pull on my jacket as she scoops the cookies up and we head down to meet Bran.
♫
Vicky’s house is huge, nestled into thick evergreens at the base of a hill. When we pull up, I’m sure it has to be an inn or something.
“You’ve got to be fucking waxing me,” Bran says as we wind to the top of the driveway. A gray Lincoln is parked near the three-car garage.
“What?” I ask.
He nods at the Town Car as we roll to a stop next to it. “Dad.”
“That’s a little weird,” I say.
“Whatever,” he says with a roll of his eyes.
We pile out of the car and Bran lays his hand on the small of my back, sending an electric thrill through my body. We follow as Destiny carries the plate of cookies up the long flagstone walk to the front door.
“Just walk in,” Bran says when Destiny reaches for the doorbell.
She turns the knob and the smells of pine and cinnamon and turkey hit me in the face. Before we’re even through the door, my mouth is watering.
“Destiny!” Vicky says, skirting around the island of a huge kitchen in an even more enormous great room that the door opens in to. “How have you been? I’ve been worried about you.”
“I’m good,” my sister says, stepping into Vicky’s hug. She backs away and hands her the plate. “I know it’s not much, but I made some cookies.”
Vicky takes the plate and tugs the cellophane loose at one edge, taking a whiff. Her eyes widen and she plucks one out and takes a bite.
“Sweet Jesus in heaven,” she says with a roll of her eyes. “Smith! You got to taste these.”
A buff balding guy appears from a glass paneled doorway I can now see is a pantry. Bran has Vicky’s eyes and mouth, but everything else is his father’s.
Vicky holds out the plate and he tosses a whole cookie into his mouth. His eyes pop as he chews. “Holy shit.”
“I need your recipe,” Vicky says to Destiny.
Destiny cringes a little. “I didn’t really write it down, but it’s basically just a butter cookie with a little bit of nutmeg, clove and a drop of anise, because that’s what I had.”
“Christ, honey,” Vicky says, swiping another. “You should open a cookie shop.”
“Bran got me a job at Ambling Rose,” Destiny says, giving him an appreciative nod.
Bran holds up his hands. “That wasn’t me.”
“Well, based on this,” Vicky says, devouring the last bit of the cooking in her hand, “it’s the smartest move Molly ever made.”
Bran’s dad snatches another cookie and Vicky slaps his hand. “I’m Smith Silo,” he says, extending his free hand toward me. “Hear you’re the girl who finally tamed my son.”
I can’t stop my eyes from widening. “Lilah.” I take his hand. “And I didn’t tame anything.”
He gives me a firm shake and a wink. “If you say so, little girl.”
I cringe, really not liking his nickname for me and hoping to God it doesn’t stick.
“And you’re Destiny,” he says, shifting his hand to my sister.
“Nice to meet you, Smith,” Destiny says, shaking his hand. Then she turns to Vicky. “What can we help with?”
They all head for the kitchen and Bran takes my hand and pulls me back when I start to follow. He yanks me to him and plants a firm, unyielding kiss to my mouth.
Everything inside me turns to warm mush at the way he just takes what he wants. But, as if he reads my mind, he always gives me what I need: a squeeze of my waist and a brush of his thumb over my cheek as he threads his fingers into my hair make me feel more needed and wanted than I ever have in my life. But before the rest of them turn around, he’s let me go.
The door opens as we’re passing and Brenda comes through with a guy in tow.
“Hey,” Bran says. He tugs her into a quick, one-armed hug, then holds out his hand to the guy. “Good to see you again, Trevor.”
“Bran,” he says with a nod, shaking his hand.
Bran turns to me. “This is my girlfriend, Lilah,”
I can’t explain the jolt of panic up my spine at the word, except that Bran using it makes me realize this is for real. We’re really doing this.
“I don’t know what you did to my brother,” Brenda says as she swoops in for a hug, “but do more of it. I’ve never seen him so relaxed.”
“Um…okay,” I say.
“Brenda!” Vicky calls from the kitchen. “Get your butt over here and do whatever you do to these sweet potatoes to make them melt in my mouth.”
“Coming, Ma,” she calls and drags Trevor that way.
Bran and I follow.
“What you got for us, Ma?” Bran asks.
“If you can pick us something good out of the wine cellar, that would be great,” she says.
Bran takes my hand and tows me to a door under the curved staircase that leads to the second floor. He opens it and flicks on a light, and we wind down a stone staircase into a damp, cool basement. We reach the bottom and I shiver at the temperature change.
“Cold?” he says, pulling me against his warm body.
I smile up at him. “Not anymore.”
His smile is all sex as he leans down and kisses me. I kiss him back with everything I have, and before I know what’s happened, my back is pressed again the stone wall and Bran’s rock hard abs and pecs are crushed against the front of me. His kiss is ravenous and I let him devour me.
He lifts me and when I open my legs and wrap them around his waist, I feel every inch of him, hard and ready.
Maybe part of it is how over the line it would be to fuck Bran in his mother’s wine cellar with everyone just upstairs, but I find myself reaching for the button of his jeans. “Will they come down here?”
By way of an answer, he slips a hand under my skirt and gives my nicest lace panties a sharp tug. They come away in shreds in his hand. I’m still struggling to get him out of his boxer briefs, so he does it for me. And when he sinks himself deep inside me, I moan so loudly that I’m sure everyone upstairs must have heard. I stop moving and listen, but there’s Christmas music and chatter, and the banging of pots, pans and dishes in the kitchen.
When I look at Bran, he’s giving me a devil’s smile. “Merry Christmas.”
He thrusts hard into me and forces a breathy “oh, God,” up my throat.
“You’re so fucking wet,” he groans against my cheek.
“Because you make me so fucking horny,” I gasp.
I hold onto his neck and leverage off the wall, moving with him and taking him as deep as I can. We move together and the cold of the basement turns to molten heat with our sex. I’m sweating under my sweater only minutes later. It doesn’t last very long, but it’s so intense that I have to bite into Bran’s shoulder to keep from screaming when I come.
He gives me a few more sharp thrusts then comes deep inside me, tipping his head back and groaning, “Fuck, Lilah.”
There’s a long moment we just stay here, me pinned between the cold of the wall and the scorching heat of Bran’s body, breathing hard. But then he kisses me and sets me down.
“Hope these weren’t your favorites,” he says, handing me my panties.
“They were, actually,” I say.
Since I can’t wear them, I use them to clean myself up, then Bran slips them into his pocket. “She’ll want a red and a white,” he says, walking over to shelves of racked wine near the stone wall in the back like what we just did happens every day.
I finger comb my hair back into place as he looks the rack over for a minute, then pulls one and reads the label. He puts it back and pulls the one next to it. Once he’s decided on his choice, he hands it to me and goes to a refrigerator with a glass door at the end of the racks. He peers through the glass for a minute before opening the door and pulling a bottle.
He takes my hand and we head back upstairs. Bran sets the bottles on the counter and no one looks at us like anything’s off. I shoot Bran a secret smile.
“Do the honors, Bran,” his dad says, holding out an electric carving knife.
Bran walks to the other side of the island, where an immense turkey sits on a carving board, and goes to work. I watch him conquer the beast for a few minutes, then turn for the living room. The ceiling is vaulted, and Vicky has what must be a fifteen foot tree in front of the wall of windows that looks toward the mountains. It’s all decked out in red and gold, with a golden star fixed to the top. There are ribbons and beads, shining glass globes and tinsel.
“I’ll go,” Destiny says from behind me. I turn and she’s looking up at the star on top of the tree. She sighs and lowers her gaze to mine. “I hate Mom for what she did to us, and I’m not letting her off the hook, but if you want to go talk to her, I’ll go with you.”
I pull her into a hug. “Thank you.”
“If it gets ugly, you won’t be thanking me, Lilah. But I need answers too.”
Her voice wavers on the last, and when I draw back, her eyes are moist. “Just listen to what she has to say, okay?”
She nods slowly. “I’ll try.”
“Oh my God!” Brenda says from the kitchen. We turn and find her holding half of one of Destiny’s cookies. “What is this?” she asks Destiny, her eyes wide.
Destiny moves to the kitchen and I turn back to the tree. I skirt around the mound of gifts at the base and examine the decorations more closely. Some are clearly homemade by little hands. At eye level, right on the front of the tree, here’s an ornament with painted red and green puzzle pieces glued into a wreath. And in the center is a picture of an adorable dark-haired little boy with a missing front tooth.
I lift it off the branch to get a closer look, and smile when Bran’s strong hands slip around my waist from behind. He kisses my neck and I shudder.
“Thought I warmed you up downstairs,” he mutters against my ear.
“You did,” I say, shooting a look at the kitchen, where everyone is talking loudly over each other as they pull the meal together.