Page 36 of Seduce & Destroy

“Sunshine, which is it? You like him but you scream when he gets close? You two seemed pretty close in the church until you stabbed him. A clear cut, you know. Good girl.”

“I was getting away from him. Kenna saved me. You sat there doing nothing as he fawned over me.”

“So, it’s Kenna that you want? You were in that forest long enough, you fuck her?” My ear touched the cold stoned walls.

“Father!” She sounded appalled. “I was having an anxiety attack because my best friend was in a casket and my ex-husband couldn’t keep his dirty hands to himself long enough so that I could say my goodbyes. This is not about my want.”

“Don’t give me that attitude. I spent thousands to get you help. And I spent years getting you a good match. You ruined it. I won’t let you ruin it again.”

A slammed door shook the walls to my bedroom. After a few minutes, heavy footfalls receded down the hallway and Laney’s door clicked open before a knock sounded at my door.

The sigh of relief I released delayed my reaction before I swung the door open.

“You heard?” She said, teary eyed.

I nodded, sadly. “Everything.” And opened the door wider for her to come inside.

And she did and with an ungraceful flop, she fell onto my bed, face first. Please, let this day be over, please, let this day be over could be heard muffled by the bedsheets.

For me, I didn’t want it to end just yet. She came to me. She came to me. I’m usually the one in her domain, but she sought comfort in me. There wasn’t a bigger compliment than that. Maybe, I hadn’t lost her after all, though I knew she was still suspicious, I vowed to protect her above all else.

It was a weirdly foreign sight to see her in my space, cloaked in the darkness of my burgundy bed sheets and dim lighting. I’d spent a lot of my life underground, sometimes literally, so it helped to acclimate my eyes to low light just in case. It made for an intimate setting.

I laid down beside her, on my side, facing her, but all I could see was the dark blonde of her hair sprawled around her head. Fingering a couple strands, it took an effort to just slide the silk through my hand instead of tightening a fist and pulling her back and making her mine.

I refrained for now. It had been a taxing day. Emotions and tensions collided into a hurricane, but it was the unspoken truths unclothed that made the day worthwhile despite it. Laney’s honesty had been a surprise. A welcome one, but still unexpected when her voice spitting “liar” continued to ring in my ears.

My hand cupped the back of her head in a gentle caress. I looked at it often in secondary school. It was the only view I was allowed to examine. The other times, the times I could see her face, she always returned my gaze. My mission was to authenticate her identity. We knew that her father might put her in school sooner or later, so we installed alerts for new pupils with suspicious backgrounds. And bingo, we got their location. And me? A year-long obsession.

I dropped my hand.

Laney groaned in protest. “No, keep going.” She tilted her head to the side, the side I was sitting on, and almost seared into me a command to comply.

“And what do you say?” I teased in a mocking voice using the type of tone an entitled aunt would use to prompt a random child to show her respect she didn’t earn.

“Please,” she said, her doe eyes focused full throttle on me but immediately closed when I returned my hand to the same spot on her head. A girl could get used to this.

I shifted my hand from her head to rub her shoulders.

She cooed at the affection.

Deciding I needed to use both hands to give the best massage, I straddled her back and lightly placed my arse to rest against hers. With hands on either side, I dug my thumbs in deep, moving them slowly in a circular motion. As I did, I felt her breathe below me and the tension ease from her shoulders.

God, I wanted to be under her. She could reign my kingdom.

The circular movement of my thumbs moved my hands lower and lower down her back forcing me to straddle her on her upper legs. Her arse in full view now and she stiffened. I hovered for a minute, but she didn't try to buck me off.

In a seductive tone, I whispered close to her ear, “Relax, princess,” as I continued massaging her ass and upper thighs. I continued lower down her legs in serene silence all the way to the tips of her toes.

When I looked up at her again, she was softly snoring.

Chapter 15

LANEY

Kenna and I fell into a routine. Every night she came to visit me in my room. We never went back into her room after I woke up there the day after Tilly’s funeral, disorientated, alone, but wickedly calm.

The kiss had come at a terrible time, but I couldn’t bring myself to regret it. As soon as it happened, I wanted to wrestle my phone out of my pocket and call my best friend. The reality that sunk in immediately after left me with a bitter taste. Not on account of Kenna, but circumstance. I hated that she had to be muddied by the tragedy that had befallen the Ravencroft syndicate. If only we’d met again the year before.

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