Page 9 of Ink's Devil

No. I don’t, can’t,want what’s impossible to have.

Making a concerted effort to leave any regrets behind in this room, I pull open the door and step out.

Although I know there will be breakfast provided, I’m really not in the mood. Mel will want to know how I got on with Ink, and it’s far too soon to share or even decide whether I’ll be revealing any details at all. I need time to process last night on my own without dissecting it with anyone else. One day I’ll tell her, and we’ll laugh about it. The spanking and how much I enjoyed it, I’ll keep to myself. But I’ll probably let her know I did indeed get the full biker experience.

I also want to sneak out unseen just in case Ink’s still around. How do I face him today? Not without blushing, that’s for certain. And how will his biker companions react? Will there be sniggers, laughs and pointed remarks? That wouldn’t surprise me.

So, I wheel my little carry-on case down the hallway, then hold my breath when the elevator dings and the door opens on the ground floor. I can hear raucous laughter from the restaurant, but thankfully there’s no one I recognise in the lobby. Handing in my key card, I tap my fingers impatiently on the desk while they check me out and print my receipt.

At last I’m free to escape, letting out a heartfelt sigh when I reach my car unimpeded.

After that, my drive home seems anti-climactic.

“You looked beautiful yesterday.” Mom comes and hugs me when I walk in the front door. “I was so proud of you.” She’d been one of the wedding guests, but since she wasn’t part of the bridal party, she hadn’t stayed at the hotel.

I shrug her comment off with an embarrassed grin. “I don’t know why. All I did was stand there and look pretty.”

“You did that so well. I’m proud of what I made.”

I giggle. But I suppose she did have a part in making me and how I turned out.

“Hey, Sis. That you?” a voice booms from the living room, shortly followed by the man himself. It’s my little brother, Connor. Well little refers to age, not size. He’s an inch taller than me, both of us towering over our parents.

“Con!” I tell him, genuinely delighted. “I’ve not seen you for ages. What have you been up to?”

His shoulders rise and fall, while I eye him intently. He’s lost a bit of weight since I last saw him; his face no longer has its baby roundness and is now angular like a man’s. He looks harder too. Connor lives with our dad up in Denver.

Patsy, our mom, and our father had separated when we were young, she ended up with sole custody of Connor and me. Dad hadn’t bothered to have anything to do with us, never remembered our birthdays or Christmas. It was only six years ago when Connor turned sixteen that my brother wanted to know more about the man who sired him. Apparently, when he’d tracked him down, it turned out they’d gotten on, and Connor moved out to live in Denver with him when he was eighteen. Mom had protested, but as he was then an adult, she could do nothing to stop him.

That was four years ago. My doubts that my father has been a good influence, possibly going so far as to turn Connor against our mom, seem to be spot on, though he and I still get along. It’s rare he comes to visit. I can’t remember seeing him for almost twelve months. I’m delighted he’s here, but also, suspicious.

“To what do we owe this pleasure?” I ask him.

Another raise and dip of his shoulders. “Had some business in town, thought I’d say hello while I was here.”

“You going back to Denver later, or do you want to stay?” my mom asks with a tinge of optimism. “I can get a pot roast or something going.”

“Nah, I’ll get back.” His face tightens. “Wouldn’t want to put you out, Mom.”

He turns away when she brushes off his comment, almost cutting her off when she says it’s no trouble. He addresses me instead, “So where were you yesterday that you stayed out all night?” He looks pointedly at the overnight bag I’ve let drop to the floor.

“At Mel’s wedding.” I gratefully take the cup of coffee Mom’s just poured for me and blow on it to cool it down. “A friend from work,” I add, in case he doesn’t remember.

“So, did you hook up with someone? Is that why you stayed out? No thanks.” The last is to my mom offering to fill a cup for him.

“No,” I deny fast, shocked that he thinks he can walk back in after months away and start questioning what I get up to. “They booked rooms for the bridesmaids and bridal party.”As if it’s any of his business,I think to myself. I also keep quiet that the whole of the Satan’s Devils MC also stayed. I decide to get the conversation away from me before any thought of last night can show on my face and betray that I’ve just skirted around the truth. “So, do you still work with our dad? What business are you in now, Con?”

He seems as eager to talk about what he does as I am to discuss the details of last night. “This and that,” he says dismissively. Then glances at the clock on the wall. “Well, I best be off. More snow is forecasted for later and I don’t want to get caught in a storm. Nah, Mom, I’ll see myself out. Oh, and I’ll be down here more often, and I’ll pop in again.”

“That will be nice, Connor,” Mom replies eagerly, but she’s speaking to his back and the dismissive wave of his hand.

The front door closes behind him with a bang.

Mom needs a hug, I can see that. “Mom…”

“No, don’t make excuses for him, Bethany. We all know what went wrong.”

Yes, we do. Connor discovered his father, and from that point on, he’d changed.

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