Page 67 of Bitter Desire
Connie swallowed hard and then nodded at us, gesturing over her shoulder. “Follow me.” Again, Connie didn’t sound like herself. She sounded off, but she was surprised by what we’d told her. She hadn’t known that was Honey’s mom and she hadn’t known that someone had tried to kidnap Honey either.
Connie wasn’t used to being in the dark. Of course she was off, but I knew it went deeper than that. The question was: just how fucking deep?
We walked down the hallway towards the light pouring out of the room. I saw a flicker and knew the light was coming from a fire. Leave it to Zeus to have a roaring fucking fire at the top of this building in the middle of summer. We kept walking and the second we hit the doorway I saw the woman that had spoken. She was sitting in a high backed leather chair, wearing a black gown that was slinky, sheer and sparkled in the red and gold light of the fire.
She was beautiful.
She also was the spitting image of Honey.
She had the same features, the full lips, the high cheek bones and heart shaped mouth. The dark curls that were touched with red and brown. But there was something off about her. It wasn’t the years the woman had on Honey, it was her eyes.
The eyes that I knew so well. The ones that were soft and warm, the ones that I knew teared up at the sad parts in movies, the ones that danced with joy when she saw a puppy on the street, the ones that went wide when I sank my cock into her.
Those dark eyes were staring at me now, but they were cold. There was an edge to them I had never seen in Honey. Like fucking razor blades. I’d seen that look on mafiosos. On gangbangers and hired muscle that gave zero fucks about how they were making their cash, so long as their wallets were lined.
It was a look that didn’t belong to a woman that looked so much like the woman I loved.
“This the man?” she asked, flicking a red painted nail in our direction. “Not bad, little girl.” The last two words sounded like an insult, and I narrowed my eyes, glaring at her as I moved Honey behind me with a sweep of my arm. She grinned, a little laugh escaping her mouth. “Oh, he’s the protective type too. Cute!”
“Don’t push him just yet, Rosario.”
My eyes went to the side, because this was a new voice. A man’s voice. He was standing in front of a wall full of books. It extended down the entire wall the spines of books thick and small covering the space floor-to-ceiling. He tilted his head, a salt and pepper ponytail was gathered at the back of his neck and when he turned, as if considering a book, I saw he had a beard, tan skin and a scar that extended from his lips to the top of his left eyebrow. The man was big, but I would have expected nothing less from someone named Zeus. He looked like what you would think of when you said the name, a big man with a broad chest and shoulders, he was almost as tall as me and wearing a suit a shade of purple so deep in color it was almost black with a lilac dress shirt that felt entirely out of step in a place like the Cairn. I didn’t know what I expected from the man, but it wasn’t this. When he turned to the side I saw he had a glass in his hand. Cognac from the cut of the glass, and he raised it to his lips, taking a drink.
“Hello, Law.”
“Zeus.”
His eyes moved, taking in Honey at my side. “My, my, she’s a vision. Lovelier than you said, Rosario.”
Honey’s mother sighed heavily. “I said she looked like me, didn’t I?”
“But a flower like her?” He chuckled. “You did not say that. She’s in her prime.”
“She’s young. That’s all. Nothing more.”
Zeus ignored her and took a step towards us. “Good evening, Honey. I must say the cameras have done you no justice. You are exquisite, my dear.”
Honey’s fingers tightened their grip on mine, but she found her voice all the same. “Thank you. It’s nice to meet you, sir.”
Zeus smiled at her. It was all teeth. I wanted to knock every single one of them out of his goddamn face. “You have excellent taste. Though I suppose we had a hand in that, now didn’t we? Where’s my thanks, hmm?”
I went tense and behind me I heard Honey’s confusion. “What’s he talking about? Are you,” she took a step forward, but I reached out, stopping her.
“Princess, don’t.”
“Are you talking to me?” she asked, leaning to the side and meeting Zeus’s eyes. She didn’t look at her mother. The older woman scoffed and sipped from her cup, leaning back in her chair like she was some kind of fucking queen. She stared at Honey and it took everything in me not to shove my girl out of sight, but I knew that wasn’t going to work. Not now. I could hear the shift in Honey’s voice.
She wasn’t going to let this go now that she was speaking to Zeus.
Zeus gave a shake of his head. “Oh, no, my flower. I’m not talking to you.” His eyes moved to me. “I’m talking to Lawson.”
The coiling feeling that had been sitting heavy, sitting uneasy and tight on my shoulders dropped, and I knew what the fucker’s game was. At least for the moment. The letter I’d read flashed in my memory, the familiar curling script of Connie’s handwriting flowing over the page I’d read all those weeks ago. Connie’s note to me the night she’d practically dropped Honey in my lap.
This submissive will be under stress tonight and for that reason you would be the perfect company for her to keep. You will, of course, be compensated heavily by Zeus for your presence.
“Isn’t that right, Connie?” Zeus asked, gesturing at her with his cognac snifter. He raised his glass to his lips and sipped, waiting for her answer. Connie came forward and as I looked her way, the low energy I’d sensed from Connie surged.
She looked hesitant and her normally calm facade, that veneer of control, looked like it had snapped. She twisted her fingers in front of her and for a second I saw just how unsure she was. This was not the woman I’d known for years. But then she was taking in a deep breath and I watched the walls snap into place, her shoulders straightened and once again, she was as perfect as she ever was.
