My cock twitched. I wanted to be between them again. I wanted to fuck Adam between me and Lainey and for them to fuck me. I wanted to explore all the ways we could have each other.
He dragged out my lower lip, licking gently over the small bite cut he’d left earlier. Finally, he leaned back and he made sure I was steady before he took his hands off me.
“Shower.” The order wrapped around me. “I’ll be out there until you’re ready.”
“Okay… and Adam?”
He was at the door. “Hmm?”
“Thank you.”
His grin turned wicked. “It was my pleasure and I am looking forward to learning more about what you like.”
Then he was gone and I swore my legs went rubbery. I nearly fell down. Had that really just happened? Had Milo and Bodhi defended me to Leopold? Had the old man accepted my presence? And more… Had Adam just sucked my cock?
Eyes closed, I embraced the startling amount of emotion all of the above provoked in me. The death of my father had nothing on this new life with my real family.
The earlier elation surged through me again and when I climbed in the shower, it was with a smile on my face. Oh yeah, I was all in for this new life.
Chapter
Thirteen
LAINEY
The funeral was a very quiet and private affair. The service took place at the graveside, the plot a family one. Grandfather was letting Mother back into the family. Adam’s father would be interred with the Reeds and my mother here with the Benedicts.
Frankly, I didn’t think either would have cared, other than Leopold won in finally separating them. But death had succeeded before he could. Now wasn’t the time to worry about those things we couldn’t change.
With all the distance between us, Mother and I had never really built any kind of stable relationship. Harper had been her whole world. Right or wrong, she’d committed herself to him before my birth. She’d remained committed to him long before they married.
I was the transgression of their relationship. Andrea the one who finally united them. Mother gave up everything for Harper Reed. Disgust coiled through me. Turned out that the bastard e gave less than a damn about her in the end.
He killed her, and sold their daughter, all so he could marry me. If that weren’t gross and disgusting enough, he’d done it in a calculated move to seize my inheritance, the one Grandfather denied him access to when he’d disinherited Melissa.
I wish we could kill Harper twice. Letting Mother die without knowing what he’d done, to her, to me, and to Andrea had been the only kindness I could offer her. What would she really have done if I’d tried to bring it up?
As it was, the last conversation I‘d had with her haunted me. A hand settled gently on my spine, a reminder that they were there and it pulled me back to the present. I glanced up to find Pretty Boy watching me, his eyes intent and focused.
I leaned into his side, accepting his offer of strength. Adam stood as a silent sentinel on my other side while Ezra and Bodhi stood on either side of Adam and Milo respectively.
Grandfather stared at the plot they’d arranged. Rather than a coffin, we were interring an urn. She’d been cremated. Her wishes apparently. It made the graveside service easier, I supposed. Though we hadn’t opened the invites up, Margareta Waldemar had arrived just moments before the minister began speaking.
She stood on the opposite side from the rest of us. Dressed in formal black with a wide-brimmed hat and dark sunglasses, she seemed almost chic while also being utterly unreadable.
We were all dressed in unrelieved black. Somehow, Grandfather and the guys coordinated right down to the black dress shirts, black handkerchiefs, and black suits. My dress was a little more understated, though the cold wind against my legs left me chilled.
The dark coat I wore helped. I’d also chosen black, knee-high boots, both for warmth and practicality. It was still winter and the weather hadn’t been particularly kind to anyone.
“While Melissa’s beloved mother could not be here with her father or her daughter, we know that like Melissa, she is with us in spirit.”
Wistfulness curved through me. I missed my grandmother so much. I missed her sly wit, and her easy smile. I missed the joy she brought out in Grandfather. I just missed her.
“Melissa was blessed with two daughters, beautiful souls in their own rights. It is to them that the family will look. To them that will uphold the future. They are the legacy…”
Grandfather’s jaw tightened, albeit briefly. I was the one who insisted on Andrea’s mention. While his reluctance had been plain, he didn’t fight me on it. His only question was would she be coming to the funeral.
I couldn’t tell him what Harper had done. Not… not yet. Maybe not ever. Lying to him was not something I enjoyed, nor preferred. The words literally died on my tongue before I could give voice to them.
It was Milo who stepped in and said, “We discussed it and she wasn’t ready for anything public, particularly after her father’s death as well. It’s better she stays out of sight until everything calms down.”
Grandfather accepted the explanation easily. Almost too easily. Maybe I was being unfair. He and Andrea just didn’t know each other. He’d been coming around to making an attempt and now she was missing, his daughter was dead and his nemesis also deceased.
It was a lot to take in.
I understood, maybe more than he realized. My soul ached for Andrea. Every single day that passed while we were here and she was—out there—I died a little more on the inside. Every moment was another opportunity for her to be hurt or worse.
We weren’t doing nothing even if it felt like we weren’t moving fast at all. We had people looking for us on the ground in four different Eastern European countries. Fletcher was hacking into CCTVs, and searching for any sign of her.
Em had been reaching out to event coordinators and venues all over Europe. She was booking dates that would give us cover just in case. Maybe it was anathema to others, but someone might understand that Adam and I would gut everyone in our path to get Andrea back.
Yet, here we stood, on a cold, gray, dismal morning as they placed Mother’s ashes into the opening in the land they’d made.
“Ashes to ashes and dust to dust,” the minister droned on. I kept tuning him out. Probably not the most polite, but I wasn’t all that keen on the service in the first place. Eventually, he finished and offered to let Grandfather and I drop dirt into the plot before the cemetery keepers filled it back in for permanent interment.
Did I want to drop the dirt in? Not particularly, but Grandfather hesitated and I understood. That distance with my mother had cost him dearly. For all that he cut her off and hadn’t looked back, he wasn’t a heartless man. The cold facade was just that, it was a facade. He wore the disdain for her like armor to keep his disappointment at bay.
