Sweet Little Memories (Sweet #3)(2)

“Leave. Please get out. We are done. You’re his wife, my new stepmom, and what happened before is finished.”

She was silent for a moment. I listened, afraid she would stand from the bed and walk over to press her naked body against me. If she got on her knees and went for my dick with her mouth, I wasn’t sure I had the strength to stop that. No man did.

“You’re going to miss me. You’ll want my body again. And when you do, I will be waiting. It’s an adjustment. I’m here, and I understand it’s different because I’m your stepmother now. But nothing else changed. I still want you.”

“Then why did you marry him?” I shot back. The day she’d told me I had been devastated. Not because I loved her, but because I knew what we’d done together was over.

“You’re too young. He had the ability to give me a new life. One with things I’d never had. Expensive things. Travel. It was all I had ever wanted in life—or thought it was. After the wedding, it sank in that he would never be you. He would never make me feel like you do.”

Hilda was thirty. I was sixteen. Did she seriously think I believed this? How did I make her feel? Every time we were together, she was the one teaching me things.

“You married him. That’s all that matters now.”

We both remained silent for a while. I wondered if she’d fallen asleep naked in my bed. And if she had, I wondered how I was going to get her out of my room.

My father could never know about the time we’d spent together. Or tonight. I wasn’t scared of anything in this world. I’d always been fearless. I took things as they came. I dealt with whatever life threw me. Except when it came to my father. I had been scared of him for as long as I could remember.

One day, I’d stand up to him. One day, he wouldn’t control me. At least the beatings he doled out slowed down once I had grown a head taller than him. But he still beat me when he had the chance or felt lucky.

My affair with Hilda would likely get me killed. The man didn’t love me. I was his only son, and his heir. That was it. Nothing more.

“Okay, I’ll go. But we aren’t done. I’m not giving up on you. On us.”

I didn’t reply. I waited until the door close behind her to breathe again. I’d arrange to leave for boarding school sooner rather than later. Staying in this house was impossible.





Beulah

THE PHOTOS COULD HAVE BEEN Stone when he was a child. Without Jasper pointing it out, I would have seen the resemblance. Even with my heart screaming no, my head had acknowledged the truth. I knew only what Geraldine had told me about Stone’s father. What I did know wasn’t good. The lack of emotion Stone showed at the mention of his father was also confirmation that the man was evil.

But Stone had a son. A son that he allowed his father to raise.

“How old is he?” I asked as I heard Stone’s footsteps echoed up the stairs. He’d be here any moment. I’d see him. His face. And when I looked at him, I’d see the boy.

“Six or seven. I’m not sure. I never see him,” Jasper replied.

I scrutinized the last photo. It was the most recent from the pile Jasper had handed me. And I knew Stone was here now because I could feel him. He was focused on me. The current that was present whenever he was near me still prickled my skin.

“What does she have, Jasper?” His voice was hard. Cold. Threatening.

“Photos of Wills,” Jasper replied. The challenge was there.

I looked up at Stone questioningly, but he was turned to Jasper. Stone’s expression and body seemed to be pulsing with anger. The fury blazed brightly making it hard to inhale. Fear began to build slowly inside my chest, but I didn’t move. I wasn’t sure what I would do if the standoff between Jasper and Stone turned physical. How would I stop them?

“Why?” The one word was simple, but the animosity behind it made me tremble.

Jasper shifted nervously. He knew Stone better than anyone. Stone’s reaction was one that Jasper had to have expected. And still, he’d walked into this building and brought the photos to me.

“She needs to know. You made sure she knew about all the lies surrounding my family and hers. It was time she knew the lies that engulf you.”

Stone took a step toward him. His hands were balled tightly at his sides as the muscles in his forearms flexed in response. Veins stood out against his tan skin.

I was unable to breathe much less speak or move. It was as if I were watching this in a dream. A dream that left me without control of my body. I was a bystander watching it all unfold.

“This is it?” Stone’s voice held no emotion but the rage was there. Just underneath. “This is how you choose to end it?”

Jasper didn’t respond. There was silence. My eyes stayed on Stone. If he did lunge for Jasper, I wouldn’t be able to stop him. I watched him with my entire body on edge in case the thin hold on his anger snapped.

Stone took another step toward him. “You didn’t get what you wanted. And this was your answer.”

“It needed to end before she got hurt again.” Jasper sounded defensive.

Stone’s eyes narrowed, his jaw clenched and shifted as he inhaled sharply through his nose.

Jasper was handling this beyond poorly. Not that there could be a good outcome from his actions. But I should speak up. Maybe I could ask him about the boy. I needed to direct the attention to me, but I was frozen.