Heart Recaptured (Hades Hangmen, #2)(53)

“Does it please you?” she asked nervously.

“I f*ckin’ love it.” Lilah’s finger started tracing patterns on the back of my hand. “Why do you always smell of vanilla?”

Lilah’s hand stopped, and I knew I’d asked the wrong question. “We were… to always be free of hair and anointed with vanilla oil. The cursed had to be pure. We had to be as clean as possible to be taken by the elders. It is a routine, a habit I cannot break. I’m always striving to be as pure as possible.”

Yeah. I wished I’d never asked.

Pulling Lilah closer into my chest, I pressed another kiss into her hair and said, “Sleep, baby.”

Silence filled the room until she said, “Thank you, Ky… for everything…”

Fuck.

*****



Lilah





The rising sun broke through the darkness of the room, and I had to blink several times to gather my bearings. Wooden walls, plaid linen… strong arm wrapped around my waist.

Ky’s ranch.

Feeling my heart swell at Ky holding me in his arms, I rolled over very carefully and studied his sleeping face.

He was so beautiful.

Things had changed for me so drastically in regards to this man. My feelings were so strong that I almost could not stand it. He was becoming the center of my world.

He was completely changing my life.

For the first time in my life, when I was with Ky, I did not feel like Delilah, a Cursed sister of Eve, just plain Lilah… an ordinary girl who had finally been kissed by a boy.

Seeing the room turn from the dark blue of the night to the orange glow of the dawn, I slid from underneath his arm, pressed a soft kiss against his slightly parted lip, feeling a full force of butterflies in my stomach and made my way out of the door, down the stairs, and onto the cabin’s wraparound porch. I took a seat on a wooden rocking chair and sighed at the blissful ambience.

The morning air was crisp, the birds were singing in the trees, and the sun was rising in the east. It was beautiful out here. I could sit here for hours just watching the Lord’s creation showcased at its best.

“Morning, Lilah!” Elysia’s voice called out from over the field, and I saw her walking back toward me from the stables, denim pants on her legs and a plaid shirt on top. I jumped up from my chair, embarrassed that I had not dressed. I hadn’t expected anyone to be up yet and was shamed that I looked so unkempt.

Elysia jumped onto the porch and dropped a bunch of ropes she was holding. “Hell, girl, sit down.” Elysia gestured, and doing as she said, I sat back down on the rocking chair.

Elysia sat next to me. “I didn’t expect to see you guys until later on.”

“I always rise at dawn. I have done so all my life and it is a habit I have yet to break. Plus, I love watching the sunrise and listening to the birds. It always makes me feel better.”

Elysia smiled. “I’m the same, girl. But I gotta foal born a couple’a days ago, so I’m getting up all times of the night.”

I watched Elysia and wondered why Ky had not mentioned he had a sister before. She must be around my age, twenty-four, possibly younger, and she lived out here alone? Elysia caught me staring, and I dipped my head with embarrassment.

“You’re wondering why he keeps me a secret,” Elysia stated.

Shaking my head, I said, “I…I—”

Elysia waved her hand. “It’s fine, Lilah. I wondered the same about you.”

Elysia sighed and focused on the sunrise, as did I. “Something happened to me years ago, when I was seventeen, that put me in danger. I’ve been living here ever since.”

“I am sorry to hear that,” I said sincerely. I could tell by the expression on her pretty face that whatever it was still played on her mind.

“Thank you,” Elysia replied quietly.

“Why do you not go to the compound?” I asked.

Elysia looked over to me and said, “Ky and I had different upbringings. I’m kinda separate to that life. Hell, no one knows about me but Styx.”

“Tell me. Please…” I asked, desperate to know about Ky’s past and Sia looked out unto the dawn.

“Our mother broke it off with our father when she’d just found out she was pregnant with me. None of the other brothers knew. She was sick of getting cheated on, of our father’s unfaithfulness with an endless string of club sluts, so one day she up and left. But my father found out she was leaving and wouldn’t let her take his son. He said Ky needed to be brought up around the club. Said Ky needed to eat, sleep, and breathe the life of a Hangman.

“My mother moved us out of town, not too far from here, and nine months later, she had me. My father agreed to let my mom keep me, but away from the club. The Hangmen were always at war with someone it seemed, and he wanted to keep us safe. That meant not telling anyone of our existence. Ky knew, of course, and would come over when our father went on runs, but as time passed, I saw less and less of my big brother. He was getting in deeper and deeper with the club. Same ol’ same.”

Elysia dropped her head and I held my breath, knowing whatever she would say next was going to be hard to hear. “Anyway, my mother got sick of not seeing her son and one day, when I was still only a toddler, left me with a friend so she could confront my father. But an old prison enemy and gang rival of my father’s was waiting outside, and when she came to the gate, he fired a shot. It hit my mother and she was immediately killed.