Page 44 of With a Broken Wing
The house was quiet,but as I walked down the stairs to the main level, I could smell the rich scent of fresh coffee. I ached for the warm burst of caffeine. My body was tired after a few nights without much rest. Andy had been the sweetest exhaustion, and I wasn’t done with her yet, but I could feel that it had been years since I’ve spent more than one night devouring a woman over and over again.
When I walked into the kitchen, my brother sat with a cup in front of him and a scowl on his face. “Morning,” he huffed, scrolling through emails on his phone.
I shuffled my way to the cabinet, grabbing a cup, filling it, and watching the rising steam. Bringing it to my lips and blowing across the top before taking a quick sip, I turned back to the table. “Yeah, good morning.”
We sat in the brief monotony of business talk, followed by the kind of silent comfort you’d only have with someone you’ve spent your whole life with. The silence that was broken before I could finish half my cup.
“So how long have you been fucking Andy?” William looked at me with a proud-of-himself, know-it-all smirk.
I kept my back straight, trying not to show any surprise at his claim. “There’s nothing happening.”
He scoffed. “Yeah, you didn’t finger-fuck her at dinner last night. I’ll give you the benefit of not telling Julianna, but you’re not as slick as you think you are, and I’m not stupid.”
“I said it’snothing.” I planned to tell him it was none of his business if I was or wasn’t fucking Andy, but I knew exactly how inappropriate it was to be doing so. Not that he could judge my sleeping with my newest employee, but that wasn’t the only concern. The woman was young, sensitive, and inexperienced. I’d ruin her.I could still ruin her.
Before William could retort, Andy turned the corner into the kitchen. Her messy red hair was pulled up into a loose knot on the top of her head, and the shorts she wore barely covered the curve of her ass. I followed her figure with my eyes, my stare landing on the tight, cropped tank top she wore and the exposed milky midriff of her stomach. My cock stirred.Fuck me.
She practically danced into the kitchen with the same smile pasted on her face I’d come to learn wasn’t real. It was beautiful. Everything about her was beautiful, but the smile on her face this morning wasn’t the same smile that made her eyes shine. This was the smile she wore when she was hiding, only this time I knew what she was hiding.
“Good morning,” I said as she grabbed a cup and filled it with coffee. I let my eyes take another tour of her body, lingering on the soft area above her collarbone.
“Mm-hmm.” Despite the smile on her face, she was cold. She walked past the open chairs at the table and moved silently toward the back door.
William chuckled behind me, grabbing his cup and standing. “That’s my cue. I’ve got a wife to wake up anyways,” he said with a wink.
I rolled my eyes as he disappeared down the narrow hall. Behind me, the door to the patio clicked shut, and I scrubbed my hands over my face. What had I gotten myself into? I avoided getting involved for a reason—because I was really fucking bad at it.
Grabbing a granola bar and an apple from the counter, I made my way to the balcony.
I suckedin deep breaths and blew them out in counts of five, pretending like I was just waiting for my coffee to cool and enjoying a summer morning. The stabbing pain in my chest returned at the memory of his words and the way he’d practically spit them at his brother.
I’d known it when I saw the regret in his eyes the first time he kissed me. I would never be enough to meansomethingto a man like Demetri Carlisle, but he had called me his. He acted like he couldn’t get enough of me.
It’s nothing.
Tears I couldn’t control welled in my eyes, and I closed them.
* * *
Twelve Years Earlier
“But Mom,please. Everyone has a sixteenth birthday party!” I sat at the kitchen table while my mom cut coupons from the newspaper. She did it every Tuesday while she sipped her coffee. She called it her quiet time.
“Damn it, Andrea. I saidno.” Tears welled up in my eyes. “Who would you even invite? Nobody likes you but your brother.”
I looked down at my hands clasped on the table in front of me. “I have friends…” My voice broke around my sudden sobs, unable to stop them even when the door opened.
“Good lord, what is she crying about now?” My dad’s voice was slightly slurred, meaning he had stopped by his favorite bar on the way home from the office. It was like I wasn’t in the room.
“She’s still asking for the stupid party.” My mom didn’t look up from her coupons, the sound of the scissors slicing through paper ringing in my ears.
My dad’s steps were heavy as he stormed into the kitchen, grabbing onto the hair at the back of my neck and bringing his face down close to mine. The pain coursed down my spine, and I tried to swallow the yelp that left my lips. “When your mother tells you no, it meansno, you ungrateful littleshit.”
The smell of the sour liquor on his breath made my stomach lurch. I tried to nod, tried to pull away from his grip, but he wouldn’t loosen it. I was sure there would be another bald patch when he let go.
“I’m sorry. I won’t ask again. I promise.”
He released my hair, slamming my face into the table in front of me in the process. I shrieked, blood bursting from my nose. The taste of iron ran past my lips. “No, you won’t. You only celebrate your birthday if someone is happy you were born.”
