Page 235 of Powerhouse: Boxed Set
I was trying to avoid my mother on the front lawn, but I knew it would be pointless. There was no way she’d leave me alone through the afternoon.
I weaved my way through my cousins, making nothing but small talk, battling the chaos of fears in my head. It didn’t work. I was shaking like a leaf in the bathroom as I splashed cold water on my face, determined for once in my life to avoid the drinks on the lawn. No champagne for me.
No champagne. No champagne. No champagne.
I couldn’t risk it, not even a glass. I couldn’t risk the loosening of my tongue to anyone in the world. I couldn’t risk the loss of control, ever since that night with Stephen.
Harriet was trying to take hold of me and guide me to the edges of the garden party whenever she got the chance, but I didn’t let her. I couldn’t stand a string of her questions, not today, not with blood still fresh in my mind and on my hands to match.
Not with my ass still burning sore from Lucian Morelli’s cock.
I felt an instinctive shudder as I reached for a cupcake from the buffet. I knew it. I felt it. I sensed in one single flutter that it was Uncle Lionel stepping up behind me and pressing tight.
I hated his body. I’d always hated his body.
I hated him with every part of my soul.
“Your mother is pissed,” he whispered, and his voice had that sheen of venom and filth I’d come to know so well.
I couldn’t hold back my tongue. “Yeah, well maybe I’m mad at her, too.”
His fingers jabbed my ribs before clasping my arm. “If you have any sense in that empty skull of yours, you’ll go and speak with your mother. She’s losing her patience with you.”
I turned to face him, hating his breath in my face. My eyes must have been bristling with hate, and my heart was overflowing to match. It would have been my greatest pleasure to take a knife from the buffet table and stab him deep in his stomach, just like I’d seen Lucian do to Stephen. It would have sent my soul soaring to the sky to watch his pain.
He wasted no time before speaking again.
“She knows you’ve been socializing with druggie downtown losers again, Elaine. She knows you’re fresh from another round of bailouts.” He tutted. “Debts you can’t afford to pay. Such a silly little girl. If you have any sense, you’ll take her offer when you hear it.”
“Offer?” I asked, with no idea what he was talking about.
“Yes,” he said. “An offer. She has an offer for you. One I’ve created. You can thank me later.”
“An offer to bail me out of bailing out people downtown? I’m such a criminal, aren’t I?”
I found I was smiling, laughing to myself at the crazy disparity between my real crimes and their imagined ones. If only they knew the truth.
It seemed they’d heard nothing about me fraternizing with the Morelli bloodline. Not yet.
“You’re right, you know,” I told him. “Yes, I have been saving people again. I enjoy the company of druggie downtown losers a lot more than the hypocrites like you.”
“Watch your mouth,” he muttered under his breath, and even though my gut was twisting scared, I didn’t let myself back away from him. Not today. Not anymore.
“You know something, Uncle,” I whispered. “Can you imagine what would happen if I shouted out your sins right here and now for all the idiots to hear?”
His breath caught, but he didn’t move, just stayed pressed tight to me. “I can imagine,” he told me. “I can imagine just how everyone would condemn you as mad. They’d laugh in your face. They’re your vile fantasies.”
He ran his fingers down my spine, and I tensed as they reached my ass crack through the fabric of my dress. If only he knew who’d been inside me.
“I can teach you some more lessons about behavior whenever I choose,” he said. “Be very aware who you are speaking with. I still have a whole host ofteachersready to instruct you.”
“I’m long done with your lessons. You disgust me.”
“You are always so ready to lie,” he replied. “You were never long done with your lessons, darling. If that were so, you wouldn’t have kept being such a naughty girl for more. I still remember just how pleased you were when your teachers came calling.”
I should’ve rushed away from him, but I didn’t. My whole body was rooted to the spot.
His mouth leaned right into my ear, and I shuddered but didn’t flinch.
