Shameful by May Dawson
45
Legacy
That night,Rhett tossed me a bathing suit. It smacked me in theface.
“Let’s go swimming,” he said. “The two of us need somefun.”
I stared down at my red swimming suit, the same one I’d worn for swinging over the creek in our tire swing and sunbathing at the side of the pool. It felt jolting to wear this here when the fabric carried so many memories of happy summer days with my friends.
“Isn’t the swimming pool haunted?”
Rhett shrugged. “Everything is haunted. I’ll bring a sword.”
He picked it up from the corner and rested it lightly in its scabbard against his big shoulder. The sight of that tall, leanly muscled man in his swim trunks, carrying a sword, seemed so ridiculous that it made me smile. Rhett always made me feel better.
“All right,” I said, turning to head into the bathroom to change. “This is probably ill-advised, but I’m always up for an adventure.”
“That’s why you’re my girl. Ill-advised adventure is my favorite.” There was a shy note in his voice, as if he wasn’t sure how I’d react to that you’re my girl. I smiled, but I was facing away from him so he couldn’tsee.
When I came out with my swimsuit on, Rhett looked at me and whistled.
“It’s just a one-piece,” I said, smoothing the fabric over my stomach with onehand.
“Legs, you can wear a snowsuit and you’ll still fucking wow me,” he promised. He hopped over the bed and put his arm around me, kissed me deeply.
Together, the two of us padded barefoot down the hallway, down the winding stairs all the way to the lowest level of the house.
The pool room was bright enough to see clearly thanks to the moonlight flowing through the enormous arched windows. Long shadows fell from the statues at the edges of the pool, tinting some of the silvery-green waterdark.
“This place is kind of creepy,” I said softly.
“I know.” Rhett laid the sword on the side of the pool. “But you’re not alone.”
I quirked my eyebrow at him, but before I could say anything, Rhett added, “I know you’ll protectme.”
He ran toward the pool and jumped in, turning a somersault in mid-air before he hit the water. Droplets rained over me, and I had to laugh as he emerged from the water, slicking his soaked dark blond hair back behind hisears.
He treaded water and held his arms out. “Come on in, the water’sfine.”
I ran across the pool deck and launched myself into the air, deliberately cannonballing in beside him. The water was freezing, it shocked me, and I came up gasping.
“You liar!” Isaid.
He laughed and wrapped me in his arms, pulling me against his chest. His skin was always warm against mine, and that was true now. “Sorry. But I’d go with trickster, not liar,” he whispered into myear.
The two of us swam and splashed and tried to catch each other. We were laughing and having fun when suddenly, I felt a familiar stab of pain. I gasped, and Rhett’s face changed from laughter to worry.
“That bastard,” he said softly.
Pain racked my body so badly that I lost control of my legs, slipped awkwardly beneath the waves. I thrashed out with my arms, but he was there for me anyway. He caught me and swam up withme.
The next thing I knew, I was lying on my back on the marble pool deck, looking up at the elaborate fresco of the greek gods painted on the ceiling of the pool deck, as Rhett stripped off my swimsuit, covering my writhing body with kisses as he made his waydown.
I stopped him with a hand on his cheek, and he turned those beautiful blue eyes up tome.
“I’m ready, Rhett,” I whispered.
I was ready to claim the men I loved, and the future I dreamed of. And Rhett was the right one to start with, the man who was always there for me, with a quick grin and a quicker wisecrack and endless, boundless kindness. I didn’t think Rhett even realized what a good man he was, under all that mischief, but I could see who he reallywas.
He hesitated, as if he were about to ask if I really was, and then my hips rolled up involuntarily. Lucas somewhere was trying to live his best life, that was for sure, and a whimper crossed mylips.
Rhett’s face changed at that sound, but I needed him to know how much I wanted him. I caught his face, kissed him hard, my lips pressing his open. Our tongues teased against each other.
We were both breathless when we separated, and it wasn’t because of the pain for me anymore.
“I want you,” I whispered. “This isn’t about him or what he can do to me. This is about how I…” I stumbled. “How Ifeel.”
Rhett’s eyes twinkled. “Isee.”
I pulled back. “Yousee?”
But he followed those words up with his lips, kissing me intensely. The two of us traded quick kisses as he caught me in his arms and rolled onto his back, pulling me on top ofhim.
“You decide how fast we go,” he said, his hands sweeping down my sides. His touch raised tinges of fire everywhere he touched, and although desire was pooling between my thighs, the sore, empty aching lust that Lucas created was fading. This was something different.
I leaned forward, kissing him, as I pushed his suit down. His cock sprang out, long and hard, and I lowered my head to swipe my tongue around his head curiously. He moaned, so I must not be doing it too badly, and I licked up and down the shaft. I loved the way his eyes lidded as he watched me, his reactions telling me what he liked.
“Come here,” he said finally, his voice gruff. I swung my leg over his hips, straddling him, and the two of us kissed again, his cock brushing against my thigh. He took hold of himself and brushed his tip across my clit, and I moaned and ground down on him, seeking more ofhim.
Slowly, slowly, I lowered myself down on his cock, and his lips parted in pleasure, his gaze fixed on myface.
Gently, he reached to touch my face. “Are you all right?”
“I’m better than all right,” I promised and was rewarded with another of those beautiful, genuine smiles. Rhett’s smile had changed over the past few weeks, and now he smirked less, grinned more. I loved his face, the hard angles of his jaw and his cheekbones, the way his long dark blond hair fell over his temples.
His hands went to my hips as I began to ride him. He watched me with smoldering eyes as my hands crept up my sides to massage my breasts, and as my orgasm built, my fingers went to my hair, raked through it. I rolled my hips forward over and over, felt his cock hit the perfect spot every time, as my back began toarch.
Rhett had given me a dozen orgasms with his mouth or his fingers, but this one shattered all the others. My fingers tightened in my hair as my moans echoed in the cavernous room. He gripped my hips, his fingers sinking deep into my ass as he thrust upwards, finally losing control himself. He came inside me, biting his lower lip to try to hold back his own groans.
My orgasm crested, blurring the pool room, blurring everything but the handsome face of the man who watched me with adoringeyes.
Then I sagged forward against his chest, his cock still buried deep inside me, and his arms closed around me. The two of us snuggled like that, his lips pressed against my cheek.
“You ae so perfect, Legs,” he whispered finally. “What could I ever do to deserveyou?”
“You already do,” I promised.
He gave me a skeptical look, and I touched his jaw with one hand, felt his five o’clock shadow against my palm. Firmly, I told him, “One day I’m going to convince you to believe me. One day, you’re going to see yourself the way I seeyou.”
He smiled back at me, but whatever he was going to say next was lost as a sharp, acerbic voice cut through the peace of the poolroom.
“I guess my invitation to the party got lost in themail.”
West.
I scrambled off Rhett, throwing a towel around my shoulders. Rhett got up more slowly, his cock still hard and bobbing in front of him as he yawned and lazily wrapped one of the towels around his waist.
West stood in the doorway, glowering at usboth.
“Rhett, give us a minute,” I told Rhett, who stole a glance at West; West’s lips were pressed tightly together, his nostrils flaring. West’s anger almost looked as if he were in physical pain, like Atlas bearing up the weight of the world on his shoulders. Gently, I said, “West and I need totalk.”
Rhett gave West a long look, as if he wasn’t sure if he trusted his brother with me, but then he kissed my forehead, his gaze still on West and said softly, “You always know what you’re doing.”
That was a straight-up lie and a sweet sentiment all at once. I caught his cheek with one hand and kissed him goodbye. Rhett went out, but propped open the heavy wooden doors, leaving them open to the rest of the lower level. His footsteps went slowly up the stairs, as if he were desperate to eavesdrop, then faded.
West seemed in no hurry to start the conversation. He folded his arms over his chest and said coldly, “I guess you chose Rhett, then.”
He was so angry at me, and even though I could bet that emotion hid his jealousy and his fear of being left alone, my own fury flared in response. “You know what? You need to get in touch with some other emotions.”
He frowned at me. “What?”
“I do choose Rhett,” Isaid.
West nodded, his posture stiff. “Isee.”
I stared at him, trying to figure out what to say next, how to make things better.
But before I could, he abruptly turned on his heel and strode out of the pool house. I stared at his broad shoulders as he walkedout.
“That doesn’t mean I won’t choose you too,” I said, too late. I was talking to thin air. “Even though you don’t deserve it, you absoluteass.”
Goosebumps rose on my arms, and I rubbed them absently. The man was so fucking cold that he gave me chills.
It was only when the dark blot spread across the surface of the water that I realized West wasn’t the one giving me chills.
The ghost wasback.
The darkness on the water rippled, then the color changed. Into blood floating on the water, and then a woman in the center of the pool, floating face-down.
I took a step back. It felt as if ghostly fingers had a stranglehold on my throat, because suddenly I couldn’t breathe forfear.
I took another step back and my heel found the cracked spot on the tile floor. My fingers pressed against my lips unthinkingly as I stared at that body in the long, white dress, floating across the surface.
Then the ghost raised her face. Her eyes were dark, empty gouges, but it was the same Teresa Kate who smiled down from portraits.
“Run,” she hissed.
I did, and just as I almost reached the doors, I felt another presence at my side—one that somehow carried a sickly sweet scent of death. The big wooden doors to the pool started to slam shut, and those icy, dangerous fingers reached forme.
But I had the headstart, thanks to Teresa Kate. I slipped through the doors, my shoulder banging into the wood, just before they slammed shut. I ran desperately for the stairs, took them two at a time until I was in the hallway where the guys were. I sucked down deep breaths ofair.
I’d seen TeresaKate.
And I’d seen her killer.
I was sure ofit.
There was something dark and terrible here, but it wasn’t the only presence. Innocence was trapped in this house too. I rested my palm lightly on the rich, dark wood of the wall, glancing around to make sure no one could overheat. I hated to leave my men in this house with these ghosts, but I had to face Tobias before there was any chance the four of us could ever have a happy ending.
“I’ll come back,” I whispered. To my men. To the ghosts.
And even though no one heard my promise, I meantit.