Family Affair by Elle M Thomas
Chapter 2
Declan
After my heart to heart with Mase we regroup with our dad who seems to be the calmest man in the world. We are basically killing time until we need to get changed and make our way down to the orangery where Mase and Olivia’s wedding will take place. A waiter is just placing a tray of tea and coffee before us when I see Liv and Anita’s dad approaching us and his pissed off look immediately causes me to panic because the last thing I need now is for him to put me on my arse for shagging his daughter.
“Bloody women,” he states as he takes a seat opposite me. “You’re the only sane one amongst us,” he tells me and explains. “Being single. And you,” he says addressing Mase. “Bloody good luck because that girl of mine has a temper and a mouth on her.”
I watch Mase bristle at Nigel’s reference to Liv as his girl because as far as Mase is concerned she is only his. My dad and I both know this and exchange a small smile.
“There is nothing you can tell me about Olivia that will make me think I need any more good luck. I lucked out when I met her,” Mase replies and grimaces at the saccharine sweet words and sentiment he has just shared. He quickly pulls his phone out and looks down at the screen before getting to his feet. “There might be a few less for the reception,” he informs us. “Christian,” he explains and walks away.
I know that Christian only made it onto the wedding guest list because he is married to our stepsister, Imelda, and Olivia was keen to put their associated past of him as her arsehole boss behind them in favour of family harmony. Although Olivia doesn’t know that Mase has bought Christian’s share in the interior design company she used to work for as a receptionist and now he owns a large controlling interest that is his wedding present to Liv.
Watching my brother walk away as my dad and Liv’s dad launch into the wrongs and rights of the female half of the human race, I realise that Mase has ditched me. He is nowhere to be seen and that can mean only one thing…he’s gone to find Olivia. I excuse myself and leave the two older men to set the world to rights as I hunt down my brother.
The sight that greets me as I turn the corner before Olivia’s current room is of Mase sitting on the floor with the hotel room door barely open. I smile as I hear him talking to Liv.
“I just needed to see you baby, I missed you,” he tells her as I hear female voices, Sarah mainly telling him he can’t come in.
Olivia’s voice is the one I hear next as I notice her hand creeping through the narrow opening of the door right into his. “I missed you, too. Let’s not do this again, the three nights apart,” she says, and I see Mase smile, it says he is in total agreement with her.
Sarah sounds more insistent now in her calls for Mase to go and then says something about him having to wait until after the wedding to shag Liv in a cupboard which is what makes me laugh, loud enough that Mase turns to face me.
“Come on, big brother,” I call as I approach him.
He lands a single gentle kiss to his fiancée’s hand and then gets to his feet.
“One hour Livy, don’t be late,” he tells her and then we leave, him with a contented grin on his face and me with an amused and slightly judgemental smirk on mine.
I love my brother and I really am thrilled that he has found happiness, but I can’t deny that I am worried by his level of dependency and devotion where Liv is concerned. What will he do if things go wrong, if she stops loving him, betrays and leaves him? I know what will happen, it will hurt him, break, and damage him and he will never be the same again. He will never recover, that’s what happens when you pin all your hopes and dreams on another person. They betray you one way or another and that is why I have truly embraced my man whore status. I will not be that man, the heartbroken shadow of his former self. I am and I will remain this man, the one who doesn’t complicate sex with feelings, not again, once bitten...
~~~
“I knew Liv was different the second Mase met her…he became completely and utterly impossible to be around. He had dreadful mood swings, an uneven temperament and absolutely no interest in the opposite sex,” I say, and I’m relieved when the owners of the dozens of sets of eyes on me laugh. “After a couple of false starts including Olivia almost breaking her hand when she punched him and then Mase drugging her, they realised they were meant to be together.”
Some of the eyes are staring at me in disbelief, possibly unsure if I am joking or not. I’m not.
“If there was any doubt in my mind that my brother had met the girl of his dreams, a visit to his newly redesigned office convinced me that nobody would ever get him like she does. So, ladies and gentlemen, raise your glasses of overpriced champagne before my brother breaks with tradition to make his speech after the best man in order to have the last word. I give you the bride and groom.”
Once I retake my seat I relax until I look across the top table and find Anita’s eyes on me. God, she is fucking gorgeous, her big brown eyes are lowering now, avoiding mine. I really need to speak to her, to clear the air, but not now because Mase is in full flow telling everyone how fantastic Liv is and how she has changed his life. Try as I might, I can’t take my eyes off Anita in her beautiful dove grey, full length bridesmaid dress that has a one shoulder waterfall detail that leaves one side of her neck and shoulder bare, daring me to kiss the expanse of skin. Thoughts of Anita’s skin and my lips makes my trousers tighten and realisation that I know the detail on the shoulder is called a waterfall makes me frown just as she braves a glance up in my direction. We really need to talk, although I have no clue what I intend to say but I really need to say something to remove the tension between us and ensure that future family functions don’t become an issue for anyone involved.
Anita
The sound of the DJ’s voice announces the arrival of the bride and groom to the dancefloor. My parents are on the opposite side of the room, and I allow myself a smile as Dad takes Mum’s hand to give it a gentle, loving, and reminiscent squeeze. They watch on, as we all do, forming a human wall around the dancefloor that Mase and Olivia are slap bang in the middle of.
Somehow, I have managed to avoid Dec since my sister became his sister-in-law, not that he seemed too keen to chat, not with me anyway. He looks horrified every time his frowning glance lands on me. When we walked back up the aisle, with my arm stiffly linked through his because Jed who was acting as an usher ditched me in favour of escorting his wife, Sarah from the service there was still no conversation, although I did think a couple of times that he was poised to speak. He didn’t.
I chasten myself for allowing Dec into my thoughts again because not only does he cause ridiculous chemical reactions in my body, but he also pisses me off, makes me pissed off with me and him. Him because he was a complete dick to me after that day we shagged in the kitchen at the club. Or at least the night when we discovered who the other was, and he has made no attempt to make contact since and me because I shagged him in the first place. I think the thought and memory of that is embarrassing more than anything. Embarrassment and shame wash over me.
I refocus my attention on Mase and Olivia who are slowly moving together across the floor. Liv looks happy, happier than anyone I have ever seen. She’s beaming with love as she gazes up at her husband who looks like he has just won the lottery, which he might have done.
The look of reverence and total adoration that is bestowed upon Olivia by Mase takes my breath away. I have never seen such sincerity in a single look. He looks at her as if she is not only the only woman in the room, but as if she is the only person that exists in his world. I have no doubt that I will never ever find someone who’ll look at me that way because what they have is a one in a million kind of happening but it’s so much more than that. I know I won’t find what they have because people like me, people who do things like I have done don’t deserve what they have.
The tears I can feel building inside disappear immediately when a hand settles on my hip and warm breath dances across my ear and neck before words follow.
“We need to talk,” he says and although I already knew who was standing behind me, the voice confirms it.
“I have nothing to say. Not to you,” I reply curtly, even if my hitched breathing and quickening heart rate contradict my displeasure.
“Then maybe you could listen,” he says in response and his words are like a red rag to a bull causing me to spin to face him.
“Listen! Fucking listen? Maybe I could, would have listened had you deemed me worthy of your words when you realised the girl you’d fucked on your kitchen counter was your brother’s soon to be sister-in-law!”
“You’re mad,” he says, overstating the bloody obvious.
“Mad?” I ask, amazed by his stupidity and timing.
No further words leave my mouth. I have no clue what to say or do to make him go away or at least erase the memory of him, of how he made me feel. My body is traitorous in its response to my memory of his touch, his lips, his hands, his dick.
My breathing and heart rate are erratic as they pick up and my body is heating from the inside out, from my face that I know is flushing down to my chest where my breasts feel heavy and achy, especially my nipples that are beading and pulling into tight points. My stomach is doing somersaults that make me nauseous and then flipping until I feel giddy with expectation. The familiar fluttering in my lower half is coiling and spiralling lower and lower until it settles between my clenching thighs. My sex is swelling and pulsating in anticipation, although it is going to be disappointed and unfulfilled. A sudden awareness of my own slick arousal escaping my body causes a low, gravelly moan to leave my mouth. In the blink of an eye, I almost miss Dec grabbing my arm to lead me away from the dancefloor towards a door.
Silently we ascend the stairs far too quickly for me in heels. That much is clear when I almost fall up the stairs behind Dec. Still, neither of us speak, even when Dec turns and picks me up, throwing me over his shoulder and then his pace quickens further, almost running down a corridor before he stops just long enough to open the door in front of him. Once the door closes, he places me back on my feet so that we stand, barely inches apart. Him staring down and me gazing up, and still no words are spoken.
I am unsure if he is angry, horny, or simply confused because his eyes suggest all three and then with a single step forward his lips cover mine and I know I am lost, done for, and hopefully screwed.
The sensation of Dec’s tongue stroking my own causes me to reach up to pull his head even closer, preventing him from gaining anything resembling sense and order to his mind that might make him stop what he’s doing. He pulls back but my grip only tightens further until I realise that he is attempting to shed some clothes when his jacket hits the floor. I lower my hands to undo the buttons on his waistcoat and then push it off his shoulders until it joins the jacket on the floor. Next is his tie and then his shirt that is still gaping open when my hands begin to trace the muscles beneath it.
His lips are now tracing a path along my jaw to my ear where he begins to speak as his shirt hits the deck. “Oh, Cupcake, I have dreamt of this moment.”
His cool breath and his words have me gasping while my belly and sex are clenching.
“We do need to talk.” I know he is right, but I don’t need to talk at this moment in time, not unless that talk consists of moaning, gasping, and calling to deities. “But later, after.”
I grin. I may not be in a cupboard, but I am getting some action and we are going to talk, assuming he doesn’t do a U-turn once he’s got his release.
With his lips tracing their way down my neck and shoulder I feel Dec’s arms wrap around me as far as the zip of my dress and with one easy movement it is falling to the ground in a pool around my feet revealing my near nakedness bar my pants and shoes.
“Fuck me!” Dec says appreciatively when he takes in my appearance.
My grin only broadens with his words and hungry gaze. Taking his words literally I respond. “You seem to have forgotten the order of things, foreplay, orgasm, then fucking,” I say, repeating my words from that day in the kitchen.
With a bravery I may not feel, I step out of my dress and manage to switch our positions so that Dec is leaning against the wall and I am standing before him, briefly. Quickly, I lower myself to my knees, leaving my face at the same level as his groin and then reaching forward I tackle his waistband with ease. Pulling his trousers and boxers down together I reveal his straining erection that is already glossy with his leaking pre-cum. Gently, I reach for it, taking him in the palm of my hand that I close around it. I slowly pump it before using my thumb to sweep his arousal around the tip of his dick. He hisses loudly, somehow encouraging me to shuffle closer where I replace my sweeping thumb with my lapping tongue.