We were going to the gallery in a few hours, and then heading back to Thatch the next day, and I was just waiting for Grey to get back so we could get ready and grab dinner before we took off.
My eyes had been slowly closing as I lay back on the bed, and barely cracked open at the sound of a key card opening the door. Grey walked in and came toward the bed slowly, a come-and-get-me grin on her face as her eyes locked with mine.
“Did you have fun?”
She nodded her head, but didn’t say anything as her hands moved to lift her shirt off her body. Once her pants and shoes were forgotten on the floor along with the shirt, she said, “I found my dress for the wedding.”
I dragged my eyes away from her almost naked body, and my eyebrows rose. “You did? Where is it?”
Grey made a face. “Not with me. Besides, you can’t see it anyway.” She crawled onto the bed and slid one leg over my body so she was sitting on me, and ran her hands up my torso and across my chest until she was almost lying on me. “But you know what I was thinking on the drive back here?”
I shook my head and unsnapped her bra then pulled it off her, and pressed her down on me. “Not a clue.”
She sat up enough so she could reach between us and pull down the top of my pajama pants, and her eyes widened when she found no other layers beneath.
“Didn’t feel like putting much on after my shower,” I said, answering her unspoken question and groaning when she slowly stroked me.
“I’m not complaining.” Grey moved back to take my pants all the way off, and I sat up to prevent her from lying back down on me.
I ran my hands over her bare breasts and stomach, then made a trail over her hips and down in front of her to tease the inside of her thighs. Every time she tried to sit down so my hands would be where she wanted them, I’d move them away and back up to her hips.
“Are you going to tell me?” I asked huskily before pulling one of her nipples between my teeth.
Grey moaned and tried to rock against me, but I was still holding her up.
Releasing her breast, I looked up at her with a challenging stare as the tips of my fingers ran over the front of her underwear, and barely traced between her thighs. “Is that a no?”
She growled when I moved my hand away, and looked down at me. “I was thinking about how excited I am for you to see me in the dress, but then started thinking about you taking it off me.”
I bit back a smile and ran the tip of my nose between her breasts before kissing her there. “And?”
“And what you would do to me,” she said on a breath, dropping her head back when I moved her underwear to the side to trail my fingers against her.
“And what’s that?”
“Pretty much what you’re doing now.”
Grabbing her waist, I flipped her over so she was on her back, and quickly pulled her underwear off and spread her legs. Positioning myself at her entrance, I kept my eyes on her while I teased her clit, and pushed slowly inside her when she wrapped her legs around me. A breathy moan escaped her mouth, and her eyes fluttered shut when I began moving inside her, keeping in sync with my fingers.
Her breathing became ragged, and she tightened around me within minutes. The feel of her around me as she got closer and closer to coming had me straining not to go with her. I wasn’t ready for this to be over. Grey’s chest rose with a heavy inhale and stayed there, and I moved my hand away just before she fell over the edge, judging by her frantic pleas and intense moans.
I slammed my mouth down over hers and gripped the sheets as I moved faster inside her, and soon she was matching me thrust for thrust and clinging to my back. Someone knocked on the door a few minutes later, but I ignored it as I reached between our bodies to run my thumb over Grey’s clit again. She tightened painfully against me before her body started shaking between mine and the bed, and her moans broke through our kiss. Just as I started to follow her with my own release, there was a louder knock on the door, and I growled in frustration at whoever was out there. “People have bad timing,” Grey managed to mutter through heavy breaths, and moved her head to kiss my chest.
“Jagger, is Grey back yet? She forgot to give me the key to my room.”
“Are you kidding me?” My head whipped around to look at the door, then back at Grey.
“She has the worst timing ever,” she said as she scrambled away from me before running into the bathroom.
Grinding my teeth, I got off the bed and pulled my pajama pants back on before stalking over to the door just as Charlie knocked on it again.
“Oh! Hey! Did Grey make it back yet?”
“Charlie. You have the worst. Timing. Ever.”
She looked confused for half a second before a look of utter horror crossed her face. “Oh God. Oh my . . . eww. Um, I’m just going to go. I’ll go to the lobby and ask for a new key. I’m sorry. Tell Grey I’m sorry. So gross. I’m leaving now.”
“Don’t,” I said when she turned around. “Just stay there.” Walking back into the room, I grabbed Grey’s purse off a counter and searched through it until I found the only key card it contained, since ours was on the counter next to her purse. Key card in hand, I went back to the door and opened it so Charlie could leave.
“I swear to God I’ll call you from now on. Or something.”
“Worst timing,” I repeated, and she nodded quickly as she took the key.
“Yeah, I know. See you in a few hours for dinner. I mean, if you guys . . . never mind. Bye.”
Shutting the door, I locked the dead bolt and turned to go find Grey in the bathroom. I stopped as soon as I saw her, laughing so hard that no noise was coming out.
“How can you be laughing at a time like this? This is the third time she’s shown up during something like that!”
Grey nodded and took a staggering breath. “That’s why! It’s like she knows when not to show up, and does it anyway.” I just glared at her. “Come on, we have to be able to laugh about it by now.”
“No. Now I’m scarred for life. I should never have to hear my sister’s voice after getting off.”
“Ew, why do you have to make it even worse by saying that?”
I looked at her like she’d lost her mind then gestured to the hotel room. “Because that’s what just happened! Like I said, I’m scarred.”
I turned on the water in the shower, not caring that I’d just taken one about an hour before, and stepped in. Less than a minute later, Grey was stepping in beside me and wrapping her arms around my waist.
“I’m sorry I laughed, but I couldn’t help it because she always shows up.”
“I’m so disgusted right now.”
Grey’s lips tilted up in a smile she couldn’t hold back, and she nodded. “I know you are. Let’s get ready for tonight and try not to think about Charlie’s uncanny sense of timing, and then tomorrow when we get home, I’ll work at de-scarring you. Sound good?”
I looked over and reluctantly agreed. “As long as she doesn’t show up again.”
“Deal.”
Chapter 19
Jagger
December 21, 2014
AS I SET out the food I’d picked up on the counter the next day, I cursed when it hit Grey’s purse, knocking it off the counter and spilling the contents on the floor. We’d only been home for a little over an hour, and I was ready to just eat and relax.
“Jag?” she called out from upstairs.
“Yeah. Sorry, I’m just knocking over shit. You ready to eat?”
“Yep! I just got out of the shower, let me throw something on.”
I smirked as I bent down to pick everything up. “Or you could leave the clothes off,” I suggested, and heard her soft laugh.
Shoving everything back in her purse, I paused when I glanced at what was in my hand. I blinked a few times and shook my head before looking back down, but nothing had changed.
Grey’s checkbook sat in my hand. All the duplicates were folded over and held in place by a rubber band, except fo
r the most recent check Grey had written. Just a month ago.
“What’re you doing on the floor?” Grey asked on a laugh as she came down the stairs, but I didn’t say anything as she crossed the floor. “Babe?”
“What. Is. This.”
“What are you talking about, what is wh—” She cut off suddenly when she knelt down next to me and saw what I was holding. “Oh God.”
A harsh laugh burst from my chest. “Oh God? Really, Grey?” Standing up so I was looking down at her, her eyes glued to her knees, I took off the rubber band and flipped back through all of her checks before throwing it on the ground next to her. “Why the fuck have you given my mom five grand, Grey?”
She flinched but didn’t move.
“When were you going to tell me about this? That first one was months ago, were there any others?”
“No, just the three times.” Looking up at me, her face tightened in what looked like pain as tears filled her eyes. “I’m so sorry, I couldn’t—I couldn’t tell you.”
“And why couldn’t you tell me?” I asked, my voice rising even more. “You should’ve told me my mom was coming after you for money. Shit, Grey, this is what she does; this is why I won’t let her in our lives. She’s constantly trying to get money from me.”
Grey jerked her head back. “W-what?”
“Ever since I got the inheritance money from my grandparents, she has been coming after me trying to get it because she blew through all of hers. This is what she does. Why did you give it to her, and why the fuck would you keep something like this from me? We’re getting married and you’re hiding the fact that you’ve given my mom five thousand dollars of what you’ve earned?”
“She’s been coming to you for money?”
“Yes, Grey, for years. Now tell me—”
“Why didn’t you tell me, Jagger?” she yelled. “That is something I should’ve known—something I should’ve been warned about!”
“You’re really going to start yelling at me when you’ve been hiding the fact that you gave my mom money, and all I did was not tell you that my mom did this kind of shit?”
“Yes! Yes, I am! If you would’ve just told me, none of this would’ve happened! I wouldn’t have gone through this for months—I wouldn’t have had this guilt eating at me!”
“That right there should’ve told you that I needed to know what she was doing!” I yelled back. “I was protecting you; you were keeping something from me that you knew you shouldn’t have kept! Why the fuck did you keep it from me?”
“I had to! You don’t understand, Jagger, she said I couldn’t tell you—I had no choice!”
“You always have a fucking choice, Grey!”
Her eyes looked around wildly as if she could find something to help her explain. “The first time she said she’d been laid off from her job, and that some guy named Mike had taken her car and all her money and left. She said you’d begged her not to date him and that you and Mike had exchanged threats every time you saw each other. Your mom was afraid you’d go after him and get arrested, or give her all your money to help her.”
“What? I don’t know who Mike is, and my mom has never worked a day in her life. She got her money from her parents, and then from all her husbands. But regardless of what she told you, if you thought my mom was in trouble, you should have mentioned it to me!”
Grey flinched back again from the force of my voice, and sat roughly on her ass, her body shaking. I was trying to calm down, but the more she said, the more pissed off I was getting. Only now my anger wasn’t only directed at her. Mom was manipulative, and Grey had never known anything bad about her because I’d kept her from this bullshit, just like I’d kept Charlie from it.
“You don’t get it,” Grey sobbed, her anger quickly fading as some other unreadable emotion covered her face. “It was killing me that I’d kept it from you, but I thought I was helping her and Keith when they needed it—and helping you by not letting you do something stupid when you found out.”
“She doesn’t need anything for Keith, Grey. I buy him everything he needs, I have since I realized the money I was giving her for him wasn’t even going to him.”
“Wait,” she said suddenly, her head jerking back and her eyes pinning me with a stare that was a mix of confusion and doubt. “Why would you give her money and buy things for Keith?”
“Someone had to! He had nothing and Mom wasn’t making an effort to give him what he needed, and I didn’t want Charlie to waste her money on him. Why, if you thought you were helping them and protecting me, wouldn’t you tell me the second time? Or, Christ, the third time at least? How would you feel if I kept something like this from you?”
Grey studied me for a few moments, and I watched as her shoulders sagged in defeat. “There was no sob story the second time she came, she just asked for more money.”
“And you just continued to give it to her?” My voice bounced back at us in the room, and I fisted my hands as I tried to keep it together. Kneeling down beside Grey, I cupped her face in my hands and made her look at me. “Baby, I’m sorry. Right now I’m mad at her, I swear. I hate that you didn’t tell me, but my mom is evil, and I’m the only person to ever have seen that side of her. I hate that she went after you. I hate that she’s been near you. I’m so fucking mad I’m just trying to talk myself out of going to her—”
“You’re not the only one,” she whispered, cutting me off.
“What?”
“I know your mom is evil. I saw it that second and third time. I wasn’t going to give her more money, but like I said, she left me with no choice. She—she had something on you, and was threatening to do something that I knew would kill you if I didn’t pay her, or if I told you.”
Confusion quickly replaced my anger when I realized what she was saying. “What on earth could she possibly have on me?”
Grey lifted a shoulder and shook her head. “When I started walking away from her, she said something along the lines of making sure your kid was going to starve.”
My heart skipped a beat, and I shook my head to clear it—knowing I’d heard her wrong. “What did you just say? What kid?”
Grey just looked up at me with the most pained expression, her eyebrows rising as if to answer me.
“Grey, I don’t understand.”
“Your kid—your son, Jagger.”
Ice flooded my veins and pinned me to the floor. I wasn’t even sure if I was breathing anymore as her words echoed over and over in my mind. It took over a minute before I could say anything. “Excuse me?”
“LeAnn’s son. Your son.” Grey shook her head slowly back and forth before choking out, “Keith is yours, Jag.”
I felt dizzy . . . I felt sick . . . I was so fucking confused. “No he’s not. He can’t . . .” I trailed off.
“Your mom said LeAnn got pregnant, but by the time she tried to tell you, Ben had died and you were always with me. She said LeAnn disappeared for a long time to hide her condition, and after Keith was born, she gave over custody to your mom—she even said to ask Charlie if I didn’t believe her.”
My head swung back to look at Grey, shock covering my face. “You’re telling me Charlie knows? My own fucking sister has known for two years that I have a kid and didn’t say anything? You knew I had a fucking kid, with LeAnn of all people, and didn’t say something to me? I’ve been thinking he was my brother all this time, and you’ve all just kept this from me! Was it some sick joke you were all in on?”
“No, Jagger, please stop yelling at me!”
“Well, Jesus Christ, Grey! How do you expect me to react to what you just told me?”
“I’m sorry, you have no idea how sorry I am, but I just found out—and like I said, I couldn’t tell you! Not only had we just found out that it was LeAnn who was doing all the Ben stuff and breaking into the warehouse, but your mom said what LeAnn had been doing to us was because she’d been trying to get her family back together. And it made sense, Jagger! It. Makes. Sense. And then
I found out that your mom wasn’t lying about LeAnn disappearing for that time, and your mom was threatening to disappear with Keith if I told you! Do you see why I couldn’t tell you? It killed me, but I had no choice. I’ve been doing everything I could to find out what happened, and find a way for us to get Keith from your mom once I realized how horrible she really is. That is why I kept it from you, all I wanted to do was help you and help Keith so your mom couldn’t leave with him.”
At some point in her explanation, I’d begun pacing, and didn’t stop for another couple minutes after Grey had stopped talking. I just listened to her cries as I tried to wrap my mind around everything. That my mom had gone after my fiancée. That Grey had kept the fact of the money from me. That she’d kept the truth about Keith from me. The fact that Keith was actually my son, and not my brother.
I stopped pacing, and without turning to look at her, I asked, “How long were you going to continue giving her money? Because you can’t honestly believe that she would’ve just stopped coming to you. Or that she would’ve stopped trying to hold this over both our heads.”
“I was just trying to buy us some time.” Grey sounded like all the life had been drained from her. She sounded exhausted in a way I hadn’t seen since right after Ben died.
“What else are you keeping from me?”
She looked up at me, and I knew my question had hurt her. “Nothing! There is nothing else, I promise. But what are you keeping from me? I understand that you didn’t know about your son. But I just found out that your mom has been doing this for years, why didn’t you tell me that? What else do I not know?”
“Nothing. I don’t have a relationship with my mom for a reason—or with her boyfriends or husbands. I didn’t tell you about her because I wanted to protect you from her.”
“And what do you think I was doing!” she yelled back, her voice breaking at the end. “I was trying to protect you.”
“By paying off my mom, and keeping the truth about Keith from me.” I nodded a few times and bit the inside of my cheek before turning and walking toward the door.
“Where are you going?”