Page 20 of Bittersweet Revenge (Sins of the Father #1)

Dean

I wake up with foggy memories of the night before.

Getting fucked by Tiernan is clear in my head. Even if it wasn’t, the fact that my ass is sore would remind me, but it’s the stuff afterward that’s coming back to me in waves.

Inhaling smoke from Tiernan’s lips.

Tiernan on my lap.

Playing with his cock in a nonsexual way and…had I fucking given him a raspberry? What the hell is wrong with me?

Heart in my throat, I wrestle out of the covers and to my feet, needing out of this bed with Tiernan, but when I look down at it, I realize I’m alone. My gaze shoots toward the en suite, but the door is open and the space empty.

I could look around. What I expect to find, I’m not sure. I know everything about who Tiernan is and who his father is. The problem is getting close to Sloan. I need Tiernan for that.

But that doesn’t mean I won’t find something I can use to my benefit or that I can use against Tiernan if I need to.

The twist in my gut nearly knocks me off my feet, swiftly followed by a wave of nausea.

Do it. Fucking do it, do it, Dean.

I take one step, then another, around the bed and toward the nightstand with a keypad on it…but then stop.

“If anyone hurts you, I’ll fucking kill them.”

I shake my head, trying to free my thoughts from Tiernan’s words. Fuck him. Fuck all of them. He didn’t mean that. My father thought Sloan would have his back too, and look how that turned out.

I collapse onto the edge of the bed, elbows on my knees, head in my hands, chest hurting while I try to catch my racing breaths. I’d felt so fucking alive last night. With him. How could I feel so alive with the person I’m supposed to hate?

My leg bounces, the room’s spinning, and the second the nausea hits my throat, I know I have to make it to the bathroom now , or I won’t get there without vomiting all over Tiernan’s floor.

I push to my feet, bump my knee on the bed’s footboard, but don’t stop running until I collapse on the bathroom floor and empty my stomach in the toilet. My gut cramps, and I keep going, losing everything inside me. When there’s no more, I flush and sit with my back against the wall.

Part of me still hates him…but I like him too. Relate to him. See myself in him, and yes, I noticed that before, but it was different while I was being swept up in the moment of his hands on me, the feel of him inside me, then being high.

I’m going to betray Tiernan the same way his father betrayed mine. Does it make it better that I’ll let Tiernan kill me afterward? That I want him to?

He’s not a good person. My thought on that hasn’t changed, but I don’t care that he’s not, and that says just as much about me as it does him.

I force myself to stand, wash my face, then look beneath the sink, where I saw an unopened toothbrush when I grabbed the supplies to clean out.

I brush my teeth, wash my face again, then look at my chest and consider taking a washcloth to that too, but I don’t. I’m going to walk downstairs smelling like him, and if he doesn’t smell like me too, we’re going to have a problem.

I put on my boxer briefs, then find a pair of Tiernan’s shorts in the drawer. Cillian won’t like it. He made it clear yesterday that while he was fine teasing me about Tiernan in the beginning, he doesn’t like me being here, and in Tiernan’s head.

And I am—in his head, I mean. The thought makes me smile, knowing he wants me as much as I want him, even though I know he doesn’t like it any more than I do.

I skip a shirt, wanting to show off Tiernan’s marks because like so many things with him, I find a power in those too.

My feet are quiet across the floor, down the hallway, and to the stairs. I make it halfway down, when Cillian’s angry voice drifts up. “Why the fuck is he alone in your room, T?”

“Shut the fuck up,” Tiernan replies.

“I’m not trying to be a dick here. I’ve never seen you do this, and we don’t know shit about that kid. I just—”

“You’re just going to shut the fuck up before you piss me off. I’m not going to say it again, Cil. You don’t want to piss me off.”

The hairs on the back of my neck prickle at what I’m hearing. I don’t want to come between them, but also fuck Cillian for not trusting me.

Forget that he’s right, but I could have gone through Tiernan’s room, and I didn’t. I won’t hurt him to get to his father.

“I’m sorry. I don’t want you to get hurt,” Cillian continues.

“Pfft,” Tiernan replies. “He can’t fucking hurt me. And if he tries, I’ll kill him. Liking to stick my dick in him doesn’t change that.”

I take another step, this one louder, to alert them I’m coming and stop that conversation. When I enter the living room, Tiernan’s in the chair and Cillian on the couch.

“Oh look, it’s the little fighter who can’t handle his weed,” Tiernan teases.

“Oh look, it’s the angry little lord who’s wearing my marks.” I flash a quick glance to Cillian, then watch Tiernan as I say, “Do you still smell like my cum too?”

“Jesus,” Cillian curses. “There’s fucking two of you.”

Tiernan ignores him, telling me, “Come here and find out.” When I don’t move right away, he says, “That wasn’t a request.”

“Fuck you.”

He cocks a brow. “Are we back to that?”

“We never left it.”

“You’re the one who came down here, trying to what? Claim what’s yours? With my cousin? We’re close but not that close. I’ll play your game with you, though, because until I’m done with you, I’ve already told you you’re mine. I’ve let you mark me too, so come over and smell yourself on me.”

My dick twitches. There’s no denying I want exactly what he said.

I’m going to do this with him, keep doing it and enjoying it because there’s not much I’ve been able to enjoy in my life.

As long as it doesn’t change the ultimate plan, what can it hurt to pretend I’m a part of this world and that Tiernan is really mine?

I walk over to him and straddle his lap, legs pressed between the arms of the chair and his thighs. The fabric of his shirt—he’s wearing a tee for the first time—is soft, expensive-feeling against my skin as I pull it over his head.

“Someone is feeling very possessive. Just remember you can only take what I allow you to have.”

“Because you want me,” I say, then suck on his throat again. His skin is so hot, the blood beneath the surface making him throb…making me throb too.

Cillian curses again. “What the fuck is happening?”

“Talk to me about Molly. It should be selling better than it is,” Tiernan tells Cillian.

His cousin sighs, and then the two of them talk about selling drugs while I show Cillian that Tiernan is mine now. His hand rests on my hip, and I smell our sex on his skin, the way it’s still on mine.

It’s a short conversation, and just as they finish up, Aislin comes down the stairs. “No fucking on the furniture.”

“Why are you dressed like you’re leaving?” Cillian asks.

“Because I’m going to school.”

Tiernan pushes my head away. “No. You’re not. And I have an exam today I can’t miss, plus a fucking business to run.”

“Fuck off, T. I don’t have any classes with Jensen. Do you think he’s going to break into my lecture and attack me? Plus, Rory isn’t letting him out of his sight. Cillian watched him last night. Did they tell you he’s fucking a professor?”

“That’s enough,” Tiernan cuts her off, I’m sure because of me. His voice softens when he adds, “I’m not ready for you to leave this house yet.”

She sighs. “I’ll be fine. You can’t keep me locked away. I’m not Mom, and I can take care of myself.”

He tenses beneath me. Tiernan is a lot of things, but I’ll never doubt how much he loves his sister. I can feel his concern for her, see it in his eyes. He wants her to have her freedom, but he wants to take care of her too.

“I’ll be fine ,” she reiterates. “I trusted the wrong person once . I won’t do it again. I promise.” The love in her soft but determined voice doesn’t escape my attention either.

“I’ll skip and be her tagalong,” I offer.

“Hey, fuck off, Dean. I don’t need a babysitter,” Aislin argues.

“Fine,” Tiernan cuts off my reply. “As long as you take Dean with you.”

There’s an unexplainable shift in my chest…that he trusts me with her.

“Ugh. Fine ,” Aislin says. “Go get dressed, Dean.”

I move to get off him, but Tiernan grabs my hips, holding me down. “You leave her, I’ll kill you. Something happens to her, I’ll kill you.”

“Yes, I know. You’ll kill me if I breathe wrong.” And he will, but I’m not afraid of him. I’m not afraid of dying. I climb off his lap, and he yells after me, “Don’t take a shower.”

“Fuck you!” I call back, but I’m smiling…and I plan to do exactly as he says.

I hear his footsteps behind me on the stairs, then Aislin’s, “Seriously. No fucking. If you’re not down here in five minutes, I’m leaving without you.”

“Calm down. I’m getting him clothes,” Tiernan calls just before I hit the landing and his arms wrap around me from behind. “I could fuck you…and she’d wait.” I let him push me so my stomach is against the wall, him against me. “It’s fun having a toy.”

“You call me that again, and I’ll show you how much of a fighter I am.” Still, I push my ass back against him.

“Well, now you’re just threatening me with a good time.

The fight in you is my favorite part.” He bites my lip, then he’s gone, and I swear, I almost whimper at the loss of contact.

“Seriously, though…she’s stubborn, and Cil will have to hold her back from leaving if you don’t hurry.

I pretend not to know how much of a bad bitch she is, but it’s true. ”

He walks into his room, and I follow.

“She’s…” Tiernan trails off.

“Nothing will happen to her. She’s right, she’s in class, but if something does happen, I’ll be there.”

He gives me a quick nod, which feels like his way of saying thank you without using the words.

Tiernan is already dressed for the day. He must have grabbed his shirt off the floor before coming up.

“Wear what you want. After class, take Aislin with you to your dorm and get what you need to stay here for a few days.”

My skin prickles, and not with disgust as it should. Still, I can’t give him anything too easily. “I’m not them. You don’t get to tell me what to do.”

“We also both know you want to be in my bed, and you will be.”

He throws a pair of boxer briefs at me, and I jerk his shorts and my dirty ones down and pull the clean ones on. “Just because I like having sex with you.”

He shrugs. “I don’t give a fuck about the reason, just the result.” Tiernan gets one of his fancy shirts and walks over to me. “You know what it means, being in this house, right?”

I frown, noticing the shift in the air in the room. “Yes.”

“And if you do anything I wouldn’t want you to do, or say anything I wouldn’t want you to say…”

“You can trust me.”

“I don’t trust anyone. Not completely.”

“That makes two of us.” Thinking of Cillian and Rory, I add, “You put more trust in those around you than I do.”

He grabs my chin, holds it so I can’t turn away and have to look at him—though it’s not like I want my eyes anywhere else. “Don’t make me regret it. I always do what needs to be done.”

It’s my warning, one I don’t need him to give me. One that makes a delicious swirl of adrenaline twist inside me. “I would be disappointed if you didn’t.” It’s another layer of my facade falling away.

Tiernan slams his lips down on mine, his tongue pushing into my mouth, taking what he craves. Thriving on my response.

There’s no denying that everything I should despise in Tiernan is mirrored in me.