Page 36 of Just a Little Wicked (Wicked Sisters #2)

Holly

Can you meet for dinner? I have something important to discuss.

Stacy

Let’s meet at the Blue Frog. They have outdoor seating even in November. That way we can sit as far apart from each other as possible.

C onnor called multiple times that afternoon to ask clarifying questions about Winter’s vision of the wedding, which made Erikson think his older brother was circling around a theory he didn’t yet feel comfortable sharing.

Holly had reached out to let them know she was meeting with Stacy for dinner, and that she’d hopefully have more information to give them later.

While Winter flipped through the news stations on the motel TV, hoping to hear that the dolphin had been rescued, Erikson sat at the desk texting Charlotte what little information he had about the members of the Shadow Council with the hope that she could dig up dirt on them, or even narrow down the location of their headquarters.

Charlotte didn’t know about Wickeds, but she was well versed in hunting down strange stories and didn’t even blink at the request.

Erikson’s phone dinged in his hand, but his mind had once again wandered to what he and Winter had done by the sea.

Winter’s expression as she’d unraveled with pleasure would forever be imprinted on his brain, along with her taste and the feel of her silky thighs parted for him.

When he’d been going down on her he’d felt possessed, like she’d absorbed a piece of his soul and it no longer belonged to him.

It had made him feel savage. Undone. Unbound to his body.

And he wanted more. Needed more. And not just more of her touch.

He needed more time with her . More smiles.

More discussions about their hopes and dreams. More playing on the beach.

He’d only just breached the walls she’d built around herself, and yet he was expected to give her up to the Shadow Council in two days? Impossible. He couldn’t. He wouldn’t .

Determination renewed, he glanced down at his screen to see that Charlotte had sent him a selfie of her blowing a gum bubble half the size of her head along with the words: I’m on it, Boss.

Winter gave a little cheer and shut off the motel TV. “They saved the dolphin!”

Erikson grinned and stretched his arms overhead as he stood, gratified when her eyes locked appreciatively on the band of skin showing beneath his shirt.

He prowled forward and knelt on the bed where she was sitting. He ran his nose along the skin of her neck and said, “I love how you smell. Like cinnamon and fire.”

Her fingers flexed in the cover, like she was trying to prevent herself from returning his touch. “Erikson, I really think we should?—”

He licked a spot on her neck and she let out a little sigh.

He took that as encouragement and pressed a soft kiss to her jaw.

“We should what? Stop?” He pulled back on the word, but didn’t bother hiding the heat in his eyes or the bulge in his pants.

He’d had a taste of her, and now he wanted all of her.

He felt like he’d made his intentions plain at this point.

He’d told her repeatedly that he wanted to be friends, and he’d made it clear that he also wanted to fuck her senseless, so now it was up to her to decide where she wanted them to go over the next two days.

Winter frowned, so he started to withdraw. Before he could move off the bed, she threw herself on him, crashing into his chest and almost knocking him backwards. Still kneeling on the covers, he caught her in his arms and buried his face in her hair.

“Erikson, I’m scared,” she murmured against his neck. His libido cooled with the painful stab of her words. Winter trusting him with her worries was a treasure he intended to guard with his life.

“I am too,” he admitted, because he didn’t know how to say anything but the truth.

He couldn’t pat her on the back and give her trite words of comfort when they both knew she was very close to being incorporated into a murderous gang.

“But you’re strong, and so powerful, Winter.

My brother is clever, and your sisters are strategic.

Combined, we’re going to find a way out of this. ”

“What about you? You said nice things about everyone else. What’s your strength?”

“I’m the support guy.”

She pulled back and met his eyes, and he felt laid bare, like she could see every thought swirling in his brain.

“Then you’re the strongest of all of us.

You prop everyone else up behind the scenes.

You talk about how Connor saved you, how he never abandoned you, how he was the driving force behind the show, but you saved him too, I think.

You were his support system, his sounding board.

You always had his back.” She gently trailed her fingertips across his cheekbone.

“You created this unserious image of yourself, and it camouflages what you really are.”

“And what am I really?”

“Solid.”

“Solid?”

“I’ve been through enough sorrow in my lifetime not to undervalue dependability.

” She paused and tilted her head. “It’s safer to be the fun guy, you know?

He can ease everyone’s problems with a joke and a party.

He can nudge his too-serious brother into taking a break.

But it’s just a well-crafted persona built on top of bedrock, because he’s secretly the guy who will always be there when someone needs him. ”

“You think you have me figured out, do you?” he teased, letting his hands trace down her back, but her words satisfied something in his soul, something he hadn’t even known yearned for recognition.

Connor appreciated and loved him, but Erikson wasn’t sure even his brother understood the lengths he’d gone to make himself the launching pad so that Connor could fly.

Erikson had been fighting silent battles for Connor for years, from putting his pitiful high school job salary toward the electric bill so that their dad wouldn’t complain about Connor using so much “electricity” editing his videos, to lunching with one of Connor’s ex-girlfriends to soothe hurt feelings so she wouldn’t sell a gossip piece about Connor to the magazines.

He didn’t do those things to earn his brother’s love; he already had that.

And he didn’t do them for recognition. He did them because that was his role: Connor carried them forward, and Erikson quietly supported him by cleaning up the messes they left behind.

Still, he was surprised at how quickly Winter had seen past his crafted image to the truth of the matter.

He had decades-old friends that still viewed him as little more than a millionaire out for nothing but a good time.

Winter had seen him that way at the start too, and to be fair, he’d intended her to, but it hadn’t taken her long to push back his mask and peek at the real man beneath.

The difference, he thought, was that she’d wanted to see all of him.

“I think I’m starting to figure you out,” she answered softly. “Even if things don’t work out in the next couple days, I want you to know that I appreciate who you really are.”

He opened his mouth to reply, but as he did his thumb brushed between her shirt and the waistband of her jeans, and she went rigid. A vision.

He waited, his palms cupped around her hips while her eyes went blank, seeing something far beyond the reaches of their current timeline.

A few seconds later she slackened, melting into his arms in a way that stirred his protective instincts.

To be this woman’s bedrock, when she’d built her castle upon nothing but the strength of her own will, was nothing short of a privilege.

He stroked his thumb over her side. “Past or future?”

“Future,” she said grimly.

Erikson waited patiently for her to share more.

Her ribs were heaving, and her eyes were wild with desperation.

“It took place a few weeks from now. The Shadow Council was in a meeting discussing the potion they were administering to me. It was designed to bring on visions almost constantly.” She shuddered.

“If I work for them and that happens, I’ll go mad, Erikson.

I’ll lose my mind within a week. Some days I feel like I can barely hold on to my sanity as it is. ”

He gritted his teeth, his desire to rip the Shadow Council limb from limb nearly turning his sight red. “The visions aren’t certain; you told me that yourself. They’re just one of many possible outcomes, and that is not going to be your outcome, Winter.”

She nodded, the fear receding as her inner steel resurfaced. “You’re right. Fuck that. Fuck them .”

On the heels of her words, her phone trilled from the bedside table, and she scrambled off the mattress to grab it. “It’s Atlantes.” She accepted the call and put it on speaker.

“My friend is here early. You can come now,” he barked.

“We’ll be there in fifteen.”

“After this, you leave me the hell alone,” Atlantes snarled.

He’d been standing in the doorway when they’d pulled into his driveway, his arms crossed over his chest and his lip curled.

It was late afternoon, and the low rays of the sun glinted in his strange, green eyes.

As they walked toward him, they passed a new car parked in the driveway: a lavender two-seater that looked more like a toy than a road-worthy vehicle.

Winter stomped up the steps with Erikson at her back. “Trust me, you’re no picnic to be around.” The moment she approached him, she paled. “You make me sick. Literally.”

Atlantes was already crossing the living room to get as far away from her as possible, while Erikson closed the door behind them. “You stay over there,” he ordered, rubbing his temples.