Page 42 of The Spare (The King Dynasty #2)

Chapter twenty-three

Coming to Terms

I 'm so irritated right now I could choke the living daylights out of Isobel.

She and Hendrix not only had the nerve to interrupt, damn near watch, the hottest fuck I've ever had in my life, but now they're taking it a step further and testing me in my own motherfucking home?

In my closet?

I narrow my eyes, taking a deep breath and will my feet to stay planted on the carpet.

All the pleasure I'd felt just ten minutes ago dissipates almost as if it were never there, leaving a teeth-grating annoyance in its wake that rivals just about any other time I'd lost my shit on Hendrix or my father.

But this time it's Isobel causing it. Pregnant Isobel.

"I wasn't trying to talk her out of anything, Mason," Isobel quips, folding her arms and glaring at me.

"Really?" I scoff, eyeing her up and down. "Because that's exactly what the fuck it sounded like to me."

"It's not what I meant!" she yells back.

Hendrix puts his hand on her arm, but she shakes it off, taking another step towards me.

I feel my anger begin to take me over, turning my face into stone.

"Well it's what the fuck you just said!" I raise my voice, ignoring Hendrix who gives me a warning glance.

"So maybe you need to start being more careful with how you say things, Isobel, because it sounded like you were insinuating she shouldn't marry me! "

"Well, I wasn't," she snaps. "I just wanted some answers."

I tilt my head to the side. "She's twenty years old. What makes you think you're owed an answer about Melody's sex life? Her love life?"

I know I'm one to talk, paying off the various boyfriends in her life to disappear and all, but still.

She frowns, "Because this has been going on under our noses, and we-," she emphasizes, gesturing between her and Hendrix who looks at me and gives me a 'not me' look that's quite perplexing. "-Wanted to know if y'all were fucking while she was underage," she continues.

My annoyance instantly goes a notch higher.

"And what if we were?" I ask.

The room goes eerily quiet as everybody seems to hold their breath. Her head snaps to Melody who purses her lips together, her gaze flickering between the two of us; however, she stays silent .

"What if we were, Isobel?" I repeat myself, getting her attention back on me. "What are you going to do about it?"

Isobel blinks, looking put out. "Well, I-I-" she stammers.

"Is that what you think of me?" I ask, recoiling my head. "That I'd do that? Like a fucking pedophile? I know we butt heads a lot, and I can have a temper but honestly, do you two really think that little of me?" My eyes flick between her and Hendrix. "Well?"

"Not at all, Mason. We know you aren't like that!" Hendrix says, his voice is strong enough to put me more at ease.

"Apparently she doesn't," I say, bringing my eyes back to Isobel, whose face tinges pink. Her lips purse together, and she throws another look at Melody, the worry plain as day in her eyes. I see then that this is about control to her.

Or rather, the lack of it.

She's been like a second mother to Melody for so long that she doesn't know how to let go.

Well, she's going to have to because I'm about to make her.

"Hm, Izzy?" She turns her eyes back to me, and just stares. "If we were fucking when she was sixteen, what are you going to do about it today? Seeing as you just saw me fucking her outside our home. Where we live together," I say slowly, pinning her with my eyes.

Isobel's eyes well up with tears, but I don't care. She needs to understand her role from this point on.

"Are you going to lecture me? Put me in my place?" I shake my head, seeing a pinched expression on her face. "Nah, you got a husband for that. And he's standing right next to you." Turning to the side, I push the door all the way open and hold out my arm, narrowing my eyes. "Out of my closet. Now."

Melody's brows rise, and Hendrix goes to move, but Isobel speaks, making him pause. "Mason, I'm sorry. "

I nod. "Apology accepted. Now, let's go. This is my personal space, and I don't want you guys in here. We can finish this up in the living room."

"Mason," Isobel frowns, wringing her fingers. "Uhm, I want to see her dress."

My brow rises as I just stare.

The fuck?

Hendrix clears his throat, giving me another long-suffering look. It hits me then why he's acting so differently right now. She's pregnant, and he's in self-protective mode. Damn. The memory of Isobel throwing a knife at him four years ago comes to mind, and I shake my head.

Not able to help myself, I let out a humorless chuckle. Isobel can be so self-centered. Worse than I am, ironically.

"Not right now you're not. Not until we get some shit out on the table and come to an understanding really quickly.

" I look at my brother who could be awarded the Dalai Lama medal of peace right now for being as much of a saint as he is acting.

Because really, who is this guy? "Henny, get your wife out of my closet, please.

We'll talk in the living room. Go on, I need to speak to Melody for a second. "

King takes Isobel by the arm and whispers into her ear. She throws me an irate look, but I just shrug my shoulders and stay silent. I'm making my boundaries clear, and I dare anyone to stop me.

"What the hell is with you and this closet?" Isobel breathes at me, narrowing her eyes. I narrow mine back, not answering her.

They walk around the island and through the door, and I wait until they're completely out of my bedroom before I walk to Melody who's standing there with her arms folded, looking upset.

"Hey," I say, pressing a kiss onto her lips, then her temple.

I wrap my arms around her in a hug. "I didn't hear the elevator open, baby.

I am so sorry." I pull back and lean down to make eye contact with her, seeing she's seriously embarrassed.

"I know you're shy, and I never would have kept going had I known they were there.

" My eyes flicker between hers, seeing they're tear-filled. "Do you believe me?"

Please believe me.

"Yes," she says quietly, folding her arms across her torso.

I reach over and grab a light cardigan off a hanger and pull it over her shoulders, knowing she's feeling too exposed right now.

"I think I need to have a talk with them about some things.

" I heave a deep sigh and press my fingers to my eyes, trying to rub the tension away.

"You're more than welcome to join us, or you can stay in the bedroom, and I'll send them away when I'm done.

You shouldn't feel the need to mingle with them after what just happened, love. But I'll leave it up to you."

I pull my hand away and fold my own arms, waiting for her to let me know what she wants to do.

"I'm okay to go," she says in a quiet voice. "I mean, I'm going to have to get over it sooner or later. Rather it'd be sooner. I just hate that they know what I sound like when I orgasm." Her face flushes bright red, and it takes everything in me to keep from chuckling.

I lift her head back up to meet my eyes. "You sound beautiful, baby." I praise her. Tilting my head, I arch a brow and drink in her pretty face greedily. "Did you know you were multi-orgasmic?"

She gasps, trying to pull her face away, but I tighten my grip. "No," she complains in a strained voice, wiggling against me.

I do chuckle this time. "You came for a very long time, too. You were squeezing me so good, baby. We're going to need a repeat of that as soon as they're gone. Because they robbed me."

Her brow scrunches together. "Robbed you? Robbed you of what? "

I keep my eyes on her as I pull her dress up slowly, sliding my fingers into her panties until I feel her bare pussy. I reach lower, clasping her clit and pinching it.

It's thick. Swollen from earlier.

Sensitive.

I scrape my nail across the hard, sensitive bud and revel in the feel of her juices slicking out and coating the tips of my fingers.

I lean in, placing my lips to her ear. "Of seeing just how many orgasms I could force out of you.

Of seeing how long I could push you before you marked my back and begged me to stop.

Of what you sound like when you're hoarse from it, screaming and crying until you're nothing but a limp, desperate and quivering pile of need, so sensitive that just the feel of my breath on your skin sets you off.

Of what you look like when you can't take anymore, and I keep going anyway. "

"Oh, Mase," her breath hitches in her throat but she presses closer, molding her curves to my body. "You're so damn selfish for thinking you were the only one that was robbed."

She nips my ear with her teeth, and I'm rock hard, straining against my pants.

"Ohhh, you fucking little bitch," I snarl, yanking her head back by her hair.

She whimpers, and I feel her shaking against me.

"We're not done," I say down at her, seeing her eyes wide open.

"The second I kick them out you better run as fast as you can, sweetheart.

Because when I catch you, I intend to finish what I started before we were so rudely interrupted. "

"I can run faster than you," she whispers back defiantly.

I recoil my head, offended. "No, you can’t."

She's not faster . We're neck and neck, having raced each other many times .

"Yes, I can."

"No, you can’t."

"Yes, I can."

I roll her clit hard, mercilessly manipulating it until her fingers dig into my shoulders and her legs begin to shake. "I'm the only one who gets this feisty attitude? Huh?" I question her.

At her silence, I pull my fingers out of her panties and make her watch me suck them clean. I let her hair go and smack her ass hard, sending her stumbling to the door.

Though she's embarrassed, I'm glad she's going to be by my side while I lay down some ground rules with my brother and his overprotective wife.

I set the wineglass down on the table with a clink before handing Melody her glass.

"Thank you," she says, taking a small sip.

"You're welcome." I pour Isobel a sparkling water and Hendrix and myself a scotch, sliding his over to him.

I don't drink mine, not yet. I don't even sit down. I stand behind Melody's chair and place my hand on her shoulder, squeezing. She stiffens and then tilts her head up to look at me, but I look at them instead, addressing Hendrix.

"I know that we haven't been the best of brothers, for reasons that we don't need to discuss right now, and for a lot of years I caused you grief and was just generally a huge asshole most of the time, but I think have more than proved myself to you and to our father, whether he wants to talk to me about any of this or not. "

Hendrix folds his arms and gives me a slow nod, his face so serious you'd think he was in a board meeting. Melody's hand comes up to cover mine on her shoulder, and she gives my fingers a squeeze.

"I am in love with Melody," I say quietly.

"I haven't been with anyone else since I saw her almost four years ago.

Hendrix didn't tell you, Isobel," my gaze slides to Isobel where she meets my gaze boldly.

"Because he thought I didn't know what I wanted.

That I'd get bored and move on after a while, but I knew.

I knew clear as day that Melody belonged to me, and I belonged to her.

He wasn't trying to keep you in the dark about anything. "

Isobel turns her face to him when he turns to her, a look passes between them, and I just know without either one of them saying anything, that they've been fighting over us.

"I'm going to need you to cut off that Amex card, sell the car that you bought Melody that you store at your house, cancel her country club and SoHo memberships, and any other thing you pay for.

Cut off her phone service, and limit your phone calls to her to no more than two times a week.

" Isobel's eyes almost pop out of her face, but I continue, unbothered.

"And whatever other allowance you give her is done.

Melody's my responsibility now," I finish.

Hendrix sits back in his chair and shoots back his whiskey. "Done," he says.

I pause at his words. He just gave me his respect, for probably the first time ever.

Holy shit.

I grin, and he gives me a grin back.

Isobel cracks her head over to look at him. "Hendrix!" she hisses. "Are you going to let him just- "

Hendrix turns his head slowly and pins her with a look that has my balls drawing up, because, damn, I take back my words about him going soft.

He's still got it.

Isobel's eyes go wide, and then she turns to place her gaze to the table in front of her. King meets my eyes, and for a minute, all of our sibling rivalry, our fights and bickering falls to the background as a new understanding passes between us.

His eyes slide to Melody, who cradles her wine to her breast and stares at him back. "Do you love him?" Hendrix asks. Isobel's eyes rise to look at Melody, too.

"Yes," Melody says.

"Do you want this?"

"Yes, thanks for asking."

I smile, squeezing her shoulders.

"Do you trust him?" The words fall off his lips and hang in the air while all the oxygen sucks out of the room.

My heart skips a beat before pounding into overdrive, a muscle twitches in my jaw, and I damn near stop breathing because… I've never had anyone tell me they trust me before.

Melody pauses before tilting her head back up to look at me. The back of my eyes prick, and I swallow hard, not wanting to cry in front of Hendrix or Isobel.

"With my life," she says, giving me a sweet smile. "I trust him with everything."

I nod. Despite my best efforts a tear falls down my cheek, and I push away from her, scrubbing a hand down my face. "You guys have to go." I say briskly.

"Huh?" Isobel says, scrunching her face up. "But the dress! "

"You'll see it the day after tomorrow, Izzy," I say, walking to the front. "I'll call you tomorrow, Hendrix, but I need you to go."

"What? Why?" Isobel says in an incredulous tone, trying to get out of her seat. Hendrix pulls her up by her hand.

"You heard him. Let's go, little demon," he says.

"B-But-" she stammers.

"I'm happy for you, honey," he says, leaning down to give Melody a hug. She stands up and throws her arms around him, and they rock for a second while I stand with the door open trying not to cry. "Give your sister a hug, and let’s go woman," Hendrix says sternly.

Isobel gives Melody a hug before Hendrix bends and picks her up bridal style, pregnant belly and all. "You know," he says, carrying her swiftly past me. "They got the right idea. We haven't ever fucked in an elevator before."

Isobel's face goes bright red, and she buries her face in Hendrix’s chest. He glances over his shoulder as he makes his way to the elevator. "I'll be looking for that phone call, Mase."

Turning, I look over to see Melody staring at me from the threshold of the dining room.

I slam the door, locking it.

"Why aren't you running yet?"