Filed to story: The LORDS Series Free PDF by Shantel Tessier
“Let me look.” She sighs. A moment later she answers, “Yes, it’s here…”
I hang up and smash on the gas, tossing my phone to the passenger seat. Making it to the house in ten minutes when on any given day it would take over thirty. I rush inside, ignoring the stares that the guys give me. I’m running down the hallway and shove his bedroom door open. It’s empty but his bathroom door is open. I enter to find him fresh out of the shower, jeans low on his hips. A towel in his hand drying off his hair.
“Is it true?” I ask, swallowing the knot in my throat, afraid of his answer. My mind telling me to shut the fuck up, turn around, and leave. To save myself the heartache that I already know is coming.
He lifts his head, those blue eyes harder than ever. The Sin I fell in love with. Would do anything for. Would let him do anything to me. The fact that I’ve got his name on my back proves just how far I’m willing to go to be his.
Ignoring me, he moves to stand in front of the mirror, giving me a side view. “I don’t have time for games,” is his monotone response.
Games? I grip his arm, yanking him to face me once again. “This isn’t a fucking game, Easton,” I snap. “Is it true?”
His jaw clenches and he looks away from me.
My breath catches. My hands lift to cover my mouth and I take a stumbling step back into the door, closing us in. “All of it?” I can’t help but ask. I need him to say it. He’s never been afraid to tell me the truth before, even if it hurt, so why is he avoiding answering me now? And why does it feel worse than if I knew he lied about it?
He turns to face me again, moving to stand in front of me. His eyes on mine. “Did you really think I loved you?”
Tears sting my eyes, and I feel like I just jumped off a high-rise, my stomach now in my throat.
“What did you think was going to happen, Ellington?” He uses my full name, making me whimper. Lifting his right hand, he takes a piece of hair between his fingers and twirls it around. “That I’d make you an honest woman? Have kids with you?” He snorts at that ridiculous idea.
The first tear falls down my cheek. He lets go of my hair to run his knuckles through it. “You’ve always been a whore, Elli. I’m a Lord. Will be a powerful one. And I’m going to make a woman a very respected Lady.” My stomach tightens. “You’re the kind of woman we fuck on the side. Not the one we come home to.”
I can’t breathe. Can’t move. My vision is fading in and out, and I think I’m about to lose consciousness. I never wanted to be a Lady, but for Sin? I’d be anything he wants me to be. And if I had to marry a Lord, I want it to be him. “I don’t believe you,” I say, shaking my head, refusing to process his words.
His blue eyes search mine and I take in a shaky breath. “You said you loved me,” I manage to get out.
He smiles, a sinister one that makes his eyes light up. “Those were just words, Elli. You’re the stupid girl who believed them.”
“You…” I take a second to swallow the knot in my throat. “You said that I belonged to you.”
His perfect lips that made me weak in the knees yesterday make the hairs on the back of my neck stand when they curve into a smile. “You’re right. I did say you belong to me, but I never said I belonged to you.”
“Sin?”
I stiffen as a female calls his name from inside his room as if God himself is laughing in my face for believing every word Sin ever said to me.
“One minute,” he answers, his voice louder to carry through the closed door we’re leaning up against, making me jump.
“We’re going to be late, babe. The caterer was able to work us in. I don’t want them to cancel on us,” she goes on.
Caterer? For what? Their wedding? He’s really marrying her? The girl he said he wasn’t cheating on me with? Was it cheating? Were we ever really together? My mother was right, I know the rules the Lords have but I stupidly believed that I was special. That he would pick me over her. Why? Because I was a fool for him?
She’s supposed to be his chosen. A chosen and a Lady are two very different things. And a Lord doesn’t always marry his chosen. So why her?
It’s soul-crushing to think I would ever get what I want. I never have before. Sin is no different.
I can’t help the sob that bubbles up and he slaps his hand over my mouth, pushing the back of my head to the door. Leaning in, he presses his hard body into mine, his face dropping to whisper in my ear, “You were always meant to be to someone’s secret, Elli. You’re a good fuck, I can’t deny that. But no one will ever love you. Not the real you.”
He shoves me to the side, grabs his shirt off the counter, and rips the door open, slamming it shut behind him, hiding me in his bathroom. “Let’s go,” I hear him say.
“What were you doing in there?” she asks him, obviously thinking something is up.
“Nothing,” he answers. Then I hear his bedroom door open and close as he leaves with his future bride.
_______________
“IN HERE,” KIRA states. “Put her in bed,” she tells Corbin who carries me.
After Sin left me in his bathroom, I fell to my knees. Crying so hard that I crawled to the toilet and got sick. Kira found me and had Corbin drive my car home while she drove me.
I curl up into a ball, no longer crying. My mind has gone numb, I wish my body would too. The tattoo burns more than the brand ever did. I can feel it throbbing, a reminder that I was so fucking dumb to let him tie me up and have his way with me. He’s right, no man could ever love me.
“Hey.” She kneels beside the bed to get eye level with me.
“Did you know?” I whisper, finally speaking to her. There’s been nothing to say since she found me. She knew I would show up when she informed me Sin was there. And then I overheard Corbin tell her when they entered the bathroom that he had seen Sin and Amelia arguing while he rushed her out of the house. My car was parked right out front. A part of me hopes that Amelia saw it and put two and two together. But if she’s as dumb as me, she won’t even care. She’ll take him any way she can get him.
She sighs. “I found out this morning.”
I sniff. Why didn’t she tell me? Warn me? Did she not stop to think how I’d find out? She’s known that I’m sleeping with her brother. Not that I’m in love with him, but it was obvious that we were together and that I was distraught when I found out he was sleeping with Amelia when she found us in the bathroom. “How long have they known?”
“I don’t know.”
“Three weeks,” Corbin answers, leaning up against the doorframe.
“Babe,” she snaps at him.
“Three weeks?” I whisper, my throat closing up on me all over again.
“They were going to wait until next year after she graduates from Barrington,” he goes on. “But her mother decided to move it up.”
Her mother? Did she do it because of my mom? She told me this morning in my kitchen that they are friends. Did they plan this? “I tried calling him…”
“He’s blocked your number,” he adds matter-of-factly.
“Corbin,” she snaps at him.
“She deserves to know.” His cold eyes meet mine. “It’s over, Elli. It’ll be best for you to come to terms with that sooner rather than later.”
Kira jumps up and goes over, slamming the door in his face.
CHAPTER FORTY
SIN
“WHAT DO YOU think about this, baby?” Amelia calls out and I grind my teeth at the nickname. Elli hated it and so do I. It’s too sweet. Too generic.
Walking over to her, I look at the sample of plates they have out before us to taste. They all look like overpriced shit, if you ask me. But what do I know? “Doesn’t matter,” I say, pulling out my cell from my jeans pocket and walking away to get some privacy.
I pull up the camera footage just in time to see Corbin’s eyes look at me through the screen as if he knows I’m watching, then Kira slams the bedroom door in his face. My sister walks over to the bed and I watch Elli bury her face into the pillow. Kira rubs her back, but Elli pushes her away.
“Babe?” Amelia barks out. “What are you doing?” She’s in front of me the next second, trying to get a look at my phone.
I lock it, narrowing my eyes on her. Opening my mouth to speak, it rings in my hands. Tyson lights up the screen. “Hello?” I answer, stepping away once again to put some distance between us.
“It’s done. You have a meeting. Friday morning. Ten a.m.,” he answers in greeting, getting to the point. “Meet me at Blackout. I’ll drive.”