CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
THE FOLLOWING WEEK, still pumped from the show they’d just played, Maybe sighted Alexsei with a feral grin. Damn, he looked so good she wanted to take a bite.
She was totally going to do just that when she got him alone.
His response to that look was a slight quirk of the right side of his mouth. He knew exactly what she was thinking.
Thank God he liked to have sex with her as much as she did him. That worked out really nicely.
He approached, wending his way through the crowd at the tiny club hosting an art show one of Rachel’s friends was in. No one stopped him for long as pretty much all his very intense attention was on her.
Sometimes when he looked at her like that it seemed as though the echo of each beat of her heart rolled over her skin.
“You’re really fucking pretty, you know that?” she told him once he got to her, placing her palms on his chest.
He hauled her close and right there in the middle of the world he laid a kiss on her that set off every single pleasure chemical she had and then some.
All the sound in the club fell away as she squirmed to get closer to him. He tasted like cinnamon gum as he licked over her bottom lip and then into her mouth.
He claimed her, she realized dimly. And with no small amount of thrill. It was exciting to have a person like Alexsei turn on all the magic each and every time he saw her.
His fingertips dug into her hips to hold her in place but she knew he also just loved to touch her bare skin. Knew too that he got off on how sweaty and jazzed she was after she played music.
He sucked her bottom lip before finally letting go and easing back slightly. She swayed, keeping her hold on his belt loop.
“Very nice to see you, Lyosha.” Her voice had gone husky and she liked the way it made her sound.
At the use of the name he went back for another kiss before speaking again.
“You are amazing.”
He said it seriously, flattering her enough to make her blush.
“Thanks. I’m glad you’re here. I was hoping you’d be able to make it.”
He’d had some family stuff, some third cousin or whatnot had some sort of religious celebration.
“I left straight from there. I didn’t arrive until you’d gotten into the first song.”
She loved that he’d come to see her play. Even though it had been a three-song set they’d done for a friend and less than a hundred bucks each. He’d been there because it’d been important to her. As Rachel had.
“I’m starved and I need to shower. Why don’t we go back to my house, where I can shower and we can get some late dinner?”
“All right. Did you drive or do you need a ride?”
“My drums are here, loaded into Cora’s van. As long as I’m around to help unload whenever she gets back to my house, I can ride with you. She’s in art world mode now so she’ll be here for a long while.”
With the exception of one sibling who was a therapist—she’d been Rachel’s back in Maryland—Cora’s whole freaking family was artistic. One sister was a tattoo artist, her mother was a well-known composer, a brother who was a dancer, and their oldest brother ran the family art and media empire along with their father, who designed gardens.
Alexsei held a hand out, tangling his fingers with hers, tugging her through the place to where Rachel stood with Cora and several others.
She said her goodbyes, Rachel would ride with them, not wanting to hang out until two in the morning.
It was all going gangbusters until her father called.
* * *
HE’D ALREADY PULLED UP in front of the house when her phone sounded with her father’s tone.
She cast a look to Rachel. It was already nearly eleven at night and she worried there was an emergency. Which is why she went against her better judgment and picked up.
“Is everything all right?” she said by way of answering.
Instead of getting out of the car and going in, her sister and Alexsei remained inside, so with a sigh, Maybe heaved herself out and headed to the front door.
“Maybe, wait up!” Rachel called out as she and Alexsei got out and followed.
“It’s been over a month since Thanksgiving. Have I passed your test and can I speak now?” her father asked.
His tone had a little twist in it. One that never failed to push buttons he’d given her a long time ago. She didn’t want her sister seeing and she really didn’t want Alexsei seeing, but both of them wouldn’t let her get more than a foot away so she finally gave up.
“Is there a reason for this call? It’s so late I figured something was wrong.” She kept her voice even, slightly bored. If he saw that he’d affected her, it would only get worse.
“I left a message for you and you haven’t called. I figured I’d have to catch you off guard to get your attention.”
“I never got any message from you. I check my voice mail multiple times a day, there’s nothing from you,” Maybe said.
“No. I told your aunt. Did she not tell you we spoke? When you took Rachel over there, hundreds of miles from us for Christmas?”
“Robbie told me you’d called her, yes. But that’s not leaving me a message. What is it you wanted to tell me?”
“Your mother and I are going to see an attorney.”
Fear, cold and dark, grasped her belly at the way he’d turned mean. Calculating. Alexsei had been right the week before when he’d said her father had been using the threat of an attorney to scare and control her.
“Okay. And why are you telling me?”
* * *
SCARED OR NOT, she was never going to bend for him. He wasn’t going to break her down, not that he could see.
“If you do the right thing for your sister and stop being so stubborn, you can avoid all this potential damage.”
“Potential damage?” Maybe looked to her boots, not wanting anyone to see her face right then.
But Alexsei on one side and Rachel on the other prevented her from speaking quietly enough they couldn’t hear. And, she had to admit, it was time for Rachel to see at least a little more of the big picture.
“You’re unfit to be her guardian. Unstable. Prone to fits of depression and self-destructive behavior. Suddenly you’re interested in Rachel when she’s got money coming her way. Surely you don’t want anyone to point that out to her.”
“Would you like to speak to her about that right now?” Maybe asked, regretting the words the moment she’d said them. She should be protecting her sister from this shit, not dragging her into the middle of it.
“Where are you that she’s there?” His words had gone softer, losing that overt edge, but it was still there. Just under the surface.
“That’s not your business. Is there anything else you needed to tell me other than your appointment? I’m busy just now. So if it’s all the same to you, I’d like to hang up. If I wanted to be abused, I’d choose a better class of people to abuse me.”
“You just think about what I said. I’d hate to cause you any more trouble. But I will if you keep getting between us and your sister.”
He hung up and she rested her head on the wall a moment.
“What all did he say?” Rachel demanded. “And for goodness’ sake, look at me.”
“Back off,” Alexsei told Rachel.
Sighing, not wanting some weirdness between her sister and boyfriend, Maybe turned and moved toward the living room. “He was his usual self. It’s nothing you can fix so don’t worry about it.”
“Back off? She’s my sister. She’s clearly upset. I don’t need to back off, but you do,” Rachel told Alexsei.
“She’s this way because your parents abuse her to get to you!”
“Shut up!” Maybe held her hands up, so utterly pissed off and tired. She pointed at Alexsei. “You, don’t talk to my sister that way.” Then to Rachel. “You, he’s fine and doesn’t need to back off. The both of you need to order a pizza because I’m going to take a shower and get the sweat and nightclub off my skin.”
Maybe turned on her heel to leave the room.
* * *
IN THE BACKGROUND, Alexsei heard the groan of the hot water rushing through the pipes to her shower. He stared at Rachel, all the things he’d been wanting to say coming to the tip of his tongue. But he stood in Maybe’s kitchen after her father had just said a bunch of stuff designed to shake her. The last thing she needed was anyone else messing with her and making her feel bad.
He sucked in a slow breath and let it out.
“I’ll order the pizza. You go to her. She’ll need some attention just now,” Rachel said.
“She needs a little space,” he countered.
Rachel rolled her eyes. “Are you always this way?”
“What way is that?”
“Contrary. I say up you say down automatically?”
“I’m not being contrary. Not right now. I’ve been trying to draw her out to talk about her childhood and to give me some backstory on your father, but it’s slow going. If I rush in there I’ll embarrass her and then she’ll get defensive.”
Rachel picked up the phone, ordered the food and then turned back his way.
“You’re good at reading her. I should have asked instead of demanded,” Rachel told him.
“This is a new relationship balance for the both of you, right?” he asked. “You’re the older sister but she’s protecting you. Bound to throw you both off.”
Rachel eyed him carefully before going on. “The nurses told me Maybe showed up at the hospital a few hours after I’d been taken in. She was such a pain in the butt she wore them all down until they stopped making her leave. When I came out of the coma hers was the first face I saw. She squeezed my hand and told me that since I was back I needed to get the hell out of bed and get stuff done because I’d been lollygagging too long. I guess the struggle over me and my recovery had started pretty shortly after our parents arrived. They bullied her. So did Brad, my ex. But she never let go. She made sure I got into the best physical rehab center I could. She took a job nearby, cutting hair to pay for a room she’d rented near the rehab facility. Every single day since I woke up from my coma it’s been Maybe who has been there.
“But it’s different, yes. Growing up, I protected her. Or I tried my best and now I’m realizing it wasn’t enough. But that’s for another time. I’m not used to needing help. I’m the strong one. Or I was.”
“She admires you. Craves your respect. Surely you see that,” he said.
Rachel’s expression was one of affection. “I’m lucky to have her. And you were right to demand I protect her from them.”
“How can they know her so little? What happened to make them this way to her and not you?”
Rachel sighed, clearly searching for words before she continued. “I wish I knew. I’ve asked myself that over and over. There’s been a difference pretty much as long as I can remember. I’ve tried to talk to them about it. They claim there’s nothing wrong. It turns into a fight and I’ve been too selfish to want to give them any energy on that. It’s my fault, I know. I was so willfully ignorant not to see it had gotten as bad as it is now.”
Jesus, these two smart women took on so much responsibility for things they had nothing to do with. “Stop letting them do this to you through her and her through you. They keep you exhausted. It has to end for everyone’s sake.”
“If you’re done talking about me, I’m coming back into the room,” Maybe called out as she padded down the hall, face bare of makeup, hair still wet from her shower.
Before she could ask where the food was, the doorbell rang and he jogged off to handle it, glad to have had the chance to clear the air with Rachel.