KING (Mistress & Master of Restraint) (25 page)

“Wow!” Marcus sounds impressed. “A competition
to see who is the best employee… I like it. I guess Niel’s easy ride has come to an end.”

Speaking of
Niel, I thought he’d be angry. But he’s staring at me with a calculating glint in his eye and a smirk on his face. Niel’s either plotting a way to get Whitney out of his way or he understands the gravity of what I’m suggesting. Either way, he’s not saying anything, and a quiet Niel, is a scheming Niel.

“I… I don’t know what to say…” Whitney stammers in her feminine voice. “I… thank you! Thank you, Whitt. I didn’t think you’d n
oticed me.” She quickly hugs me with trembling slender arms.

“You may look like your mom, but you have Ade’s drive. You deserve this opportunity. Don’t make me regret it,” I warn but there’s no bite in my tone.

“Excuse me,” Ava’s tinkling voice interrupts. “I’m not feeling well all of the sudden.” The towheaded girl regally stands and walks out of the room with her head held high- a younger version of her grandmother- Diane.

“Ava
doesn’t want to work?” I ask Cort and Marc.

I’m surprised at
who offers the answer. “No, Ava’s fine with working. What she hates is anyone making decisions for Niel… anyone that isn’t her. But what she hates the most is that you ensured Niel would spend six hours a day with me without her interfering.” Whitney stares at her cousin and he nods back in agreement.

“Excuse me as well. It seems my s
tomach has decided to ache,” Whitney deadpans. “Thanks, Whitt. I mean it. I won’t let you down. Thanks!”

The second Whitney i
s out the door Niel jumps up and tosses his half-eaten slice of pizza in the nearest box. “I better go too,” Niel absently says, dusting his hands on his pants. His thoughts are already trying to figure out a quick fix.

“Which one you running after?”
Ella asks her brother.

“Both. One will be waiting and the other will be searching. I have to find them before they find each other.”

“You better hurry,” Prissy’s voice warbles in fear. “Remember last time?”

“Yeah, I do,” Niel
mutters as he leaves the room.

“Well, this has been fun,” Cort drawls. “But it’s time for these guys to get to bed. Plus
, I’ll have to get my wife to talk our daughter down. None of you have had the pleasure of Ava’s epic shit-fits. Not looking forward to this evening.” Cort picks up the twins, settling one on each hip.

“Anything like Ezra?”
Marcus asks. His curiosity is only minutely stronger than his fear.

“Exactly like that, but with more destruction.
Many apologies in advance, Pretty Boy. I hope you’re not too attached to your furnishings.” Cort leaves, carrying the twins, and like the Pied Piper of children, Spyder, Priss, and Ella follow.

“And here I thought I was doing a good thing,” I mumble, searching the pizza boxes for an untouched slice.

“I love each and every one of you as if you were my own children. But I learned a long time ago, that you have to work this out yourselves. I’m just going to sit back and watch this play out. I just learned another lesson a few days ago… I thought I was the master of our universe… come to find out, I don’t know shit,” Marcus spits without venom. If anything, he sounds numb. 

“Marc-”

“Don’t bother, I know what you’re going to say and I appreciate it. I will figure this out, but until then- this,” he waves a hand, gesturing around the family room. “Doesn’t mean shit to me. It’s just petty tween angst. Ava will stop being a controlling lunatic or she won’t. Niel will grow a backbone where it concerns her, or he won’t. Cort will stop… confusing us… or he won’t. Regina will stop pulling you back in and pushing you away, or she won’t. Frankly, I could give a shit less. We have bigger demons to slay.”

“You’re right and I’m trying to help.”

“You keep doing what you’re doing, Daniel. It
will
make a difference in the long run. We need a solid foundation right now and you’re providing it. It… it just sucks that I’ve wasted all these years for nothing. I wasn’t right. I was looking at this all wrong. It’s so… it’s so humbling.”

“I’m sorry?” It comes out as a question because I don’t know how else to respond to him. Marc has always been the one we go to for help, safety, comfort, and support. Now he’s the one
whose confidence has taken a fatal blow.

“Don’t worry that pretty blond head of yours, Danie
l. I’m fine. I promise. Now,” Marc sighs and stands up. “I’m going to go curl around your future-ex-wife, and then I’m going to make love to my future wife until I can’t think and I pass out in a pleasure coma. Have a good night, Daniel.”

“G’night, Marc,” I mutter as he walks towards the door.

“Son?”

“Yeah?”

“Great work tonight,” Marc
praises. “Tonight you finally became a man, and I’m very proud that I’ve witnessed you grow from a small boy into that strong, compassionate man that you were destined to become. What you did to keep Ava out of Niel’s bed was flawless. How you saw that Whitney needed reassurance and that she was capable will forever change the rest of her life. You’re a great leader.”

“Are you alright, Marcus?”

“I will be… once I figure this out. I’ll feel better if I could just get a thread to grasp.”

“Meet me in the study at nine a.m. I think I have a thread for you, and if you pull it, another thread will unravel from their tapestry of schemes. Go lose yourself inside Regina.”

~Chapter Twenty-Two~

The deafening silence of a dark bedroom, with only the sound of your breath and the steady beat of your heart as your companions, is a torturous agony this side of hell.

Inhale… da dum... exhale… da dum…inhale… da dum… exhale…
die of misery and loneliness…da dum… inhale… still alive… shit!

I’m going insane, but at least I know I’m healthy by the sound of my body functions.

The silence on the outside is torturous, but the screeching mental-byplay is debilitating. I live in a castle filled with all those I love, save one… and yet, I am dying of loneliness.

Click

The sound doesn’t even startle me. On some level I was waiting for it, or maybe hoping for it. I shouldn’t be happy to have a mentally-off night stalker in my room, but I’m glad for the company. This is why people have a pet, I bet.

This castle is getting a dog!

“Hey,” I breathe to the silhouette that is haloed by the light filtering in from the hallway. Ezra looks menacing as he stands in the shadows.

“Can’t sleep?” He walks in and shuts the door, assuming our conversation was
an invitation.

“Nope.”

“Lonely?

“Yep.”

“
Not anymore,” Ezra wryly purrs.

“Now
, I am not,” I agree. I’d agree to anything at this point. Just keep me company, please.

“
Shove over,” he demands. And I do.

“I’
m not clothed,” I feign modesty.

“My lucky night
… And look at that,” Ezra gasps. The sound of fabric sliding on skin awakens every nerve in my body. “Now I’m not either.”

“My lucky night,” I growl.

After all the
flirting, Ezra just settles next to me on the bed, lying on the pillow meant for a bedmate. I’ve never had a bedmate. Regina’s the only one who has been in here and sat on my bed. She was the only one who’d let me touch them on this bed. Niel doesn’t count as a bedmate. He was a sleepover bud to fight the loneliness and nightmares. Now Niel’s old enough to have his own bedmate, and I still don’t have one. Life is a cruel mistress.

“
You need an air purifier.” Ezra’s smoky voice pulls me out of my self-condemning thoughts.

“Dusty?”

“Nah, it works wonders for the silence.” Ezra shifts on the bed, lying on his side. I can’t see him because I’m staring at the dark ceiling, but I feel his eyes watching the side of my face. I can practically feel Ezra’s gaze caressing me as he reads the emotions from my expression. I’d look back at him, but my feelings are confusing me. Shouldn’t this be Dalton next to me- flirting with me and spending time with me when I so badly need a companion? But it’s Ezra… and right now I’m fine with that, because it’s less pressure.

“How’d you know it was bugging me?”
I give in and stare back at him. “The silence.”

“Psychic.”
Ezra playfully taps the tip of my nose with a fingertip.

“Do
n’t you mean psychotic?” I tease with a grin. His answering smile glows white in the shadowy dark.

“Haha… no… I just know what it feels like to be lonely. An air purifier will be your best friend. It covers the silence and wraps you up in its uninterrupted hum. Wo
rks wonders for the spooky sort- like Cort. He’d be up all night listening for the boogie man without it. Now, he’ll just sleep through an invasion. Also works to cover up Katya’s snoring… and farts.”

“Farts?
” I snort, shocked because I’ve never heard Ezra talk so… uncouth. He’s not a body function kind of jokester. That’s Cort’s area of expertise. “As in Katya’s farts? What?”

“Farts in general
,” Ezra admits with a snicker. “If I didn’t have an air purifier, I’d have to listen to the gross honk and smell the stinky smell. Now the purifier covers the sound and filters out the raunchy stench. It’s a win-win.”

“Oh my God!
” I yelp, hands pressed into my belly, fighting the stitch in my side from laughing. I’m picturing the three of them in bed with gasmasks on, farting. “Stop. I’m gonna piss the bed.”

“That was the point.”
Ezra laughs with me. “I wanted you to laugh.” His voice drops deep and I can sense his eyes on my lips.

“Point taken.
” Bursts of giggle-like sounds flow from my chest. Giggle-like, because real men don’t giggle. “It worked… Were you lying about the farts?”

“Would I lie about something as serious as
flatulence?” Ezra sounds so grim that if I wasn’t staring at his face, I wouldn’t know he was teasing.

“Um…
yes… you lie like you breathe oxygen.”

“I’m
a truth teller… tonight.” He smirks at me.

“How’s the night stalking?”

“Do you really want to know?” Ezra’s smooth voice is an intimate stroke in the shadowy dark of my bedroom. The only illumination is from the moonlight cast through my open window.

“I’d rather he
ar that than think my oppressive thoughts.” I give acknowledgement to the emotions I’ve been trying to ignore.

“Fair enough,” he concedes.
“Want boring or interesting first?”

“Boring.”

“Then we’ll have to start with Daniel and Diane watching
Fox News
and eating chocolate cake. That was boring, alright. Boring into my skull and making my brain bleed.”

“There’s a special kind of hell
reserved for folks that make their kids watch
Fox News
for several hours a day.” I shiver in remembrance. Grandfather would make Niel and me watch after dinner every night, when all we wanted to do was read or play video games. When the girls moved in, they had to join us. The political climate of our country is something that Grandfather takes very seriously and he thinks we all should embrace the knowledge. The nightmares of Armageddon, brought about by political and climate change, led Niel or the girls to my bed most nights. Now they go to each other for comfort, and Grandfather has a more suitable companion for his obsession- Diane.

“And Daniel will be the founding member
in that special kind of hell. I guess he did that to you,” Ezra softly murmurs.

Mov
ement flashes in my line of sight. “Ugh,” I pant when his fingers connect with my flesh. Ezra tentatively skims his fingertips along my chest and torso, eying me the entire time. I break out in gooseflesh and shiver.

“Every damn day for years,
” I groan, trying to remember what we were talking about before he touched me.

“Slumber parties are boring.
” Ezra changes topics of conversation so fast it’s dizzying. I should be used to this after twenty years. “My sister was talking down my daughter. Not going so well, that. Prissy and Ella were looking at a porn site,” he nonchalantly reveals.

“What?”
I gasp in outrage.

“No worries,
” Ezra calms me with his smoky voice and velvety touch- a touch that keeps heading south, but avoids the jutting flesh that’s begging for attention. “It was stories. They had Jamie’s numeral books on the bed and they were trying to figure out if he’d uploaded any of his work onto this site. It was more research than anything. I let them be… Neither has a boyfriend. But when they do… he’ll be a lucky bastard.” Ezra winks at me and I groan in annoyance.