Twist (Siren Publishing Allure) (25 page)

“Cool. Did you hear anything else about Ant or the house?”

“I talked to my insurance guy. The company is going to cover the furniture, but the rest wasn’t covered. I called the police to ask about Ant, but they say that he has an alibi and there is no proof that he was connected to the robbery. I tried to call him and he hung up on me. I’ll deal with him in my own time.” Lana was surprised to hear him make such a menacing comment.

“I’m sorry to hear that the police didn’t find anything. Can I go pee please?”

Lee nodded and walked from the bathroom, leaving the door open. Lana tugged her leggings off, examining her knee again and groaning. It was mildly swollen and dark with discoloration. She sat down on the toilet and wasn’t even done urinating when Rolf came in. He knelt down, lifting her leg and gently prodding it. Lana winced and slapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t poke it. It hurts.”

“I noticed. I’m trying to establish if I should drag you in for an X-ray.”

“It is just bruised. If the two of you would let me walk, it wouldn’t be so stiff.”

He glared at her. “Stay off it tonight. Please? Humor us.”

Lee poked his head into the bathroom. “I think everything is pretty much cleaned up. I’m gonna head home. The crew will be here around eleven to take away the tables and chairs. I’ll pop over in the morning.”

Lana grunted and wiped herself. “You couldn’t have waited until I came out of the bathroom?” she asked as she leaned over to wash her hands in the sink.

Lee chuckled. “No. I’m going home. You are Rolf’s problem. Good night.”

Rolf pulled her to her feet and then hoisted her over his shoulder, slapping her bare ass as he carried her into the back bedroom. He flipped her onto the bed and fell on top of her, taking care not to hit her knee. “Hi. Still mad at me for being an asshole?”

“No. I was just feeling a bit needy and I was clinging to you. Sorry. Still mad at me for being a hot-tempered bitch?”

“No. I’ve been thinking about our conversation all night. I was still freaking over Jessica showing up. Her untimely presence made me question myself. When you asked me about our future, I was in the middle of a slight crisis where I was seriously wondering if I wanted to jump back into another long-term relationship. They haven’t exactly been my strong point over the years. All I know is that I love you. I feel more of every emotion when I am with you. The idea of losing you scares the shit out of me. I can’t promise happily ever after, but I would like to try.”

“Same here.”

A mischievous smile flashed across his lips. “Want to fuck?”

Lana instantly heard Enar’s words in her mind as he reprimanded her for not giving herself to Rolf. She was ready and really needed the oblivion that she knew Rolf could give her. “I would love to.”

He pushed himself upward, snatching her underwear from her ankles and tearing them off. Lana sat up and tugged his shirt from his body, unzipping his pants and sliding them downward. He unbuttoned the top two buttons of her shirt and then gave up, tugging it over her head. Lana spun, dropping back onto the pillow, frowning as he strode from the room. He returned with a bag, tossing it at her. Lana opened it and smiled. “He told you?”

“Told me what?”

“That we could never find these.”

“No. I ran over to the porn store while Lee was at the doctor’s office. I saw the sets of body paints and bought one of each, along with the different samples of heating gel. I didn’t know what flavor you might like.”

He draped a wet washcloth over the footboard of the bed as Lana replied, “I don’t know. Enar and I usually played with food.”

He lay beside her, shifting the body paints to the side as he leaned over and gently kissed her. His tongue outlined her lips, his eyes locked with hers. Her expression was enthralling and filled with lust. “Your eyes are so expressive. I swear I can read your mind by gazing into them.”

She smiled and stroked his cheek. His eyes were slightly darker than Enar’s, the orbs closer to emerald than lime. He needed a shave, his cheeks slightly stubbly. Rolf put his hand over hers, leaning into her touch. “Are you okay with this?”

“I want this. How about you?”

“Today was sweet, and we said good-bye with spoken words and the tears we cried. Now time moves on, as it should be. What the future holds, we have yet to see. As I gaze now into your eyes, I know that I want to reach for the skies. I want all things that can make us one, because in my heart, you are the sun.”

Tears welled in her eyes as she gazed at him. “That was beautiful. Who wrote it?”

“I did, just now as I stared at you. You are not the only one who can write a poem.”

“I’m honored. My turn. We shed the past, we let it go. Memories fade like winter’s snow. For in the present, we must survive. Revel in things that keep us alive. As I gaze now into your eyes, I know that I want to reach for the skies. I hope that we will have future days, because I want you in all possible ways.”

Rolf tilted his head in agreement and smiled. “That’s an interesting way to answer my question. My mind is filled with the future’s promise. Not to say that I love you would be remiss. As you lie naked in my bed, our broken pasts are but memories, after tears we’ve shed. We welcome now the light of dawn, sweet new life like a wobbly fawn. Together we will make our way. But for the moment, I want to say. Fuck the spoken word, my love, I want to make you scream to the heavens above.”

Lana began to laugh, the impish look in his eyes accented as he wiggled his eyebrows. “Sweet-spoken lust makes my pussy ache. So shut up, babe, and let’s partake.”

Rolf chuckled and grabbed the box of body paints, opening the flap. Choosing a tube of red, he twisted the cap off the top of the oblong paint holder to reveal the brush. Rolf had to squeeze it as he prodded her with the soft bristles to get the color down into the fibers. Lana squirmed. “I don’t believe they took a kid’s craft tool and turned it into a sex toy. My grandchildren painted me pictures with these.”

“I plan to paint you pictures, too, and then lick them off. Did I ever mention that I can be a horrific tease?”

She was unable to reply as he ran the brush over her lips before leaning and licking them. The enthralling kiss that followed was tainted by the taste of sweet cherry. He leaned back, grinning with pink teeth as he encircled her breast, each rotation getting slightly tighter until he swished the bristles over her nipple and then put the cap back on. He began with the other breast, making interlocking squares with the green. Lana was watching the playful expression on his face. His smile was thoughtful as he looked at her skin, an artist considering his next creation. He was honestly enjoying the game he was playing, a sly smile appearing and then fading as he removed the cap from the blue and drew intricate hearts down the center of her ribs, filling them in with solid color. Rolf glanced up at her as he picked up the orange. “Feel good?”

“It feels amazing. It is nice to see this playful side of you. I like it.”

“I’m glad you approve. Even assholes can be sweet.”

Lana laughed, the emotion feeling good against the tears of the day. He shifted, leaning and running his palm down her cheek. “You really are beautiful. When you laugh, it lights up your entire face like a Christmas tree. I have always had a thing for Christmas. It was always one day of the year that no matter how much of a shit I had been…” He hesitated. “I don’t know, I felt special, I felt loved. I felt like an equal to my brothers because we all got the same amount of gifts and we would play together at the base of the tree. Then we would get up and a have a big breakfast. Enar would be in his wheelchair, but it didn’t matter. I guess it was the excitement of the day.” His mouth found hers, gentle as the tip of his tongue floated over her lips. His hand slid to the back of her hair and he pulled her closer, capturing her with his mouth, leisurely claiming her and pushing the ghosts from her mind as he kissed her.

Releasing her, he wiggled his eyebrows and shifted to return to his painting. Lana gave him a smile, her thoughts drifting to the tidbits of information she had gathered about Rolf. His life had been much different than Enar’s, but in many ways he had suffered equally. A question flashed in her mind, and she knew that it was a bad time to ask, but she had to know. “Rolf, you don’t have any serious illnesses that you are hiding from me, do you?”

His smile faded, his brow creasing as he stopped in mid-stroke to stare at her. Setting down the paint, he reached over and stroked her cheek. “Oh, Lana. No. I had a physical when Enar started to get really sick. I’m fine. The doc said I was in great shape for my age. Are you suddenly fearing that I’m gonna die on you?”

“The thought crossed my mind.”

“If you had known that Enar was going to die so soon, would you have married him?”

Lana nodded, trying to stifle another onslaught of tears. “Yes, I would have. I think I fell in love with him that first night. We went for dinner and to see a 3-D movie.” She shrugged, dropping her head back dramatically to the pillow. “I am in a prickly bush with this one. I didn’t want Enar to die, but now that he has…” The sentence ended as she struggled for the right words to continue. She adored Rolf and didn’t want to hurt his feelings.

Tilting his head, he raised his eyebrows, glaring at her. “What?”

“I don’t know how to say this.” She dropped her gaze. “If Enar hadn’t died, then I wouldn’t be here with you.”

Rolf surprised her by laughing. “Is that what you are stressed about? Do you honestly believe that?”

“Yes, and I don’t see why that’s funny. I feel guilty as hell because…Shit! I didn’t want him to die! But I wanted to be with you also.”

“The only reason that I kept my distance was because Enar was dying. Enar and I discussed this. If he hadn’t been dying, you would have had us both. Under normal circumstances we would have shared you. He hesitated because he knew that he wouldn’t be around all that long. I honored that because I figured he needed to be alone with you. Not including the fact that neither of us was completely convinced that you wanted that kind of relationship. We didn’t want you to feel pressured.”

The word “pressured” almost made her laugh. Enar and Rolf were most persistent and insistent men she had ever known. Yet Lana was touched that the two brothers had been so eager to protect her. It was sweet that Rolf had purposely not made a pass at her because he wanted to give her time alone with Enar.

Her eyes blurred with tears. “Really?”

“Yes, really. I keep thinking that maybe we were wrong. It would have been easier for you if I had stayed. You wouldn’t have been so alone. I would have been able to spend more time with him and you would have had help.”

“You’re right, but it would have also presented its own set of problems. What would I have done, sneak away from him while he was napping to be alone with you? I can’t even count how many times he stopped breathing while he was sleeping. If I hadn’t been there, he could have died much sooner. I also didn’t want him to wake up alone. If you had been here in that way, I would have been emotionally fucked. I wanted to have sex with you, and to go from having fantastic sex with Enar two or three times a day to having none at all was miserable. I would have been torn between the two of you like a piece of tissue paper. Not including the fact that you would have butted heads with him about going to the hospital if you had been here twenty-four seven. I would have hesitated to show you affection because I wouldn’t have wanted to hurt Enar. I would have ended up hurting you instead.”

Rolf pushed back a strand of her hair, running his finger down her cheek. “I’m not that fragile. I love you. Stop worrying about hurting my feelings and talk to me. Okay?”

“Okay.”

He grinned, the expression filled with curiosity. “So would you have gone for it?”

Lana felt heat rising into her cheeks and knew that her face was a brilliant shade of scarlet. Rolf opened his mouth dramatically, and then chuckled. “You would have!”

“Under different circumstances, probably.”

“I guess we both underestimated you. You are also right. It would have created problems. Things were better as they turned out.” His face instantly darkened. “That sounded wrong.”

“What do you mean?”

“It sounded like I wanted him to die. I didn’t.”

Lana sat up, taking his face in her palms. “I know you didn’t. Enar often said that he was happy when Sue died. I knew what he meant. It wasn’t that he didn’t love her but that she was in so much pain, death was the best alternative. Enar was in pain, not the same kind of pain that Sue felt, but I know that for him to be trapped in the bed, as he had been as a child, was the worst kind of emotional pain. When others were around, he put on a good front. When he was alone with me, I would see how tortured he was. He was weary of life. He was frustrated because his body was betraying him. To go from being a dominant force in life to an invalid broke his spirit, and no matter how much I did for him or tried to make him happy, in the end, it was no longer enough. It was time for him to die because he didn’t want to live like that. I honestly think that he simply gave up and he expected us to deal with it and let him go.”

Leaning his forehead into hers, Rolf sighed. “Låt mig gå.”

“Yeah. That’s what he wanted.”

Rolf leaned back, wiping a bit of red paint from her cheek. “How did we get into this discussion in the middle of me painting you? The idea was to turn you on, not renew your grief.”

“I have no clue. But Enar
is
gone. We felt him leave.” Lana reached over and handed him the orange paint. “Show me how much you love me. Make me forget everything but you.”

“You never cease to amaze me.” Taking the paint, he smiled and pushed her back to the bed, the playful sparkle returning to his formerly serious eyes. He considered her for a moment and then dotted each nipple with orange, swishing the brush gently over her hardening pink flesh and smiling as she moaned in reaction.

Lana watched him, the small smile on his face, the somewhat leering set of his beautiful emerald eyes capturing her as he drew slow, lazy squiggles down her side. He swirled them up to the bottom of the lowest blue heart and then leaned over, not touching her body with his own as he continued the design up to her opposite breast. The sensation the brush created was odd, leaving her skin tingling and slightly itchy. Lana wiggled against the drying paint on her nipples, and he chuckled, the sound slightly dark and very sexual.