Bloodline [h.s.]

forty-six.*

Her silk robe, silk legs, and swallowed panic all on the floor with our knees pressed against each other. Bee told her staff we needed the room before she lead me to the second floor of her closet, locking the door to make sure we were in private.

"You're two hours early," She muttered, not looking at me. Makeup had yet to reached her face, touched only by the after storm debris from her mother and the soft glow of morning. A worried crease in her eyebrows disrupted the smoothness of her skin, "and you are going to crinkle your suit the longer we sit here."

"I don't give a fuck. Say something." A breath of impatience blew passed my teeth. The concept of a mistake or letting someone down was never acceptable to Bridget's parents. I had yet to witness the damage their expectations had done to her, the cracks and breaks in her certainty. Her inability to forgive herself or accept a mistake.

"I'm sorry. Aiden, I shouldn't have even—" She didn't sound like herself, and she hadn't since she told me about that fucking photograph. She moved to her knees and back down to the ground when was no longer comfortable, unable to stay in one position for longer than a moment. Everything came out erratic and panicked and straight into the palm of her trembling hands.

"Hey, pretty," I said as I nudged her wrists away from her face and kissed her cheek, "slow down a minute."

I hooked my hands under her thighs positioning us between each other's legs. My thumb circled the rounded edge of her meniscus, thawing her agitation as if it was a thick block of ice.

"What did my sister say to you?" She asked.

"She said you weren't feeling well and she wanted me here because she thought I could help. When I reminded her I was already coming over, she insisted I get here earlier. It wasn't hard to guess what happened. You told your mum you knew about the affair, didn't you?"

I would have preferred Diane didn't know, but it was didn't exactly upend anything. "Only that the condition couldn't have come from either of my parents. I'm sorry. I don't know why... I saw Megan and..."

"You saw the resemblance to Kai and lost it." She nodded.  I ran my hands up her ups to the knots in her shoulders, gently working my hands deep in her muscles to ease her. "You didn't tell her you know it's Kai, right? Only that Alec isn't Bella and Meg's dad?"

"Right." She said, fidgeting with her sleeves.

"And you're okay?" She nodded. "Then, everything is fine."

"How can you say it's fine?" She asked, suspicious of my ease. The tension melted under the duress of my hands until it dissolved into a barely audible hum. "I did everything you told me not to do."

My lips filled the depressions between her knuckles and traveled up to the middle of her collarbone. I bit back a smirk as she held her breath. Every follicle on her skin erected under my lips as they latched onto her neck.

"I have prepared for this for years, and even I fuck up. You're human. Lying to your family shouldn't come easy to you. You were never meant for this." I hummed, focusing more on her breasts. Though, whatever the fuck she had on under her robe made it near impossible to get a good grip.

She took the opportunity to ghost my ear between her teeth, her first move in this perilous match of roulette. Keeping a steady grip on on her waist, I angled her centre closer mine. "So you aren't angry, then?"

The pressure of one of my hands matched her silk robe along teasing along her thighs.  The other took control of her throat in the spot that drew out a moan. Her gasping breath in my ear replaced her lips. "I won't be if you tell me the full story."