The Other Sister (Sister Series, #1) (14 page)

Will was standing tall and formal at the end of the narrow aisle. It was a small church chosen by the general. Jessie told the general the date she and Will agreed upon and let the general plan it all. Why fight the impossible? After complying with her father’s wishes, she told Will what she wanted, and voila! Here they were.

Jessie’s breath caught as she peeked around the door toward the pulpit. Will was dressed in full regalia. It was a uniform she once hated, but now had her gasping in awe. His hair was brushed off his face under the brim of his
hat, which was creased to perfection. To Jessie, he looked absolutely perfect where he stood.

There were not many in attendance, only about hundred of the general’s most influential cohorts. There were a few family members, along with a discreet photographer, of course, who no doubt, would leak photos to the press within hours. Her sister walked up the aisle towards Will. He stared at her. His eyes appeared warm and kind, but his face remained stoic. Lindsey paused at the end of the aisle. Will gave her a look.
A something look.
Exactly what it meant, Jessie had no clue, but she knew it was something very real.

She had chosen to not have the general walk her down the aisle. A very telling indication of their relationship. And now
it was her turn. Will straightened up again, turning his gaze from one sister to the other. His expression didn’t change, or even register that he knew her. He saluted her father, and his eyes seemed to skim over her head. Her stomach quivered, and her legs trembled. She heard the music cueing her forward, but she couldn’t move.
She could not move
. Something was wrong with her. The blood rushed into her head and her temples.

She was aware of the crowd’s slight murmur and people looking at her, urging her to take a step forward. Instead, she stood there, rooted, the victim of an anxiety attack that incapacitated her. She couldn’t do it: marry Will, or humiliate herself and him. It was a cruel joke by her father, forcing her to
maintain the charade.

Then she felt an arm on hers. She looked up in bewilderment to find Will standing next to her. He took her arm and pulled her next to him, gently urging her forward. She met his gaze, and he met hers, but neither said anything. Will boldly walked her down the aisle
that she found so difficult to do. She saw her father’s face, and leaned closer to Will. Instinctively, her eternal fear of failing or upsetting the general returned.

Her hand was cold in Will’s white-gloved hand, and he must have felt the iciness of her palms through the soft cottony material. She never heard the priest’s words, but only nodded, and mumbled on cue. It was all gibberish to her.

Then Will turned towards her, and his mouth came down on hers. He was kissing her. She stood there frozen, wooden, and unfeeling. Her lips were as cold as her hands. His mouth overtook hers with softness, warmth, and fullness against her cold, thin orifice. His arms also came around her, as he pulled her to his chest, and kissed her for several seconds. He was making it look believable. It only took an instant before Will released her and they were legally married.

Will noticed the red drops on Jessie’s dress within seconds of her appearance. She stood at the back of the church, her strapless, white dress hugging her breasts before it cascaded to the floor in heavy layers of material. She looked lovely, breathtakingly so, almost virginal when she was standing at the altar. Will had a fleeting, strange reaction inside his gut when he saw how pretty she was, something he never noticed about her before. Then, he
spied the blood on the train behind her. Blood she sacrificed in order to marry him.

The sight of her blood made the icy anger that was growing in him over the last few days begin melting. It reminded him anew that the whole farce was
not
Jessie’s fault. She was a victim five times over him.

Jessie stood awkwardly frozen, despite hearing the start of the wedding march. Much further into the song, she still didn’t move. The crowd shuffled and murmured. The general’s face reddened as he looked back at his daughter, spurring Will forward. At his touch, she immediately responded, and began to walk by his side.

When they were standing before God and all the witnesses, saying he would take Jessie as his wife, he understood the inertia that kept her frozen in the aisle.
The whole thing was ridiculous
. They barely knew each other, and were only connected by shared tragedy and Jessie’s desperation.

Only now they were married. How could he ever disentangle himself from the needy vacuum that was no longer Jessie Bains, but Jessie Hendricks?

Jessie looked worse than miserable. They were in a small, nicely appointed room, eating a lovely, catered dinner. But she didn’t eat. Did she have an eating disorder now too? He had no idea, but it was entirely possible. The thought of it hardly daunted him, however. Lack of food wasn’t as bad as loss of blood.

Senator
Johnstone happened to pass by in deep discussion with General Bains. Will knew instantly what his first act as Jessie’s new husband would be: making sure she would never be victimized again.

He followed the senator and general to the hallway and waited them out. They were in a heated discussion over something. Will was beginning to suspect that whatever the general got involved with was dirty, powerful, and always to the general’s benefit. After realizing the kind of man the general was, one who would let his sixty-plus-year-old “friend” molest and rape his emotionally unstable daughter, nothing seemed out of character for General Bains.

The general eventually sought another grayed-haired, political powerhouse, leaving the senator alone. And vulnerable. Perfect for Will.

Will approached the vile man and when the senator saw him, his eyes frantically roamed the hallway, looking for an escape.

“Did you have permission to fuck the general’s sixteen-year-old daughter?”

The senator looked at Will, then towards the direction the general went. The senator’s eyes met Will’s, and they were beady and dark.

“What are you going to do about it? I didn’t have to worry about it before
, who were you? Now you’re the general’s son-in-law. Brilliant maneuver, soldier. Hats off to you in terms of strategy.”

Will closed his fist to keep from smashing it into the wrinkled, ugly face of the pervert before him. “Don’t come near her again. If I ever see you approach her, they won’t be able to find your body.”

“Threatening me? Risky move. Do you know who my friends are?”

“She has pictures, you sick fuck. I have them now. If you ever humiliate, upset, or even breathe near her again, I swear to you, those pictures will be the front page of every newspaper in America.”

“You wouldn’t do that to your own wife.”

Will stepped closer. “You mean the wife featured naked on several websites in America? Mark my words, I won’t hesitate.”

The senator smiled a nasty smile, and his long, yellowish teeth sickened Will. “I underestimated you. Your ambitions might rival mine. You’re in my sights now, Will Hendricks.”

“And you’re in mine, Senator
Johnstone. But Jessie is off limits. I’m not her father, I don’t whore her out.”

“Kind of late for that, young lad. She’s a whore through and through. I can attest to that. So can some of my friends. You want some names?”

Will raised his fist, but backed up. He only married Jessie to protect her. Nothing more. It didn’t matter to him what she did or did not do. He didn’t even like her. He didn’t feel the need to protect her honor, just her future.

“Stay away from my wife, Senator. Do yourself another favor and just stay out of my way.”

“You miscalculated, soldier.”

Will walked away, realizing the quagmire that his career had become since the first day he met General Bains was far from over. When he looked up, he found his new wife looking at him with horrified eyes.

When Will left, Jessie followed and came upon him talking to the senator. She listened to the entire conversation.

Will sighed when he spotted her and came closer. “Have you had enough?”

“Why did you do that? You don’t understand, he’s one of the most powerful men there is. Will, you can’t talk like that to him.”

“What? The perve senator? I can. I can talk to perverts anyway I want. Someday, I’ll explain to you why you have no obligation to sleep with men forty years your senior just because your father told you to. That’s what happened, isn’t it? Dear old Daddy told you to do it, didn’t he? Who else, Jessie? Who else did he pimp you to?”

She turned away from him. The bile in her gut churning, climbing up her throat.

“Jessie?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

She heard Will sigh. “It matters as much as everything.”

“I don’t have any pictures, by the way.”

“He doesn’t know that. All that matters is he
thinks
we do.”

We
. Even after what Will encountered, he said
we
. As in
they
. Not her all alone anymore, up against the most powerful movers and shakers of the country.

Will stepped up, tall, young, strong, and confident against the controlling men that formerly dominated Jessie’s life. He was everything she wasn’t. He took her arm. “Let’s get out of here.”

She nodded, numbly following Will. He knew more now, and for some reason, miraculously, didn’t like knowing what was done to her in the past. Now, however, instead of disliking or blaming
her
for it, Will wanted to protect her. She didn’t know exactly what to do or what to think. But she liked it, or at least, she planned to enjoy it until Will walked out and never came back to her. There was no other way for this to go. But for now, for a little, tiny while, she didn’t feel completely alone.

Jessie followed Will into their apartment. It was a silent, awful ride from the wedding. They said their obligatory goodbyes, and at last, they were alone. Will threw his keys onto the small kitchen counter as he turned and regarded her.

How was she supposed to do this? Should she be coy? And let him take the lead? Or did he prefer that she just take off her dress? After all, it wasn’t like he hadn’t seen her before and didn’t know the truth about her. There were no barriers between them.

She slipped off her coat, and set it near the front door. Then she walked toward Will where he stood rigidly still. She was lacking in most skills, and had little or no self-confidence, but she knew sex.

She didn’t even mind having it with Will. He was so nice to her.

The dress zipped on the side. She brought her hand up to the zipper, and slid it down, to loosen the front. She wore nothing beneath it, and heard Will’s gasp when he saw her. Then he cursed.

“For God’s sake! Leave your clothes on.”

She paused. He wasn’t looking at her, but glaring at the wall behind her. She turned and looked, but it was just a white wall.

“You don’t want to have sex?”

“No, I really don’t want to have sex with you.”

“But why? Why not? There’s no reason not to.”

He laughed bitterly. Then he outright laughed loudly as his hand came to the side of her dress where he gently re-zipped it. “We have every reason not to, starting with your hatred of sex. You always hate yourself after having it.”

“It’s okay, really. I can deal with it.”

He stared at her. “You believe that, don’t you? I meant it when I told you I wouldn’t sleep with you if someone held a gun to my head.”

She stepped back, crossing her arms over her chest as humiliation washed over her. She was at a complete loss of what to do.

“I’m on the list for a two-bedroom apartment. We should get it soon, and until then, I have no problem sleeping on the couch.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

He lifted her chin, so that her eyes could look into his. “You’re pregnant, and you’re taking the bed. Jesus, I’m a soldier, I think I can handle the couch for a few weeks. Quit treating yourself like you don’t deserve anything.”

She jerked her chin from his fingers, not sure what to think of that. She needed to escape him for awhile. He was too kind to her, and knew too much about her.

She passed him, and grabbed the bag she packed, before starting towards the bedroom. She stopped when he unexpectedly came towards her.

“Wait. Let me see that.”

“What?”

“Your bag,” he said, taking it from her and rifling through it.

“What are you doing? Stop it!”

He didn’t look up. “You know what I’m doing. Not tonight. No more cuts.”

He found the
infamous razor blade and removed it. She started to grab for it, but he simply put an arm out, pushing her gently away from him. Sighing with frustration, she grabbed her bag and slammed the door in Will’s face, locking it loudly, and ignoring his pleas to let him use the bathroom.

And just like that, as strange as it was, she became Jessie Hendricks and started living with the soldier who saved her life. She wasn’t quite sure how to act, or why he wouldn’t take up her offer to have sex. Could it be possible that he really
didn’t
want her for that? And wasn’t ultimately trying to get into her pants? The innovative thought started taking root in her head. It was an odd feeling. Weird. Unheard of. But it was… nice. That is how Jessie chose to describe it: a really nice feeling.