The Secret (The Evolution Of Sin Book 2) (14 page)

“Well, I’m sorry to take my brother away from you but I see our sister over by the windows and she will kill us if we don’t check in,” I said with a huge smile.

Tate nodded his head and said something in his booming voice to Sebastian so I took the opportunity to lean in close to Savannah and pressed my hand to her arm. She looked at me sharply but softened when she saw my slight smile.

“He’s okay?” she whispered.

I hesitated before responding. “I think you’re better equipped to answer that question.”

She sucked in a quick breath before looking away. I knew I was dismissed but I forgave her sudden coldness because it was obvious she wasn’t dealing well with her separation from Sebastian.

I badly wanted to ply him with alcohol and attack him with questions about their relationship but as we left the older couple and Sebastian became more and more relaxed with each step away from the mature blonde, I knew I couldn’t. Not only would it be awkward and painful for him, it was hypocritical of me to question his apparently sketchy relationship when I couldn’t even face my own.

“Where did you say they are?”

“I didn’t actually see them.” I shrugged when he shot me a sidelong look. “
Insieme
, Sebastian. We needed to get out of there.”

He looked at me for a long second before nodding curtly. “We did. Should we find our table then?”

We headed over to the table displays and found ours in the middle of the vast venue, far enough away from the live band not to have to shout over the music but essentially front and center given the layout of the room.

“Why would we be at such an important table?” I murmured as Sebastian weaved between the round tables and future diners.

He shot a look over his shoulder. “A movie star, a business tycoon, a lawyer from one of the best New York City law firms, an up and coming artist, and a politician? I think that group warrants a good table.”

“A politician?” I asked, but we were already at our table and the sight of the people sitting around it made me forget my question.

Before I could even digest the sight of Elena or Sinclair, someone was in my arms, wrapping me in an embrace that made my heart ache for an earlier time.

“Candy,” I breathed as she squeezed me tighter.

“Candy,” she agreed, releasing me only enough to smile her buck toothed smile into my face. “I can see you’re shocked that I’m here so I’ll give you a second to get over it and be excited to see me again. Although I’m not going to give you too long because I’m furious with you for not getting in touch with me after three long months of separation.”

“Two months,” I corrected automatically.

She blinked before tossing her head back and laughing. “Okay, the fury lasted for a much shorter time than I anticipated. You are officially forgiven. But you’ve got to make it up to me by sitting beside me.”

She took my hand and finally had the wherewithal to see Sebastian standing beside us, staring bemusedly down at her. She stopped mid-step and gaped openly at him before turning back to play-whisper, “And introduce me to this guy.”

It was my turn to laugh and the distraction of their introduction was a welcome one as the three of us took our seats. I felt warm and safe with the two of them beside me so when I finally looked up at the rest of the table, I did so with a faux confidence I didn’t really feel.

My eyes landed immediately on Sinclair, which wasn’t surprising given the fact that I had known where he sat at the table as soon as we were in its vicinity. He was already staring at me, those blue eyes electric with intensity as they swept over my body, taking careful inventory of everything about my person. When they reached mine, his mouth softened into something close to a smile. God, he was gorgeous.

“Giselle.” Elena’s voice brought my attention to her seat beside him and I noticed that they matched – his ice blue tie and her velvet dress. She looked like a modern day Audrey Hepburn and my hands found my bodice self-consciously before I could help it.

“Elena, you look absolutely lovely. Thank you so much for inviting me tonight.”

“Thank you, but I wasn’t the one to extend the invitation. Willa and Mortimer wanted to meet the last addition to my family.” She beamed at the older couple I had yet to notice that sat to her right.

“We’ve heard a great deal about you,” Willa Percy said with a close-lipped smile as her brown eyes scraped over my body with the precision of a scalpel, searching for flaws with the gravitas of a surgeon.

Logically, I knew that Willa was a beautiful woman; African American with a café au lait complexion smoother than silk and thick wavy hair she wore cut into a chic shoulder length bob. But I found nothing warm in her expression or any charisma in her carriage. She seemed almost like a doll, perfectly turned out in every way except for the lack of vitality in her eyes.

On the other hand, Mortimer Percy struck me as the kind of man to play Santa at a charity event or roll around in the mud with his sons. He was a broad shouldered, All-American kind of man with a square jaw and a full head of golden brown hair streaked with silver. It was no wonder that he was a popular politician with looks like that.

“No one told us you would be so pretty though.” Mortimer smiled broadly. “We just heard some nonsense about you being a fantastic artist or something of the sort.”

I laughed because he wanted me to and his good humor was infectious. “What did I do to deserve such flattery?”

“Don’t lay that at my son’s doorstep, I’m afraid he’s not the effusive type. Is he, Elena?” Mortimer guffawed.

Elena laughed too but I was uncomfortable with the assertion and when my eyes found Sinclair, the muscle in his jaw was ticking as it did when he was trying to control himself. Sensing my gaze, he looked up at me. I held his stare, opening myself to any thoughts he needed to purge himself of. I willed him to trust me with the emotions he normally carved up and shoved into the farthest recesses of his mind. His mouth opened slightly on a long exhale and he shook his head slightly.

Later
, he mouthed.

My heart clenched in anticipation of seeing him again.

“It was Mama,” Elena admitted. “She never could shut up about you.”

“Elena,” Sebastian warned under his breath but she didn’t take heed.

“Giselle was always Mama’s special girl. She’s thrilled to have her back, of course. The entire Lombardi clan together again. Although Giselle still goes by our father’s last name.”

I watched as Sinclair surreptitiously moved Elena’s wine glass over to his side of the place setting.

“Names are so important.” Willa stepped in, boredom laced throughout her words. “Daniel never did consent to take the Percy name.”

“You never offered it to Cage,” Sinclair said quietly. “And it was easier to keep Sinclair.”

Willa sniffed but Mortimer put his hand over hers to quell her. “We understand, Daniel, of course. Names are unimportant in the grand scheme of things. We are a family of choice, not circumstance.”

His words set fire to my chest. I wanted a relationship of choice; I wanted Sinclair to choose me.

“There are no reporters at the table, Mortimer, you can stop the politicking,” Willa said.

“Mom,” Sinclair chastised and I was surprised to see it had a positive affect on Willa, who straightened in her chair and applied a smile to her smooth cheeks.

“Very well. Elena, darling, how is the adoption process going?”

I almost choked on the sip of delicate white wine I was drinking. Could this evening get any more excruciating?

“Slowly, unfortunately.”

“You must use our connections. Why forge relationships if you can’t use them to your advantage, hmm?”

“We’re in no rush,” Sinclair reminded them. “Elena is only twenty-six, we have time enough to start a family.”

“He’s just nervous.” Margot appeared at the table, a sharp smile on her face as she slipped into one of two empty chairs beside Candy. By the way she stared right at me, I knew Sin had warned her of my presence. “As long as I’ve known him, Daniel has always wanted to be a father.”

Candy’s hand found mine under the table and squeezed.

Sebastian snorted and muttered under this breath. “This is going to be one long fucking dinner.”

I couldn’t have agreed more.

Chapter Ten.

It was better when the music started in earnest and people began to dance. Elena was occupied with Mortimer so Sinclair took Margot for a spin while my charming brother guided Willa – who actually laughed in delight – around the floor.

It had been a long and stifling dinner and the sudden absence of tension made the air taste like ambrosia.

Candy gave me a solid thirty seconds of peace before descending on me.

“Okay, I have no idea how you are dealing with this.” She stared at me incredulously but when I didn’t respond, she huffed. “That wasn’t a rhetorical statement, Elle. How the hell are you dealing with this, this, weirdness?”

“I’m not. I mean, I’m not dealing with it well.”

“Sinclair briefed me but you know him.”

I smiled, because I did. “What did he say?”

“Oh,
pfft
.” She blew the bangs out of her face and I loved her for her artlessness. “Something like ‘Candace, Elle is in Manhattan. She also happens to be Elena’s sister. You’ll come to the gala tonight and see her. I would appreciate your discretion.’”

“Typical.” I nodded with mock sincerity.

“Totally,” she agreed.

We beamed at each other.

“This is a mess.”

“Totally,” I agreed.

“What are you going to do about it?”

I shrugged and the heaviness of my guilt and desire broke the filter I had kept so far over my thoughts.

“Come on, Elle, you
love
him. Don’t tell me you’re okay with the status quo?”

“Of course not. But what would you have me do? Ruin my sister’s life?”

Candy waved her hand dismissively. “That’s a bit dramatic. She’d be heart broken, sure, but she would get over it. Anyone can see those two aren’t soul mates.”

“Soul mates? Honestly, Candy, who can say such a thing even exists?”

“You can!”

I slumped back in my chair even though I shouldn’t have been shocked by her words. Was Sinclair my soul mate? I had never really thought about the term or what it could mean. I only knew how I felt about the enigmatic Frenchman I had met in Mexico and the gravitational pull between us. I craved him in a way that was more elemental than addiction but still dangerous, more respectful than reverential but still sacred. I wanted to be with him more than I wanted nearly anything else in the world even though I hardly knew him.

The question fell so easily into my lap that I was surprised I hadn’t seen it all along. It really came down to this; did I want him more than I wanted my sisters happiness? Did I want him enough to live with the guilt? And, I guess most importantly, did he love me enough to take those on too?

“Richard said it in Mexico and I’ll say it again; I’ve never seen Sinclair lighter or happier than I have when he was with you. I didn’t know you before, so I can’t track the same changes but I know that you love him and the girl I came to admire the hell out of in Mexico would not let something so precious go so easily.”

“She’s my sister,” I said, for what felt like the billionth time.

“Excuses.”

“A good one,” I amended but I wasn’t sure she was so wrong.

“You don’t seem to be behaving yourself, Candace.”

I looked up and over my shoulder to see Sinclair. He wore a deep navy, nearly black suit that fit his lean body perfectly and emphasized the crazy blue of his eyes. I was still getting used to his new haircut but the lock of mahogany hair that fell over his forehead made him almost shockingly gorgeous.

“Do I ever?” Candy asked, baring her prominent teeth in a full smile.

I was happy she had abandoned her effort to keep them hidden and I wondered what had prompted the change. I made a note to ask her later, feeling a little guilty that I had dominated our conversation.

“Touché.” His lips twitched with humor but when he shifted to look down at me, his eyes blazed with stark hunger. “Giselle, accompany me outside for some air.”

It was that question that wasn’t a question; the dominance I had come to crave from him. My body was primed and ready, and he hadn’t even touched me yet.

I nodded, not trusting my voice, and took his hand to help me up from the chair. A subtle glance confirmed that Elena was still busy, near the bar now and surrounded by a large group of lovely, wealthy people. She was laughing and carefree as she bantered with likeminded elites and I realized how much she fit into this scene, how much she loved it.

We didn’t speak as he ushered me outside but the light touch of his hand on my lower back radiated like a beacon across my skin. The cool air felt amazing against my overheated skin and I was immediately seduced by the murmur of traffic and the pulsing thrum of city life.

“New York is louder than Paris, crowded and coarser but I absolutely adore it.” I shook my head and leaned over the balustrade to peer at the darkened garden bellow. “I didn’t expect to love it like this.”

“For all its glamour and beauty, there is a certain artlessness to the city that is its most appealing quality.”

I beamed over my shoulder at him. “Exactly.”

“You are happy here, then?”

I turned back to the shadowed gardens to hide my frown. It was a harder question then it should have been and the reason for that stood just behind me, exuding a cool sexuality that sent tingles over my skin.

“I am. Despite the occasional awkwardness of being reunited with my sisters and brother after years apart, it’s good to feel at home again.”

He stepped up to the stone railing beside me and braced his arms against it. His knuckles were white even in the darkness. I could feel his tension as if it were my own, the line he had hooked through my heart pulled taut by the strain.

“I’m jeopardizing that.”

“A bit.”

He smiled slightly at my honesty. “I never knew before you, how selfish a person could truly be.”

“Because you want both Elena and me?” I ripped the question off my heart quickly, like a Band-Aid but the pain still radiated through me and made my jaw ache.

He was silent for a lot longer than I was comfortable with but I tried to remain patient and still. This was hardly the place or time for such a conversation but I wasn’t willing to end it, not after weeks of wondering.

“It’s more complicated than that,” he said finally.

“How?”

His jaw tensed, the muscle skipping in his cheek.

“How?” I pressed.

“I have,” he hesitated, “a responsibility to Elena. I owe her happiness.”

My throat was being stitched closed inch by inch. “You can’t stay with someone because you feel beholden to them.”

“You can,” he argued firmly, turning to face me with eyes like chips of dry ice. “In fact, I would argue that most relationships are based on exactly that.”

“Those relationships fail,” I whispered.

I felt like an egg leaning too far over the balustrade, waiting with bone chilling apprehension for the right breeze to tumble me over the edge. 

“What are you saying, Elle?” His hands were suddenly on my arms, grasping them so firmly that I gasped. “You said yourself, you were not willing to sacrifice your sister’s happiness and now this? What the fuck do you want from me? Because when you ask me these infernal questions and when you look at me with those grey eyes what do you expect me to do? I am no saint and I won’t pretend for one second longer that I’m anything close to a gentleman.”

His lips crashed onto mine and the feel of them went off like a bomb through my body. He tugged my shaking form closer until we were flush against each other, pressed so tightly I could feel him everywhere. His tongue swept between my teeth and took exactly want he wanted; my pleasure, my surrender.

I gasped into his mouth when his hands slid down my curves and grabbed my bum to lift me onto the ledge. As soon as I was settled, he stepped close, pushing my dress up and spreading my legs open to make room for him against my center. I tipped my head back to moan, my eyes absorbed by the sight of the moon as Sinclair’s lips found the sensitive skin under my ear.

“You want this,” he rasped, pressing even closer so that I could feel his erection against my heat. “Why can’t you admit that you want this?”

My head was dizzy with sensation but the conscious part of me hated his question. Why couldn’t I admit I wanted this? More, that I
needed
it. I bit back a sob at the idea of never having him like this again and tightened my hands in his hair.

His hand lowered, finding my heeled foot and running his fingers gently around my anklebone before moving up, cool and fluid as rainwater, to my inner thigh. I panted when he pulled away to look into my eyes, his fingertips lazily swirling across the heated skin just beside my sex.

“Admit you want this.”

I moaned because I could still see the people inside, splashes of rich color behind the slightly molted glass doors.

Elena was in there.

“Even with all those people steps away, with your sister just inside, you want this, Elle.”

I leaned forward, pressing my lips to his neck to lick at his delicious salty skin. But he wouldn’t let me escape into the fantasy. Instead, he pulled me back and grasped my chin firmly between his thumb and forefinger.

“Tell me.”

“Yes,” I breathed.

“Yes to what?” Sinclair’s eyes sparkled in the starlight and I knew he was enjoying this. “You know how much I like it when you use your words.”

“Yes,” I said, louder this time. “I want you. I
need
this.”

I watched my words ignite him, the way goose bumps raced across his skin like a lit fuse towards his fiery gaze.

“
Elle
,” he groaned, before simultaneously claiming my mouth and plunging two fingers deep inside me.

He caught my moan between his teeth and echoed it with one of his own. Combined with the roar of my blood rushing through my veins it took me a moment to realize that someone was clearing their throat behind Sinclair. I thought quickly, pulling him to me instead of pushing him away, placing my hands over his hair as I tucked his face into the side of my neck. That way, someone might not notice whom it was that I was kissing. Sinclair tensed but allowed me to hide him.

I sighed heavily when I saw Cage standing there, his hands in the pockets of his all black ensemble.

“You scared me.”

“I can’t imagine why,
cherie
, when you chose such an excellent place for a clandestine
rendez-vous
.”

I frowned at him as Sinclair extricated himself from my embrace and smoothed down my long skirt before turning to Cage.

“You’re late.”

Cage laughed but it was a hollow sound. “That is the least of our transgressions.”

Sinclair’s lips thinned and he stepped forward, barring me partially from Cage’s cold look. “Are you judging me, rock star?”

“Are you implying I don’t have a right to, gypsy?”

I blinked as the acidity of the atmosphere stung my eyes. I could understand why Cage would be disappointed in us for falling into each others arms yet again, but he had been there in Mexico and more than that, he had encouraged me to pursue Sinclair again even knowing that Elena was my sister. Why the hell was he being so antagonistic?

“Cage,” I began but he held up a hand.

“No, Giselle, I think I will tell you some things, hmm?” He tugged at the end of his braid and sighed roughly. “I care for you two and I do not care much for your woman or your sister, Elena. But I just came from talking with her about a baby, a baby that she hopes to have with you, Sin. She was smiling, you see, in a way that I did not think she was capable of. The idea of family made her smile like that. And you are both her family.”

He shrugged with the tired wisdom of someone eternal. “I want you to be together. I’m, as you say, Team Giselle. But you both need to take your heads out of your asses and figure this out before you all get fucked.”

I don’t know when I started to cry but by the time he was finished, I couldn’t see through the tears and a thin trail of snot was becomingly seeping from my nose. It wasn’t because of Cage’s cruelty. It was because he had no choice but to speak so harshly; the truth of our clandestine relationship
was
cruel.

“Jesus, Cage,” Sinclair said.

His rage was palpable but instead of ripping into his friend, he stepped back to me and took my face in his hands so that I was forced to look up at him. He pulled out a kerchief from the inside pocket of his blazer and tenderly wiped my tear-streaked face. Cage was watching us, people inside were waiting for us, but Sinclair wouldn’t leave, I realized with growing warmth, without making sure I was okay.

“I’ll take you home.”

“No.” He flinched at my rejection so I placed a soothing hand against his on my cheek. “No, you need to go inside to Elena. Cage is,” I sniffed grossly but he didn’t recoil, “right. This isn’t fair to anyone. We agreed to be friends and it needs to stay that way.”