Sophie Oak - Siren in Bloom

Wolf had courted her, made her believe in him, made her love him, and all he’d wanted from her was to pass her off to his brother? No wonder he didn’t want to touch her.

But it didn’t make a lick of sense. When he’d made love to her, he’d been all in. He’d been there with her. Had that been a lie, too? Tears pricked at her eyes. Had she been played? She loved Leo, but damn, she loved Wolf, too. She needed them both, and one of them was either lying to her for god only knew what reason or he’d played her for a fool. Wolf had seemed so surprised when he’d found out about her prior relationship with Leo. Had that been spectacular acting on his part?

She knew what she should do. She should simply nod and take what they gave her and get through the next few moments with the dignity of a lady.

Being a lady had gotten her nothing. It had gotten her a marriage to fucking Bryce drug-dealing son-of-a-bitch Hughes. Being a woman had gotten her Leo. She’d thought it had gotten her Wolf. If she was wrong, then she would go out as she’d begun.

She’d been through one hellacious marriage where she’d been ruled by fear. She wouldn’t live her life like that again. Not for one second.

She pushed herself off the ground, forcing her legs to hold her.

“Shelley?” Wolf sounded utterly shocked. “Find your position!”

But she wasn’t listening to his orders anymore. She wanted answers, and she didn’t care if she had to get them in front of an audience. She grabbed the package out of Leo’s hands. “What does this mean?”

Wolf looked at Leo. “Are you going to control your sub?”

Leo, it seemed, really did have all the brains in the family. He took a step back. “I am going to take cover, brother. Would you like to explain what this is about? Maybe we should go back to my office and talk about this.”

Maybe he wasn’t so damn smart. “I’m not having a session with him. I want to know why there’s only one key. Is he planning on being a brilliant lock picker for the rest of our lives?”

Wolf’s jaw squared. “You know you belong with Leo.”

She did. And she knew she belonged with him, too. “I know that you’re playing with me. You tell me something, Wolf Meyer. Did you sign a contract to top me with the sole purpose of passing me off to someone else?”

He paled a bit. “That makes it sound worse than it is. I know you love Leo.”

“I love you, too. You made me love you. You wrote me letters. You spent hours on the phone with me. You told me you wanted me.”

Wolf’s face fell. “I did this for you.”

What the hell was going on? She felt a sob building in her chest. She knew she should be happy she still had Leo, but damn she wanted more. She wanted it all, and she’d thought for just a moment that she’d had it. She’d thought when Leo had made love to her this afternoon that everything was settled, but now half of her heart was walking away.

She threw the beautiful, gorgeous, would-have-been-perfect-if-it-had-two-keys necklace at Wolf. “You can go to hell. You say you did this for me? For me? I love you.” She hated the fact that she sniffled and that tears were starting to course down her cheeks. “I love you. I wanted a life with you and Leo and you promised me that last night. But it was a fucking lie. You’re just like all the rest. You can say you’re different, but you lie with the best of them, Wolf Meyer.”

“I didn’t lie.” He tried to take a step forward, but she discovered she could move in those heels when she wanted to.

“You did. You made love to me. You shared me with Leo and promised with your body that you would be there. You signed a fucking contract!” That was the worst bit of all. She’d played by his rules, and he’d still burned her. Rage flowed. “You sat down and negotiated that contract with me and I thought you meant it.”

“I did.” The words puffed from his mouth, and his eyes tilted up in horror.

“No. That fucking necklace tells me you didn’t. It tells me you were pimping for your brother. Did you think I would just accept this? Did you think I would shrug and walk away and the next goddamn family reunion you could bring your girlfriend and I would be okay?”

Leo shook his head. “I take no responsibility for this.”

“You stay out of it, Leo. I love you. I’m still talking to you. Keep it that way.” She turned back to Wolf. “I know I’m being a brat. I know I’m being a bad sub, but damn it, you told me that discipline meant getting what I wanted. This is not what I want. I won’t accept less. If you think you can have some fucking happy family after this, you’re wrong. So here’s my advice to you, Wolf Meyer. You better fucking choose again. I don’t know what happened between this morning and tonight, but you better forget it and you better take that fucking necklace back and get something more suitable or the rest of your life is going to be hell. I do not accept this. Gucci, Wolf.”

Her safe word seemed to hit him with the force of a Mack truck. “I haven’t even touched you. How can you say your safe word when I haven’t hurt you?”

“Haven’t hurt me? You hurt my soul, Wolf.” She deflated like a balloon that had lost its air. Her heart ached. She was standing in front of a dungeon full of people who probably thought she was the biggest brat in the world. She’d wanted to belong here, and now she’d more than likely ruined all of her chances.

And Leo. Leo probably thought she was a horrible sub. Tears blurred the whole word. She cried and turned away. Leo caught her.

“It’s all right, Shell. It’s all right, baby. No matter what happens, we’re fine. I love you. That’s all that matters.” He kissed her forehead. “Go on. Go back to the condo. Chase will escort you up there. I’ll figure this out.”

He was her whole world in that moment. He held her and balanced her and gave her strength. Protocol didn’t matter. The Master-sub relationship didn’t matter. He was her man. He was going to take care of her.

“I love you, Leo,” she whispered.

“I love you, too. It’s going to be all right,” he promised.

Chase was at the edge of the stage, clearly ready to take her in hand. Chase held a hand out and helped her off the stage. She could feel a hundred eyes on her.

“Shelley,” Wolf said.

But she turned because she was done with him. For now. She walked away as fast as her heels would take her.

Wolf watched Shelley walk away, his whole world tilting and moving and shifting.

What the fuck had just happened?

“Are you happy with yourself?” Leo’s voice grated on his every nerve.

Leo was the one with the girl. Leo was the one with a life. “I was trying to help you. Can’t you get that? I was trying to make this easy.”

Why was Leo fighting him? He’d been doing it all fucking night long. He’d fought him about Logan, and now he was pushing back about Shelley and this was all about him. Wolf was giving him what he wanted. Couldn’t Leo see how this was tearing his fucking heart out?

Leo got in his face. “Easy? Do you know how much you’re going to have to grovel? Do you know what Julian’s going to do when he finds out how fucked this scene was?”

Wolf was very aware of how many people were watching. He felt every eye on him. “I was trying to do something good for you.”

“By pissing off our wife?” Leo shook his head. “I know she isn’t, but damn, Wolf, she practically is. She signed a contract with you. She has a verbal agreement with me. What the hell more do you want?”

“I want my brother to not hate me!” Wolf yelled, his frustration flowing.

Leo stopped. “What does that mean? Damn it, Wolf, I don’t hate you. I never could. You’re my little brother. I spent most of my life making sure you were all right. I went into the damn Navy because we couldn’t send you to college.”