Tempted (Thornton Brothers Book 2) Page 2

  “Hey you,” I said, smiling up at her, pleased for the distraction.

  “Hey Aunty L.” Madison sat beside me, legs crossed, and reached over to take the cup from her mother’s hand. “I’m so sorry about yesterday. I had no idea you can’t have children anymore. It sucks. You would have been a great mother.” She took a sip of the coffee and handed the cup back to her mother, shuddering at the bitter taste. “Have you ever heard of sugar?” she said to Morgan.

  Once again the tightness at the back of my throat loomed and I gently squeezed. “Yep,” I agreed, trying not to let the emotion overtake my voice. “It sucks.”

  The door to my parents’ bedroom opened and Mother walked out, fully dressed and ready for the day. “Morning,” she said, reaching out to pat Madison’s head. She strode past Morgan and me with barely a nod.

  “I think we’re in trouble,” Morgan said once she had entered the kitchen.

  “Why would you be in trouble?” I asked.

  “Because I never told her what happened to you. I never told her the real reason Derek left. She feels betrayed.”

  “She told you that?”

  Morgan just winced and shrugged.

  Another door creaked open and Morgan’s eyebrow started twitching again.

  “Gabe,” I said, getting to my feet and planting a kiss on his lips. “Morning.” He looked his usual glorious self with his hair tied back into a messy ponytail, jeans and a t-shirt which clung sexily to his chest.

  Gabe wrapped me in his arms, lifting me a little as he squeezed tightly. “You okay?” he whispered into my hair.

  I pulled away and smiled. “Absolutely,” I said, though the word came out a little torn.

  His eyes flicked over to where Morgan and Madison had risen from the ground and were both eyeing him hungrily. “Are you sure?”

  I clasped his hand and started walking towards the kitchen where I knew Mother would be cooking up her usual staple for breakfast. Pancakes were only a Christmas morning thing.

  “I’m sure,” I said.

  Madison moved to follow but Morgan held her back. “Put some pants on,” she told her daughter.

  Madison looked down at her legs. “I have pants on.”

  “Well, go put some on that will cover your arse cheeks then.”

  To say breakfast was awkward would be an understatement. Gabe’s eyes just about popped out of his head when Mother sat a bowl of porridge down before him, but he smiled politely, thanked her and proceeded to spoon the glue into his mouth. Dad kept his nose buried in the paper. Mother looked anywhere but at Gabe or me. Madison never made an appearance and Morgan and Alistair talked more than I had ever heard before.

  After breakfast we headed into town to catch the Boxing Day sales, leaving Mother and Dad behind. We wandered aimlessly, bumping into the hundreds of shoppers that I didn’t even know existed in the small town. Morgan smirked every time I caught her eye, and her gaze slipped over Gabe’s body every chance she got. When we decided to stop for a coffee, Alistair, Gabe and Madison walked into the sports store while Morgan and I sorted the drinks. After ordering, we took a seat at one of the tables. Morgan’s eyes followed Gabe into the store.

  “Would you please stop looking at him like that?” I asked, frustrated.

  “Like what?” she said, attempting to smile innocently. It came off as anything but.

  “Like you want to eat him.”

  “A girl can dream.” She sighed.

  “Not about my boyfriend she can’t.”

  Morgan shimmied her shoulders. “So protective. I love it.” The waitress brought over our coffees and sat them on the table. “I’m just so bored,” she said. “Everything about Alistair is bland, bland, bland. I want some excitement. I want what you’ve got.”

  “I thought things were better now that he had sold that app. You’ve got a new car, a new wardrobe.” I nodded to her stylish clothing. “And you’ve put an offer in on a new house.”

  “That’s only money.”

  “Money is what you used to complain about.”

  “Well, we’re currently getting sued so that might put a stop to all that.”

  I took a sip of coffee, holding the cup up to my mouth a little longer than necessary as if it could somehow shield me from the anger I knew my next comment would evoke. “Maybe if you stopped telling him he was useless all the time, things might improve between you.”

  Morgan’s eyes snapped to mine. “And what would you know about marriage? You haven’t actually managed to get anyone to marry you yet.”

  I was surprised at the vehemence in her tone. “Sorry,” I mumbled. “You just don’t seem to be very nice to him. It’s got to be hard on the guy.”

  “Says the thirty-year-old woman dating a teenager.”

  “Wow,” I said. “Great Clementine impression.”

  Morgan narrowed her eyes but didn’t reply as the others joined the table.

  Gabe’s hand rested on my thigh as he reached for his coffee. He took a sip and slammed the cup on the table. “Argh,” he said, lifting the cup again and examining the contents. “What is this?”

  “Coffee,” Morgan replied harshly.

  Gabe looked at me with a questioning expression on his face, his thumb rubbing circles on my leg.

  “Morgan forgot to take her happy pill this morning,” I explained.

  Gabe gave a half-hearted laugh and then reached into his pocket when his phone rang. He looked at the screen and then excused himself from the table, telling me he’d be back in a minute.

  The four of us sipped on coffee and Madison played on her phone until he returned.

  “That was my father,” he said, sitting back down. “Jake’s coming home.”

  “Who’s Jake?” I asked, noting the wide grin that had spread across Gabe’s face.

  He looked at me, his expression showing confusion, then said, “I forgot I hadn’t told you much about them. Jake’s the youngest of my half-brothers. He joined the army and was sent overseas nearly six years ago. He’s only been home once since, for Clark’s funeral.” A brief wave of sadness crossed Gabe’s features. “But he’s coming home tomorrow. My other brother, Tyler, is picking him up from the airport tonight and they are driving to the family holiday home tomorrow. Dad wants me there to see him.” Gabe directed his attention to me. “Now that I’ve met your family, will you meet mine?”

  “Well,” I said placing my coffee cup on the table, suddenly feeling a little flustered. Introducing Gabe to my family was one thing. Being introduced to his was another. “After the delightful encounter you’ve had with my family, how could I say no?”

  Gabe laughed. “It hasn’t been all that bad.”

  “Oh, really? Remind me of the good parts?”

  Reaching across the table, Gabe took my hand in his, brushing his lips across my knuckles. “Well, I did have a rather nice wake-up call this morning.”

  Madison’s eyebrows shot skywards and Alistair cleared his throat. “Perhaps we should head home. You guys will want to get on the road if you’re to be there to meet your brother tomorrow.”

  3

  LAUREN

  We decided to leave my car at my parents’ house, and instead, we travelled in Gabe’s old jeep for the three and a half hour drive it would take to reach his father’s holiday house. As we reached the outskirts of the pristine town littered with fancy houses, quaint cafés and people with too much money, Gabe’s fingers drummed against the steering wheel.

  “You okay?” I asked, noting that he suddenly couldn’t keep still.

  Gabe flashed a smile. “I just haven’t been home in a while. I guess I’m a little nervous. Not really sure why.”

  I lifted an eyebrow and Gabe laughed. “Okay, so maybe I know why. Dad and I haven’t always exactly seen eye to eye on things, and Tyler and I have never seen eye to eye.”

  “Tell me about them,” I said, reaching over to still his jiggling knee. “You’ve barely said a word about your other brothers. What are they lik
e?”

  “Tyler is an arsehole.”

  “Really?” I asked, a faint smile crossing my lips.

  “Really,” Gabe confirmed seriously. “He thinks he’s perfect and he struts around as though he owns the world. And of course, he thinks I’m useless. They all think I’m useless.” His head tilted to one side. “Well, not Jake. I guess it’s just Tyler and Dad. They are too much alike. Rich men who think they own everything and everyone.”

  I shook my head. “I’m getting confused. Tyler is the eldest, right?”

  “Right,” Gabe confirmed. “He and Jake are from Dad’s first marriage. They are a lot older than me and I didn’t really have too much to do with them growing up because Dad sent them away to some fancy boarding school that breeds rich young upstarts.”

  “You’re not a fan, I take it?”

  Gabe snorted. “You could say that.”

  “How much older?” I asked.

  Gabe lifted his shoulders as he turned the jeep down a side street. “Tyler’s thirty-two, I think, and Jake’s like twenty-six or twenty-seven.” He frowned. “Maybe older.”

  “So they’re around my age then?”

  Gabe grinned. “Yeah, I guess so.”

  “And Jake?”

  “He’s alright. I mean, out of the two of them, Jake’s the one I actually like. That’s the reason I’m going home, just to see him.”

  “Okay,” I said, bringing my hand up and beginning to count on my fingers. “Tyler is an arsehole, your dad is like Tyler, and Jake is alright. Am I forgetting anyone?”

  “Billie.”

  “Billie? You’ve got another brother?”

  “Billie is Dad’s latest wife. They’ve been married about five years, I guess.”

  “And?”

  “And what?”

  “What’s she like?”

  “Billie?” Gabe chewed on his bottom lip. “She’s Billie. You’ll see. In fact, you’ll see a lot.”

  “What do you mean by that?” I asked as Gabe pulled into a steep driveway.

  Gabe just grinned. “We’re here.”

  I’m not sure what I was expecting but a garage at the end of a short but steep driveway was not it. The remainder of the house stretched beyond the garage, hidden from view. Of the parts that were visible, a corner there, a strip here, they showed nothing but panels of glass and exterior walls covered in schist rock.

  Hamish Thornton was one of the wealthiest people I knew. Not that I really knew him, but I knew of him. Everyone knew of him. He owned so many properties both here, at home, in the city, and possibly all over the country. For all I knew, he had holdings overseas as well. The latest property being developed under his company was the city’s first casino. Protests over its construction had been featured on the news, my mother joining the march.

  Although my first impression of the house was underwhelming, it didn’t last long. Gabe opened the door and stepped out of the jeep, jerking his head for me to follow. “We’ll grab our bags later. I want to give you the grand tour before they arrive home.”

  “They aren’t here to greet you?”

  Gabe shook his head and reached for my hand, dragging me through the garage into the house. We were greeted by a long white hallway with framed photographs along the wall. Each of them was a family portrait, the first showing Mr Thornton, his first wife who stood regally beside him, and two smiling boys with mops of dark hair. One of the boys was smiling politely, and the other appeared to have just finished saying the word ‘cheese,’ his mouth open and an over exaggerated grin plastered on his face. As we walked down the hallway, the pictures changed as the two boys got older, until, about half way down, the mother in the first picture disappeared, and was replaced by a smiling blonde woman in flowing skirts and a baby in her arms. This picture was less formal than the previous ones, having been shot at a beach, the light shining in from the side, and the lady’s head resting on the shoulder of Hamish Thornton lovingly.

  “Is that your mum?” I asked, thinking of the woman I had briefly met at the hospital.

  Gabe reached out and traced the lines of his mother’s face. “She looks so happy here, don’t you think?” He squeezed my hand tightly. “It’s hard to even think of them together. They are so different.”

  Gabe tugged me further along the wall, stopping at the next photograph which was taken in a studio with perfect lighting, a staged background and formally posed stances. The two dark haired boys were older and sported serious smiles, hinting at their resistance of being made to pose for the family portrait. The baby was now a young boy and there was a toddler in the mix. A beautiful, blond haired, smiling angel of a boy with his hands on his hips and a wide smile that scrunched the rest of his face so you almost couldn’t see his eyes.

  “And then came Gabe,” Gabe said proudly, looking at the photo and mimicking the exact same grin.

  “You were so cute!” I let go of his hand and stepped to examine it closer.

  “Were?” Gabe asked, wrapping his arms around my waist from behind and resting his chin on my shoulder.

  I turned in his arms, squeezed his cheeks together and planted a firm kiss on his puckered lips. “You’re still alright, I guess.”

  Gabe talked with his cheeks still mushed between my hands, his words coming out mumbled and distorted. “Dad was so pissed about this photo. I remember him telling me in no uncertain terms how I had to stand, how I had to smile, but each time the photographer counted down, I pulled this expression. In the end, they just gave up and took the picture.”

  We continued down the never-ending hall as the boys grew. The smiling face of Gabe’s mother faded until she disappeared altogether. After that, I noticed Gabe’s smile faded too.

  Gabe stopped at the second to last photo. “This one was taken three years ago. It’s the only one of all of us, the only one that will ever exist of all of us.”

  I studied the photo, barely noticing the new woman draped by Mr Thornton’s side. It was the four boys which struck me. The dark and the light of them. Gabe looked so much like his older brother, Clark. He had his arm slung over his shoulder even though the style of the photo demanded formality, and he had this sort of half grin, one side of his mouth sloping upwards, the other laying still. Clark had the same expression as though it were a mirrored reflection.

  The lack of the two smiling blond boys in the final image stood out starkly. Tyler and Jake stood tall and straight, their dark hair and handsome faces unsmiling and dressed in dark suits standing beside Hamish and his wife. The photo was taken outside, a casual snap of a shutter rather than a poised stage.

  Gabe cleared his throat. “It was taken at Clark’s funeral. I refused to be in it. I was so pissed Dad insisted on taking a family photo. It was outside the fucking church for god’s sake.”

  We stood in silence looking at everything the photo didn’t say. Something seemed familiar about Billie, Gabe’s step-mother, but her face was slightly shielded by the shadow caused by her large brimmed hat, and I couldn’t make out why I felt like I knew her.

  Gabe tugged on my hand. “Come on,” he said. “I want to show you the house.”

  Gabe led me through every room, and I stared in wonder at the detailed decoration. I felt like I was walking through a showroom rather than a holiday home. The walls were covered in massive paintings that stretched from floor to ceiling, some of them captivating, others making you wonder what the artist had been on while creating them. Gabe narrated the tour with mock reverence.

  “And here we have yet another room with stark white walls, accented with off-white tones, and an overly big white table with plush white chairs, just to mix it up a little.” We moved through the dining area and stood at the base of a large staircase that led to the upper level. “And if you would be ever so kind as to raise your eyes upwards, you will notice the masterpiece that is Billie.”

  At the top of the stairs the wall was dominated by a portrait of a naked woman lying on her stomach on a white bed, deep pink silk dr
aped in just the right places, breasts slightly exposed, toned and tanned legs bent at the knees and held in the air, ankles crossed, staring seductively into the lens of the camera. Recognition rippled through me.

  “Holy shit.”

  Gabe crossed his arms and grinned up at the portrait. “I know, right? I told you you’d see a lot of her.”

  “No,” I said, walking up the first steps of the staircase. “Holy shit, I know her. We went to school together.” I turned back to him, looking him directly in the eye. “You are dating someone the same age as your step-mother.”

  Gabe threw his head back and laughed.

  “It’s not funny, Gabe!” I exclaimed. I was already regretting coming here. Willa, short for Wilhelmina as she was known back then, was someone I was never close to in school, but that didn’t negate the fact that we were in the same year, and shared the same classes. I never knew what happened to her after we finished school, to be honest, I never cared. Willa had always been so sure of herself, so embedded with self-confidence she had been someone I couldn’t help but despise. Somewhere along the line, I heard she had got a modelling contract, but I never knew if it were true or not.

  “I don’t know if I can do this,” I wailed, looking back at the oversized portrait of Willa/Billie which seemed to have grown even larger.

  “Nonsense,” Gabe said. “Think of it as my father married someone the same age as his son’s girlfriend, rather than the other way around. The girl is nearly thirty years younger than him. They’re the ones who should be embarrassed, not us.” He started walking up the stairs. “Would it help if we had sex in their bed?”

  My eyes flew wide. “No! That would not help one little bit.”

  Gabe’s eyes twinkled as he walked back down the few steps and stood alarmingly close. “What about the stairs then?”

  “Gabe,” I warned as he moved closer and began to nuzzle my neck. Despite my abhorrence at his suggestion, the familiar warmth began to tug between my legs. I took a step back, tearing myself away from his lips which felt so good, so soft and so seductive on my skin. “Gabe, no,” I said firmly to his smirking face.