Page 58 of Sweet Wicked Vows
Images of Evelyn sitting on the plastic seats in the police station, worry paling her exquisite face as she once again found herself bailing her younger brother out of trouble.
He walked out of jail without as much as a fine. The lawyers were able to weave their magic and kept Flynn out of harm’s way of his own stupid acts. I saw the flicker of disappointment in Evelyn’s eyes when he came home, celebrating that he once again walked away.
She did everything for others, putting herself at the bottom of her own priority list and willing to break herself apart to make others happy.
What about her happiness? What about her joy? Didn’t she realize she deserved to put herself first?
I watched him make another move closer to victory. “Your point?”
“Her and Flynn, they’re good people. Nice people.”
“And what are you trying to say, that I am not like them? I am not a nice person?”
He shook his head at my next move that allowed him to instantly call checkmate. “I hate to think that all these years, stuck beside Frederic and his bitterness, that he’s twisted you into thinking you don’t deserve to be happy. That he has some input in this whole marriage.”
Bourbon flamed my throat. “Olivier, you don’t need to concern yourself with any of it. Like I said before, all you need to focus on is finishing your studies.”
“Do you actually love her?” His face softened. “Or is this some sort of chess move Frederic played to benefit him?”
I saw little reason to lie to him when he and I both knew he was speaking the truth. A flicker of sadness passed his pale gray eyes, his lips rubbing together as he busied himself reassembling the chessboard. Olivier didn’t understand. He was shielded—Ishielded him from our childhood.
Frederic sucked me into his war for revenge. I felt his anger, too. Though, perhaps my fire didn’t burn as bright as it used to, I still longed for a sense of justice.
A way to finally put the demons to rest.
Olivier and Elliott—I made sure they weren’t dragged in with us.
“It’s a shame,” Olivier finally spoke. “I think she might have actually been good for you.”
We didn’t say anything else, both focusing on the game at hand.
Finally giving up and calling it a night, my focus was unable to shift from the sweet and spiced scented red-head. Her touch on my body still echoed, the way her cunt pressed into my back, her moans filling my helmet—my cock hadn’t sat right since.
Before I left my brother, my whole body stilled, sensing her before I saw her.
Her divine laugh filled the bar, and the undertone of her vanilla and cinnamon scent sought me out like a missile. Standing at the bar in a silky black dress that sat perfectly below the crease of her supple ass and sent my blood pressure through the roof, was the temptress herself.
My wife.
Chapter Nineteen
There wasn’t a chance in hell I was leaving.
Not when every man who walked past Evelyn practically undressed her with their eyes on their way to the restroom. I had to stop myself from following each of them and plucking their eyeballs out.
Mentally, I added that ridiculously delicious short dress into the pile of clothing I wanted to both rip off her and burn at the same time.
She was joined by the same five-foot-nothing blonde from the cake tasting. Lola Juniper, the pro-figure skater who reminded me of one of those lap dogs. The yappy, yet fiercely loyal kind.
Both women were dressed in clothing that turned nearly every head walking by.
My eyes, however, were only set on Evelyn.
The dress clung to her hips, sculpting them as if they were carved byMichelangelohimself. The length of the dress showcased every inch of her long, pale legs. On the back of her left knee was a freckle right in the center, demanding that I run my tongue along it and see if she tasted as good as I dreamed.
She may have been my enemy’s daughter and my meal ticket to taking him down, but it didn’t stop me from admiring her—fromwantingher.
Merde, why did she affect me so badly?