Faithless (Mistress & Master of Restraint) (121 page)

“Ah,” I sigh, “I get it. No outsiders allowed around your Prince?”

“I saw you glaring at them,” Whitney says. “I knew you’d understand.”

I decide on the spot that one does not fuck with Whitney Preston, and I need her in the game.

~Chapter One-Hundred-Seven~

Hiding in the shadows of Whittenhower Estates
extraordinary dining room, I nod to my baby brother. Whitt is doing the exact same thing, and it warms my heart. Whitt is cautious, observant, quiet, and unassuming. Like a chameleon, he blends into his surroundings and projects an air of happy-go-lucky.

We both watch the occupants of the dining room. Niel flawlessly introduced the game to a crowd in the Whittenhower study. It’s not as if Grant, Ade, and Niel didn’t already know the ins and outs of the game. Diane and Daniel were well-versed, but severely ignorant to the inner-workings. They just know the pain of being played. Marcus, Whitt, and Regina were taken completely by surprise. If Marc’s facial expression is any indication, his world just tilted on its axis.

Marcus looks like someone gave him a puppy, ran it over, resuscitated it, and then shot Marc in the face while using the puppy as a silencer. Yeah… he’s miserable. But losing the job you’ve worked your entire life mastering, losing your home, and having to depend on other people to feed, house, and provide for you, is a huge kick to the nuts- especially for someone who is the most dominant among us.

And then there is Ezra. If Marcus looks miserable, then Ezra must be living in Hell. Never in my entire life, have I seen him so despondent. He’s not blinking or fidgeting. It’s like all the parts of him are written across his face, and they are all suicidal. I can actually see the lies forming in his mind to soothe his guilty conscience. This is what happens when you do what feels good, while trying to make others feel bad. You don’t even know you’re harming yourself because you’re blind to everything but vengeance and bitterness.

I must be mental, because it takes everything in me not to run up to Ez and comfort him. I want to hold him, rub his back, and tell him I’ll make it all better. But I can’t do that, not this time. Ez will never learn if he never deals with the consequences of his actions. At thirty-two years of age, with a wife, a husband, and four kids, he should have reached this place of enlightenment years ago. But that is the way with the terminally spoiled. When they fall, they fall hard, and it’s a long way to hit rock bottom when you live on the top.

I watch the play I put into motion reveal itself. You must know human nature and the push/pull of human behavior to successfully play the game. If I do A, then B will most certainly happen. This is why Ezra is a ruthless opponent- he’s insane, and insanity can’t be predicted. But I didn’t need to predict Ez’s behavior, I just needed to predict Whitt’s behavior- easy, since he is my baby brother, and Gwen’s kids all act alike. We may be ruthless, cunning, manipulative, and sensitive to the wounded, but we are also loyal to a fault… and when hurt, we do stupid shit.

Whitt had to have that loyalty broken, and to be in pain from the betrayal- Dalton, their breakup, and the lie about screwing Roman. This will pique Whitt’s interests in Dalton, but that is just a side bonus- one I counted on, so I didn’t feel so shitty about hurting Whitt and Dalton’s relationship. I pray this actually makes it stronger. 

Whitt, alone and hurt… and ready to do something stupid in retaliation. All you have to add is a wounded being to create the perfect play. My brother swaggers over to Ez.
No matter how sad the man is, Ez’s eyes turn the color of molten silver, and track Whitt like a hungry animal. Ez is starved for attention, affection, intimacy, and sex. Whitt being Gwen’s kid, he can feel how badly Ez is aching, and he longs to fix it. This is without fail- this makes this play foolproof, even by Zane’s standards.

Ez has never had a real gay relationship. Fake heterosexual alters and a wife doesn’t make you straight. The man is gay, and Whitt’s nickname isn’t Pretty Boy
in the way you call a big guy tiny or some shit. Whitt is Gwen’s kid, meaning he is beautiful and sensual.

Ez is frightened of Whitt
’s seductions, backing up to get away from his approach, and this seems to egg my brother on. We are manipulative. If Whitt wants Ez, he’s going to have him- foolproof because Ez has absolutely NO say in the matter.

After ten minutes of verbal foreplay and banter, Ez’s ghostly pale face is brighter than the sun. He’s positively glowing with good health as Whitt flirts and casually touches him. The touch is what does it, the real Ez breaks through- the man Ezra would have become if he hadn’
t been cerebrally fucked at such an early age.

The most vibrant smile pierces my heart, draws a sob from my chest, and stings my eyes with tears. Ez and I hold one another’
s gaze, and we have a moment of perfect understanding. This isn’t about the game. I want Ezra to learn through Whitt, what it really means to own what you are. I’m giving them both a gift.

Ez mouths
thank you
at me. Both of us are remembering a night in this very house, with a nine-year-old boy hanging all over me. We were in Whittenhower Estates’ majestic ballroom. My baby brother touched me for the very first time, hugging me as he explored my artwork. Whitt has had a crush on Ezra since he knew what it meant to like boys. I’d made Ez make a promise to me, and it was totally random. Unlike tonight, this isn’t random. I chose this day. I was the one who picked this birthday for Whitt to take the Whittenhower throne. This was a decades’ long play.

Today is Whitt’s twenty-fourth birthday, and I’d made Ez promise not to touch Whitt until he was twenty-four. Ezra won’t be able to resist the temptation- neither of them will be able to.

A subtle brush of a fingertip along the back of my hand has me instantly feeling better. I look up and smile at my husband.

“There are so many subtle layers to this play that I don’t know if it’s a good or bad thing. This feels like we are rewarding Ezra for his bad behavior,” Wil whispers near my ear.

“I’m giving instead of taking. Ez won’t know how to handle it. If it’s a reward, I don’t care. No matter what, I can’t hurt him, and he knows this. Maybe if I show him what it means to be happy, he’ll try to carve out his own slice of happiness.”

“You love him too much,” Wil murmurs.

The ache to touch Wil
has my fingers flexing, curling in on themselves- not here, not now. He is just Levi Wilson- security specialist, and I am just Syn, and we are not husband and wife within these castle walls.

“It’s not the same as I feel about you,” I reply
without a lick of shame. I love many people for many different reasons. One love does not subtract from another. Love is an infinite pool that never empties. When felt, it swells the pool to bursting.

“I know- it’s not that, Pixy. I’m not jealous. I…” Wil draws in a big
breath and exhales it. The warm and minty air caresses my cheek. “He hurts you, and it makes me want to kill him. But I can’t, because it would kill you and Zane to lose him. That is the only reason that man still breathes,” Wil declares.

“I know,”
I sigh out. “I just hope that one day Ez finds something worth living for. It makes me feel worthless sometimes, knowing that Ez doesn’t see us as his family. But until he is repaired, there is no rationalizing anything he does or feels or says…”

“He’s broken, but there is something about him that is so likeable that you just bend over while he fucks you over,” Wil hisses.

“Well, if it’s any consolation, my play worked. He is distracted from the game. If we can keep him occupied until Christmas day…” I sigh, body shuddering from the stress of the next five months.

“Oh,” Wil purrs, “he’
ll be distracted… I overheard Whitt offering Ez a two-for-one special- himself and my brother. As long as they are all entertained, and no plays are maneuvered, Ez will relax…and then…”

“And then… Merry Christmas,” I mutter, thinking it will feel like an eternity since it’s only August.

~Chapter One-Hundred-Eight~

“My goodness, they spoil you,” Bianca jealously growls at me as she falls onto the loveseat opposite us. She covetously gazes at us as Torian rubs my feet and Zane massages soothing circles on my temples. We’re on the couch, and I lay with my head in Zane’s lap and my feet in Torian’s.

“I’m just teaching them to be good husbands. How a man treats his mother is a great indicator on how he will treat his future wife,” I nonchalantly say, when I want to tell my sister that my boys are the best kids on the face of the planet- but that would be boasting, and I’m a humble kind of girl.

“Says the woman who is married to a man who has never touched his own mother.” Bianca rolls her eyes at me. She’s just jealous because she’s single and doesn’t have any minions.

“Extenuating circumstances, that,” I defend Wil’s right to ignore Olivia.

“Don’t let her fool you,
Binks,” Torian drawls, “she forced us to resort to this. She’s a raving bitch. Seriously, I can’t take six more months of this… I’m never getting married.”

“Ah, the boy who is stalking five girls is not interested in marriage,” I sarcastically say. “And I’m not a raving bitch,” I hiss, grinding my heel into his thigh.

“I don’t have to marry them to mess around with them,” Torian slyly replies, tucking a pillow beneath my feet before I unman him.

“How do you think Momma got into this situation,” Zane calmly says, hating Torian’
s slutty morals. My kid will probably wear a hazmat suit on his wedding night. He is petrified of germs. He thinks sex is dirty- I wanted to tell him that dirty sex is good sex, but that would have been inappropriate.

“Condoms…” Torian deadpans. “Uncle Wil should have worn one… for our sanity.”

“Don’t you forget that,” I order. “How is Niel’s harem doing today? I haven’t been to the Castle in a few weeks.”

I’d stuck around Whittenhower Estates for a few months, spying on everyone
and making sure Ezra was still preoccupied. Levi Wilson is supposed to be guarding Devlin Conrick and Sebastian Vance over at The Edge Building. They are living in Ezra’s old apartment. But Wil has been here the entire time, taking a peek in on his uncle via the telescope.

I was so starved for Wil that we had some intense rendezvous in some interesting locations. My tenure as the Castle Spy was cut short when I got sick and stayed sick, and then turned into a raving bitch. I’m four months along, carrying Wil’s miracle baby. The poor man fainted when I told him.

My feet hurt and I have a killer migraine- the kind that feels like a baseball to the face. I’m stressed out for a myriad of reasons. So that is why I find myself being ‘loved’ on by my kids. They learned to kill me with kindness. I was biting their faces off for watching the television too loudly, for breathing too loudly… pretty much my hormones decided that Zane and Torian were the bane of my existence. Ten minutes later, I find myself getting massaged and thinking that no two boys are better than mine.

Pregnancy hormones, gotta love ‘em!

“Oh, the girls are good,” Tori purrs. “Really, really good… one is in your predicament, but she manages not to be a bitch. You guy
s must have gotten knocked up around the same time.”

Since I couldn’t handle morning sickness and Castle Misery, Torian jumped at the chance to infiltrate their lives. With Dalton’s help via Whitt, Torian now goes to Hillbrook prep and has been taken in as a pet project of the Whittenhower
s. The kids in that house know more than the adults, and a handsome sixteen-year-old is charming that knowledge out of them.

“Puts a whole new spin on ‘Niel’s harem’, doesn’t it?” Zane never makes jokes, and even though I laugh, he was being serious. I instantly feel bad because it isn’t funny… but it is.

“Oh yeah… he’s scared to death of sex now. But who can blame him.” A shudder wracks Torian’s body.  Tori went from some talk and a little slap and tickle to all talk and no touch. He’s petrified now, too- good. “First time up to bat and hits a homerun. Holy fucking mistake, batman!”

“Dish! I wanna know! Dish,” Bianca sings.

“You’ll find out tomorrow night. Grant’s releasing the goods,” Zane announces.

“When did you get the four-one-one,” Torian says with a scowl.

“Since I can’t be seen because of this,” Zane gestures to his face, the face of his father, “I make sure I keep in touch with every elder on a daily basis. It’s good practice for the future. You said Niel is freaking out. Well, Grant thinks he will feel better if it’s out in the open.”

“WHAT? WHO
?” Bianca yells at us. “C’mon, you secretive bastards!”

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” I say with a grin.

“YES!” Bianca hisses.

“Binks, I told you she was a bitch,” Torian says, causing me to laugh. “But you’ll find out when the rest do. I only know because Niel confided in me, and I have no idea how anyone else found out.”

“Whitt and Niel were having a heart-to-heart and they thought Grant was sleeping- he wasn’t,” Zane ominously says.