Marrying Her: The Keeping Her Christmas Wedding (The Keeping Her Series Book 5) (3 page)

Then she looked at Demon
and her eyes widened before she could reign in her emotions enough to hide her
dismay. 

That’s right
,
he thought one lip curling up at her reaction to Clytie. 
You want to
disapprove of someone?  Get a load of me. 
Knowing the history between
Clytie and her parents, he had dressed for battle.  Combat boots, black cargoes,
and a black t-shirt that showed off every muscle and defined ridge of his
massive chest and arms.  The tattoo on the left side of his thick neck stood
out plainly making most people assume he was covered in them.  If the scar that
puckered and twisted the right side of his face from his jaw to his hair line
was not enough to strike fear, the howling wolf tattoo finished the job.  He
wore no weapons, but then anyone who looked at him could plainly see at seven
feet tall and built like a tank,
he
was all the weapon he needed.  He
did not even try to hide the deliberate ‘fuck you’ in his eyes.  After that
look directed at his mate from a mother who had not seen her daughter in
fifteen years, he could care fuck all what impression he made.

As her mother’s tension filled
the room around them, Clytie looked up at him.  Catching the intimidating look
on his face, she shook her head minutely, a small smile flashing through her
eyes, if not on her mouth.  She squeezed his hand and stepped closer to his
side.  “Mother, this is Demon,” she said.  “My,” here she faltered and a pretty
blush brought some color back to her cheeks, “mate.”

The blush was fucking
adorable, but to say he did not care for the hesitation before the word mate
was an understatement.  After two years of proving exactly what he was to her,
he did not get that continued stutter when she introduced him to humans.  What
was so fucking hard about the word ‘mate’?

“You get married?”  Her father’s
sandpaper voice came out of the silence of the hospital bed and lacked
inflection, but there was a hardness in his eyes when they all turned in his
direction that made the question almost an accusation.

Clytie’s face went blank,
only her eyes showing her flaring emotions when she turned and faced her
estranged father.  “No,” she said, her chin raising to a familiar stubborn jut,
“we aren’t married.”

There was a silence that
built around them while her father’s jaw firmed and his eyes shuttered.  “You
come to punish me?”

Clytie blinked and tilted
her head to study her father’s aged and haggard face, her forehead scrunching
in confusion.  “Punish you?”

A hand that moved like it
was weighted to the bed with IV lines and bandages lifted and flicked Demon’s
way.  “With him.  You come to show me I failed in raising two of my three
daughters right? “

At that Clytie turned a
full green glare on her father.  “He’s not punishment, Father.  Demon came because
he knew I would need him.  It has nothing to do with you.”

“Demon?”  The man growled
out the name and snorted belligerently.  His eyes turned Demon’s way lit from
within to brown fire.  “A tattooed freak calls himself Demon and my daughter is
living outside the sacred bonds of matrimony with him, and she brings him to
meet her father?”  Then his brows dropped and his last word had sharp edges.  “Punishment.”

Clytie took a threatening
step toward her father and Demon pulled her back, crossing his arms around her
to hold her against his chest. From the anger blazing from her eyes, and the way
her face was flushed with it, he was not sure what she would do, but her words
were a clear warning.  “He is not a freak.”

“Why is he here?”

“Because Father,” the word
‘father’ scratched when she said it like that, “when the man who kicked out my
fifteen-year-old pregnant sister and disowned me is dying in the hospital, I
need moral support for the meeting.  Demon is not a freak or a punishment.  He
is the best man I have ever met and he is the love of my life.  Where else
would he be?”

Clytie stood in the
shower letting the water beat down on her endlessly.  As hotels went, Miley
found them a nice one.  The rooms were spacious, the bathroom spa-like, and the
shower seemed to have an endless supply of hot water.  All good.  Now she was
just waiting for Demon to get off the phone and join her and she could maybe
put this day behind them.  After the conversation went downhill from the
punishment discussion, Cassandra, Mac, and Ben had joined them.  Her father had
refrained from commenting further, probably thinking Cassie was not their
daughter to blame, but the icy language and hard looks were not exactly
subtle.  When her father faked falling asleep and her mother, in a chilly voice,
suggested they get some rest after their flight, they had all filed out.  It
was a blessing to have somewhere to go and forget about it for a while.  She
did not know what she expected from this meeting, or hoped for, but she wasn’t
going to get it, that much was obvious.

The shower door opened
behind her and she felt Demon join her, his presence making the spacious stall
suddenly small.  She didn’t turn around, just stayed leaning her forehead
against the tiles while the water cascaded over her.  Demon didn’t say
anything, he just grabbed the soap and started lathering her back.

“I don’t know what I
expected,” she said into the silence while his big rough hands soaped her skin
gently. 

“You want to mend the
breach before he dies.”  The words were as soft as his touch and made her sad
and mad in equal measure.

“Do I?  Maybe I just had
to see for myself if he finally had regret for any of his actions.”

Demon stayed quiet at
that, his hands going for more soap before he started trailing up her shoulders
to massage her tense neck before working down her arms.

“Do you know what bothers
me the most?” she asked and then went on filling the silence while he gently
worked.  “It was always about them.  My sister was a scared fifteen-year-old
and pregnant, but it wasn’t about her, it was about what people would say about
how she was raised.  They threw her out like she was garbage because they could
not have a sinner living under their roof.  She killed herself.  When I found
her, she was so cold and still laying there . . .”  Clytie trailed off.  “Now
my father is dying and I am trying to make it about me, what I want.  How much
better I would feel if he made an effort before he died.  If he just once
admitted that he was wrong,” she sighed.  “And none of it matters, not to him,
not really.  Certainly not to Becky, and all I’m doing is making him
uncomfortable.”  She felt Demon take her arms and turn her, the water sluicing
off her as she moved through the spray.  Then she was facing a naked Demon in
the shower as he moved his soapy hands to her shoulders and worked them down
from there in slow circles.  His eyes were hot on her, but he kept his silence,
letting her speak her piece.  She watched him do it, his soapy hands on her
skin as thorough as they were gentle.

“I’m feeling sorry for
myself,” she said, her lips tipping up just a bit while she watched him work.  “You
need to tell me this is about my father, not me, and that I need to grow up and
deal . . .”  His hand slipped between her thighs and his fingers pushed up
inside her gently but insistently, making her shudder out a breath and fall
back against the wet tile behind her, “. . . with re-al-i-ty,” she finished on
a stutter.  A second finger joined the first and unerringly found that spot
deep inside her and pushed.  She gasped and threw her head back, her hands
splaying across the wall on either side of her as her legs threatened to give
out.  He worked her with his fingers, and when she would have slid down the
wall, he lifted her up and held her in place with his body.  He worked her with
those big warrior hands of his until she screamed in pleasure.  Clytie would have
melted to the floor if he had not held her up. 

Then he hoisted her
higher and mounted her, sensitive and still pulsing on his beautiful big cock. 
While the water flowed over the top of them, miraculously still hot, he took
her there again.  This time he joined her, and for a while Clytie didn’t think
about anything but her mate and all the ways he could move her.

***

In their hotel bed later,
curled up around her mate, her thigh was propped over his, her head on his
chest, one arm wrapped over the top of him.  Clytie’s eyes were closed and she
was fighting off sleep, but only barely while she clung to that moment of
contentment for as long as she could.

His voice came out of the
dark in a sleepy rumble.  His words bland.  “Your dad’s a dick.”

Clytie felt the smile
curve her lips as his dry matter-of-fact delivery hit her funny bone.  She didn’t
bother to open her eyes until his next words hit her heart like a dart. “Not
the kind of man to say it plain, but he feels regret.  A fuck of a lot of it.”

She looked into the dark
seeing nothing but feeling her mate holding her tight while he laid it out.  “How
do you know?”

“He said ‘You bring him
here to punish me?’  You’re right about that shit being about him in his head. 
A man expecting punishment does not do so unless he feels like he deserves it. 
And the look in his eyes when he looks at you . . .”  She almost wanted to stop
him then, she was having such a hard time breathing through his words.  “You’re
right that you make him uncomfortable.  But no way does a man look at you and
not know exactly what kind of woman you are.  Any man in his right mind would
be proud of a daughter like that, boyfriend or no boyfriend.  He’s not seeing
you, baby.  He’s seeing all the ways he failed you, and most of that is your
sister.”  Demon pulled her in tighter and she knew from the tensing of his arms
that she should brace for his next words.  She was not wrong.  “He’ll be worse
tomorrow.  He’ll have all night to twist that shit up in his head to suit. 
Your mom, too.”

Clytie closed her eyes,
pushed her face against his chest, and breathed him in, not speaking for a long
while.  “Sara and her family will be here tomorrow, and they are expecting my
Uncle Vern and his new wife to come back then as well.”  She sighed, “Maybe he’ll
be so distracted by all the company that he’ll forget to make us miserable.”

“Could be,” Demon said
mildly enough, but she could hear he was just humoring her.  Yeah, she didn’t
believe it either.

***

The next morning they
were getting breakfast at a small cafe on the way to the hospital when Clytie’s
phone rang.  She handed Cassie the knife to finish cutting Roxanne’s pancakes and
dug for her phone.  She looked at the smartphone screen and put it to her ear.

“Sara?”  Clytie said by
way of greeting.  “Are you already here?”

“I’m at the hospital,”
the voice was unusually timid for her sister.

“Did something happen? 
We stopped to get breakfast but we can come now if you need us.”

Clytie heard the
hesitation and started to feel a sick knot forming in her belly, until Sara’s
next words defused it.  “Nothing has happened.  Mom asked me to call you before
you got here.”  She stopped speaking and Clytie waited, wondering what her
sister was trying not to say.

“You need us to stop and
pick something up for you?  If you are already there you must have driven
straight through.”

“We did.  I had David
drop me off before he took the kids to the Motel 6 for some sleep before they
visit.”  Again with the hesitation.  “Mom called me last night after you left.”

Clytie grimaced, finally understanding. 
“Yeah, that probably could have gone better.”  Before Sara could speak Clytie
went on with what they had been discussing at breakfast.  “Don’t worry.  It’s
just going to be me today.  Demon will be at the hospital if I need him but not
in the room.  Cassandra, Mac, and Ben will stay close in case we need anything,
but give Dad his family time.  I get that it should be about him right now, and
we are going to see he gets what makes him comfortable.”

“Clytie,” Sara interrupted
quickly before she could go on with her assurances, “Mom and Dad feel like
company is too much right now.”

“I get it,” Clytie said,
her brow furrowing at the careful way her sister was talking.  “It’ll just be
me today.  I was figuring on talking to them and seeing how they felt about
meeting Roxanne, but I know it’s about Dad right now.”

“He doesn’t want you to
come back, Clytie.”

Clytie opened her mouth
but nothing came out.  That feeling in her stomach was back, worse than before.

“I’m sorry.”  From her
voice, she knew her sister was sorry but she went on anyway.  “I have to call
and tell Uncle Vern the same thing.  They don’t want any visitors besides . . .”
Sara trailed off and Clytie understood what her sister didn’t want to say.

“Their daughter.”  Clytie
laughed harshly and everyone around her went quiet. “You can say it.  They don’t
want any visitors but their daughter and I assume her husband and their
grandchildren.”

Sara started to explain .
. . something, but Clytie cut her off.  “It’s okay, Sara.  I get it, believe me
I do.”  She pushed out a breath and wished the tension in her belly would
follow, but it didn’t.  “Can you tell me if the doctors know anything yet?  When
I was there they were still running the tests.”

“We don’t know yet.  The
doctor hasn’t made his rounds, but I’ll let you know what I hear when he does,
but from what I understand this is not going to be a fast process.  I do know
there is a meeting scheduled about in-home care possibilities.”  She could hear
the discomfort in her sister’s voice, but there was no way to diffuse it.

Clytie sighed, “I’m sorry
this is going to all fall on your shoulders, Sara.  I really did want to help.”

“I know that, and I would
talk to them.” Sara hesitated again.  “It’s just not an appropriate time to
bring up bad memories.”

Clytie pressed her lips
together over the words she wanted to say and instead said what she had to.  “Give
the kids a kiss for me.  And call me if you need anything.”

“I will.  Bye, Clytie.”

Clytie carefully hung up
and placed her phone on the table beside her plate.  She purposefully did not
look at Demon who was close enough to her that she could feel the muscles in
his thighs tense to steal.  “I guess we get to head home today.”

Seeing that Cassie had
stopped cutting Roxanne’s pancakes, she grabbed the knife from her frozen hands
and started to finish the job.

“Clytie,” Cassandra
started, her voice choked.

“Don’t,” Clytie
interrupted, her eyes going to her cousin and then the rest of the pack that
had come so far because they wanted to be there for her.  She shook her head
and gave them a sad smile.  “I just want to have breakfast and then get
everyone back on the plane before I deal with anything else.”  She knew they
could all see the tears she was holding back, but they let her have that play. 

Cassie nodded her head,
her voice low, her eyes meeting Clytie’s were sympathetic.  “That’s what we’ll
do then.”

Clytie nodded her head
and, finished with Roxanne’s food, she went back to her fork and her French
toast that no longer seemed remotely edible.  She was going to eat them
anyway.  The conversation started up around the table again.  Everyone was
carefully talking about anything but what had just happened.  Then she felt
Demon’s big hand cross in front of her, wrap around the side of her face, and gently
but firmly turn her to meet his searching chocolate eyes.

“My dad’s a dick,” she
said quietly into that questioning stare.

“Yeah, he is,” was his to
the point answer.  “Your mom and sister are no prize packages either,” he added
grimly.

Clytie sputtered out a
short and not funny laugh.  “Sara’s caught in the middle.  I think she feels
like she has to make up for the rest of us since she is the only one they have
left.”

“She should have fought
for you.”

Clytie shook her head
sadly.  “She wanted to, I think . . .”

“But it wasn’t
appropriate
,”
he finished for her.  “Heard that shit the first time.”

Clytie pulled in a deep
breath and blew it out.  “It doesn’t do anyone any good to get mad about it.”

“It might make you feel
better.”

“If you think saying out
loud that my family doesn’t care about me will make me feel better you haven’t
been paying attention.”  She said it, out loud, and still managed to hold back
the tears that wanted to fall.

“I resent that,” Ben said
unexpectedly, drawing Clytie’s surprised eyes his way, another rare look of
dead serious on his face.

“So do I,” Mac added in
his always serious voice, his eyes on Clytie.  She was surprised enough at
their reaction that it took her a moment to shift gears and answer.

“I’m sorry?”  She wasn’t
apologizing but they chose to take her question that way.

“And so you should be. 
We
,”
Ben pointed a finger around the table, “are your family, and
we
,”
again
the finger went around, “most definitely do care about you.”

“He’s right,” Cassandra
agreed, her chin jutting up.  “And I was your family before we both mated into
this pack, so I definitely resent that statement.”