Queen (Mistress & Master of Restraint) (62 page)

I hide my face into Whitt’s shoulder and I silently sob. This is surreal. Grant used to do that to Whitt constantly when he was being a dumbass. I always wondered if his head was misshapen from the constant thumping.

Niel awkwardly embraces his sister for a moment, patting her on the back. Her face barely reaches his chest with the foot difference in their heights. He steps back and stares at her.
“You look just like Dad and Whitt,” he whispers under his breath.

His face transforms from uncertainty to acceptance. He yanks her back and gives her a real hug, finally acknowledging that she’s part of his matched set- the only person on this earth that is his complete counterpart.

Whitt’s arms surround me to hold me up. Seeing my children hugging and smiling was something I never thought I’d experience. I had come to terms with my fate. I believed that the universe was punishing me for a heinous crime I committed in another lifetime.

“I was waiting to meet you. I can’t believe you’re here,” Ella’s soft voice giggles. “I’ve been asking everyone about you. Prissy tells me all
sorts of stuff.” She blushes.

“Who’s Prissy?” I ask in surprise and instantly I know. “She’s Katherine’s youngest isn’t she? Ella, you’re playing with fire. You didn’t tell her who you were did you?”

“No,” she says meekly, but I can tell she is lying. I glower at her and she fesses up. “I got in a fight with her sister, Whitney, though.”

“I should never have allowed you to go to
Our Lady of Mercy
.”
I grumble.

“It was fantastic,” Niel says impressed, his voice filled with pride. “Whitney can be a bitch.” As soon as the cuss word spills from his lips he looks guilty and says sorry under his breath.

“What happened?” I ask my son but Whitt answers and he looks smug.

“Priss and Ella get along just fine, but Whitney’s a miniature Adelaide. She was picking on a few of the scholarship kids and Ella put her in her place.”

“What did you do to your cousin?” I demand.

“I told her she wasn’t a Whittenhower so she should shut up.” Ella argues with me without a lick of remorse. “She smacked me and I laughed at her, like how you do when Kris makes you mad. It always works. She said I wasn’t one either so I should shut up. I laughed again and told her even if I get married I’m never changing my name. I’ll die a Whittenhower. She ignores me now. It’s awesome. The eighth graders are scared of me now.” She says proudly. 

‘When did this happen?” My fingernails claw into Whitt’s shirt. “He’ll take her because of this,” my voice breaks in worry.

“No, he won’t,” Niel says surely. He changes from a mischievous teenager to a man in a half a second. “He wouldn’t dare. We have a deal.”

“We need to finalize what we did this morning. I heard about this last week and this is one of the reasons I was in a hurry. Do you understand?” Whitt asks me, but with Daniel looking from his eyes. He’s in dominance mode.

“Ella, you’ll leave your cousins alone or you may become an interest of your Grandfather’s. That would be very bad.” He schools my daughter and she looks at him in indignation.

“You’re not my Dad. I’ll do what I want,” she says defiantly.

She’s never had a male figure in her life. Whitt and I did the right thing; I have no doubts now. At this second both of my children look exactly the same. I’d warned Whitt that she acted like he did as a child- a pain-in-the-ass.

“You’ll listen to whomever I tell you to, Ella,” I chastise her.

Whitt flows to his knees and crouches in front of her. He takes her hands in his and looks her in th
e eye. She immediately stills.

“I know this is difficult for you since you’ve never had to put up with anyone but your mom telling you what to do. I know you see us as equals, but I am not your equal. From this morning on you will look to me as a father and Niel as an older brother. You can fight it, but it will be futile and you’ll just anger your mother. Do you understand, Ella?”
“Yes,” she whimpers.

She isn’t used to men in general. This house is filled with women, with the exception of Roman being around. Even the teachers at her all-girls-school are female. She’s appropriately intimidated by Whitt and Niel. She’ll do as she’s told.

“Good,” he smiles grandly showing off his dimples. “I’m really nice, just ask your brother. He practically gets away with murder. But I will not tolerate discord within the family. I know you and Prissy are almost best friends, but it’s more than that- you’re cousins and so is Whitney. I don’t want you to put up with her crap, but don’t antagonize her either. Understood?”

“Yes, Sir,” she says, but her voice warbles. I see the light in her eyes- challenge.

“Don’t call me, Sir. I’m Dad to you.” He kisses her forehead and rises.

“Ella, introduce your brother to the rest of your household. I need a moment with your mother,” Whitt says as he rises to stand. 

Ella surprises me; she doesn’t look to me for confirmation, she simply does as she’s told. I usually have to beg her and she doesn’t listen to Fate at all. She needs a dad in her life.
Whitt wordlessly pulls me back into his embrace and holds me tightly. I bury my face in the crook of his neck and sigh.

“We’ll get through this. It’ll feel like a long time before we can live under one roof, but after the past nine years it will seem like an instant. Thank you for trusting me enough to go along with my plan,” the reverent tone in his voice warms me as much as it scares the shit out of me. 

He flutters a kiss to my cheek and then the hollow below my ear. My body lights up and I curse at it for betraying me. I don’t understand why he affects me this way, but he does. And I’m sure as hell not going to admit it. This path only leads to hell…

“Daniel,” I sigh involuntarily.

He takes the tone of my voice as invitation and kisses his way towards my lips. I try to push him away with a palm to his chest, but he just clasps it and holds it firmly until I can feel his heart beating rapidly underneath.

My body breaks out in goosebumps and my hair stands on end when his lips descend on mine. I whimper against his mouth. I don’t want to like it, but he kisses with expert precision- slow, smoldering, and consuming.

“We could go to your room,” he says breathlessly.

“No, we have to go chat with everyone in the living room.”
I don’t sound convinced.

“I only n
eed a few minutes,” he teases.

“Maybe I need more
than that?” I tease him back.

“My apologies, of course.
I just ache so much,” he whines and presses and releases his bulge to my hip.

“We can’t do it like this,” I protest when he pushes me against the outside wall of the house with a thump. I worry the neighbors will see, but it’s a screened-in porch. I fear that everyone in the living room heard the loud sound we made
when he pushed me to the wall.

“I ache,” he groans and his hands glide down and grip the backs of my knees. He lifts until I relent and wrap my legs around his hips. He circles his hips, grinding into me.
A low moan pours from my lips.

“We can’t do this, Daniel. It’ll be obvious.” I hiss when he hits just the right spot.

My body flashes with sweat when I realize I’m on my porch with my husband dry-humping me like a horny teenager. Uh- yeah, he’s still a teenager for another month. I’m fucking depraved and it turns me insane.

“We can and we are,” he growls and gives a few more pumps. “If we can’t go to your room,
we’re doing this right here.”

My head hits the wall with a thwack as I give into him. No one can say no to him; he won’t allow it. You just have to enjoy the ride. He goes from polite Whitt to a crazed Master in a split-second. His warm palms yank my shirt out of the way and squeeze my breasts until I gasp in pain. His lips crash against mine forcefully and sting.

I don’t give into anyone. I’ve never even relented to Marcus. I want to be Marcus’ equal. But for some reason I turn passive for Whitt. I instinctually know he’ll do everything in his power to protect me. He’ll always shoulder my weight. I allow him to take his pleasure from my body in gratitude.

Within seconds we’re groaning into one another’s mouths. My fingers dig into his back, inches above where my heels bite into his hips. I rock into him as he rolls his hips against mine. Fire courses through my body and coalesces in my core and erupts from my throat in a deep moan. Whitt bites my lip and hisses out his release. We stop moving. We stop breathing. We remain still and silent as his bulge pulses and beats against my quivering flesh.

I roll my glazed eyes and meet his heavily-hooded peepers. “You’re going to be the death of me,” I murmur.

“Never,” he says reverently. “We’re each other’s salvation.”

He places my feet on the floor and straightens my shirt. I don’t have the ability to voice what I meant. I meant that one day he’ll find the love of his life and leave me heartbroken. Less than twenty-four hours back into my life and I worry about the next time he’ll leave me again.

I giggle like a school-girl when I see the huge wet spot on the front of his trousers.
“Ha! It’s not all mine,” he teases and untucks his shirt to cover the growing spot.

“We’re so busted,” I sing. “There’s no way they won’t know what we were doing. We aren’t supposed to be hooking up, remember? This wasn’t very covert of you. Three hours into our marriage and you’re already outing us.” I adjust the front of his shirt to cover him up and ru
ffle his hair back into place.

“You’re my MILF, what can I say?” His infection grin spreads across his fa
ce and I shake my head at him.

“You’re incorrigible,” I laugh and s
tart putting myself to rights.

“Um… Your lips are a dead giveaway.” My fingers immediat
ely seek them out and I wince.

“Shit!” I hiss. They’re swelled up to the proportions of a Botox addict.

“The adults won’t give a shit and the kids might actually be happy that their mom has a man,” Whitt tries to reassure me. 

“Yeah, their
brother,” I say incredulously.

“I haven’t told Niel that yet. You’re the only one who knows. This afternoon I’m petitioning to become Ella’s adoptive father,” he says seriously and a second later his expression changes to teasing. “I should get the benefits of her mother’s bed, don’t you think?” His blue eyes shine with mischief and he
smirks his dimple-inducing grin.

“Yeah,” I snort. “How are we hiding this?” I gesture to him and me and the fact that it will be public knowledge.

“If Father doesn’t think to look, then he won’t know where to look. Money can hide anything and we only need a few years. Trust me, Queen,” he begs with the tone of his voice, the look in his eyes, and the expression on his face. 

“I do. Let’s go get into some trouble.” I
open the front door and sigh. 

Chapter Two

Ella’s high voice is chattering away about school with a captive audience. I try to slip around the outside of the room so no one takes notice. Niel’s eyes see me first. He scrunches his eyebrows and looks confused until his eyes light on Whitt. He smirks and shakes his head. His face flushes as red as a stoplight; so much for not being obvious.

Kristal looks amused and jealous. Fate blushes and looks fascinated by Whitt. I don’t look at Roman and I completely avoid Ade.

“How about some snacks? I’ll fix us up something,” I say cheerily. 

I rush to the kitchen not looking anyone in the eye. I don’t know why I feel so guilty. Innocent Regina meekly says from the depths of my conscience,
because you’re a grown woman over thirty and he hasn’t even reached twenty yet.
Jaded Queen happily supplies,
he’s your husband- fuck him already. Be proud of the cougar you are- ya lucky bitch!

I dip my head in the sink and turn on the faucet allowing the frigid water to clear the lust from my mind.

“How could you?” Adelaide accuses. Her voice is tight with fury.

“Haven’t you figured it out yet, Ade? There’s a Whittenhower gene that makes you all want to fuck me,” I say snidely, but the water muffles my sarcasm.

I do feel guilty that I’ve officially fucked around with three Whittenhowers- Grant, Ade, and now Whitt.

“Your father even tried to rape me,” I hiss at her.

I blot my short hair with a kitchen towel and stare her down. Queen was crowned early this morning in more ways than one.

I arrogantly smirk at her. It’s either that or
punch her in the face.

“Did you have to fuck my baby brot
her?” She looks lost and torn.

“No, I didn’t have to do anything for once. The question is: do I want to?”
She glares at me and I laugh.

“We’ve already established that he was mine a long time ago, didn’t we? I’d get out of my sight if I were you, you treacherous bitch. I don’t even want to look at you right now,” I hiss.

“What the fuck did I do?” She looks offended, but I can see the guilt in her eyes.