The Proviso (76 page)

She sighed as it went on and on, never quite
satisfying her but not wanting to let go, until at once her legs
trembled. It didn’t burst so much as bloom and make her feel like
she had had an epiphany. She clenched around him and pressed back
against him for more, more.

Sebastian pushed back hard enough to make her cry
out as her body gave her what he had promised. He began to move
then, both hands back on her hips, pulling her to him, thrusting
into her the way she’d expected to begin with.

And as his strokes got shorter and harder, faster
and more urgent, she came again, the way she’d expected the first
time, with flash and energy and the lovely, familiar sensations in
all the familiar places.

He buried himself in her and shuddered as he came,
his fingers digging into the flesh of her hips and pulling her back
to him as he emptied himself inside her.

“What
was
that?” she breathed.

“That,” he replied, hushed, “is the elusive and
infamous G-spot. It’s what I wanted to do to you the night you came
here to Ford. I wanted to make love to you so badly that night,
Eilis, to tell you it was just me, tell you I loved you. I was
afraid you’d be disappointed that it was
just
me, that I
wasn’t the man in your head.”

“I’m so sorry, Sebastian,” she breathed. “I—”

He put his fingers over her mouth. “Don’t. We both
made mistakes, but we’re here now, so it’s all good.”

They awakened when footsteps sounded overhead and
came down the stairs to the studio. Sebastian’s mouth curled in a
wicked smile, his eyes still closed.

“How long have we been here, Sebastian?” Eilis
asked, curled up against him, his arm around her.

“I have no idea.”

“How did they get in the house?”

“Knox and Giselle, a few more of my cousins, are
free to come and go as they please. They have codes for the keypad
at the front door.”

“Is this a sign that we’ve been missed and need to
get back to our lives?”

“I’m guessing yes. Or else they want to use the
bed.”

Eilis laughed. “Perhaps you should padlock the
studio door.”

It was only a minute or two before a woman’s voice
rang out. “I found them.” Then, “It’s been a week and a half, you
two. Wall Street burned you both in effigy three days ago. And
Sebastian? Air this place out. Even the turpentine can’t cover the
smell.”

Sebastian only chuckled and raised his voice above a
murmur for the first time in days. “All right,” he croaked. “Get us
some clothes.”

Not long after that Eilis heard the thwack of
clothes on the floor at the foot of the staircase.

A long, slow shower and an even longer exchange of
oil massages, all the while snickering and laughing at the thumps
and squeals, giggles and groans directly overhead.

“Freaks,” Sebastian muttered with a wry chuckle.

Eilis’s jeans were loose, surprising her; she’d not
really noticed how her body had changed since Sebastian had cleaned
out her refrigerator.

He noticed, however, and quirked an eyebrow at her,
unhappy about that state of affairs. “I’m going to have to take you
to Subway twice a week for the next few weeks,” he groused as he
followed her up the stairs. “How much have you lost?”

“I don’t know.”

“Too much is how much. I wanted you to stop going
hungry, not lose weight.”

“So you made very clear,” she said with a chuckle,
unexpectedly pleased with both her weight loss and the fact that
he’d rather she have more padding.

It was nine o’clock in the evening. Which evening,
Eilis didn’t know; Giselle and Bryce still hadn’t emerged from
wherever they had gone.

Eilis heard a loud gasp, then a moan from behind the
other door in the corridor.

“Deviants!” Sebastian yelled as he pounded on the
door, then led the way up to the kitchen.

Eilis helped Sebastian scrounge leftovers from their
retreat from society. Strawberries. Flat champagne, which he made
her drink and she did, straight from the bottle. Exquisite
chocolate that he fed her, then followed with deep kisses so that
they could share it.

The Virgin and her husband emerged from the bedroom
while she and Sebastian kissed. They were rumpled and breathless,
but jovial. “You guys inspired us,” she said as she bumped
Sebastian out of the way of the refrigerator with her hip, uncaring
that Sebastian had his tongue in Eilis’s mouth. Her husband came up
behind her, reached between her legs, and squeezed. She screeched
and hit her head on the freezer door.

Everybody laughed except Giselle, who rubbed her
head and pouted.

“Well, Sebastian,” she finally said as she snatched
berries from Eilis and leaned back against Bryce, who wrapped his
arms around her and kissed her on the top of her head. “I guess you
managed to spring the news on her without her keeling over.” He
rolled his eyes.

Eilis had something to say. “I want to thank you so
much for your kindness that week.”

“You needed it,” Giselle murmured with a warm smile.
“I get the feeling you haven’t had a lot of TLC in your life.”

Somewhere down deep inside, Eilis’s soul hurt,
because she didn’t know she’d missed it until it was pointed out to
her. Sebastian pulled her into his arms. She dug her nose into his
shoulder and smelled him: one part soap, one part him, one part
turpentine. After she’d collected herself, she turned to look at
Giselle again and whispered, “No. Not like that, no. Never. You
were my mother.”

There were tears in Giselle’s eyes and her mouth
trembled. Eilis didn’t think she could have spoken without letting
it all out.

“What day is it, anyway?” Sebastian asked.

“Sunday,” Bryce said. “We wouldn’t have bothered you
at all, but late Friday, the SEC approved a buy order Fen had made
for HRP.” Eilis’s gut clenched and her eyes widened. She felt
Sebastian’s huff of impatience. How soon their time together had
come to an end. “On the other hand,” he added, “I took it upon
myself to match him share for share. The SEC just cut me off at the
knees with OKH, so Jack’s been putting whatever he can find into
Eilis’s account. Kevin’s campaign is getting national coverage now
and Oth’s former anti-Taight buddies are refusing to talk about you
at all. What with OKH and now HRP wrapped up in it, people are
making connections left and right. At this moment, the whole
country’s just sitting back, eating popcorn, and enjoying the
fireworks. The Journal actually called us Pendergast Friday, so you
owe me ten bucks.”

Sebastian grinned. “Well, that only means I’m not
the only thug in this room now.”

Bryce barked a laugh, and Eilis looked at him, sorry
that she had eavesdropped on them, sorry that she had thought so
badly of the way he and Giselle expressed their love for each
other. “Thank you,” she whispered.

Bryce shrugged. “No skin off my nose. I don’t like
bullies.”

“He didn’t count on you joining up,” Sebastian said.
“Some days I wonder where that man’s long-term planning went. How
much OKH has Jack gotten for Eilis?”

“Two percent. I got another four before I got shut
down.”

Sebastian’s eyes widened. “Holy shit. That much! OKH
stock’s getting a little sparse around the trading floor now.”

“Jack can wring blood out of a turnip. Fen’s got
thirteen percent of HRP and I’m there with him at thirteen.” He
laughed again, and Eilis watched him carefully, beginning to
understand what Giselle saw in his face; the beauty of a warrior’s
battle scars, the mark of not only survival, but utter
dominance.

Where Bryce was Ares, though, Sebastian was
Dionysus, the god of wine, bringing an end to care and worry. “I’ve
been enjoying myself and entertaining my interns and juniors with
this all week long. They’re getting quite an education. I bought
you as much time as I could before I figured you should be rousted
out of your honeymoon for business tomorrow.”

“Let me get this straight. You have ten percent of
OKH and Eilis has two percent.”

Bryce nodded.

“I have twenty-three,” Sebastian said, “so
thirty-five percent amongst us. Fen controls fifty-one percent
himself, which means his board and employees probably own the other
fourteen percent.”

“They’re bailing.”

“It’s about damned time. Well, I think we can sit on
that and wait him out another year and a half. Are you up for going
to shareholder meetings now?”

Bryce chuckled wickedly. “I’m all for the games. I
vote Eilis comes too.”

“Yes! Oh, yes! I would love to!”

“It’s the HRP we’ve got to concentrate on now,”
Sebastian said to Bryce. “How much more can you get?”

“Probably as much as I want.”

“The SEC’s keeping me on a leash and if it weren’t
for Kevin beating Fen’s ass in the polls and Oth and company
backing off, I’d’ve been called to Washington by now. I’m not going
to try to get away with buying any of her stock. You wouldn’t
happen to know if Knox and the judge signed off on the receivership
yet, would you?”

Bryce started. “Oh, right. Yes.” He reached into his
back pocket and handed Sebastian an envelope. “Knox drew it up and
had it signed after Fen started buying shares at the IPO.”

Sebastian opened it and read it, then nodded and
handed it to Eilis.

“But,” Bryce added, “don’t worry about HRP. I’ll
take care of it.”

“I’d appreciate that,” Sebastian muttered absently,
his gaze on the ceiling. “I need to think a while. He’s not going
to let this go no matter how many ways we put him in check.”

“Other than Bryce buying up HRP shares,” Eilis said,
“I can’t see why anybody needs to do anything now but wait.
Business as usual.”

Sebastian looked at her speculatively, then said,
“Except for making ourselves a general pain in his ass, that’s
true. Next OKH board meeting is a week from Wednesday, nine
o’clock.”

“Got it.”

“I can’t wait to see his face when all three of us
walk in,” Eilis growled, feeling her Inner Bitch come back, and
now, perhaps, she would stay.

“Okay, then. Time for us to get going,” Giselle said
and pulled away from her husband’s grasp, wiping her
strawberry-sticky fingers on her jeans as she turned. Eilis’s eyes
widened when, for the first time, she noticed a gun sticking out of
her waistband.

“She never leaves home without it,” Bryce told her
when he noticed the look on her face. “Especially now that she’s
laid a hand on Trudy.”

“Fen’ll forgive anything but besmirching Trudy in
any way,” Sebastian observed.

Giselle looked down and away, her arms crossed over
her chest, and Eilis could see the muscle working in her jaw. Eilis
studied Giselle, beginning to understand what Sebastian had told
her. Ares and the Warrior Queen.

Their power overwhelmed her.

“What happened?” Sebastian asked Bryce quietly.

Bryce shrugged. “Lilly made the announcement and all
hell broke loose.”

“She had to know that would send Giselle up the
tree.”

“Well, there’s a reason for that,” Bryce murmured.
“Lilly needed to set something right with Giselle, too.”

Eilis looked at Sebastian, who seemed as confused as
she.

Giselle sniffled and, at a loving nudge from Bryce,
reluctantly began to explain her relationship with Trudy, her
cheeks flaming.

Three children.
Eilis thought she could never
hate one woman so much, nor be so ashamed that that woman had given
her birth. Her time in foster care suddenly didn’t seem so bad by
comparison.

When she finished, Sebastian whispered, “You never
told me that.”

“I thought you’d tell me to suck it up,” she
muttered, and Eilis felt Sebastian flinch.

“What did your mother have to do with that?” Eilis
asked.

“After Étienne’s party, my mom told me— I didn’t
know—” Giselle gulped and dashed tears away with her fingertips.
“When Knox brought me home that day, my mom didn’t know what to do.
Fen helped her for years after my father died. Trudy didn’t know
that he helped us at all, much less how much, and Mom knew she
couldn’t support us on what she made. So she never confronted
Trudy. Fen didn’t know how cruel Trudy was to me and Mom didn’t
want to tell him. Mom springing that on me—the tribe—the way she
did, knowing what I’d do, was as much her apology to me as it was
to punish them for Eilis.”

Silence.

The tension, the sadness.

“What was everybody else doing?” Sebastian finally
asked.

“Watching,” Bryce said, clipped, hard. “Listening.
They needed a little dose of reality, in my estimation.”

There was a long silence and Eilis snuggled into
Sebastian’s arms.

“I’m sorry, Eilis,” Giselle whispered suddenly
without looking at her, her gaze still away and down. Eilis felt
her throat clog with sorrow. Bryce wrapped his arms around Giselle
and laid his cheek on her head, rocking her gently. “I didn’t know
how Fen felt about me until about a year ago.”

“Giselle,” Eilis whispered, “please don’t. It’s
weird for me, too. You can’t help how he sees you any more than I
can help how he sees me.”

She took a deep breath and she looked over at Eilis,
and Eilis didn’t know how she could have resented this woman for
even one second. The pleading and hope in her face was plain, and
it
wasn’t
her fault. No, Giselle wasn’t her sister.

She was the Virgin, Eilis’s mother.

* * * * *

68: UN
BEL DI

Eilis went back to work the next morning, two weeks
later than intended, dreading what she’d find. It had occurred to
her in the depths of that dark velvet bed, when Sebastian had one
of his rare naps, that she’d just gone through receivership and an
IPO successfully, only to let her company go to pot the minute it
was done.