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Releasing me, he lowers to his knees and throws off the mask. The second he lifts my dress at the slit, the cool summer air hits my bare sex, and at the tearing sound, I look down to see he’s broken the string of my panties. The garment falls to the ground beside us, and he hikes my leg up, his movements frantic and rushed, as if he fears he’ll stop himself any moment.
Soft lips clamp to my clit, and as his tongue drags over the sensitive bit of flesh, my belly clenches, and I reach down to grab a handful of his hair. “Oh, God!”
He laps up my juices, tonguing my flesh as though he can’t bear to leave one drop behind. His scars tickle my skin, and I dig my nails into his scalp, crying out, while he eats like a ravenous beast who hasn’t had a meal in days. The merciless tug of his lips draws my hips away from the wall, and I tip my head back, palm against the stones behind me, searching for something to squeeze.
“Lucian! Please.” I don’t know what I’m begging him for. More? Mercy? An end? All I know is my belly is tight, and my muscles are burning for this man and his delicious wrath.
“Hold your dress open.” His voice is husky and demanding, and I do what he says, holding it open for him. Without breaking contact with my flesh, as he loosens his belt with a jerk of his arm, springing himself free. Tilting my head to the side, I watch as he strokes himself, the sight of his thick and obviously hungry cock winding a thrill inside of me.
I squirm against his mouth, the scratch of my dress against the stones only adding to the sounds of lust filling the air, as I let out a moan.
“Lucian? Lucian?” The distant sound of Laura’s voice sends a rush of panic through me, and I push at the top of his head to break his hold of me.
“Wait. It’s your mother.”
At first, he doesn’t stop, but with a bit more prodding, he backs away from me. I drop the fabric, watching him tuck his still fully-erect cock back into his pants. “What the hell is she doing out of bed?” Swiping his mask up from the ground, along with my discarded panties, he straightens to a stand, wiping off the small bits of grass from his slacks, and replaces the mask over his face. He tucks my panties into his pocket and takes my hand, leading me back in through the glass door.
The room is dead silent.
The music has stopped.
We make our way through the crowd toward the center of it, and I skid to a halt and slap a hand over my mouth.
Lucian turns his face away, shrugging out of his coat. “Jesus, mother.”
“Lucian, there you are.” Laura’s face beams with a smile, as she stands in the center of the packed atrium without a single stitch of clothing on her body. Like she’s oblivious to the gasps and stares of onlookers.
My heart hurts for her, as I absorb the humiliation she apparently doesn’t yet feel.
Rand wraps a coat around her, and I slide my mask up, grab Lucian’s coat, and lurch forward, using the second one to conceal the front of her body where it’s still exposed.
“I’ll take her back to her room.” Shielding her as much as I can, I push through the crowd and guide Laura out through the atrium doors.
Twisting against me, Laura physically objects, turning in the direction of the party. “Where are we going? I need to speak to Lucian.”
“Laura, where’s Nell?”
“Who’s Nell? Have you seen Amelia? I can’t find her anywhere.”
Halfway to the elevator, we run into Nell, whose eyes grow wide and panicked as she hustles toward us. “Where was she?”
“She walked right into the masquerade. Everyone … everyone saw her.” I flinch at the mental replay of it. “God, where were you, Nell?”
“I just stepped away a moment for a cigarette.” Taking the lead in front of us, she holds onto Laura’s arm and pushes the elevator button.
The doors open, and we take it up to the second floor, where Laura squirms to break our hold. “I need to speak to my son. Why won’t you let me speak to my son?”
“Laura.” Setting a hand against her cheek draws her eyes to mine, the rheumy sadness in them tugging at my chest. “I’ll ask him to come up here to speak with you. But please, you need to get dressed and get into bed, okay?”
Her gaze flits to Nell, who, to her credit, doesn’t say a damn thing, and Laura nods. “Okay, but I need to speak to him right away. It’s urgent.”
Helping her to her bedroom, Nell and I gather up fresh underwear and a nightgown. The pad on the bed where she lay earlier is soaked, which is what likely prompted her to remove her clothes. After helping her to the bathroom, Nell gives her a quick shower, while I clean up her soiled bed, replacing the old with new sheets. The dress rubbing against my bare skin has me feeling as exposed as Laura was as I move about, but I ignore it. When the two emerge from the bathroom, Laura is fully clothed again.
As I help her to bed and tuck the blanket around her, Laura smiles up at me. “She never pays attention anymore.”
I glance back to Nell, uncertain whether Laura is aware of what happened this evening. I hope she isn’t. I hope whatever has taken over her mind protects her from this. “Who?”
“Amelia. She always kept those pills out on the dresser, and I warned her Roark would get to them.”
Another glance back at Nell, and both of us frown. “What happened?”
“Well, what do you think happened? She wasn’t paying attention. You must always pay attention to your children. Always.”
For a moment, I wonder if she’s lucid right now, because she has never once acknowledged that her grandson was missing, or dead. What she’s suggesting is that her daughter-in-law essentially murdered her grandson by leaving pills where he could reach them.
Warm, wrinkled hands grab hold of my arm, and she lifts her head off the pillow. “Promise me you won’t leave the pills out, the way she did.”
“I promise I won’t.”
“Good. You’ll make a much better mother to my Lucian’s children than she ever was.”
I clear my throat, the embarrassment of her words heating my cheeks.
“I’m going to sleep now, if that’s okay.”
“Yes, of course.” I exit the room with Nell in tow, my mind spi
Nell closes the door behind us and blows out a breath. “Way too much excitement for one night.”
The humiliation still coursing through me on Laura’s behalf swells to anger. “Why would you do that? Why would you leave her alone like that?” Perhaps what I’m feeling is irrational, but I don’t care. Tonight wasn’t fair to Laura. Stepping away for a smoke isn’t a good enough excuse for what this poor woman just went through.
Face screwing up into a frown, she gives me a onceover. “Don’t you fucking judge me. Not when you had her son’s face between your thighs.” Her words hit my conscience like a punch to the gut.
“You saw us? You were watching us?” My momentary shock and embarrassment twists into disgust. “That’s why you didn’t hear her get out of bed. Why you didn’t see her get undressed, or leave the room. You were too busy spying on us?”
“Kinda hard to miss when you guys were out in the open.”
We weren’t, though. She’d have had to look for us, in order to see where we were, hidden in the shadows. “Do you have any idea how humiliating that must’ve been for her? All those fucking people seeing her like that? And Lucian! My God, if he can even look those people in the eye after this--”
“Oh, poor Lucian. Let me tell you something about your little Romeo. He didn’t want kids. He didn’t want Roark. And I’m guessing he didn’t want the baby Amelia was pregnant with when she killed herself. In fact, I’d bet that’s why she killed herself.”