They didn’t even bother to ask for my opinion, or ask me if I was okay with it.
I wasn’t.
Not at all.
Chapter Twenty-nine
It was Quinton who brought me clothes while Julian and Tyson began to dig a hole in front of the brick wall. I was surprised when Quinton dropped a small pile of my own clothes in my lap.
Before I could utter a thank you, he leaned in and kissed me gently on the forehead. Then he turned to Abel and ordered coldly, “Get her dressed.”
I’d stopped crying again. It was as if a switch had been flipped off inside of me and I was left empty again. I knew, soon enough, the switch would be flipped again and I’d feel something I was better off not feeling. There was nothing I could do to stop it.
Abel helped me to my feet and I stood on shaking legs. I let the towel drop to my feet, not caring that I now stood there naked. Addison moved to stand beside his brother. They stood shoulder to shoulder, like a muscular wall before me, blocking me from view of the others. They might have had the decency of blocking me from the others but that didn’t mean they didn’t take the opportunity to eyeball my body. Because they did. Thoroughly.
I didn’t have it in me to care. I stood still and let them look their fill, not even bothering to try and cover myself.
They both sighed heavily at the same exact time, making the same exact sound.
“You’re too thin, Ariel.” Addison said when he looked me in the eyes again.
“I didn’t notice it until now, but my twin is right. You’re too thin. You don’t notice it until you take your clothes off,” Abel agreed with his brother.
Okay, so maybe they had been checking out my body for reasons other than one’s I’d thought.
“I imagine,” Quinton said from directly behind me, “our Ariel has not had the easiest of lives. Which would likely explain why she’s underweight. Give her time and a healthy environment and she’ll get where she needs to be. Now,” his chest brushed my back as he stepped into me, “let’s get you dressed, baby. I sent Dash and Damien back over to your place to clean up the bathroom. I know you’re uncomfortable around them and have been ever since you spied on us in the kitchen. You might want to have your clothes on before they get back. Then again, maybe not. The view’s great and it might go a long way towards bringing them over to your side.”
His rough, calloused hands traveled lightly down my sides leaving a trail of fire in their wake. My breath caught in my throat at the unexpected touch and I couldn’t help the shiver that ran through my body. My nipples hardened and the twins both made low noises in the back of their throats at the view.
How embarrassing.
Quinton’s hands stopped at my hips. He simply stopped moving and held perfectly still save for his chest. His chest I felt rising and falling from behind me. He buried his face in my neck and inhaled deeply.
“Please, please, get dressed, Ariel.” He groaned. “Now is not the time for any of us to be fighting our dicks getting hard.”
“Because you accidently killed my mother, or because you’re about to bury her in your basement?” I asked softly.
“It was an accident,” he said, his voice as softly as mine had been. “I would never do anything to intentionally cause you pain, but I told you I’d take care of you in whatever way I saw fit and you wouldn’t always like it. This goes hand in hand with that.”
“I know it was an accident,” I assured him. The rest I was avoiding.
“Please don’t hate me,” he whispered. “I couldn’t bear it if you hated me. I’ve been waiting for you for longer than you can imagine.”
I didn’t know what he meant by that, so I said the only thing I could. I told him the truth.
“I don’t hate you,” I said. “To hate someone, you have to feel something, and right now, I don’t feel anything.”
He let me go abruptly and stepped back. His hands fell away from my hips, leaving me feeling oddly bereft.
“Get dressed,” he ordered me in a husky voice. “We’ll talk more about this later when it’s not so fresh and it’s just you and me.”
That didn’t sound like such a good idea. The talking part. I didn’t much care for him when he opened his mouth. And I didn’t much care for how much I liked it when he touched me and how empty I felt when he let me go. I also didn’t think there should ever come a time when it was just him and me.
Addison held up a black t-shirt for my inspection. Across the chest there was a white skull wearing an eye patch over its left eye and a pirate hat on top. It could have been a black garbage bag for all I cared, so long as it covered me up it was fine by me. Addison put it over my head as I shoved my arms through the holes. He pulled the shirt down to my waist.
Abel knelt in the dirt in front of me with a pair of red, lacy panties in his hands. He picked up one foot and slipped it through a leg hole. He did the same with the next foot. Then he slid them slowly up my legs. When he had them in place snuggly on my hips, he ran the backs of his knuckles down my thighs in a soothing caress.
“I forgot shoes,” Quinton said.