“Then what on earth do you think you’re doing standing naked in my room?”
“My brothers.” He pushed his hands through his hair. “I’m afraid they thought this would be funny.” He looked down at his arousal and shook his head. He grabbed the suitcase and his wet clothes. “I’ll find another room. Sorry,” he said, before exiting and going into the next bedroom along, where he could see Alexander had already installed his things.
As he stepped into the shower, he contemplated the beautiful woman with the long, glossy dark hair and the most amazing breasts he’d seen. Full, for someone so petite, and with luscious dark skin and even darker peaked nipples. They were beautiful and he’d a lot to compare them to. He took a little longer in the shower than was necessary as he imagined how he could pleasure such a body. Indra, he presumed. His step-sister. The woman he would have to pay off.
He returned to his brothers half an hour later and found them in the billiard room. He sat in the easy chair and watched them. Harrison had all the strength of an athlete, while you couldn’t take your eyes off Alexander. He had charm and charisma in spades.
“When did you see him last?” Alexander asked.
“Charles?” He couldn’t ever remember having referred to his father by anything other than his name. It was indicative of their cool relationship. “Ten years ago when he told me never to darken his door again.” He took a sip of whiskey. “It wasn’t what you’d call a warm invitation. How about you?”
Alexander shrugged. “He came by my London apartment, urged by his new mistress to make amends. It didn’t work.”
“Nor me,” said Harrison. “You can’t do what he did to you two, then turn around and apologize and expect everything to be all right.” He squared his shoulders. “I might not have had it as bad as you both did, but I could never forgive him what he did to you.”
“For a spoiled brat you’ve got your values right,” said Sebastian to Harrison’s frowning face.
“No,” said Alexander. “There was no way he should ever have been forgiven.”
“My thoughts exactly,” said Sebastian. They were, but then why did he feel bad? He rubbed his gut where the ache for his family had always manifested itself, ever since he was a child and so blatantly rejected by his father. “And the old man hardly suffered.”
“Got himself shacked up with a new mistress.”
“And the mistress’s lovely daughter.” Alexander and Harrison looked across at Sebastian, whose mind had slipped back to two spectacular breasts. “Did you see her?”
He looked at them, his face as implacable as ever. He’d made a fortune at the poker tables by not giving away his thoughts or feelings. It was second nature now.
“And why would I have seen her?”
The two men looked from one to the other. Alexander shrugged and looked away. “Just thought you might have done.”
“It’s a big house,” Sebastian said mildly, his thoughts returning to her, except this time to her long, slender legs and the dark triangle of hair which sat at their crux. His brothers thought they’d tricked him. They’d done him a favor.
“It’s a small house if there are two of you who think you own it, in it.”
He looked up. “Charles’s step-daughter?” The others nodded. “She doesn’t own it. How could she think she does? No, I’ll pay her off. She looked after the old man after her mother died.”
Several car doors slammed shut and they could hear voices approach the house.
Alexander tossed the billiard cue onto the table. “Show time.”
Alexander put his arm around Harrison’s shoulders. Sebastian noticed their closeness with regret. He was glad they had each other, but, as the eldest, knew he’d missed out on a sibling relationship. But he didn’t sense it viscerally. He’d had a long time to cool off his heart until it had hardened like a fossil in rock. People had tried to prod it into life since that time, so long ago, when he’d surrendered his heart in order to survive, but they’d always failed.
He followed them out of the billiard room with its heavy, masculine drapes and furniture, and into the library where his father’s solicitor was already seated, his assistants shuffling papers between them.
There were four other chairs set out in front of the desk, one of which was already occupied. This time, her dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail and she was dressed in black trousers and a black shirt. As he took a seat beside her, he caught her eye and she glared at him. She crossed her arms and looked directly at the lawyer. Sebastian guessed he deserved the snub.
“I thought this meeting was for my father’s beneficiaries only,” said Alexander, never one to be backward in coming forward.
“It is,” said Mr. Jackson, an immaculately-suited solicitor. His gray hair was slicked back from a bespectacled face, and he looked over the half-frames at the three brothers. “I requested Miss Anand to be here,” he said.
An alarm bell rang in Sebastian’s mind. His brothers made dismissive noises, which the solicitor ignored. Sebastian admired the old man’s inability to be threatened by the three men.
“Thank you for coming,” Mr. Jackson said. “And may I offer my condolences for your father’s”—he looked at Indra—“and your step-father’s passing. A very sad loss for you all.”
This time, neither of his brothers made a sound. The only sound came from Indra—a kind of stifled noise like an animal in pain. All three men looked at her, but she held a trembling hand to the side of her face, hiding her reaction. But they had heard it and looked from one to the other in surprise.
The solicitor smiled at Indra and looked down at his papers once more. “Your father instructed me to meet with all four of you after his passing to inform you of the contents of his will.”