Dahlia's Kiss

STERLING’S TALE

“Good morning, beautiful,”Cole was lying on his side with a mischievous grin on his full lips. The sheet only partially obstructed my view of his flaccid cock, but I could clearly see the bulge of where it rested against his thigh. Following the line of my vision, he grasped himself and squeezed, simultaneously squeezing something inside of me in the process. “Looks like you want some breakfast.”

I chuckled nervously. “No, thank you. I do, but I also have something really important to deal with, and I have to be at work in a few hours.”

“What’s this really important thing?” Cole asked, reaching for his boxers.

“I obtained some new information last night. I want the rest of the guys to come over so we can all discuss it together.” I grabbed my robe and headed for the shower. Cole followed, probing me for information.

“Like what? I’m here now. Can I get a little sneak peek?”

“That would hardly be fair,” I told him.

“Does it involve any of us?”

I turned and gave him a disapproving gaze. “This isn’t twenty questions, Cole. You can wait until the others get here. I’m getting in the shower. Would you please call Sterling and Damian and ask them to come over?”

“If I do, can I join you in the shower?

“You are so bad!” I announced as I closed the door and locked it behind me.

The hot water felt so good on my skin. I stood under the spray doing nothing for several minutes except enjoying the heat. It seemed like no time at all before I heard the voices beyond the door and knew the rest of my men had arrived. I wasn’t sure how Sterling, or Hunter since that was his real name, was going to react to knowing that Damian had hired someone to spy on him. A little part of me hoped he was mad after the stunt he pulled with my phone.

Gingerly stepping out onto my mat, I patted myself dry and donned my robe once more. Out in the hall, Sterling leaned against the wall, eyeing my form through the thin material. “Nice and clean, huh?”

“If this is about to be a joke about how you can make me dirty, can you save it?”

“You know, it’s been a few days since I fed.”

“And?”

“And I would appreciate it if you would give a shit enough about me to allow me to feed. I notice you’re nice and rosy-cheeked.” He gestured towards my face, and I brought my hand to my skin, feeling the warmth there for myself.

“It’s from the hot water.”

“Sure, it is. I’m sure it has nothing to do with the shit-eating grin Cole’s wearing and the fact that your bedroom reeks of him.” Sterling pulled himself off the wall and turned toward the kitchen where the others congregated.

There were some days that I really didn’t like him much. Praise whatever powers that be that they didn’t see fit to send only him as my mate. If that had happened, it would have been incredibly easy to tell fate where to shove it.

I caught Damian’s eye, and he nodded to me.

I didn’t even bother dressing. That would take too long, and I needed to get this all out quickly before I either lost my nerve, or Sterling got annoyed and left. There were already cracks in his façade from needing to feed.

I pulled my robe tighter and stepped into the middle of my men.

“Sterling.” I looked at the detective and gave him a warm smile. “We have a few things we need to discuss with you. Some things have come to light that we need clarification on.”

“We?” he asked, meeting each of the men eye to eye before resting his gaze on Damian, who looked away quickly.

“Yeah.” I stepped in close to him, trying to put as much space between his body and Damian’s as I could. When Damian didn’t speak up, I took the reins. “Damian hired a private detective to look into you and Cole to make sure I was safe.” Both men made a noise and opened their mouths to protest. I put a hand up, indicating I wasn’t finished.

“It’s nothing personal,” Damian said. “It’s no different than Sterling investigating us himself. Except we were at a disadvantage because no one was looking at him. I wanted to make sure we were all on level playing ground.”

I was going to need to cut to the chase quickly.

“Sterling, there are things in your background I don’t quite understand.” I looked at him and saw him biting his lower lip. “What happened with your sister?”

Looking at the floor, Sterling took a step toward the door and Cole blocked him in. “Dahlia asked you a question.”

“One I don’t care to answer,” Sterling replied. Everyone looked at him expectantly, encircling him in a tight cluster. “What the fuck. Can’t I have anything sacred?”

“Not with a situation like this, you can’t. We need to trust each other completely, and no one knows who you really are, do they, Hunter Brand?” My use of his real name made him spin around and face me. I gasped when he put his face in mine and leered at me angrily.

“Don’t ever use that name again. Hunter Brand is dead. Long dead. And no one wants him revived.”

Cole blinked a couple of times, as if in shock. “Who the hell is Hunter Brand?”

“Don’t fucking worry about it.” Sterling tried to push through, but Damian and Cole held rank.

“Come on, Sterling. Let us in. How are we supposed to trust you if you keep so many secrets?” Damian put his hand on the detective's shoulder and his cold as ice exterior began to melt.

“Can we at least sit down?” he asked. “This might take a while.”

“Sure.” On my approval, everyone filed into the small dining room and took a seat around the kitchen table. There were exactly enough chairs for everyone to get a seat, plus Bean, who perched on the back of the couch where he could observe the meeting.

“What do you know?” Sterling asked.

“Just start at the beginning,” I prodded.

He let out a healing sigh. The kind that says someone is ready to let go of trauma that they’ve held onto for far too long. His mouth was still stretched into an unforgiving frown, but his eyes had hope in them. It was a hope that stemmed from having no one for so long, and now having three sets of eyes looking back at him, waiting to offer some kind of absolution.