Taken by the Greek Billionaire(37)
Penny took a deep breath and tried to slow the racing of her heart. Sebastian’s words were…disturbing because she felt it too, the insane passion that flared between them. The need to fuck and fuck and it never felt like it was enough. The suit of armor…
“I just want to check in with my sisters,” she said, giving up a secret. “Make sure they’re okay.”
“Fine on the condition that you tell me the full story.”
“God, Sebastian, you can’t just give for once without getting something in return?”
“We have that in common then.”
What choice did she have? Though it was unlikely there would be an email Penny had to check. She had to. “Fine. I’ll tell you after I’ve checked my email.”
He pushed his chair back from his desk and pointed at the laptop. “Do it here then. Put your logins in.”
She did and in moments her account flashed up. One message was in the inbox. And it was from Madonna aka Rachel. No! Penny clicked on it quickly, her heart racing all over again. When the words flashed on the screen she gasped. “My sister…I have to…she needs me….” The words tumbled out of her.
“You sister what? Tell me, Penny.”
“She’s in trouble. I have to go to her.”
“Let me see.” Sebastian pushed her aside and ran his gaze over the email, comprehension dawning. “A honey trap.”
One that is going horribly wrong. She was shaking now, jittery, needing to do something, to help her sister in some way and yet how? The situation seemed almost impossible. Rachel was just across London but Sebastian was never going to let her go. Here you will remain.
“Yes.” The whispered words were barely audible and yet Sebastian heard them anyway. “And it isn’t working.”
“For fucks sake, Penny,” he breathed, shock lacing his words. “I can see that. She needs help immediately and no wonder. I know Dominic Rimeria. He’s ruthless. He’d never be taken in that way and if he found out he was….”
“I know that! You think we didn’t check all this out?” She shouted, because Penny was angry now. It came out of nowhere, snapping her out of her funk. Thank God. Anger was so much easier to channel than worry and Rachel would need her to do just that. “Rachel was sure she could handle it though. The plan was flawless.”
“As flawless as yours?” he asked. “Because from where I’m standing it was hardly a rousing success.”
“Of course it was. I got the money didn’t I, and I got you.”
“Me?” His tone changed and the look in his eyes was suddenly far more intense than she’d ever seen. Shit. Penny backtracked quickly, unbelieving those words had slipped out. It was the anger, the worry, hell she needed to be doing something.
“I mean I got to have sex with you,” she said with deliberate flippancy. “I wanted you the moment I saw your picture. You’re hot, Sebastian, and you’re amazing in the sack.”
“Do not do that,” he growled.
“Do what?”
“Put those fucking barriers up. Just be honest with me for once. Tell me what in God’s name brought you all to this in the first place? What could possibly send you down these roads? A property? Do you need a home this badly?”
Honest. Be honest. Penny wanted to laugh but it was more the hysterical kind than the genuinely amused. Honesty was reserved for Rachel and Lyra and had been for over a decade. For everyone else it was twistable, changeable, whatever suited their purposes, their goals. But Sebastian, could she really tell him the truth? Was there any choice anymore? “It’s not for us.”
“Then for who?”
“It’s for all the other like us, Sebastian. You ask and you ask and now here’s your answer. Don’t blame me if you don’t like it. Lyra, Rachel, and I are foster sisters. We met when we were in our early teens in a group foster home. Things were…well they were not easy. We were all pretty cute and that is not a good thing to be when you’re a ward of the state.”
He started and shot forward, surprising her, before gripping her around the arms. “Are you saying….”
Penny shook her head quickly even as the memories flashed through her mind. Older boys with their rough hands, the three sisters ensuring they never left one another alone when a male was around. “No. At least not like that, but it was…difficult. Thankfully we were tough. Others were not. We promised ourselves when we left that home at sixteen with nothing but a few clothes and a nasty little bedsit that we would do everything we could to make sure other girls were looked after properly. Taken care of.”