Wild Lust(41)

“Was it their idea or yours?”

Charlie smiled, hoping to break her sister’s cold demeanor. “Truthfully? Theirs. But I’m glad they made me come.”

A slight smile came and went before Shannon pulled her lips into a thin line. “Mine, too. They threatened to hunt you down and drag you back if I didn’t agree to talk to you. Nosy-ass men.” She nodded, turned her back, and walked away from the screen door.

Charlie opened the door and followed Shannon into the living room. A large couch dominated the room along with a stone fireplace centered on the longest wall. The furnishings reflected her sister’s laid-back style with tans and earth tones along with a few more colorful pieces thrown in to brighten the room.

“This looks a lot like Blane’s and Reese’s home.”

Shannon sat down in an easy chair and motioned for her to sit on the casual-style couch. “It should. Their families came to Forever around the same time. I think they may have even helped each other build their houses.”

An awkward silence followed with the only sound coming from the front yard. The men laughed and joked with each other, making a direct contrast to the tension between the sisters. Charlie dropped her gaze to the patterned rug lying over the hardwood floor.

“I’m sorry.”

Charlie jerked her head up. “For what?”

“For telling you to get lost yesterday.” Shannon’s gaze locked onto hers.

“I don’t blame you. I’m sorry, too.”

“Yeah, well, I was kind of upset when you shot Daniel. For the second time.”

Charlie bit her lower lip and tried not to laugh. “Yeah. Although this time I didn’t actually mean to shoot him. Things just got out of hand. He must really hate me.”

Shannon shook her head and chuckled. “You’re not his favorite person right now.” She narrowed her eyes. “Good thing he’s a werewolf, or he’d be dead.”

Charlie swallowed hard. She’d wanted to ease into the dreaded conversation, but Shannon had taken the direct approach. She eased forward to sit on the edge of the couch and lowered her voice to a whisper. “Shannon, how can you do it? How can you live with them? You know what they are. Please, please come home with me. Let me take you back to Boston.”

Even as she said the words, she felt a pain rip into her heart. Could she leave and never see Blane and Reese again? But didn’t she have an obligation to keep her sister safe?

“Why?”

“Why?” Charlie gaped at her. “I just told you why.”

Shannon stood and walked over to the front window. She pressed her palm to the glass as though wanting to touch her lovers before turning back to Charlie. “Do you remember our father telling us how to tell the difference between a bad deal and a good one?”

“Of course I do. But what has that to do with anything?”

“He said to listen to your gut. If you felt like the deal was going south or would cost too much, you’d feel it in your gut. It’s about the only sound piece of advice he ever gave us.”

Charlie could see her father, sitting behind the massive mahogany desk, refusing to listen to their pleas for him to play with them. She remembered the one day when he’d brought all three daughters into his home office and told them how business worked. She hadn’t paid much attention to his talk about dollars and percentages, but she remembered him talking about his gut. He’d followed his gut all the way into growing a successful worldwide corporation.

“Too bad his gut never told him to pay more attention to his children and his wife.”

“How do you know it didn’t? Maybe he just refused to listen to it.”

Charlie noted the way her sister stood. She seemed more confident, more secure in herself and…content. “I still don’t see what this has to do with you living with a couple of monsters.”

Anger flashed in her sister’s eyes. “They’re not monsters. They’re good, honest, hardworking men who love me with all their hearts. And I love them back with all of mine.”

“How? How can you love someone who changes into an animal?” She winced as she said the word “animal,” recalling Reese’s definitions of a real animal. Could he be right? Could being a man be more than what he looked like on the outside?

“I don’t know if you can understand this, Charlie, but, when I first met them, I felt a connection, a bond between us. I’ve never experienced anything like it before. But that connection was deep inside me. It took me a while to recognize it for what it was.”

Charlie dragged in a slow breath. “It’s a link between the three of you. Like a cord that’s been tied to you and to them. An incredibly powerful, invisible cord that can never be broken.”