Chapter Ten

Holly and Jack stumbled, buzzing with happiness out of the Man Cave, waving cheerful good-byes to Marty and Kristy. It was an ungodly hour of the morning and Holly was just starting to feel the effects of a third attempt at a whale’s tooth shot. The cool air hit her with a slap, sobering her a little, head throbbing in the quiet as they strolled away from the pounding music and smoky air of Marty’s party den.

As Holly tripped inelegantly over a non-existent obstacle she giggled, glad for Jacks supporting hand. “Oops, I think that last shot took me past tiddly to slightly sloshed.”

“Tiddly or not, I still can’t believe you beat us in that last game. Shocked the hell out of Marty.”

Holly giggled. “Shocked me too.” She glanced at Jack, his face glowing serene in the moonlight, a smile playing around his lips. “I had fun tonight. Thanks Jack, it was just what I needed.”

“It was good to see you laugh.”

“It was nice to be amongst friends. To feel normal again.”

They silently walked back the way they’d came just a few hours before, hands clasped tightly. Their pace was slow, the hum between them thrumming with unconscious want.

Just before they reached the turn to his house, Jack squeezed her hand, and brought her to a stop, drawing her close into his arms. “We have to make a choice now.” He searched her face, staring deep into her eyes.

Holly’s heart hammered and rose into her throat as he caressed her cheek, cupped her chin and kissed her with tender slow resolve. Slipping his arms around her, hands nestling into the curve of her lower back, he pulled her against him.

She felt her face heat and flush with his touch. She became aware of his growing excitement pressing hard against her. She shivered with a desire, her body growing liquid in response to his clear signal of longing.

Jack pulled away, his face shadowed with moonlight and lust. “Do we go straight on to your place? Do I drop you home alone? He paused. “I want you to come home with me, Holly. Masie is there tonight for Dad, but I still don’t want him to wake in the morning without me. I need you with me. You make me feel like I’ve loved no one else. You’re the one. You’ve always been the one.”

Holly’s breath caught in her throat, emotion thickening her voice. “Yes, Jack. I’m not fighting this anymore. Take me home with you.”

He kissed her, mouth tender, cementing the knowledge deep in her heart that she’d made the correct choice. It felt so right, this next step they were going to take.

The short walk to Jack’s house was over in an instant, though Holly had no idea how she’ got there. Her feet was an inch off the ground, as she floated on Jack’s arm. Where twenty minutes before she’d felt fuzzy from the alcohol, now it was with anticipation. Every accidental touch sent shock waves in her belly.

The last two steps to his porch seemed like Mount Everest. At the summit, Jack turned to her on the darkened porch. In shadows, hazy with emotion, without words, their worlds collided. They melted into each other’s arms, primal need driving them far beyond normal control and civility.

Mouths hot, gasping, moans of passion the only communication needed.

* * * *

Jack moved her back, sudden desperate need for her multiplied as she groaned her assent. He pushed her up against the closed door, whispering hot kisses over her face, tasting her excitement. His hands at her waist, he slipped them under her halter top and ran them up her slender frame. Groaning into the hollow of her throat, his hands touched the silk of her bra and the warm firmness of her breasts.

She closed her eyes tight with the agony of the hunger for his touch. She gasped as his thumbs made slow swirls around her nipples, erect with desire. Waves of pleasure radiated out from his combined ministrations to her breasts and his mouth as it traveled back up her slender neck to her mouth. He claimed it, kissing her hard, passion overcoming good sense.

With a guttural moan he lost control as her mouth responded to his urgency. Lifting a taut, denim clad thigh, she curled her leg around his waist, tilting her hips, and opening herself up to him. His mind tipped into madness as he realized if they were naked, he could plunge into her right now, deep into the very core of her.

He pulled away from her and she whimpered at the loss. Breath jagged, voice harsh with wanting, he spoke, “I’m not waiting another minute. I have to have you.”

Holly laughed a shivery, brittle laugh. “You could have had me right out here.” She’d been lost in the moment, the passion overwhelming her to the point of thoughtlessness.

He pulled her to him, kissed her once more and stepped around her to open the door—and stepped into hell.

Lights blazed, blinding him after the darkened porch. Masie stood arms crossed, face creased into a scowl of distaste in the middle of the hall. Hair in curlers, and dressed in a baggy, stained nightgown, she looked like a caricature of the frumpy housewife. All she needed was the rolling pin tapping in her hand and she’d be frightening. In his current state, she was the last person he wanted to see. He froze at the look in her eyes, not only distaste, but pity lay in those depths.

Holly stepped into the hall behind him, a husky laugh in her voice. “What are you waiting for? I thought—” Her voice faded as she understood.

“Masie.”

The old woman’s face twisted into a vestige of disdain as she looked down her nose at Holly. “I should have known it was you out there with this poor deluded boy.”

Masie turned to Jack, with a growl of disgust. “You could have woken your father with the filthy noises you were making out there with that…that—hussy.” The last word came out with a hiss, and a glare of revulsion, lips pulling back from her mouth in a scowl of contempt.

Jack recoiled in anger. “Masie, you have no right—”

“I. Have. Every. Right.” Masie spat, voice shaking with pure rage. She pointed a trembling hand at Holly, yet she directed her venom at Jack. “That girl yorley so keen to ride, could very well be yous own sister. I warned you Jack. I tell yorley that yous father done wrong. I warned you.”

Holly turned to Jack, eyes wide with horror, mouth crumpling in shock. “You knew I could be your sister? But…What we were doing out there…” She backed away from him, until the wall prevented her from going farther. She looked like she wanted to be anywhere but here, away from Masie, the accusations, from him. He cowered inwardly at her slack-jawed shock, her face pale, her eyes wide with disbelief.

Jack shook his head against Masie’s shocking statements. He would not believe his father capable of such a thing. He loved his mother. He’d seen the way they loved each other. There was no way.

He stared at Holly. She stood frozen against the wall, visibly shaking, eyes welling with tears. With shock, he realized there was anger in those eyes. He implored forgiveness, putting his palms out in contrition and stepped toward her, but she cowered from his touch. He felt sick at her rejection, sick at the accusations.

He turned back to Masie, who stood arms crossed, gleam of satisfaction in her eyes, a thin smile on her lips. “Es about time yorley realized. I can see et in yous face, Jack. I’m pleased you es finally know the truth.”

She was happy at the heartache she’d caused.

“Nothere’s no way Masie.” He shook his head firmly rejecting her revolting suggestion. “You es one sick old woman. Yorley es wrong.” He slipped into the speech of Pitkern as his mind whirled with pain. “Look at us. Holly es blond and green eyed. I gut brown eyes, brown hair. We es nothing alike.”

Masie’s arms tightened with indignation across her breasts. “Of course you es nothing alike. She take after her whore of a mother. You take after your father. Her mother was jest the same as her. She es one apple dropped not far from ha tree.” She spat in Holly’s direction. “You es ought to be feeling ashamed. You es just like her, ready to open yous legs to any hard cock that flaps in yous face.” Masie shook her head. “I’m not going to stand by this time and watch. I did it once before when James was fooled by Celeste, watched her wind him around her little finger, treating her husband like a cuckolded fool. I won’t let her daughter destroy you too, Jack.”

“What you’re doing now Masie—that’s destroying me—you’re destroying me.”

He ran his hand through his hair, hands shaking. “None of this can possibly be true. I don’t believe it of my father. It’s just convenient he can’t defend himself, the way he is now.”

Masie’s mouth twisted, her lips curling back in disdain. “You carry on like you are without finding out the truth, you es as sick as ha gal fer yorley.”

Holly let out a choked, strangled cry and ran from the house, Jack helpless to stop her, and not blaming her for wanting to escape the madness.

Jack steeled himself against the murderous rage that now burned deep within his gut. His first instinct was to throw Masie out on the street behind the escaping Holly and tell her to apologize to her for the filth that had spewed from her mouth. Hell, he wanted to tell her never to darken his door again. His broken heart told him he couldn’t even do that. His own father relied on this monster in an old woman’s body, too much.

“Go home Masie.” He sighed. “Go home. Realize this though. If no other threat has stuck in that dirty little mind of yours, let this one stick now.” He stared at Masie, eyes flashing, mouth set in a firm line. He spoke quietly, but in a tone that let her know in no uncertain terms what he was about to say was meant seriously. “If you ever, ever speak ill of Holly’s mother, Holly, or my father again, you will never set foot in this house again.”

* * * *

Holly ran from the house, belly rebelling, nausea rising as the nightmarish words echoed in her mind. The horror of Masie’s accusations were screaming in her head, battling for attention. Jack could be my brother. He could have been my lover. He knew it was a possibility and still he said nothing, still touched me like a lover, held me close, said loving words to me. She stumbled headlong from the house, tripped mindlessly down the steps, and fell hard to the ground on her hands and knees.

Stomach heaving with too much alcohol and the shock of revelation, Holly vomited. Arms and legs like jelly, she struggled to keep upright as she vomited again. She wished she could expel the memory of the last horrifying moments as well.

Belly heaving, breath coming in gasps, voices loud and accusing behind her, she scrambled to her feet and ran into the darkness.

* * * *

Jack found her sitting in the darkness, waiting for him on her front porch steps.

“I knew you’d come.” Her voice flat, devoid of feeling.

He stood before her, unsure what to do, his world upside down and back to front.

“Of course I’d freaking come. I couldn’t leave it like that.”

Her face in shadows, she sat head bowed, hands clasped around her bended knees. “Why didn’t you say something, Jack?”

“Because it’s not true Holly—Dad wouldn’t, couldn’t —”

“How would you know?” Her voice raised to a screech. Holly stood and moved toward him, fists clenched. “You were too young. You said so yourself, tonight. You didn’t know what the adults where doing. But, you knew there might be a possibility we may be half brother and sister!” She sobbed, her face twisted with pain, and she dropped her head into her hands. “You let it go too far, you should have told me.”

Jack put his hands on her shoulders to comfort her, but she moved back from him with a jerk.

“No!”

“Holly, please forgive me. This is tearing me up inside too. I’m in love with you, please.”

She shook her head, tears on her cheeks glistening in the moonlight. “No, Jack,” She whispered his name. “I can forgive you, but you can’t touch me. You can’t say those words to me. If Masie’s right…” She sobbed, voice breaking with emotion. “If it’s true, it’s sick, Jack.”

“Holly, I know in my heart this is not true. Don’t cut me off, don’t push me away.” Jack felt his heart tearing in two, the tears on her face, the pain in her voice, trebling the heartache.

“Just go, Jack. Please. I’m begging you. We can’t do anything more tonight except hurt each other more.” She stood, and backed away from him, chest heaving with sobs, loud in the quiet of early morning.

He swiped angrily at his own tears that fell unbidden and rolled coldly down his cheeks. “Okay, I’m going, but I won’t stop telling you I love you. That’s the one thing I know is true. I’ll be back. I’ll keep coming back until we find out the truth.”

Holly turned her back on him and walked up the porch steps, opening the door to the house. She paused, head down, hand on the knob, voice trembling with emotion. “ If you can’t do as I asked, don’t come back at all.”

Holly stepped into the darkness of the house and closed the door with a gentle click.

Jack let the pain overtake him and moaned silently to the night’s sky.