011: babysitting duties

Allera's POV:

"I'm really sorry, Allera sweetie." Cynthia invites herself into my room the moment I push the doors open.

She's frantic, pacing and sighing softly. There's something about her movements that are shaky, like a person caught in the middle of a crime. That crime being murder.

"What's there to be sorry about?" I reply, turning my phone off and setting it aside.

Cynthia forces a smile, but the scared look in her eyes doesn't soften. "Carter...he and his brother don't get along very well."

Brother.

My heart drops into my stomach again. Worse than it did when Carter walked into the villa and introduced Devon to me as his brother.

Brothers. The man I thought was a stranger, the one I was well about to use in a revenge plot against my husband, is actually my brother-in-law.

Fuck!

Cynthia rounds on me, her eyebrows slanted into worry some lines. "Did anything happen? With Carter, I mean? You seemed very angry about something."

"He left me for some friends," the words are out before I can stop them.

"Is that all?" Cynthia asks, her eyes expectant.

Is that all?

She asks like she knows...does she?

I stare at her for a few seconds, trying to glean anything from her face that would prove my instincts right, fiddling with the butterfly pendant hanging between my breasts.

"We're fine. Just...married people things. The little argument here and there."

Why am I defending him? A little argument? He cheated on me and defended himself saying it was an open marriage. I should be telling that to Cynthia. I wonder what the look on her face will be like when she hears that her golden son cheated on me.

Will she even care?

The hesitation in her eyes slowly faded and she exhaled, a deep puff of air, her shoulders relaxing. "You two are still so young. Arguments like these come and go, I promise you. You'll be fine in no time, Carter doesn't keep grudges. He has such an open heart."

I nod, not knowing what else to say. I wish she'd leave.

Instead, she moves closer to me and perches beside me. "How do you know Devon?" There was no flowery smile on her face, the kind that she always had when speaking about Carter.

My breath hitches. That question was too direct, like an interrogation.

"I met him at my grandma's gallery night." I reply. "I didn't know he was Carter's brother,"

If I had known, would things be different?

She scoffs, waving dismissively. "Those two. It'll take a divine intervention for them."

I sit up, interested. "Did anything happen between them?" I'm not new to sibling rivalry. Afterall, I and Daphne have been at each other's necks for years, even when we were continents apart.

"Carter and Devon...you know how boys are. Always have one thing or another to fight about. Either it's a girl, or it's sports, or it's something I can't even fathom!" Cynthia says, laughing to herself.

Whatever is between Carter and Devon, it's more than just sibling rivalry.

Devon does a good job at hiding his emotions behind those pretty eyes of his. But years of staying around grandpa Kazuo, attending his meetings, and forced to read faces of stone-hearted men rather than lips has taught me a lot.

Throughout the dinner, Devon had a brilliant smile on his face. A charming smile, the kind that makes you feel at ease and let yourself go, sinking into his charm before you realise you're in too deep and drowning. But underneath that smile was rage simmering like an active volcano about to erupt.

Especially after Carter gave him that...that gift.

"Is everything okay?" Cynthia asks, placing a soft palm over mine.

I shake my head, willing those thoughts to vanish. "I guess so,"

"Could you do me a favour?"

My stomach flips. Damn, she doesn't mince words, does she?

I have a feeling I'm going to hate whatever next words come out of her mouth. "Sure." I end up saying, a smile making its way to my lips.

She moves closer. "Carter being around his brother is going to arouse a lot of negative emotions. Could you be, perhaps softer to him? Make sure he doesn't do anything stupid and ruin this weekend for me. Stay by his side, distract him from Devon. Can you do this for me?"

Right.

I knew it.

Babysitting duties.

I swallow thickly. "Shouldn't he just iron out whatever issues he has with Devon?"

She sighs, shaking her head. Her flower hairpin moves and she subconsciously fixes it, the motion fluid like she's done it a million times. "If it were that easy, it would have been done years ago. "

My expression turns sour.

I don't want to keep Carter in check. I don't care if he picks a fight with his brother. I don't even want to talk to him or see his face. My heart still bleeds after what he did to me.

And now there's Devon. Devon that has my body feeling a kind of way I've never felt before.

"I'll try," I say.

Cynthia pulls me into a hug and I feel the tension leaving her body. "I knew I could count on you."

I hug her back reluctantly, wishing I could take the next flight back to New York.

This weekend will ruin me.

****

"Can't you just pretend? It's only for the weekend. Stop overreacting."

I muster my nastiest, filthiest, angriest glare and throw it Carter. "Pretend?! Look, that's a whole new low even for you. It's one thing to give me an expensive necklace in front of your mom to make it look like things are rosy between us. It's another to ask this stupid shit."

Carter stands before me dressed in only his pajamas pants, fluffy rabbit slippers on his feet. Slippers I recognise, because I gifted them to him a month ago. A random whim of a purchase, one I now want to rip it off his feet and set fire on.

"How hard is it, Allera? Pretending we're a loving couple?"

"I don't want to touch you, that's for one."

His eyes narrow. "Why not?"

I scoff. "Why not? Is that a real question?"

"Yes," He replies, folding his arms across his chest, his hip tilting to the side. "Why not? Have you fallen out of love with me in just two days? Please, like hell that's possible."

Something bubbles in my gut, rising in my throat. My hands ball into fists at my sides. Carter's words strike a deep part of me, one I've kept buried for years, the part that terrified even grandpa Kazuo so much that he sent me to therapy for four years.

"I need some water." I say, turning to the door.

"Whatever." He mumbles, then I hear him getting into bed.

I practically run out of the room, scared of what will happen if I don't.

My feet take me wherever, and I end up in the massive kitchen. It's empty, lights dim. I walk over to the fridge, take a bottle of water and chug it all down.

Hot tears burn my eyes.

Not sadness, but rage. Embarrassment too, at the realization that this is the man I decided to spend the rest of my life with. An arrogant, selfish person.

My cheat heaves. I lean over the counter, breathing hard, fists clenched, chanting to myself, "in on four, hold till six, out on nine."

I haven't used this exercise in a long time. It burns my lungs.

And then, I hear the kitchen door open, then click shut.

I turn.

He's standing in front of the door. Eyes dark in the dim light. Dressed in a casual tee and sweatpants.

A bad decision waiting to happen.

"Let me guess, another couple's fight?" Devon asks, eyes shining with mirth.

I storm over to him, rear my hand back, and slap him. The sound echoes between us. His head whips to the side.

The bastard smirks.

My heart flips. Current zaps through my core. Anger and arousal make an uneasy cocktail in my gut.

"You piece of shit." I hiss, my voice trembling. "You're just like your asshole of a brother. You're even worse! Lying, manipulative!"

I aim to slap him again and he catches my wrist, his other hand going around my waist and pulling me flush against him.

"Careful now, pretty." He chuckles, leaning into my face, pushing one knee between my legs. "Your anger is such a turn on,"

True to his words, I feel his length pressing into my stomach. A whimper escapes my lips. "Fuck you, Devon."

"Don't mind if I do." He replies. "Let me kiss you first."

I spit in his face. "That's the closest you'll ever get to a kiss from me."

He wipes the spittle off.

And fucking licks it.

My jaw hits the ground. He did not just!

"Close enough." He says. "Now are you here to drink water, or do I need to fuck your frustration out of you?"