The Arrangement: The Seduction (Kindle Worlds Novella) by Carly Phillips Read Free Book Online

mysteries.
    I notice a photograph in front of the books and step over for a closer look. In a four-by-six frame, there’s a picture of a woman about my age, her hair about the same color as Zach’s. She has a wide grin on her pretty face, her arm around a younger Zach as he glares for the camera. They look too much alike not to be related.
    I feel him come up behind me, his body emanating heat at my back. He clasps my forearms in his hands.
    “Your sister?” I ask.
    “Yeah. That’s Grace.”
    “She’s beautiful.”
    His fingertips tighten against my skin. “She was.”
    I swallow hard. “What happened? If you don’t mind my asking.”
    Stunning silence surrounds us, and I sense his tension reverberating from inside him. “You don’t need to tell me.”
    “We didn’t grow up with much money, but we did have loving parents.”
    I’m immediately struck by how opposite our lives have been. I grew up with money but no love. Zach had love but no money. I’d take his situation any day.
    “Mom died of cancer when I was sixteen,” he said. “Grace was eighteen.”
    He doesn’t turn toward me, and I think that maybe it’s easier for him to open up without facing me. “I’m sorry,” I say softly.
    “Thanks.” He pauses before continuing. “Dad was a plumber, and he sort of drifted after that. He retired early. He didn’t have much saved and ended up in Florida. Grace went to school on loans. I held down part-time jobs until I graduated high school, then went to college the same way, on loans and scholarship.”
    I wait, knowing the worst is yet to come.
    “Problem was, Grace didn’t come to me when she needed money. Instead, she started working as a call girl, for a woman named Miss Black.”
    I blinked, startled. I try to turn around, but he anticipates the move and holds me in place, his hands on my shoulders. I’m right. It’s easier to talk without looking at me. I allow him this.
    “Go on.” I don’t judge his sister. It’s not my place. I just listen. I mean, who knows what I’d do or who I’d turn to if my parents cut me off completely.
    He exhales long and hard. “Obviously I didn’t know, or I’d have stopped her. She told me she was working as a hostess. I was so busy with getting my PI license and trying to take care of myself, I just believed her.”
    I bit the inside of my cheek. “What happened?”
    “He— I mean, a client happened.”
    Now Zach’s fingers bite into my forearms. I wince from the pain, but I want to know the story, not interrupt and remind him that he really doesn’t want to share.
    “The son of a bitch liked to find a girl’s weak spot, play into it, and fuck her until she was screaming in panic and fear.”
    I almost gag. “That’s awful.”
    “Grace went missing for a while, and that’s the first time I really used my PI license. When I found her, she was wandering the streets, almost completely nonresponsive. Dad came up from Florida, and we put her in a mental hospital. South Oaks.”
    I close my eyes at the pain lingering in his voice.
    “Luckily my grandfather left a small inheritance, and between that and what I can add, it helps keep her there.”
    “You’re a good man. A good brother.” I spin around before he can stop me. “Thank you for sharing.” I cup his cheek in my hand, go up to my tiptoes, and kiss his lips softly.
    I mean to comfort.
    He needs more and grabs my wrist, pulling me to an open door. We’re in his bedroom. He doesn’t bother with the light, just lifts me onto the bed and comes down over me. “You still want this?” he asks roughly.
    He wants to forget. It’s so obvious he’s looking to annihilate the pain and lose himself in sex. Too bad I already know what’s between us is more than that, and I believe he knows it too.
    I nod, though I’m trembling. “Yes. I want you .”
    He stills above me as if that’s the last thing he expects to hear. I lift my shirt and pull it over my head and toss it to the