Chapter 92 CHAPTER 098
"Nobody would get it. They would persecute us. They would tear me apart." It is already happening with the whole Arthur Beau's exposé thing. Somehow everybody decided I was the ideal scapegoat in that situation.
How dare I still be involved with Linc when my mother did him so dirty? That is what all those faceless random internet folks want to know. If only they know that I am also asking myself that question.
And now I know the answer. I stayed back for this. Because he never let me go. He held on to me.
"Amelia..." Linc calls to me. I dive deeper into my panic.
"Oh God. I don't know if I could handle it. Oh Linc, what are we going to do? It will look bad. So bad. Oh God." I say, darting between covering myself up more and wanting to be open.
Linc grabs my hands, making me stop, he pushes my hand to his chest, the steady thud of his heart makes me stop my frantic movements. I look up into his eyes, they are stormy and intense.
"Do you love me?" He asks. Voice deep and serious.
"Yes. You know I do, I just told you." I say, confused. I don't know what he is driving at but I remain calm. His steady heartbeat lulls me to a serenity that I clutch at desperately.
"Do you trust me?" He asks, in the same solid self assured tone.
"Yes. You know I do." I say again, my brain is purposely blank.
"Then you shouldn't worry about anything else. I will protect everything about you even if it is the last thing I do. It is a promise I won't break. Not after Tyler." He winces at the name. I watch him dazedly. Calm and still silently freaking out.
I like to think I have got a decent almost nonexistent connection to my mom's many acquaintances. They do not reach out to pull me in anyway. But I know they keep an eye. It is a group of bored frivolous socially wealthy middle aged women with nothing better to do than throwing parties and upstanding one another with the next richest husband or boyfriend. If they get even a whiff of something going on between Linc and I, they would go wild with it.
And it wouldn't even be out of loyalty to Kathryn or anything. For all I know, they didn't really care that much for eachother, they just stuck together because they realised it was better than being lonely. They attended the funeral three years ago and managed to make it into some grand social affair, they made me nauseous. I haven't thought of them since then.
Now, their tight plastic surgery encroached faces come to me as my mind does a slideshow to make me panic even worse.
Cecilia, the artificial platinum blonde who took over mom's Queen Bee's role after her death. The last I know of her, she was married to her third husband, she had a son from before her first marriage who was allegedly a drug addict shuffling from rehab to rehab. It is Cecilia's greatest pain point. I don't remember the son's name, I saw him only once at a house party my mom dragged me to. His face eludes me now but I remember my first impression of him being that he didn't look like a drug addict. He was thin but looked normal enough to me.
Cecilia would go to the grave with her platinum dye. She is the most superficial woman I have ever come across. The only person in their little circle she acquiesced to was my mom. And even then, it was usually followed by a severe bout of passive aggressiveness that I would almost roll my eyes out of their sockets from across the room. Without Kathryn now, I can imagine how Cecilia is running the gang.
Then there is Laurie, Kim, Keke, Angela and Marie. All women in the same category as Cecilia, just varying degrees of superficiality. I don't remember a lot of them, but I scour my memory nonetheless.
"Ames?" Linc directs my face to his, it has been a while I heard that nickname, my heart melts.
"I trust you, Linc. I know you will do anything to protect me..."
"But?" He tenses beside me. This is already a sensitive topic, talking about it naked doesn't help the case but that is besides the point.
"Do you still keep tabs on the girls? Kathryn's old gang." I ask, I turn to him, holding his eyes. There is no reason for self consciousness between us anymore. We have come far enough that it is being silly.
"No, why?" He returns the question. There is nothing suspicious about him. He leans closer to me, our bodies touch and I ignite.
"I don't know why but they just come to mind." I say.
"The last time I had any connection to them was after the funeral. Cecilia tried snooping around me. I think she was coming onto me, It was shameless and desperate, I told her off strongly and didn't hear from any of them after that." Linc says, his face is pinched between a smile and a frown.
I smile, I knew it was a possibility, but hearing him confirm it just makes me sick. I shouldn't be scared of those women's moral judgement because they don't have any moral compass themselves. What I am scared of is the havoc they could wreak on me if they find out about this. I can already envision the faux outrage.
"Typical." I say.
"It's all up to you though, Ames. About us. I don't want you to feel like you are getting into something that has the potential to csuse you pain later on." Linc says, brows furrowed in a serious position. His fingers on my cheeks massage a lazy pattern and I feel almost sleepy by the sensation.
"I think I want to keep it under wraps for now. I don't know. It feels special though volatile. I want to keep it safe. Protected." I snuggle closer into him. The heat of his hard body seeps into me. I am not sleepy, I am horny.
"Ames darling, you make me feel young and wild again, but not so much that I wouldn't appreciate the beauty of a private relationship. I have got you." His laugh vibrates within his chest. I rest my head against the hard muscles. Feeling warm and secure.
"Okay. That is good to know."
I press my lips to him.
"I guess we are done talking then." Linc says above me, his voice tinged with amusement and hunger. I like how quickly and easily he responds to me.
I dart my tongue out to taste his hard nipple and he growls above me.