Rose in the Dark - Logan Fox Page 0,24

Whatever it is, it’s not the cheap whiskey Howard guzzled down like cold tea.

In my head, Howard breaks out in laughter.

Brandon

The glass is by my lips before I realize I’ve poured myself another drink. Have I lost my mind? Or am I blacking out again, like I did with Alaine? With Rose?

I remember having a glass of cognac in the library. Wondering why the hell Mrs. Potter had let the place become so disarrayed. I’d stared at a white sheet strung up like a canvas as I’d sipped, sipped, sipped my drink.

And then I was in the study, tasting Pippa’s neck and ready to mount her like a…

Like a beast.

I set my glass down in a rush, and some cognac slaps over my thumb. I flick it off my gloves, pause, and then strip them off with a muted growl.

The leather crumples and catches alight in an instant when I toss it into the fireplace, but it burns for a long, long time. Much slower than flesh. Human skin is a treat for fire. Two licks, and it’s black and bubbling. Three, four, and it’s gone forever.

I look away from the fire, gripping my left hand with my right as it starts aching. A physical sensation caused by nothing more than a memory.

How strange the body is. The mind. This thing we call us.

I pace. Every time I draw near that sparkling glass of liquor, my steps slow until eventually I’m standing stock-still in front of the small wet bar where I poured the shot.

Pippa’s far away from here. She’s safe upstairs in my room. Isn’t she?

I cross the room, latch my door, and storm back to the bar. I toss the first shot down my throat, grimacing at the sting, and then pour myself another. I turn my back to the latched door and go and sit closer to the fire, absorbing its heat into my bones as both my hands throb in pained memory and my cock aches with disappointment.

11

Pippa

I keep expecting Brandon to return, but after an hour, I realize he won’t.

My body still has to come down from its high. Everything tingles down there, and the urge to shove a hand between my legs and end that sensation the only way I know how is strong.

But I’m too concerned Brandon will surprise me. Too concerned that, this time, I won’t be able to stop him.

Sleep will never come now. Not until my body’s plateaued.

Dragging the rocking chair over the stone floor, I position it just so that when I sit down, I’m partially obscured by Rose’s crib but I can still see the archway between the study and Brandon’s room. Hopefully, I should be able to see him before he sees me.

Despite my precautions, invisible insects crawl over my skin when I slip Alaine’s faded journal from my coat pocket.

The Diary of Alaine Dunnwood nee Taylor is embossed in gold on the leather cover. I run my thumb over its form. How much did this cost? There’s a little ribbon attached to the spine, but it goes all the way to the back of the book.

The last entry she wrote was just over four weeks ago. It’s crammed onto the last three pages of the diary, and there’re two paragraphs of text on the inside of the back cover too.

What she wrote makes every hair on my body stand upright.

Brandon

A shadow moves to my left. If I hadn’t as much cognac in me, I might have started.

Then again, maybe not.

Nothing seems to scare me these days anymore. It’s as if every ounce of fear oozed out of me the day of the fire.

Norm creeps into view, hunched like always, silent as always.

“Ev’ning.”

He glances at me over his shoulder and dips his head with respect. Firelight plays over his face, and there’s something so very familiar about it. Oh yes — mother’s studio. I wasn’t the only one who had to endure her lewd lectures. There are hardly more than four years between Norm and I, but I at least had the brief respite of attending boarding school for a few years in my teenage years.

Did she ask him to her studio when I wasn’t around? Perhaps she’d assumed that since he couldn’t speak, her secret was as safe with him as it was with me. Lord knows, I would rather have died than tell anyone what she did.

Norm props another few logs on the fireplace and then disappears the way he came.

I watch the fire consume