INTO TEMPTATION (Deliver Us from Evil #2)

Nine

The tweeting of birds alerts me that it’s morning.

I finally passed out in exhaustion after crying my eyes out. I should be used to tears when Punky is involved. He isn’t who I thought he was. We all harbor our own secrets for whatever reason, but Punky’s secrets are damaging in ways I sometimes doubt I’ll ever recover from.

All my things are at the hotel I checked into before I went to see Brody. I literally only have the clothes I’m wearing, which, thanks to being burned to an almost crisp, have seen better days. I desperately want to shower and brush my teeth, so I decide to clean up before catching a cab to retrieve my things from the hotel.

Punky is slumped in a chair by my bedside. He looks awfully uncomfortable. Good.

Pulling back the blanket, I slowly come to a stand. I’m in my underwear and a T-shirt, so when I peer down at my legs and see the numerous stitches, I sigh. Walking will hurt, but I push past the discomfort as I reach for the pain meds Dr. Shannon left for me.

Popping two pills, I hobble toward the bathroom and sigh in relief when I see the shower. I don’t even think twice as I strip off with great difficultly and turn the faucets on. When the water is scalding, I step in.

The warmth unknots the aches in my body and I stand under the spray, wishing it could wash away this ache in my chest.

In just a few hours, I uncovered so much about Punky. I don’t know what to think. I don’t want to believe what I heard, but deep down, I know that it’s true. He lied to me. I know I did the same thing to him, but this pattern between us, when will it stop?

I scrub myself clean and only turn off the faucet when standing becomes too uncomfortable, thanks to my ankle being the size of a balloon. Opening the shower door, I lean forward and reach for the towel on the rack, but thanks to being unsteady on my feet, I lose my balance and tumble out the shower and onto the bathroom floor with a yelp.

“f**k,” I curse, slamming my fist against the tiles, frustrated.

As I’m desperately trying to stand, Punky appears. My yelp must have woken him as he looks like he’s still half asleep. But that soon changes when he sees me sprawled out on the floor, naked and wet.

The blue to his eyes is soon replaced with a menacing black.

This is wrong, but when Punky is involved, I’ve come to realize there is no right. It’s now my turn to be bad. It’s now his turn to feel the pain that I have.

I stop trying to rise and remain perfectly still, locking eyes with Punky. He doesn’t look away when he knows he should. The fact that he wants me this way stirs this constant hunger inside me. It’s the reason I shuffle back to lean against the wall, not bothering to cover my nakedness.

“Let me help ye,” Punky finally says when he realizes he’s staring. He reaches for the towel, but I shake my head.

“You can help me another way,” I purr, opening my legs to expose my s*x to him.

His gaze sets me on fire as he’s clearly wrestling with looking away. But he can’t. “No,” he states, but the fact that he’s looking at me like I’m his next meal contradicts his claim.

“No?” I question with a smirk as I cup my breasts and run my thumbs over my erect n*****s. “No, you won’t help me?”

“We can’t, Baby,” he says, still ogling me.

I love it when he calls me baby. The term of endearment from anyone else would piss me off, but not when Punky says it. But I refuse to let him know that.

“Oh? ’Cause you’re my brother?”

He clenches his jaw.

“Brother or not,” I state, slowly gliding my hands toward the junction of my thighs. “You’re the best f**k I’ve ever had. No one can make me come like you can.”

I’m being crude on purpose because I want to see him squirm, and squirm he does when I slip two fingers into my s*x. I’m wet, thanks to the shower, but also because Punky is here, watching me as I start to get myself off.

My injuries are long forgotten as I sink my fingers in and out of my p***y, locking eyes with Punky as he’s the perfect material to get off to. He watches as I play with myself slowly, humming in approval as I see him responding to what he sees.

“Stop it,” he says, but he doesn’t mean it.

“You can always walk away,” I gasp, pushing out my breasts to enhance this torturous show for him. “But you can’t, can you?”

When he doesn’t answer, I grin.

“Get on your knees.”

My demand shocks him. I can clearly see him weighing over my order, as he knows this is wrong. But temptation wins, just how I knew it would when he slowly drops to his knees. He doesn’t speak. He just watches me as I open my legs wider and increase the tempo of my fingers.

“I used to think of you when Rory f****d me. It was the only way I could come. Don’t get me wrong, he f****d me good and hard.”

Punky clenches his fists and jaw while I smirk.

“But it wasn’t his c**k I wanted in my mouth. In my p***y. And my a—”

“Stop talkin’ like that. This isn’t you.”

“How do you know?” I challenge, cupping one breast as I continue playing with my needy center. “You don’t know me anymore. You’re too busy getting to know Darcy Duffy to care.”

“She means nothin’ to me,” he declares, still on his knees. The sight is f*****g glorious. He deserves to be on his knees after what he’s done.

“Is that so? Do you just f**k women to get what you want? Is that it?”

“I never f****d her,” he says, curling his lip. His confession appeases my curiosity. “What’s the matter? Why are ye actin’ this way?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” A gasp escapes me as I feel my orgasm approaching.

“Don’tcha f*****g lie to me.”

Laughing, I arch my back and open my legs wider. “That’s rich, coming from you.”

“Watch yer tongue, Babydoll,” he warns, his anger palpable. It’s exactly what I want. He’s fallen into the honeytrap.

“What are you going to do about it?” I challenge with a snicker. “I’m your sister. You can’t—”

Before I can finish my sentence, he’s on top of me, heatedly jerking my legs out from under me. The moment my back hits the cool tiled floor, he’s between my legs, replacing my fingers with his mouth as he eats me out violently.

A loud moan slips free because every part of me is stimulated. His stubble scratches my sensitive skin in just the right way as does his skillful tongue. He isn’t gentle, but I don’t want him to be. I’ve wanted this for ten years.

What I said about Rory was true. No matter what he did to try to please me, it was never enough because he wasn’t the man I wanted. The man who is f*****g me senseless with his tongue, mouth, and fingers is.

Punky’s hot breath sends a shiver straight through me, and I tug at his long hair, pressing him deeper into my p***y as I want to slather myself all over him and mark him as mine, because he is. He belongs to me. And I belong to him.

“Oh God,” I pant, squirming as he feels so good.

He spreads my legs out farther, leaving no part of me untouched as he stokes the fire inside me. He reaches up and plays with my pert n*****s, just how he knows I like. He knows my body better than me.

I ride his face as he twirls his tongue deep inside me. The animalistic sounds coming from him are everything I need, and I come so hard and fast tears leak from my eyes. Punky milks every last shudder from me before he places a hot kiss over my aching s*x.

He crawls off me while I lay on the floor, sprawled out, breathless and spent. When I think I can speak, I come to rest on my elbows and marvel at a wanting Punky.

“You want to f**k me?”

“Naw, Babydoll,” he says, licking me off his lips with a hum. “I don’t want to just f**k ya. I want to break ye in two.”

The impressive bulge at the front of his pants reveals the truth of his claims.

“But you can’t? ’Cause you’re my brother? And because of Rory?”

“Aye, ’cause of Rory,” he says, leaving out our relationship on purpose, which infuriates me.

“Maybe I can give him a call to come over and you can watch me f**k him then? I mean, you’ve f****d me in every other way.”

“What are ya talkin’ about?”

“Do you want to f**k me?” I question, shuffling toward him.

“Ye know the answer to that.” He remains perfectly still as I climb onto his lap, straddling him.

“Tell me.”

“Cami, I want ya, but I can’t.”

I wrap my arms around the back of his neck and arch my back so my breasts are inches from his mouth.

“Why? No one has to know.” I commence rocking against his erection, grinding my p***y against him as he clenches his jaw, his sense of morals diminishing by the second.

“It’s wrong. I won’t do that to Rory. Oh, f*****g hell,” he groans when I lick the seam of his deceitful lips.

“I suppose f*****g your sister is also wrong,” I state, reaching between us and unfastening his zipper. When I wrap my hand around his hot shaft, he throws his head back and moans. “Okay, I’ll stop.”

But the reason behind why I started this is finally revealed.

“Naw…yer not. Yer not my…sister. Sean is my dad. Not Brody.”

Tonguing my cheek, I shake my head, unbelieving I had to find out the truth from two immoral pieces of s**t, and not Punky.

“I know,” I spit, angered. “I just wanted to hear you say it. I wanted you to admit that you’ve been lying to me this entire time, you f*****g asshole!”

Jumping off him, I rip the towel from the rack and wrap it around myself.

Punky’s passion is soon replaced with confusion. “Ya knew? How?”

“Brody called me to the pub to tell me he wasn’t your father. That’s why he said I shouldn’t trust you, for you to keep such a life-changing secret from me proves that you don’t trust me. He wanted to make amends and thought by ratting you out, I’d see you were the bad guy, not him.

“He thought by telling me, my alliances would shift, and I would be on his side. I would lay my claim to being a Doyle just like he’s always wanted me to do. He knows I’m an enemy he doesn’t want to have.”

Punky quickly does up his jeans before coming to a stand. But it’s my turn to talk.

“I didn’t want to believe Brody. I mean, making me believe that you were my brother is just cruel, especially since we were moments away from f*****g at my engagement party! Do you know how f****d up I’ve been?

“Having these sorts of feelings for someone who I believed was my brother?”

“I’m sorry,” he says, trying to explain, but the time for explanations has come and gone.

“But when your father called me and confirmed what Brody told me, I knew it was true. That’s why Sean called me. To pass on the message to you, but to also tell me the truth—that he’s your father! You’ve lied to me this entire time. How could you?”

“Baby—”

I can’t stop myself and slap his cheek—hard. The moment I do, I instantly regret it because this won’t be solved with violence. That’s why we’re in the position we’re in.

“You’re nothing but a liar.”

“Aye, that I am,” he replies, rubbing his cheek. “I didn’t want to tell ya ’cause yer better off without me. Trouble only follows me. I don’t want that for ya. I want ya to be happy. I want ya to be safe.”

“Oh, grow up!” I snap, not accepting his excuses. “I’m a grown-ass woman and can make my own choices. I don’t need protecting. This isn’t nineteen twenty. Chivalry is f*****g sexist.”

Punky exhales loudly. “I f****d up, so I did. But yer happy with Rory, and I knew if I told ya the truth, ye’d—”

I chuckle, incredulous. “I’d what? Swoon at your feet? Follow you around like a lost little puppy? Please. Give me a little credit.”

“Ye can’t deny the attraction is still there. It never went away,” he states, which has a bubble of happiness floating to the surface. I soon pop it, infuriated.

“I was afraid if I told ya, I’d f**k up everything. Rory is my mate, and I didn’t want to hurt either of ya.”

“Are you even listening to yourself?” I question, arching a brow.

“Tell me y’ll go back to Rory, now that ya know the truth,” he challenges, but the joke’s on him.

“I left Rory before I found out the truth. Get over yourself, Puck Kelly!”

He takes a step back, speechless.

I stab my finger into my chest. “That choice was mine to make, not yours.”

I omit the fact that I left Rory because of my feelings for Punky as that isn’t the only reason. Rory is a wonderful man, and he’ll make some lucky girl happy one day, but that girl isn’t me.

“Ye broke off the engagement?” he asks softly.

In response, I hold up my ringless finger.

“Why? I thought Rory made ya happy. I don’t understand it.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t either,” I reply, but Punky doesn’t buy it. “It seems I’m happier on my own. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to fetch my things from the hotel.”

“Babydoll,” Punky says, reaching for me.

For the first time in my life, I recoil from his touch. “Don’t. Thank you for saving my life, but I am done. You should have told me the truth, and now, I don’t trust you.”

He lowers his eyes, my words wounding him.

I know I’m a hypocrite for being angry, as I lied to him once, but this is totally different. I lied because I didn’t have a choice, but he did. The ball is, and has always been, in Punky’s court.

Pushing past him, I grab a pair of his sweats and cuff them at the ankle since they’re about three sizes too long. I slip on my ruined T-shirt and Chucks and grab my leather backpack, which I’m thankful I still have.

“Baby, please don’t leave. Yer still hurt. I’ll go get yer things,” Punky says, walking into the bedroom.

“No,” I firmly state. “I need time to think. Away from you. I didn’t want to believe them, but to finally hear the truth come from you…I wish you really were my brother, so I could f*****g stop loving you.”

A heavy sigh leaves him.

Not bothering with goodbyes—as we’ve had enough of those—I walk out the door and don’t look back. Sadly, the person in front of me isn’t any better.

“Hi,” Darcy says, getting out of her car.

“He’s all yours,” I reply, storming past her.

She doesn’t know what to say.

“Babydoll!” Punky screams, chasing after me.

But I don’t stop.

“Cami!”

He knows better than to touch me, so he runs in front of me, forcing me to stop as he blocks my path.

“Please don’t go. Let me explain.”

“The time to explain has come and gone. You made your choice, and this is me, making mine.”

I attempt to walk around him, but he stands his ground. “Y’ve always been my choice!” he cries, arms out wide. “I thought I was doin’ the right thing. I’m sorry.”

A part of me softens as I can read his sincerity. But the stubbornness within scolds me for being so weak. “Well, you thought wrong. I’m not some damsel in distress who needs rescuing.”

“I know that,” he counters angrily. “I just wanted ye to be happy. You and Rory. I can’t offer ya that.”

“Oh, enough! I’ve had it with your self-sacrifice bullshit,” I exclaim. “A man without friends is a man without power, and where I’m standing, you’re f*****g powerless!”

“Ya don’t think I know that?” he barks, running a hand through his snarled hair. “Why do ya think I’m prepared to work with the man who killed my ma! The man who ruined my life.”

“There are other people who can and want to help,” I inform him. “But you’re so f*****g stubborn and self-absorbed in your own s**t, you won’t let anyone else in. I want to see Sean and Brody pay too. They f****d me over as well.

“They destroyed all our lives!”

My chest is heaving as I’m fuming.

Punky interlaces his hands behind his neck, clearly frustrated that I’m not submitting. “I know that, but it’s hard for me to ask this of ye. To put yer lives in danger for me.”

“You’re not asking, Punky. We want to help. You’re the one who doesn’t want it.”

“If anythin’ were to happen to any of youse, I’d never forgive myself,” he reveals, swallowing deeply. “I already failed Hannah and Ethan when I swore to protect them. They’re wains, Cami, and they’re messed up in shite that no one their age should be.”

“Hannah can handle herself,” I say, my anger simmering. “She was the one who got you out of jail. She and Darcy.”

Darcy is standing by her car, giving us privacy, which surprises me. I thought she’d be eager to be the shoulder for Punky to cry on.

“I know that. I’m just…fucking scared,” he confesses, surprising me. “Not for me, but for youse. What if I can’t stop Sean? What if all of this is for nothin’?”

To see Punky exposed is a rare thing. He wants to save and protect us all, but he can’t do that alone.

“This will never be for nothing,” I reply, meaning that in every way possible.

Punky nods, understanding the innuendo.

I’m about to tell him about my visit with Ron when my cell rings. Reaching into my backpack, I don’t recognize the number. I answer with dread.

“Hello?”

“Hi, sis.”

“Eva? Whose number are you calling from?”

“It’s my new number,” she replies. “Surprise! I’m here in Belfast.”

“What?” One word has never held more weight than it does right now. “Where’s Mom?”

“Back home. Can you come pick me up from the airport? Or I can catch a cab to where you are?”

“Why are you here?”

“I thought you’d be happy,” she says, saddened.

“I am, I just…What happened with Mom?” There is a reason she up and left without telling me because I would have never said yes to her coming here alone.

Punky listens closely, ready to spring to command if need be.

“Nothing, I just needed to get away. So can you come and get me?”

“Sure,” I reply, as I can hardly say no. “I’ll be there in twenty minutes. And, Eva, don’t get into a car with any strangers, okay?”

“Okay, Mom,” she teases, but little does she know the danger she’s put herself in by coming here.

I hang up, shaking my head in defeat. “I’ve got to pick my little sister up from the airport.”

“What? She’s here? Now?”

“Yes,” I reply, before quickly adding, “you don’t need to tell me what a bad idea this is. I know. I think she had a fight with my mom. She’s eighteen going on twenty-nine.”

“Is yer ma all right?”

“I think so, but I’ll find out the full story when I see Eva. I’ve got to go.”

“Of course,” Punky says. “Do ya want to take my truck?”

“No, it’s okay. I’ll catch a cab. If I turn up in your truck, Eva will ask questions, and I don’t have the energy to explain it to her right now.”

Punky nods, understanding that I mean she’ll ask where Rory is.

This conversation will have to be put on hold for now as I have yet another drama to deal with.

“Be careful,” he says with a sigh.

“I always am. You too. Are you seeing Brody today?” I know Punky, and he will want to strike as soon as possible.

He nods. “Aye. It’s time to set the rules.”

“Rules Brody will break.”

“Not if I break him first,” he counters quickly, and I know that he will.

I don’t know what to say, so I smile briefly before turning my back on him and walking away, hoping it’s for the last time. But I know better. Things with Punky and I have only just begun.