FIERCED 2: A stepbrother Romance Read Online Free Page B

their Cheshire Cat grins.
     
    Later I can't find Rocco anywhere. I need to use a washroom and everyone I ask nods furiously, repeating the word with a massive beam from their lips but not pointing me in any useful direction. He's not in the medical tent and neither is Tenley. The most miserable cloud suddenly drapes itself around my shoulders and stabs me in the heart.
    Why am I even bothered if they've taken off somewhere to be alone? She'd need her frustrations taken care of and he has no problem obliging anyone who asks. It's nothing at all to me. Frankly I couldn't give a damn.
    Finally I walk around back of a pyramid of oil drums and other detritus that can only be a garbage pile and relieve myself quickly. Sweet relief, I return to sit on the edge of a group of smiling mothers peeling ancient withered vegetables and we start breaking down barriers.
    “Nassima,” the woman with the beautiful round face framed by a black wrap tells me her name.
    “Lisa,” I reply which brings forth a stream of giggles. When Rocco bursts into our orbit, the women all perk up.
    “Lisa come on, you're gonna miss dinner,” he says, all exasperated.
    Bastard. As though I've been busy kicking back around the pool and ignoring my responsibility as a good guest.
    “Oh excuse me for not knowing what the fuck is going on.”
    He pulls up short and the women all turn their faces toward me in shock. They don't understand a word but the tone and our body language says everything.
    “You okay, Principessa ?” Rocco says. “Did- something- happen?”
    He looks all around as though whatever has me pissed is lurking behind him and he can take it down. Not everything is fixable with physical violence. He needs to realize that. And I need to stop picturing him with Tenley in her private tent all afternoon, his full lips trailing all over her sensuous body. Hearing her sighs of delight as she clasps his solid shoulders.
    “Yeah you could say something happened. I was yanked from my bed and bagged, tossed in the back of a van, assaulted by a monster, then abandoned in hell where no one speaks my language enough to so much as point me to a bathroom tent. Yeah, something happened.”
    “I'm sorry. I was tied up with the doc.”
    I'm sure.
    “Have you not been able to take any good pictures?” he asks.
    “Actually I got some amazing shots. I think they're going to turn out the best I've ever produced.” My aggrieved tone is instantly calmed when I recall how I lost myself all those hours with capturing the images I need so as to convey both the suffering and joy I saw in the camp. The women seated on a blanket at our knees visibly heave a sigh of relief at the relaxing of tension between us and go back to chattering.
    “Come let's eat. Then you should rest. You must be exhausted.”
    He takes my hand to lead me across the tent city to the area around a fire pit where dinner is being served. A swathe of loneliness pours through me when we arrive and he drops my hand. It feels bizarrely empty after being so safely secure in his rigid grip.
    He fills a plate and hands it to me. I stare down at the lurid orange stew mix, pockmarked with wizened vegetable roots and what appears to be something with eyes staring back at me. I look up to tell him I'm not hungry after all but he's piled his own plate and seated himself, where else, next to his lover. She has those snaky fingers curled around his thigh as she leans in to whisper something in his ear that makes him light up with that explosive smile.
    How I'd love to make a man bloom like that at me.
    The only seat available is way too close to the grizzled beast that had his fingers stuffed all the way inside me and the wave of nausea almost makes me bend double. I'm rooted to the spot. No way I'm going anywhere in his direction.
    “Lise, come sit down with us,” Rocco shouts. “Tenley would love to hear about your photography.”
    Would she really?
    I half reluctantly, half gratefully join them.