Shameless (Made For Them #3)

4. Legacy

Lula

M y life is a dumpster fire but Stefan’s kisses make everything better.

“What do you think about checking what’s going on with the interviews and see if we’re allowed back to our bungalows? Maybe we could be alone for a little while?”

I’m about to say yes, that I need to feel his skin against mine. I need to feel him inside me to keep my mind from going back to the stables. To the memory of Maura, her face reduced to a bloody, unrecognizable pulp and all that blood.

It’s either I let Stefan fill my mind and my body with love, or I’m going to look for chemical oblivion.

As if summoned by the sudden urge to use as a coping mechanism, another set of lips lands on my neck.

I know it’s Crew before I even turn to look at him. His scent of clean cotton, with a hint of sunscreen invades my senses just seconds before he moves my hair to expose my neck.

Soft, warm lips descend to the spot at the base of my collarbone. My body reacts with a rush of liquid heat and I turn around, looking for Crew’s soft lips.

It’s crazy how no matter how difficult things are, not matter how much danger I’m in, this is where I feel safest.

Sandwiched between Crew and Stefan, it’s as if none of the ugliness of the outside world could ever get to me.

As Crew’s fingers sneak under my dress, Stefan continues to massage my breasts and I forget where we are.

I forget the horrors of the last few hours, letting them guide my body into a place where all that matters is their touch.

When one of Crew’s fingers enters me, I grind against it. I’m shameless, jonesing for the high of pleasure he can give me. They can give me. Dying for that floaty feeling where I feel loved, untouchable, safe .

I should know better though.

The world has shown me time and time again how safety and love seem to always be out of my reach, no matter how hard I try.

“Why am I not surprised that mere hours after three people have been brutally murdered, I find my daughter fooling around with her stepbrothers?”

My mother’s voice causes all the excitement to seep out of my body. The tension that pushed me to grind against Crew’s hand, seeking a much needed release, turns into something entirely different.

A whimper escapes my lips and Crew withdraws his finger, but doesn’t move away from me.

“I’m her stepbrother,” Stefan bites out, pulling me closer to his chest. “Crew isn’t. Get your facts straight, Tiffany .”

He says my mother’s name as if it left a bad taste in his mouth and I hide my face in his t-shirt, feeling the hard, chiseled muscle under the cotton.

“Whatever,” Tiffany spits out. “Just when I thought you couldn’t be more of a disappointment, Talulah. At least Evan comes from an excellent family. Jules and Stefan might have a home wrecking whore as mother, but once they’ll be able to access their trust funds, you’d want for nothing. This guy? He’s a penniless, failed jock. I wouldn’t let him touch him if I were you.”

My shame at being caught in such an intimate moment by my mother turns into fury.

“How dare you talk about Crew this way?” I snap, leaving the safety of Stefan’s chest to confront the woman who should have loved me and protected me but failed me at every turn. “He’s an amazing person and I don’t care what he’s going to do with his life, he’s going to succeed. He doesn’t need his daddy to buy his way into schools and to get him out of trouble. Crew is determined, smart and driven and he’s a loyal friend, who would do anything for the people he loves. He isn’t just so handsome that it’s almost unfair, his heart is even more beautiful than the rest of him. That’s why I’m falling for him.”

I’m so pissed at Tiffany that I overstep and say way more than I intended to reveal.

Crew has been adamant that he doesn’t do relationships and now I might have ruined everything.

“Do you mean it?” he asks, taking my hand into his much larger one. “Are you falling for me?”

Crew’s dark blue eyes are so intense that I can’t hold his gaze, worried about how he might feel about me. It’s too late to take it back though and I don’t want to. “I know you don’t feel the same way, Crew. It’s ok. But yeah, I?—”

He brings my fingers to his lips, pulling me away from Stefan and into his arms. “This isn’t the time or place to discuss our relationship, but I’m falling for you too. Your mom is right though. Thanks to what happened with Evan’s yacht in Cambridge, I got expelled from Harvard and the Cowboys dropped me. I owe him a lot of money and with Eddie gone, I don’t know what I’m gonna do.”

I trace his jaw with my fingers, playing with the blond stubble that’s starting to grow after he probably didn’t have time to shave this morning. “I don’t care about money, Crew. We’ll figure it out.”

That was obviously the wrong thing to say in front of my mother.

“Ha.” Tiffany takes a deep drag from a thin, long cigarette. At least she came outside to smoke; her smoking in our apartment was the reason for countless fights during my parents’ marriage.

“I swear I tried my best with you, Talula. But I guess it’s impossible to fight your father’s influence and his genes. You have it in you to be a filthy little slut. If you can’t keep your panties on in front of a hot guy who doesn’t have the right bank account, at least you should fuck him in secret.”

Heat rises to my face. “Why do you make everything sound dirty? I care about each of them.”

Tiffany rolls her eyes. “God, you’re a hopeless romantic, like your father. Love won’t take you anywhere and it certainly won’t keep the lights on and designer clothes in your closet, Lula. Men don’t fuck because they’re in love. Unless they’re pussies like your father. The men who matter want to possess us, they’re built to conquer, dominate. But they’re only interested as long as you’re young and pretty. This is why you have to be smart and keep them hooked until one of them puts a ring on it. And how do you do that? I’m not saying you need to be faithful, you just need to be smart about it. Let them all think they’re the only one and then choose the better suitor; the one that can provide the best lifestyle. Now that these boys know you spread your legs for all of them, they’re going to toss you aside once they get bored with you.”

I’ve heard Tiffany’s opinions about men and relationships all my life. If romantic relationships are truly the way she describes them, I never want to get married.

I know she’s wrong though.

I see it when I look at Dad and Arianna. Their relationship might not be perfect, it might not have had the best start, but I have no doubt that they love each other.

It’s the same between me and Stefan. We would give our lives for each other. Jules risked his life to save mine and while his actions have been misguided, he sacrificed to keep me safe from his vindictive ex.

Crew has been in my corner from the second we met, when no one else was.

“You’re wrong, Mom .”

Her face twist into a displeased grimace; or at least she tries but the Botox, or whatever she uses to try to freeze time, has also frozen her features.

She hates when I call her “Mom” and I totally did it on purpose.

“Stefan, Jules and Crew care about me and I care about them.”

Tiffany laughs, shaking her head. “They’re just using you and they’re going to move on once they get bored with you. I’ve been trying to protect you from these boys all along, but you make it so hard. I’m washing my hands of you, child. When they get bored with you, don’t come to me crying and looking for sympathy. This is my last warning to you.”

Stefan

I hate Tiffany.

I’ve never liked her, even when we were kids. Mom loved her so much because Tiffany was very good at hiding her real nature beneath a veneer of friendship and support.

Mom never saw the way she treated all of us kids when she wasn’t looking. She believed her best friend’s cold, stern parenting style was a product of Tiffany’s own childhood.

What she didn’t see is that Tiffany was a master manipulator, nice to the people she thought she could use to further her own agenda and a complete cunt to everyone else.

I’ll never forgive her for not protecting Lula from her new husband and her son, for taking their side when she went to her for help.

Most of all, I’ll never forgive her for coming between me and Lula and almost costing us everything.

I spent three years thinking Lula had betrayed me and she thought I didn’t care about her because of Tiffany’s lies.

“You think you know me, Tiff?” I spit out, not even attempting to hide the contempt I feel for her. “You obviously don’t. I love your daughter. I always have and I always will. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for her. But you know that. I have to wonder if three years ago you called the cops on me and lied to me and Lula because you were jealous that no one will ever love you the way we love each other.”

I don’t know if my theory is correct, Tiffany doesn’t give me the satisfaction of confirming or denying the true motives behind her actions.

“If you didn’t take your stupidity from your mother,” Tiffany chides. “You’d be cute. If you don’t plan on dumping Lula’s ass once someone better comes along, you’re even more dumb than I thought. What man would let his woman fuck around with two other guys and take her back like nothing happened? Lula doesn’t love you, Stefan. She’s always been in love with Jules and you’ve always been her second choice. If you aren’t careful, you’ll be her third choice since she’s falling for Crew. Or maybe fourth, I wouldn’t be surprised if she was fucking Rikki too.”

Lula takes offense. “How dare you talk to Stefan like that? You know nothing about me and my feelings.”

Tiffany snorts. “Feelings. You are your father’s daughter. If I had followed my heart, I would still be living in a trailer park in Texas. Knocked up with our high school quarterback’s baby and begging for scraps when he wouldn’t even leave his rich girlfriend and take responsibility. The only decent thing I got from him was money to fix his mistake, so that I could have a real shot at a better life and go to college. I was in love with him but like I told you, men don’t love women like us. They take from us and then leave us with nothing.”

Lula looks shocked by her mother’s revelation. We knew Tiffany grew up poor but we had no idea how tough she really had it.

“I learned my lesson the hard way and thankfully I had time to work my ass off to get out of the bum-fuck-nowhere shit hole I came from.” She continues. “I grew up wearing clothes donated by the local church, Lula. I didn’t have the luxury of following my heart like you do. Hate me all you want, but if you think I feel an ounce of guilt about fighting tooth and nail to send you to the best private schools, to make sure you date men who can give you the best time of the best, then you’re even more na?ve than I thought. You’ll never know how it is living in a run down trailer park where you have to be careful not to step on discarded needles when you walk out of the door to take the bus to school. Or finding that your mother took the rent you scraped together working after school to pay her dealer. You have me to thank for that. So when I give you some priceless advice, you’d be wise to take it. One day soon, I’ll be a senator’s wife. Maybe a governor’s wife if things go my way.”

Lula couldn’t be more different than her mother. She’s soft where Tiffany is hard, compassionate where her mother is selfish.

But she had to learn to defend herself growing up and the only way she knows is by lashing out.

“Good luck with that, Tiff,” she laughs. “Maybe when Stefan and Crew dump me, like you’re so sure, we’ll compare notes.”

Tiffany’s eyes narrow, her smile wiped away and replaced with suspicion. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I guess your precious stepson didn’t give you a heads up like he did with me last night when he tried to put his hands on me again. After the way you told the sheriff that you think I’m involved with the murders, you wouldn’t deserve a heads up. But you’re right, I take after Dad and I’m a hopeless romantic. I hate when love doesn’t win in the end.”

If I didn’t have a hundred and fifty pounds on Tiffany, I would probably be scared. The way she looks at Lula is downright feral.

“If you have something to say, Lula, say it. Don’t think I’m not going to hit you just because you’re eighteen.”

Oh, fuck no.

With no hesitation, both Crew and I take a step forward, flanking Lula. “Touch her, Tiff, and you’ll regret it. I have never hit a woman,” I growl. “Don’t make me change that.”

“Don’t worry, Stef,” Lula reassures me. “I’m going to tell her what she wants to know. Evan told me Howard doesn’t think you’re senator’s wife material after all. Your husband is keeping you around to win the blue collar vote , but he plans on ditching you once he’s elected.”

That’s a bombshell if I ever heard one, but if I thought the news would ruffle Tiffany’s feathers, I guess I was wrong.

Lula’s mother sneers. “Oh, is he? Don’t worry about me, darling. I know where all the skeletons in that man’s closet are. His son using date rape drugs to get laid at school is just the tip of the iceberg. And after this weekend, there’s no way Howard Johnston can ever leave me.”

“What do you mean?” Lula asks.

“I don’t know who the fuck shot those people and I don’t care,” Tiffany smirks. “Let’s just say that if Evan and Howard don’t want to lose their alibi, they better be extra nice to me.”