Octavia's Time [The Klawinken] (Siren Publishing Allure) Read Free

the business card she had stuffed in her purse, and against her better judgment, called the gallery. A gruff-sounding man answered the telephone and assured her they were most certainly licensed by the state. When she inquired about having her nipples pierced in the privacy of her own home, he responded without hesitation, “I have a technician that’s available on Saturday afternoon. He’s one of our best. Will that work for you, or would you prefer a woman? Where do you live?”
    She told him she didn’t mind a man. She didn’t tell him that she much preferred a man. Within twenty minutes after she hung up the telephone, he called her back to confirm the appointment. Mathieu, he told her, would arrive at her house around two o’clock on Saturday.
    Sighing, she peeled away the wax and cleaned up the kitchen. She ran her fingers lightly over her nubs that were now ultra-sensitive. She walked back upstairs, cleaned herself, and pulled on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. No bra or panties were needed or wanted. She liked the rough feel of the jeans against her pussy and the way her shirt pulled tight across her breasts. She had to admit that they were delicious sensations. Her constant state of sexual tension was raising havoc with the life she had been quite happy with until her body decided it had a mind of its own. Could there be some truth to the Klawinken stories, or is it possible that my subconscious is feeding off them because I miss my sister more than I want to admit?
    She picked up her cell phone from the bed and arrowed down until she highlighted Evenela’s name. It was the last phone number she had for her sister. Her fingernail hovered over the green send button. She didn’t even know if her sister had the same cell phone number after all this time. This was stupid. She snapped the lid shut and threw her cell phone back on the bed. Evenela hated her as much as she did their parents, or she would have never left the way she did and then neglected to tell them she was getting married. Her sister had used her marriage to stick the knife in even deeper.
    Octavia remembered the day she had come home from school to find her mother sitting alone on the bed that had once been Evenela’s. Her eyes were closed, with tears streaming down her face, and her lips were moving as if she were praying. Octavia’s first thought was that something horrible must have happened to her father. Panicked, she ran to her mother. “Mom, where’s Dad? What’s happened?”
    When her mother didn’t respond, Octavia touched her hand to her mother’s shoulder. “Mom, you’re scaring me.”
    Her mother’s eyes flew open. “Octavia, dear…I’m sorry,” she sniffled. “Nothing’s wrong…that is if you think of your sister’s marriage to that man that she ran away with to Boston three years ago as a good thing. I feel like I’ve lost her all over again.”
    “Married. Evenela’s married. When?”
    “I got a letter from her today saying she’s been a married woman for the last few months, and according to her, happier than she’s ever been in her life. She felt obligated to notify us of her new last name. Kind of her, don’t you think?”
    Shocked by her sister’s revelation, Octavia sat down beside her mother. “I can’t believe she didn’t call to invite you to the wedding or to have Dad give her away. How could she be so cold and callous? I guess”—she shook her head sadly—“I never really knew my sister at all.”
    “I guess none of us did.” Her mother hugged Octavia to her, resting her head on daughter’s shoulder. “I don’t know what I would do without you. You keep your father and me going…knowing you love us regardless of our faults.”
    “I’m so sorry that Evenela treated you and Dad so badly. I really am. I’m nothing like her.”
    “I know you’re not. I just wish I had never allowed your grandmother to visit us that one time. I knew better, but I thought it was the kind thing to do. We