Scintillation Read online

  Scintillation

  Rachel Blake and Amilia Quinn

  Copyright © 2021

  All Rights Reserved

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is for a brief quote by a reviewer.

  * * *

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locals are entirely coincidental.

  This book is meant for adult audiences only as it contains adult themes and explicit sexual encounters.

  * * *

  Cover Design by Laura Hidalgo

  Edits by Sandy Ebel of Personal Touch Editing

  Formatting by Cheryl Maddox

  This book is for all the people who struggle with trauma of any kind.

  * * *

  You are not alone or wrong.

  You are beautiful, loved and worthy.

  No matter what they say.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Epilogue

  About The Authors: Rachel Blake

  Other Books by Rachel Blake

  About The Authors: Amilia Quinn

  Other Books by Amilia Quinn

  1

  “Jesus fucking Christ!” Ellie swore as she picked up the wilting plant, which had somehow been shoved to the back of the shelf.

  “It’s not the first time you’ve killed one,” Millie said as she walked through the shop, holding a beautiful blooming lily.

  “Shut up!” Ellie sat back in her chair, trying not to cry.

  “I’m really not sure how you’re going to do this,” Constance said as she popped another piece of popcorn in her mouth. “You have a black thumb, Ellie. You killed a fucking cactus. Do you know how hard those things are to kill?”

  “Well, not very fucking hard for me.” Ellie pulled the dead plant from the pot and tossed it into the trash. “You’re right. I don’t know what the fuck I am doing here. I can’t keep one plant alive, let alone a whole fucking shop full.” She slumped in her chair, the defeat of it all weighing on her.

  “Oh, so are we just going to have a little pity party?” Constance dropped her feet from the top of the counter. “I wish you had told me. I would have brought Gran with me, and we all could have had a good old time.”

  “Fuck you,” Ellie shot back.

  “Now, Eleanor. Is that any way for a wife of a pastor to talk?”

  “I’m sorry,” Ellie smiled sweetly. “Fuck you, Constance. Is that better?”

  “Oh, she pulled out your full name, Stanley. You better watch out,” Millie teased.

  Before Constance could respond, the sound of the bell above the front door drew their attention, and the three of them watched as a woman all but ran from the shop.

  “And that is why I’m going to fail. I just ran off the only customer I’ve had this week.”

  “Okay, I’m done with this. Quit it.” Millie turned a few more pots toward the sun, arranging them perfectly before she turned to face her cousins. “This place will not fail because none of us will allow it. And if we can’t handle it, you know Gran and my dad won’t let anything happen to it.”

  “It’s not their call. It’s mine and maybe Freddy’s, but Gran and Uncle Otis aren’t responsible for this.” Ellie threw her arms out. “This is my mess.”

  “I want to be there when you tell Gran she doesn’t get to help you with this place. Your dad was as much a son to her as our mommas were her daughters.” Constance gave her cousin a knowing look. “You know she’d threaten your ass with her spoon.”

  “You know, she threatens the spoon an awful lot, but I don’t know that she ever used it all that much.” Millie tapped her finger against her chin. “Except for that one time.”

  “Oh, she lined us all up and gave us the what-for.” Ellie shook her head. “All because we picked on Willy.”

  “She always had a soft spot for the underdog,” Constance said as she started eating her popcorn again. “Not that I would call him an underdog anymore. That geeky, suspender-wearing little kid grew up to be fine.”

  “He still wears those suspenders, you know.” Ellie smiled. “At the club. Damn, he can pull off the disappointed professor look and make you feel hot and like a naughty schoolgirl at the same time.”

  “Wow, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen her look like that when talking about her husband.” Constance nudged her cousin. “Should we be worried she’s talking about another man like that?”

  “Nah, she completely changed who she was for Freddy. Why should we be worried?” Millie deadpanned, shooting a look of disapproval across the room.

  “Please don’t do this again,” Ellie begged. “I didn’t completely change who I was. I simply turned to religion when my dad was brutally murdered. Freddy was just a happy coincidence.”

  “And how’s that vanilla sex you swore you would never settle for?” A wicked smile spread across Constance’s face.

  “Constance!” Millie hugged a plant to her chest. “You can’t talk about that stuff around the babies. They’ll wilt from boredom.”

  “Wait, can that really happen?” A panicked look crossed Ellie’s face. “Dad always changed the music he played, but I just thought that was because he was bored with the same old things. Fuck, is that why I’m killing them?”

  “No, you’re killing them because you either over or under water them. Your horrible choice in music is a side effect to your newfound religion.” Constance looked between her cousins. “What?”

  “The plants aren’t dying because of boredom.” Millie set the pot down, then joined the two of them at the counter. “They all just need water, light, and air. You’ll find the balance.”

  “When?” Ellie ran her fingers through her long, dark hair. “It’s been six months. I’ve tried everything I know how to do, everything my dad tried to teach me, and I am getting nowhere. The only time they thrive is after the two of you have been here. I have a black thumb, and this place fell into my lap. I wasn’t supposed to have to do this yet. We were supposed to have more time.”

  “You’re thirty years old, El. Were you going to be his intern forever?” Millie asked.

  “No, but I was supposed to have a few more years, twenty at least, to figure all this out.” Ellie looked around the shop where she had so many memories. “This was my mom’s dream. Dad bought it as a wedding gift, then kept it going when she died. I can’t let that die with him.”

  “And you won’t, but you’ll have to accept help from your family. Even if it’s just us coming in here and saving the ones we can until you get the hang of it.” Millie corrected another plant. “They’re all beautiful. You just have to learn how to read what they need.”

  “We’ll help you until you get it.” Constance patted her hand.

  “For the record,”—Ellie let her voice drop to a whisper—“our sex is good. Really fucking good. It may be a little more vanilla than I’ve had in the past, but I’m good with that. He’s a good man.”

  “A man who’s changed you,” Const
ance mumbled.

  “No, finding my dad in a pool of his own blood changed me.” Ellie took a deep breath. “I went in search of something more and found it in the church. I found a place where I could get all my questions answered, where things were black and white and not open to the interpretation of man. I found a place where my head was quiet for the first time since I walked into my childhood home and found my only living parent dead. I found peace. You may not understand that, and that’s fine. I won’t force it on you, but can you please, for the love of God, stop looking down your nose at it?”

  “I’m sorry,” Millie apologized easily. “I as if it’s the wrong path for you, but that’s on me. Not you.”

  “I’m sorry, too. If you want boring vanilla sex the rest of your life, that’s your choice.” Constance smirked a second before a wad of paper hit her in the face. “Hey!”

  “I’ll have you know our sex life is fucking amazing. I still get all the things I need as a submissive. It just has a different title.” Ellie smiled as she spun her simple wedding band. “I love our domestic discipline dynamic. It works for the both of us, and I crave it.”

  “Don’t look now,” Constance nodded toward the monitor hooked into the camera in the parking lot. “It looks like you’re going to get to love your domestic discipline soon. I’m pretty sure that’s Penelope Horton, the know-it-all that goes to your church, and the woman next to her is the same one who ran out of here like her ass was on fire a few minutes ago.”

  “Fuck.” Ellie let her head fall into her hands. “She was a goody-two-shoes in high school, and little has changed.” The sound of her phone ringing in her pocket had her groaning.

  “I’m guessing she already talked to your husband,” Millie said as Ellie pulled the device from her pocket and the man’s photo filled the screen.

  “Can you guys deal with them?” Ellie stood and moved to the back room. “I have to handle this.” She answered the phone just as the bell sounded above the door. “Hey, sweety. How’s work?”

  “Well, would you be surprised if I told you I got a phone call from a member of our parish?” Freddy’s tone had her cringing.

  “Penelope?”

  “So, you know?”

  “Not really.” Ellie slid down the door of the walk-in cooler and sat with her knees to her chest. “She was coming up to the shop when my phone rang. She had that ‘I win’ smile of hers.”

  “One of our customers was shocked the wife of their pastor had such colorful language. Said you even took the lord’s name in vain?”

  “Shit.”

  “Eleanor!” His disapproval was heard loud and clear through the receiver.

  “I’m sorry.” Ellie squeezed her eyes shut. “Swearing is proving to be one of the harder habits to break. I’m trying, I swear.”

  “Oh, I know you swear. Do you know how hard it is to get the sermon written when I’m fielding calls about your less-than-ladylike language?”

  “There’s been more than one call?”

  “Not today,” Fredrick sighed. “But there have been others.”

  “I’m in trouble.”

  “Yeah, you’re in trouble. Later. Right now, I want you to march your butt back out there and apologize.”

  “To Penelope?” Ellie’s eyes snapped open. “She’s the same person she was in high school, and she’ll find any way she can to bring it up again and again. She only called you to cause an issue. She doesn’t actually care.”

  “Well, I care, and you will apologize, and you will do it humbly. As far as the rest of it, we’ll deal with it tonight. I love you, Eleanor.”

  “I love you, too, Freddy.”

  With a heavy sigh, she looked toward the front of the shop. Maybe if she sat there a few minutes longer, her cousins would run the woman off. No sooner did the thought cross her mind than the bell above the door jingled.

  “No, wait. Don’t go.” Ellie whispered.

  “I hope you don’t expect us to believe that,” Constance said as she stepped through the curtain that separated the back from the rest of the shop.

  “You? No. Do you think Freddy will?”

  “I doubt it, but it was a fair shot.”

  “I’m dead meat.”

  “Lifestyle coming to bite you in the ass?” Constance asked.

  “Yeah. You know, sometimes I really hate how much I need this.”

  “Me, too, especially when I’m between Doms or face to face with a pissed-off one.”

  “It’s the second part I’m worried about right now.” Ellie stood and dusted off the seat of her pants. “But it’s that same aspect that has my core clenching.”

  2

  Ellie pulled the last chicken leg out of the grease and was making the gravy when she heard the garage door open. As she whisked the milk into the flour mixture, the door opened, and her husband walked in.

  “It smells good in here.” Freddy shut the door and hung his keys on the hook.

  “Thank you.” She grinned without looking away from the stove. “I didn’t cook it too fast this time and got the perfect golden brown on the breading.”

  “Good job, Honey.” Quickly kissing the top of her head, he stepped past her. “I’m going to go change clothes. Set the table. I’ll be right back.”

  She carried the food to the table and poured them each a glass of milk before sitting in her chair to the right of her husband’s. Placing her hands on her lap, she tried to calm her racing heart. Knowing she was in trouble was always difficult, but having to wait was the worst part.

  Fortunately, he didn’t make her wait long. He silently walked into the dining room, running his fingers across her shoulders as he moved past her to his seat. As he sat, he reached for her hand and bowed his head, knowing she would do the same.

  “Father, please bless the hands that prepared this meal and prepare her heart for the correction that is to come. Amen.”

  Sucking air through her teeth, her eyes snapped to his, but he simply dropped her hand and ate his supper.

  “Eat, Eleanor. You made this beautiful food, so we may as well enjoy it.”

  Her hand shook as she brought a forkful of mashed potatoes to her lips, trying to hold back her tears. She hadn’t seen him angry enough before to ask God to help discipline her. It wasn’t the first time she’d been caught saying the words he considered “filthy and immoral,” but still, including the big guy seemed a bit excessive and somehow made it less private.

  They ate in silence, and when both of their plates were empty, he sat back in his chair with his hands on the table in front of him.

  “What does Ephesians 4:29 say, Eleanor?”

  Frantically trying to recall the verse, stumbling on her words. “Umm... I... don’t know, Sir.”

  “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” Standing, he narrowed his eyes. “Do you think your language today benefited the ladies who heard it?”

  “Um.” Squeezing her hands together, she forced herself to meet his eyes. “Technically, only one of them heard me say it.”

  His open palm landed harshly on the table, the movement rattling not only the empty dishes but Eleanor as she jumped in her seat.

  “Eleanor Cole, your ability to sit comfortably over the next few days depends heavily on your answers. I’d suggest not making snarky comments. Understand?”

  “Yes, Sir. I’m sorry, it wasn’t meant to be snarky.”

  “Thank you. Now, did your language today help?”

  “No, Sir.” Shaking her head, she continued, “It also reflected badly on you, and that isn’t acceptable.”

  Holding out his hand to help her stand, he lifted her chin once she was on her feet.

  “It isn’t, but you’ll take your punishment, and you’ll do better next time.” She nodded, and he continued. “Hebrews 12:11?”

  Once again, she shrugged. Her knowledge of the bible was new and very li
mited.

  Freddy sighed in disappointment.

  “Honestly, Eleanor, if you would spend half as much time reading your Bible as you do hanging out with your cousins, you might know some of these verses.”

  Dropping her eyes to the ground, she desperately tried to not let her tears fall. Her cousins were the closest thing to siblings she had. Spending less time with them was not something she could see herself doing.

  Pressing her nails into her palm, she forced herself to focus on his voice.

  “For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” He gently pushed her forward. “Wait for me in the office.”

  Knowing better than to disobey him, she quickly moved to the office. Walking through the door, she went to the chair across from the large desk in front of the window. He faced it toward the room instead of the window, claiming it caused too much of a distraction while he worked on the sermon for the week.

  Folding her hands in her lap, she cringed when she heard him open the bathroom cabinet and pull something out. When he turned the water on, she knew he took a bar of soap and was lathering it up. In an attempt to accept her punishment gracefully, she squeezed her fingers together to keep from fidgeting as he entered the room.

  “Open,” Freddy commanded, holding the suds-covered bar in front of her lips and pushing it in when she did as she was told. “This will happen every time a swear word crosses your lips. As my wife, you are expected to behave in a certain way, and it’s my job to help you.” He moved the soap around her mouth until she gagged. “Bite down.”