“Stop this now!” thunders my brother. “She’s your niece!”
Niece. When he says it, liquid fire is already shooting up the stalk of my flesh and there isn’t a damn thing in the world I can do about it. I pull her face flush with my lap and hit the resistance of her throat, listening as she happily chokes down my come, wave after wave. I bellow my relief into the small pool house, lights flickering in front of my vision, the orgasm ripping through me. Best one of my life by a hundred miles. I haven’t even been living until now.
When it’s over, though? When my brother is staring at me like I’m a monster and my niece’s lies replay one by one? That’s when I get good and pissed.
Chapter Three
Clara
Uh oh. I’m in big trouble now.
My stepfather storms toward me and I curl into myself—but when I expect him to grab me by the arm and drag me back to the main house…nothing happens.
I open my eyes to find Rex blocking his path, hands fisted at his sides.
Inside my chest, my heart bursts into a shower of confetti. Does that mean Rex still wants me? Please let him still want me. The last twenty minutes have been the best ones of my—admittedly short—life. No one has ever made me feel so safe and secure. Possessed. No one has ever caught me before I hit the floor, either. Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve prayed for…something. I wasn’t sure what it was. A person? A thing? All I knew was the feeling it would give me. A sense of belonging. That’s what Rex gave me for the last twenty glorious minutes. I belonged to him. And he wasn’t going to cast me aside for being clumsy or a little bit crazy once in a while.
Not like everyone else.
Knowing this isn’t the right time doesn’t stop my gaze from roaming up his thighs and backside. His fly must still be undone, because the waist of his jeans is loose, giving me a glimpse of coarse skin, black hair, tattoo ink. Oh God, I can still taste him in my throat, all salty and thick. I just want to do it again. Want to see his ownership blazing down at me, hear it in his voice.
“Well?” shouts my stepfather. “I just walked in to find you face-fucking my stepdaughter. Explain yourself.”
“Watch your tone. I’m still your older brother and I’ll still belt you across the mouth when necessary.” Rex’s cold warning jolts me, but I still scoot closer, pressing my face against the backs of his legs. “I didn’t know who she was.”
My stepfather shoves a hand through his perfectly styled hair and laughs. “You expect me to believe that? Jesus, man. She’s barely out of high school.”
Rex curses. “She’s legal, though?”
“If she wasn’t, would you have stopped?”
Silence drops like a curtain, finally giving me my chance to interject. “Stop talking about me like I’m not here.” I reach for my silk pajama slip and tug it over my head. “I’m an adult. I can speak for myself.”
“You’re only an adult on paper,” spits my stepfather. “In real life, you’re a daydreaming baby who can’t walk two feet without tripping into a ditch. Is that what happened here? She tripped and her mouth landed on your—”
Rex plows his fist into my stepfather’s face. He staggers back, hand pressed to his nose. Blood begins to ooze out almost immediately.
“Get out!”
“I warned you,” Rex says, pointing at his brother. “A warning is more than I give most men. You should have listened.”
My stepfather visibly reins in his temper. “You’ve come into my home, defiled Clara and assaulted me. How am I going to explain this to her mother? She looks like she’s been working a street corner.” He looks at the blood on his hand and winces. “It’s time for you to go, Rex. Go and don’t ever come back.”
“This is the Clara you mentioned in your email,” Rex murmurs, finally turning to look down at me, but I can’t read his shut-off expression. “I didn’t ask her name. I would have known.”
“Yes, well. It’s a little late for regrets.” My stepfather sneers down at me. “Believe me, I know she’s tempting, I’ve thought about waiting until her mother is asleep and—”
Rex cuts him off with a growl. “You don’t want to finish that sentence.” He steps into my stepfather’s space and the man’s face turns white as a sheet. “If you ever lay a goddamn finger on her, you won’t live to see the next sunrise.”
My heart floats up into the clouds and I come to my feet, prepared to launch myself into Rex’s arms. He’s not angry at me for lying. He understands that we’re not related by blood and we’re free to be together. At least, that’s what I think.