“I know you’d never do anything you didn’t really want to, sweet Ellie, with a bitter bite.” Leaning in, Colby nuzzles my cheek with his nose like a lazy cat showing its owner affection. Then he does something that steels the breath from my lungs. He presses a soft kiss to the corner of my mouth, lingering as though it feels too good to withdraw from.
It does. It really does.
I wrap my arm around his big chest and tug, wanting to feel his weight on me. Needing him to kiss me longer and deeper, but Colby doesn’t budge.
When he pulls back, he folds in his lips, sneaking a taste of me, and then he’s up and off the bed, pinching the condom to discard it in his wastepaper basket. I get a glorious view of his muscular back tapering into his perfectly rounded ass. Oh god. That ass is enough to make me want to go again, even though I’m shattered and sore.
I guess it means tonight is over. And it’s fine because I got what I came for and more.
Two delicious orgasms, an insight into my dominant, control-freak stepbrother, and another dare that can free me from my self-imposed restrictions so that I can do what I really want.
Live and fuck the consequences.
Be another Ellie. A brave girl who isn’t shackled by expectations. Ellie Franklin, who isn’t a timid little girl anymore. Ellie Franklin, who’s never a coward.
14
SEBASTIAN
When I hear Colby whistling while the coffee machine percolates, I know something is going on. This dude is never cheerful in the morning unless he’s gotten laid. It’s like when he comes, he exorcises his grumpy demon for as long as it takes for it for his internal tension to build up again.
I glance at Micky, and he’s watching Colby too, but instead of wearing a frown to match mine, the small smile on his face makes him look fucking ridiculous.
Now I’m feeling paranoid. Have they teamed up about something I don’t know about? I roll my lips between my teeth and spread butter thickly over my toast. Colby stirs sugar into his coffee and hums.
What the fuck?
I guess I could sit here for the next five minutes and pretend I’m not noticing all the weirdness going around this house, or I can just demand answers. The latter seems like more fun. “Is anyone going to tell me what’s going on? It’s like I walked into a room after someone told the punch line of a joke, and no one wants to fill me in!”
Colby glances at Micky and then focuses on his coffee again. I swear he’ll wear a hole in the bottom of that cup if he doesn’t stop stirring soon.
“I’ve got to head in early today,” Colby says, ignoring my demand for answers. “I’ll see you guys at training.”
“Errr…” I wave the knife in the air as my brother heads for the door, his travel coffee mug in hand, but Colby doesn’t respond. As he disappears through the door, Micky stands quickly, his chair scrapping the tiled floor. “And where are you going?”
“Early start,” he mumbles, folding his toast into an awkward sandwich before quickly leaving his plate on the counter.
“Of course,” I say, narrowing my eyes. “I’ve never seen you two so keen to leave in the morning.
Unlike Colby, Micky has the decency to glance at me with an apologetic grimace before following the route our older triplet took seconds earlier.
And then I’m left alone in the kitchen to chew on my toast and my paranoia.
When, minutes later, Ellie walks into the room with a bounce in her step and starts humming, too, I’m pretty sure I know what’s going on. What I don’t know is why I’m the only one who’s left out.
“Morning.” I nod in Ellie’s direction, and she beams a smile at me, her eyes seeming to linger on my bare chest. Usually, she’d say something about the inappropriateness of me walking around only half-dressed when I share a house with her, but today, her tongue darts out to moisten her lower lip and blush pinks her cheeks.
Interesting.
“Morning, Sebastian.” She heads to the coffee machine and searches for her preferred pod before loading it up. She used my full name. Curious. “Where is everybody?” she asks.
“Early starts all around today,” I say. “It’s like my brothers were desperate to escape my company!”
“I’m sure that’s not true,” Ellie says brightly.
“But you don’t seem to be so eager to get away from me.” I cock an eyebrow and watch her blush deepen. Not for the first time, I wonder if she had that same flush to her cheeks in the closet.
“Keep talking like that, and maybe I’ll leave early, too,” she says.
“Ah… there’s my Ellie,” I say, smiling at her usual sass.
“My Ellie?” She rests her hand on her cocked hip, and my dick kicks beneath my sleep shorts. I love a perfectly manicured girl as much as the rest of them, but I prefer a woman who’s mussed from sleep and scrubbed free of makeup.