“Oh, God,” I said, covering my mouth with my hands as the pit of my stomach twisted violently. Whatever remained in my stomach from lunchtime was moving upwards. I had to stand up. I had to walk. My lungs gasped for air.
I’ve been fucking my stepbrother for the last two weeks.
“Excuse me.” I scooted away from the table and made a beeline for the front door, and from the corner of my eye, I saw Coco running after me and I thought I heard my mom say something about how I always got upset when she had a new “friend” in her life.
“What’s going on?” Coco asked the second we burst through the doors. My lungs gasped for fresh air. “You act like you’re surprised or something. This is totally Mom.”
I peered over her shoulder, glancing back toward the restaurant where Mom, Vince, and Wilder seemed to be immersed in conversation; only Wilder’s piercing stare was honed in on me.
“Wilder…” I began to say. The words got stuck in my throat. If I said them, that would mean it was all real. I loved a man I couldn’t be with. “Wilder is…”
“Wait a minute.” Coco placed her hand up and stopped me. “That’s… that’s the guy. The Calvin Klein model. The guy you met… that you’ve been… the one you…”
Coco stepped back, clutching at the diamond pendant dangling around her delicate neck. Horror washed over her face.
“You can’t,” she said. “You have to end it now.”
“I know,” I whined, staring back and allowing our eyes to lock for a brief moment.
“He’s our stepbrother now,” Coco said, crossing her arms. “It has to end. We have reputations in this city, Addison. Page Six would eat us alive with that sort of gossip! Our careers would be over.”
She began pacing frantically. Coco’s star was rising, and her career had been on an upward trajectory over the last few years. She had major dreams. Dreams I’d promised to do whatever it took to support, since I knew she’d do the same for me.
“If anyone finds out,” Coco said, her voice breaking, “I’ll be a laughingstock. You too. Especially you.”
“I know, Coco.” I hung my head.
“Can you even fucking imagine the headlines?” she said, getting more worked up by the second. “There goes all your high profile clients. No one wants a realtor from Kentucky who’s fucking her stepbrother. The story pretty much writes itself. And people know we’re sisters. God, Susannah Jethro’s people would have a field day with that kind of a story. They’ve been dying to get their hands on some kind of dirt that could take me down.”
“We didn’t know,” I said.
“I get that,” Coco snapped. “But it has to end. Now. Our careers, everything we’ve worked so hard for, depends on it.”
“Everything okay?” Wilder stepped out from the restaurant’s awning.
Coco tossed her dark hair over her shoulder and softened her expression, hiding the emotions she’d just unleashed on me a second earlier. “Everything’s fine, Wilder. I’ll let you two chat.”
The clicking of Coco’s heels as she headed back inside were like a countdown until the moment we could finally be alone.
“Fuck.” Wilder raked his fingers through his hair and then settled his hands on his hips, his weight shifting on his feet. “I didn’t know, Addison. I swear to God.”
“I believe you,” I said, still finding it hard to look him in the eye. He was my stepbrother. My legal stepbrother. And I’d just sucked his cock that morning.
“You know I can’t be with you now.” I set fire to us, to our budding relationship, with eight little words. He stepped toward me, reaching for my arm. Our parents were mere feet away, enjoying their freshly delivered appetizers as our world was falling apart outside. “Don’t.”
“Why can’t you be with me?” he asked. “Shit, Addison, you know how many times my dad has been married? You think this is going to last more than six months? I give it a year. Tops.”
“They seem really happy.” I drew in a sharp breath, watching my mom laugh at something Vince said. “I’ve never seen her so happy, Wilder.”
“Fuck that.” He pulled me to the other side of the awning, away from their view. “Stop looking at them. Look at me. I’m still the same person. I could give two shits about some fucking piece of bullshit paper that makes us related.”
“It’s not that simple.” Coco’s words echoed through my head. The implications of being with Wilder and what it could do to our careers were massive and undeniable.
“Addison, look at me,” he said, pressing his body up against mine. He cupped the side of my face with his hand, but I pushed it away.
“We’re in public,” I said, my cheeks burning hot as if the rest of the world knew our secret already. Suddenly the way he looked at me made me feel dirty instead of naughty, disgusting instead of sexy. “Don’t do this.”
“I don’t see you as my stepsister. I didn’t grow up with you. I don’t have a history with you that spans beyond a month ago.”
The faint scent of his expensive cologne surrounded us, enveloping me into a bubble reminiscent of the countless nights spent cultivating our torrid love affair. His lips caught my attention. Those full, beautiful, kissable lips, the ones I’d devoured and thought about nonstop, suddenly made my stomach churn.