by Kit Kyndall
Malone glared at him. “You’d really pick her over me?”
Dalton sighed. “It’s not a matter of picking someone over someone else. You’re behaving like a bitch, and I’m not going to let you hurt Candace. If you can behave yourself, there’s no reason for either one of us to go scorched earth. Right?”
Malone bared her teeth. “I’m taking her down.”
“At the expense of yourself and social life? I didn’t think you were that foolish.” Dalton looked at Calvin. “Maybe you can talk some sense into her—somewhere not here.”
Candace realized she was still straining against Dalton’s hold to get to Malone, so she forced herself to calm down and relax. She leaned against Dalton, and Calvin’s eyes widened when Dalton put his hand on her stomach.
Maybe he’d thought Malone was just making up rumors, but he clearly understood now there was truth to her assertion. She waited for signs of his disapproval, but he didn’t reveal anything. Instead, he looked down at Malone, wrapped his arms around her more firmly, and mostly dragged her out of the room.
She turned to Dalton. “I’m sorry about that. I didn’t mean to lose control. I was really trying to handle it maturely, but anger got the best of me.” She shivered. “Do you think she’s going to tell everyone?” She didn’t care if people knew she was dating Dalton, or even Lex and Dalton, but she still didn’t want to face the unpleasant social repercussions. Having been the topic of gossip before, along with the disdain of BriarEdge students, she wasn’t eager to repeat that.
“Calvin and I will make sure she doesn’t. Worst-case scenario, I’ll bring Dad into it. Since he’s clearly ashamed by me dating you, he won’t want it to get around school that I’m dating my stepsister.”
She shuddered at the thought of Ashton having to intercede, and she wasn’t even convinced he could keep Malone in check. Still, she couldn’t worry about it just then. She had enough other things to focus on without stirring herself into a lather about whether Malone would carry through her threat and turn Candace into a pariah once more.
Chapter Nine
Dalton
Christmas Eve was awkward, and he spent most of it trying to avoid engaging with his dad. None of the people in the household were unaffected by the conflict raging just below the surface, and it was a tense, unhappy day.
That evening, he was annoyed when Ashton announced at the dinner table, “Everyone, get ready for the midnight service at church.”
Malone groaned. “We haven’t been to church in years. I don’t want to go.”
“Some of us need time to reflect and repent,” said Ashton with heavy looks first at Dalton and then Candace.
Dalton rolled his eyes.
Calvin cleared his throat. “Sorry, but I’m not joining you.”
“Why not?” asked Ashton, glaring.
“I’m an atheist, Dad, remember? I told you this a few years ago. I’m not going to play along with something I don’t believe.”
Ashton looked ready to explode until Hannah put a hand on his wrist. “In that case, we wouldn’t presume to force you,” she said to Calvin in a calm tone.
“Thanks.” Calvin had always preferred peace, so Dalton wasn’t surprised when he didn’t point out they couldn’t have made him go anyway.
“I’m not going either,” said Malone with a scowl.
“Yes, you are, or you’ll find next semester’s tuition unpaid,” snapped Ashton. He looked at Dalton and Candace. “That goes for you two as well.”
When Candace didn’t argue, Dalton decided not to bother. After dinner finished, he hoped to have some time alone with Candace, but his dad and her mom made sure there wasn’t time for that by sending them both to their rooms to study. Ashton pointedly told them he was turning on the second-floor sensors.
Dalton texted her on his phone once in his room, and they sexted each other. He could tell Candace was new to it, but he was satisfied she was completely turned on by the time they had to leave for church. So was he, unfortunately, but his hand held no appeal.
When he went downstairs, Hannah frowned at him. “What?” he asked.
“You didn’t change.” She wore a nice blue dress that highlighted her baby bump.
He shrugged. “This is good enough.” He wore khakis and a long-sleeved green T-shirt.
She apparently decided it wasn’t worth arguing and didn’t say more as Candace joined them. She scowled at Candace, who wore leggings and a Christmas sweater, but she didn’t chastise her for not changing either.
Ashton joined them a moment later, clearly not realizing they weren’t dressed to Hannah’s standards, though he now wore a suit and tie. What a bunch of nonsense for this dog-and-pony show, thought Dalton with a curl of his lip. It wasn’t as though he and Candace would suddenly fall out of love by going to a church service. Like Calvin, he didn’t believe in any of it anyway, but even if he’d been devout, it wouldn’t have been enough to keep him from loving her.
As the service was reaching its high point, Candace slipped away to use the restroom. Hannah and Ashton didn’t seem to notice, so he followed her a few minutes later, catching her exiting the ladies’ room. He grinned at her. “Feeling holy yet?”
She grinned. “Not especially.” She touched his chest. “Maybe empty though.”
He wiggled his eyebrows. “I hear church is a good place for getting filled up by…something.” He looked around before casually stroking her mound through her leggings.
She blushed, looking around as well before taking a step back. “This isn’t my thing, but I’d hate to offend someone.”
He nodded, though part of him liked the idea of getting wicked with her in the church. Mostly, it was to annoy his dad rather than any desire to debase a religious place. To keep himself in check, he put his hands in his pockets. “This is nuts, having to sneak around in a church to have a couple of moments alone.”
She nodded her agreement before her gaze darted to the inner room. “We should get back before…”
“What are you two doing out here?” whisper-shouted Ashton as he came storming toward them from the other room.
“We both had to go to the bathroom,” said Dalton in a neutral voice. He was glad he hadn’t given in to the urge to kiss her, or more. That would only fuel his father’s rage.
Ashton snorted. “Back to your seat, young lady.”
With a cautious glance at Dalton, who nodded at her, she darted back into the room as though hellhounds chased her. He couldn’t blame her for not wanting to face Ashton in this mood. It was almost enough to make him back down, but he knew conceding would mean agreeing to give up dating Candace, and he wouldn’t do that.
“Your mother and I—”
“Stepmother,” he corrected.
Ashton’s left eye visibly throbbed. “We’re discussing sending you to separate schools.”
Dalton had to catch his breath at the pang that shot through his chest. He did his best to hide his reaction. “We’re both eighteen. There’s nothing stopping us from quitting school to be together.”
His dad scowled. “You’d really throw away your future on an infatuation? And wreck hers too?”
“If you force us too, yeah. We already discussed it.” Technically, they hadn’t developed a plan if that occurred, but he doubted Candace would mind him bluffing a bit. “Even if we followed your plan and did what you told us, all you’d be doing is delaying the inevitable. We’ll still be together in a few months.”
Ashton sighed. “You’re giving her too much credit. She’s dangling all those boys on a hook, and she hooked you too.”
Dalton took a step forward, unable to fully contain his anger. “Like Hannah hooked you to get a rich husband?”
The other man glared at him. “Don’t you ever say anything like that again.”
“Relax, Dad.” He smirked, trying to rein in some of his ire. “I know it’s not true. She loves you, just like Candace loves me…and I love her. She has her boyfriends, but she loves them too.
She’s not what you’re thinking she is, and whatever you try to do to keep us apart will only work for a little while, if at all. What it will do for sure is damage my relationship with you, and hers with Hannah.”
Without waiting for a reply, he walked past his dad and returned to the inner room to take a seat on the pew beside Candace. He unashamedly took her hand, ignoring Hannah’s frown of censure and his dad’s scowl when Ashton rejoined them a second later. He hated to feel a wedge between himself and Ashton, but if his dad tried to force them apart, he’d only be wrecking what relationship he had with Dalton, not getting Dalton to give up Candace.
Chapter Ten
Candace
Candace tried to put aside the discord on Christmas morning as they exchanged gifts. Dalton gave her a watch with a ruby for the “twelve” spot, surrounded by diamond chips. It would match nicely with the earrings from Jonas, which she’d put in that morning upon waking, wanting to be close to him by thinking of him and wearing his gift, since she hadn’t seen him in a few weeks.
She gave Dalton a sweater that matched his eyes, having spent hours looking for the perfect shade. It didn’t feel quite personal enough, but she didn’t want to get too intimate in front of their families anyway.
She was glad she’d only gotten Malone a pair of ugly Christmas socks when she opened a half-full box of chocolates from her stepsister. They were all the disgusting flavors—coconut, licorice, and maple—already bitten into, with the bites spat out and placed beside the rest of the mangled chocolates.
She set it aside with no comment but caught her mom’s expression of annoyance when Hannah looked in the box as she pushed it aside. Hannah gave her a look of commiseration, and for a moment, it was like the last two days hadn’t happened.
Everyone, except Malone, seemed to be trying to put on a happy front, because the day was spent as a family without arguing. Everyone was being super-polite, again besides Malone, to the point of being super-awkward, but that was better than naked hostility.
After a day of movies, eating a sumptuous dinner once again served to them by staff, and mellowing with mulled cider, it seemed late enough to excuse herself to go to bed. She didn’t need Ashton’s reminder that the second-floor sensors would be on soon to know she wasn’t going to get any time alone with Dalton, though that was the gift she wanted most—time with her men.
The rest of the break passed much the same, with them mostly confined to their rooms or under the direct gaze of Ashton or Hannah. Ashton hosted a party on New Year’s Eve, but they weren’t invited, except for Calvin. He turned on the sensors upstairs, so they were confined to their rooms. She and Dalton had gotten good at sexting, though it wasn’t satisfying. She was looking forward to returning to school and their dank basement meeting place.
If they let them go back to BriarEdge. She still didn’t know if they were planning to do some eleventh-hour horrible twist and send them to separate places instead—or keep them at home under virtual house arrest.
She was as prepared as she could be for that possibility when she went down the day after the party. They were returning to school the next day, so surely, the parents would unveil any awful machinations today, if they were going to anything.
She was tense all through breakfast, though Ashton was quiet. He looked a bit hungover, and Hannah was clearly tired from her late night. She started to tiptoe out as soon as she’d finished eating when her mother’s voice stopped her by calling her name. She looked at her. “Yes?”
“We’d like to speak to you and Dalton after breakfast. Stay at the table, please.”
With a sigh, she nodded at her mom and looked at Dalton. He rubbed his socked foot gently against hers, which was bare, and gave her an encouraging smile.
Calvin and Malone must have taken that to mean to hurry up, because they were both finished within the next two minutes. Candace expected Malone to linger in hopes of hearing something juicy, but she sped out of the room with Calvin. Candace was startled to realize Malone had mostly steered clear of her since their fight that day in her room. She’d had bigger problems and hadn’t noticed until now.
She hoped to find out what magic Calvin had used to persuade her to keep away. She hoped it extended to Malone keeping her mouth shut about Candace’s relationships when…if…they returned to BriarEdge.
There was silence for a few minutes before Ashton cleared his throat. “We discussed sending you to schools on opposites sides of the country—an all-girls’ school for you, Candace.”
She opened her mouth to protest as her mother looked at Dalton.
“An all-boys’ for you seemed counterintuitive to helping you get over this infatuation with my daughter.”
Dalton glared at Hannah. “You could send me into an orgy with a thousand beautiful models, and I’d still come out untouched and loving Candace.”
Hannah frowned in distaste, but she nodded after a moment. “We realize you both think you’re in love—”
“We are in love,” said Candace, as she leaned forward to stretch across the table and take Dalton’s hand.
Ashton sighed with clear impatience. “I’m sure you’ll both soon realize you’re far too young for such things, but we decided there wasn’t much point in separating you for a few months. It might damage other relationships more.”
A ghost of a smile touched Dalton’s lips before flitting away.
“So, you’re both going back to school, but we expect you to behave yourselves and exhibit self-control. Hannah thinks you’ve only kissed—”
“We’re not discussing that with you, Dad,” said Dalton with real heat in his tone. “It’s not your business.”
Ashton’s lips curled upward. “We expect you to remain discreet and chaste during these next few months. If you love each other, you can respect each other and the need to be circumspect while you’re going to school at a fine institution with kids from good families. The world sees you as stepsiblings, and you need to make sure that’s how they still see you. If you get in trouble for…fraternizing, you’ll both be shipped to the strictest, gender-segregated schools we can find. Do you both understand?”
Candace nodded slowly, knowing she had no intention of holding up part of that bargain. She could certainly aim for discreet, but she wasn’t about to stay chaste with Dalton. They would be careful, knowing the consequences would mean separation for months.
“Fine, but you’d better get Malone to shut up. She knows about us and was planning to tell everyone the last I heard.” Dalton seemed unconcerned. “If she does, can we be open about our relationship?”
Ashton didn’t answer that. His scowl just deepened. “I’ll deal with Malone.”
“We expect you to make good choices and not leave us regretting this decision,” said Hannah to both of them. “If you’re adult enough to be so in love, you’re adult enough to behave properly.”
Candace nodded again, feeling better about not verbally agreeing to terms she wasn’t going to fully follow. Instead, she asked, “May I be excused? I need to pack.”
“And I still need to help Candace with French lessons,” said Dalton.
“You may be excused,” said Hannah to Candace. She turned to Dalton. “You may give her lessons in the living room, but there will be no alone time for either of you.”
Dalton gave her a smirk. “You either trust us to do the right thing, or you don’t, Hannah.”
She glared at him. “Let’s be blunt and say I don’t, young man. I don’t trust either of you. I suspect Candace’s sudden wild child need to date every boy in the world is her acting out because of my marriage to Ashton. I suspect your lust for her is from normal teenage hormones, not love. I fully expect to be retrieving both of you from BriarEdge within days. But maybe, just maybe, you’ll surprise me and prove me wrong.”
The sneer slid from his face, and Dalton swallowed. He looked serious when he said, “Fine.”
Candace got up and left the table without saying anything else. She was happy
to find out they were letting them go back to school together, but it suddenly felt like a weighty obligation rather than a reprieve. She couldn’t bear the idea of proving her mother right about them not controlling themselves, or by being caught, but she also couldn’t stand the thought of not being with Dalton for their secret basement meetings once or twice per week either.
She didn’t know how she was going to proceed as she returned to her room to pack before going downstairs to meet Dalton in the living room. His assistance with her French wasn’t really necessary, but it was a way for them to be semi-alone and at least within touching distance. What if that was all they had for the next few months?
“January-March” is coming soon.
In the BriarEdge series:
September
October
November
December
Winter Break
January-March
April-May
About Kit Kyndall
Kit Kyndall is the pen name USA Today bestselling author Kit Tunstall uses when writing contemporary erotic romances. It’s simply a way to separate the myriad types of stories she writes so readers know what to expect with each “author.”
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