“Shut up,” she says casually, sipping on her Mountain Dew.
I nod slowly and dramatically, smirking with distilled discomfort.
She winces explosively. “Seriously?!”
I arch my eyebrows, still nodding.
“No way. You’re such a liar, Skye.” A moment later she grins casually at Dante, “You’re not her stepbrother.” She pauses thoughtfully. “Are you?”
He arches an eyebrow and nods. “Yup.”
Rox’s face knots up. “What? Wait, no way. Skye? Is this for reals?”
“Totes,” I say morosely.
She shakes her head, “Why didn’t you tell me?!”
“I didn’t know,” I moan. If only I had…
“This is stupid,” Rox laughs innocently. “You are not her stepbrother.”
“I am her stepbrother,” Dante says.
“For reals?”
“For reals,” he smiles.
Rox blinks a bunch of times and stares at the sky, embarrassed. Her fingers flutter in front of her. “Oh my god, Skye! We have been flirting with your stepbrother all day! What is wrong with us?” She is laughing now. “I can’t believe us!! We’re terrible!”
“I didn’t know,” I sigh quietly.
Rox doesn’t hear me. She frown-smiles at Dante. “You guys really didn’t know?”
He shakes his head. “Nope.”
“Well, when did you two figure it out?”
Red alert! Time for distraction by omitting certain key facts. “In the wave pool. He, um, asked if my name was really Angelina. We, uh, we figured it out then.”
Rox cocks her head. “Really?”
I bite my lower lip and clasp my hands between my knees like I need to pee or something. I must look guilty as hell. “Yup. At the wave pool.”
Rox stares at me, a half smile on her face. Her wheels are turning.
Oh no.
This is it.
The big blow up where my life falls apart the rest of the way and Rox disowns me.
She shakes her head dismissively and leans down to sip her Mountain Dew. “That is too funny. Well good thing we found out now, before something weirdly incestuous happened,” she wrinkles her nose and shivers.
“Yeah,” I wheeze.
Oh boy.
Can things get any worse?
Of course they can.
oOoOoOo + O+O+O+O
“Since Dante is off limits to you,” Rox says in the Toyota on the way home, “Does that mean he’s all mine?”
“Uhhh, gosh, Rox. Isn’t he a little old for you? He’s almost 22.” I know he’s still 21, but I say “almost 22” just to make it sound worse. Cause the extra few months totally make him a geezer. Not. But I’m desperate to talk Rox out of it.
She shrugs, both hands on the wheel. “Like that matters. It wasn’t stopping us earlier when he offered us beer. Why should it matter now?”
“I don’t know, because he’s my stepbrother?”
“So? It’s not like you two are related.”
Thank goodness for that much.
“And he’s never around anyway,” she says. “How long do you think he’ll stay in town?”
“Who knows. And all the more reason for you not to get involved. With my stepbrother.” This is horrendous. I am trying to trick my best friend into not pursuing my stepbrother so I can.
“All the more reason to jump right on this. You saw his body. And we both saw his cock. He looked sizable, but you never know. He could be like a tree stump when he’s hard,” she giggles. “Or a redwood. You never can tell. Do you think he’s a show-er or a grower?”
Grower. Definitely grower.
I blurt, “How the heck should I know?!”
Rox frowns, “You don’t have to get defensive. I’m just asking. Anyway, I’ll find out for both of us. I need to learn everything I can about his body. And how he uses it. Sort of as a courtesy to you.”
“What?!” I gasp.
She giggles, “Come on. You know he’s hot. He’s just a guy who happens to now be your stepbrother. But he’s a total stranger. And don’t tell me the incest fantasy hasn’t crossed your mind.”
“Of course it hasn’t! As soon as I found out he was my stepbrother, that door closed like a bank vault.” I am such a liar.
She rolls her eyes and chews her lower lip thoughtfully, her eyes pinned on the freeway ahead.
Afternoon traffic is starting to pick up.
“Well,” she says, “that’s why you need me to find out for you. We can’t very well have you hooking up with your stepbrother, can we? So, I’ll handle it. Then I can fill you in on all the sexy details.” She giggles with excitement.
Handle it? Which IT is she talking about? Duh. I search for an argument. “What about our pinky swear? What about him doing the choosing? Aren’t we still bound by that? No action until he makes the first move?”
She glances over at me, her brows knit, “That was only if we were both going for him. You’re out of the running by default, sister.” She snickers. “No pun intended.”
I stick out my tongue and make a barf face. “Right. I forgot. My stepbrother.”
I look in the side mirror and see Dante on his motorcycle. He left his backpack and leather jacket in Rox’s trunk. Right now, he’s only wearing his T-shirt, jeans, boots, and helmet. The wind whips the cotton shirt like a fluttering flag, revealing his flat stomach. His tan arms, the ones with the flames tattooed on the forearms, grip the bars of the bike. It seems like every muscle in his arms are flexed sexily.
He is too damn hot.
And chances are, he will be sleeping in the guest bedroom right next to mine.
Will he be having sex in that guest bedroom? With Rox? With me? Because, yeah, I’m still thinking about that kiss. I can remember how his lips felt on mine, how his tongue felt inside me… I mean, inside my mouth. I shiver. Oh my gosh. This is so wrong. And the wrongness of it turns me on twice as much. In fact, my bikini is damp, and not because of spending the day in the water.
Well, maybe because of that.
But I’m damp.
For my stepbrother.
Oh, gawd.
I drop my head back against the headrest and close my eyes. Except the first place my mind takes me is to me with my legs wrapped around Dante’s waist in the wave pool and feeling his raging hard on pushing between my legs.
There’s a knock at my window.
My eyes flicker open.
Dante’s motorcycle is inches away from Rox’s Toyota. We’re going like 75 mph because Rox always speeds. One wrong move and she’ll knock Dante off his bike. I imagine 75 mph road rash in a thin cotton shirt is a bad idea. My heart cinches inside my chest and I gasp. Dante winks, slaps the roof of the Toyota twice, gives us a thumbs up, then revs the motor on his bike and pops a frickin’ wheelie on the freeway.
At 75 mph.
“Wow,” Rox muses lustily, “who knew your sexy stepbrother was such a bad boy?”
O. M. Groan.
I squeeze my hand over my eyes. Can this get any worse?
Yes it can.
Just watch.
oOoOoOo + O+O+O+O
“Let’s go to your house,” I say to Rox as we get off the freeway and drive toward home.
“I thought we told Dante to follow us to your house.”
“I changed my mind.”
“Why? Isn’t he going to want to get settled in and see his mom?”
What I’m not going to say is how weird I’m still feeling about what happened today.
Let’s recap:
1) Dante, who is 21, offered beers to two random teenaged girls and suggested we all go someplace intimately private. I can only imagine what my dad would do if he heard the whole story. Picture a bunch of nuclear missiles with my dad’s angry face painted on the front coming out of missile silos in the ground before rocketing toward Dante’s head. Then picture my dad calling the cops and pressing charges against Dante for giving alcohol to his underaged daughter.
In short, I’m not ready to face Dad or Catarina. I need to strategize with Dante and Rox to prevent any of the aforementioned disasters from happening.
Maybe there’s a reason why you’re not supposed to hook up with your stepbrother.
We park in Rox’s driveway, which is only a few blocks from my house.
Dante pulls up and parks on the street. He peels his helmet off and sets it on the handlebars of his motorcycle. He looks so damn sexy doing it. I can’t believe he’s my stepbrother. Swoon. I mean, why does he have to be my stepbrother? Can’t he be Rox’s?
Roxanne and I hop out of the Toyota.
Dante winks at me. “Hey sis, is this our house?”
I’m torn by the thrill of him saying “our house” and the weirdness of him calling me “sis”. O. M. Awkward. You and I are going to be besties, aren’t we, Awkward? Awkward grins with smarmy satisfaction. Awkward should stick her head in a toilet and flush until she drowns.
“This is my house,” Rox says.
“Nice place,” Dante says.
“Thanks,” she smiles. “My parents are both at work. Do you want to come in for a drink?” I’m sure she’s imagining all kinds of things other than drinking.
“Sounds like a plan,” Dante says.
We end up in Rox’s kitchen. She opens the fridge. “Do you want anything, Dante?”
“Sure,” he says. “What have you got?”
“Just about everything. Why don’t you come take a look.”
I watch all this curiously. Usually when I’m at Rox’s, I just take what I want from her fridge. She does the same at my house. But I guess Dante is a guest, so to speak.
Rather than move, Rox holds on to the refrigerator door. Dante comes up behind her and leans his forearm against the top of the fridge door, which is above the freezer, so it’s really high, but Dante is so tall, he does it easily. He also traps Rox between him and the fridge.
Is he doing that on purpose? If he is, it’s really irritating. For whatever reason, I walk around the kitchen counter so I can better see what Rox and Dante are doing. Not because I’m jealous or want to make sure they don’t do anything. It’s because I want a drink too, obvi.
“Let’s see…” Dante says. “Milk. Soda. Juice. Those Heine’s I bought this morning are probably all hot and nasty by now. Hmmm. You don’t have salted lassi, do you? I’m kind of in the mood for something savory.”
“Salted what?” Rox wrinkles her nose.
“Lassi,” Dante says. “It’s a salted Indian yogurt drink with cumin in it.”
“That sounds gross,” I snort.
He shrugs. “You should try milk and cow’s blood.”
“Eww!” Rox gags. “Have you actually drunk milk and blood?”
“Yeah,” he grins. “It’s good. You should try it.”
“Maybe if I was a vampire,” Rox chuckles.
I can’t help but laugh.
“Fine,” Dante relents, “I’ll have OJ.”
“That’s what I was going to have!” Rox grins at Dante.
I can totally tell she’s flirting. “Funny,” I say, “me too. Here, give me the carton and I’ll pour for everyone.” I’m just trying to break up her moment with Dante without being completely obvious.
“I’ve got it,” she barks and pulls out the carton. She grabs glasses from the cupboard and pours. Dante leans against the counter behind her. I don’t want to keep hovering, so I take a seat at the bar. This means the island is between me and the two of them. If I make a big deal out of it, I’m going to look weird. I don’t want Rox knowing how much it’s driving me nuts that she’s closer to him.
Jealous?
Okay, maybe a smidge.
“Thanks,” Dante says when Rox hands him a glass.
“My pleasure,” Rox purrs.
She did purr. I’m not exaggerating. Maybe she didn’t bat her eyelashes, but I heard purr.
Dante raises his glass like he’s toasting. I didn’t know you could toast with orange juice, but I guess you can. “To new friends,” he says.
“To new friends,” Rox says, clinking his glass.
Did they forget me? I have to lean way over the kitchen island to clink, “To friends,” I say.
Dante grins, “And stepsisters.” He clinks my glass.
Rox swallows some OJ and narrows her eyes at Dante. “So, Dante, I’m curious. Since you didn’t know us this morning, what were you doing giving beers to a couple of teenaged girls?”
He shrugs. “I wasn’t going to toss the cans in the trash. You guys were there.”
“Yeah,” Rox says, “but I’m 17 and Skye just turned 18. We’re not even close to 21. Don’t you think that’s kind of pervy?” She says it like she likes the idea.
Not that I can blame her. I like the idea of Dante having ideas about me just as much as she does.
“Pervy?” he chuckles and shakes his head. “I told you guys earlier, the legal drinking age is 18 in tons of countries. Less in some places. I’ve been buying beer and wine legally for years. You guys looked old enough to me.”
“Okay,” Rox sighs, “you’re forgiven.” She giggles. “So, did you just get into town today when we saw you at the 7-Eleven?”
“Yeah,” he says.
“Have you seen your mom yet?”
“No,” he says with discomfort.
“I bet she’s looking forward to seeing you.”
“She doesn’t know I’m here,” Dante smirks.
Rox doesn’t know that Dante and his mom aren’t exactly on speaking terms. It’s not something Catarina likes to talk about, so I always played that part down with Rox. “What?!” Rox blurts. “You didn’t tell her you were coming?”
Dante shakes his head sheepishly and stares at his orange juice thoughtfully while swirling it slowly in the glass. “It was a last minute thing.”
Rox says, “Well, I bet she’ll be happy to see you.”
He nods, “Probably.” This is obviously making him uncomfortable. It makes sense. They are estranged, after all.
“How did you find your mom anyway?” I ask. “I mean without her knowing you were coming?”
“I searched online for Catarina Lord and found her real estate website. She still uses my Dad’s last name for her business. I tried finding her home address, but I couldn’t find anything current. So I figured I could hit her up at her office.”
“Is that why you were at the 7-Eleven?” Rox asks. “It’s like two blocks away from it.”
He nods, “Yeah. I was on my way there when I saw the 7-Eleven and decided I needed some liquid courage and some time to reflect before I met up with her.”
I nod. “How bizarre you ran into us, right?”
“No shit,” he agrees.
Rox asks, “And you never saw any pictures of Skye online? You didn’t Facebook stalk her?”
He shakes his head, “I didn’t know my mom was married. Her Facebook page is all business. There was no one to stalk.”
“Really?” Rox marvels.
“Yup.”
My cell phone, which sits on the laminate countertop next to my house key, suddenly buzzes. Incoming text. I pick it up and read it. I say out loud, “It’s Catarina. She says she’s stopping at the grocery store when she leaves the office. She wants to know if I need anything.” I look at Dante. “Should we go to the house and surprise her?”
“Why not,” he says flatly.
Once again, weird.
“That sounds like fun,” Rox beams, all excited. “Mind if I tag along?”
“Um…” I say nervously.
Rox is p
ractically a fixture at my house. My dad treats her like she’s his adopted daughter and she gets along great with Catarina. It would be totally normal for her to come along. But I don’t want her to. Of course, I can’t tell her that. If Dante was ugly and we hadn’t kissed, I wouldn’t even think of telling her not to come with. Unfortunately, that’s not how things went. Yes, I’m shallow as shit. But I really don’t want her coming along. “Uh…” I stammer.
Rox sighs, “I get it. Dante hasn’t seen his mom in a long time and he’s never met your dad. You guys go. We’ll hook up later.” She grins at Dante.
“Sounds awesome,” he says, returning her smile.
It doesn’t sound awesome to me.
Hands off my man!
Err, my stepbrother.
oOoOoOo + O+O+O+O
Outside on Rox’s driveway, I say to Dante, “Oh, hey. Do me a favor?”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t mention to our parents that we went to Blazing Waters today, okay?” I expect him to ask why.
He doesn’t. He just says, “Sure.”
I climb into Rox’s car. Why? Because, when we were inside and Dante asked to use the bathroom, Rox offered to drive me. She pointed out that Dante doesn’t have a spare helmet. I reminded her it’s like three blocks. She reminded me that most accidents happen close to home. By accidents, I think she meant the kind that involve me snuggling up against Dante and straddling him with my legs on the back of his motorcycle, not her. Rather than argue, I relented.
Dante throws a leg over his motorcycle and starts his engine.
Rox adjusts her rearview mirror so she can watch him. “He’s so hot.”
“I guess. Look, can you promise not to mention what happened today to my dad and Catarina?”
“What? Going to Blazing Waters? Why?”
“Can you just not mention it? I don’t want my dad weirding out.”
She knits her brows, “Why, because of the beers?”
I nod hastily, “Yeah. The beers.” It’s not the whole truth, but it’s a part. “I don’t want my dad getting a bad impression of Dante.”
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