by Fiona Cole
His fingers drifted to my left breast, and I whimpered when he circled the hard tip.
“Has anyone touched you here?”
Biting my lip to hold back more whimpers, I nodded.
“What about under your shirt?”
I shook my head.
His lips twitched, one side kicking up into a smirk that rivaled Ash’s. He pinched the tip, making my effort to hold back crying out useless. My hips rocked without thought when he rolled the tight bud, shooting darts of pleasure to my core. Like a chain was connecting them, every brush and twist had me pulsing with need between my legs.
“Your body knows what to do, Nova, but I’m happy to help.”
With that, he went back to kissing me, dropping his hands to my hips, and sliding me back and forth. Heat burned up my neck as I imagined what we looked like. I wished I had a mirror to watch us—to burn the memory in my mind and recreate it with every medium I could find.
He wedged his length against me and started thrusting to match my rhythm. His fingers left my nipple, and I almost screamed, demanding he put it back, but I didn’t have time because the next thing I knew, he had his hand on the bare skin of my stomach, pushing up under my shirt and tugging the lace aside.
My moan was salacious and like something I’d only heard in the few videos I researched out of curiosity. I imagined them fake and overdone, but now, with his fingers on my bare skin, his palm covering my breast, I knew the moans were real and came from a place I never knew I had inside me.
“So fucking soft,” he muttered. “Perfect. Do you like this?”
“God, yes. More.”
“Fuck, Nova. You’re going to kill me.”
“I don’t mean to,” I panted. “I want to make you feel as good as you’re making me feel.”
“Has anyone touched your pussy before?”
I lost my rhythm, jerking harder in shock and another dart of pleasure over his crass words.
He chuckled, switching his attention to my other breast. “I’ll take that as a no.”
The heat grew down my chest, and I rocked my hips faster, not knowing if I should be ashamed of how his words hit me or how I wanted to reach the elusive edge that tickled just beyond my reach.
“But you’ve touched it, haven’t you?”
“Parker, please.”
“Tell me what it feels like.”
“What?” I said on a panting breath.
“Tell me what your pussy feels like when you touch it.”
I squeezed my eyes shut and focused on his hands, on his lips pressing wherever they could reach. I focused on the pleasure and told him because maybe he liked hearing it as much as I did.
“It’s warm and wet. And so soft. Like silk.”
His grip tightened on my hip, pulling me down harder to meet his chaotic thrusts.
“It’s tight,” I whimpered.
“Fuck, fuck,” he grunted. “Just like I imagined.”
I gasped.
“Oh yeah, Nova. I’ve imagined what your pussy would feel like. What it would taste like.” I rocked harder and harder with each confession. “Have you ever touched a cock before?”
“No.”
“It’s hard but so fucking soft. The head is even softer and so fucking sensitive. I like to squeeze my dick tight and brush the tip on the upstroke. I like to swipe my thumb over the precum that leaks out. I like to imagine it’s your tongue desperate to taste me as much as I am to taste you.”
My nails dug into his shoulders, and his words drove me wild. It was too much, and I couldn’t stop my body if I tried. I had no way of slowing it down. It came at me like a tsunami—you knew it was coming—impossible to miss, but unable to stop it and not knowing what you’d look like on the other side.
“Yeah, Nova. Fuck, yeah. Gonna come.”
He used both hands on my hips, both of us bucking against each other. And when his mouth crashed down to my nipple, biting the hard tip through my shirt, I came. I exploded into another world and lost myself like a pebble in a raging ocean, at the mercy of the pleasure that consumed me. Everything blurred and only came back when Parker groaned, thrusting up. I forced my eyes open and watched his neck strain, his mouth part over each groan ripped from him only to sink into me. Each brush against me sent another aftershock of pleasure, and I never wanted to stop.
Finally, we slowed, both of us gasping for air and limp from the onslaught. I collapsed my damp forehead to his and promised myself to remember this moment forever.
“Happy birthday, Nova.”
“Thank you,” I whispered just before leaning in for his kiss.
The kiss was just as languid as our muscles—lazy and slow. Before, we’d been releasing almost a year of tension, and now, we took our time to discover each other’s mouths.
“I need to clean up,” he said with one last soft peck.
I looked down to his pants, a wet spot blooming near the zipper. “Oh.”
“Yeah, oh. These are my favorite jeans. I haven’t come in my pants in a long time.”
Something about it bubbled up, and I laughed.
“Sure. Laugh it up,” he deadpanned.
And I did until he was laughing with me.
“Want to sleep in my bed tonight?” he asked, standing up.
“Yeah, that sounds like the perfect ending to my birthday.”
“K. Let me go get cleaned up.”
As soon as he disappeared into the bathroom, I ran to my room, giddy with the thought of laying in his bed before we fell asleep. Usually, he snuck into my room after the house was quiet, but what would it be like when we were both wide awake and already giving in to our pleasure? The possibilities had me floating around my room, looking for my sexiest tank top and shortest shorts.
At least until the front door slammed and our parents’ voices reached down the hall, into my room, and ripped the night away. I heard muttering, and I just stood there frozen, unable to stop myself from playing the what-if game, imagining them having come home ten minutes earlier. What the hell were they doing home anyway?
My mom appeared in my doorway, pulling me out of my stupor.
“Happy birthday, Nova.”
“Mom, what are you doing here?”
“The event was boring, and tomorrow’s seminars were even less appealing than today’s,” she explained with an eye roll before going back to smiling. “Besides, I wanted to at least say goodnight to you on your birthday. I figured we could all go to a gallery or something and then dinner tomorrow. Maybe come back here for games. Just a family night.”
“Family night,” I repeated lamely.
“Yes,” she said, clapping her hands. “It’ll be great. But I’m beat tonight, so I’m off to get my beauty sleep and wake up refreshed for tomorrow.”
I nodded slowly, still standing stupefied when she turned to walk away.
Coming to terms with my new night, I dropped the shorts and grabbed my sweatpants, heading to the bathroom to get ready for a night alone. I’d almost made it when I heard Parker’s dad from his room.
“She wants to do a family day tomorrow,” Brad said.
“A family day? With me?” Parker asked.
Brad chuckled. “Yeah. We had a talk this weekend, and it was good. Things have been a little tense, and she admitted she thought you and Nova could end up acting inappropriately. She thought she saw you two looking at each other a certain way.”
Brad snorted like it was the most absurd thing, and I just wanted to run away and pretend I never heard anything. I wanted to delete this moment from my mind forever.
“I assured her that you look at Nova as a sister and that you’ll take care of her like you would your own sister.”
“Yeah,” Parker said, sounding pained.
“Tomorrow will be good.”
“Yeah. Good.”
“Well, I’m off to bed. Those seminars were boring as hell and long. I need a glass of wine and some mindless TV.”
“Night, Dad.”
“Night, Park.”
I darted into the bathroom before I could be spotted, leaning against the door, running over every word. I squeezed my eyes shut, hating all of it. Parker and I knew our attraction came with a wealth of issues. It was why we never bothered acknowledging them. It was pointless. But we had tonight, and although I started it with a promise of only wanting one night, somewhere between the wall and the orgasm, I realized I’d wanted so much more.
I forced myself to fall back into our routine, washing away any fantasy I’d foolishly concocted.
Parker’s door was closed when I left the bathroom. It always was, and I shouldn’t be bothered, but walking past it was harder this time. My covers clung to me like a twenty-pound blanket, and I struggled to relax when all I wanted to do was be in his room like we planned. All I wanted to do was be with my best friend and not worry about anyone else.
It took me a long time to fall asleep that night, going around and around with ways to make us work and always knowing we couldn’t.
And just like every night, once everyone had fallen asleep, my door creaked open, and Parker’s shadow crept toward my bed where he crawled in behind me, pulling my back to his chest. Unlike other nights, he pressed a soft apologetic kiss to my shoulder.
I held his hand tight and squeezed.
“I’m so sorry, Nova.”
He didn’t have to say what for. We both knew. So, I did what we always do.
I shoved it aside and didn’t talk about it.
Why bother?
One night of giving in wouldn’t change the fact that Parker Callahan was my stepbrother.
Not even the fact that I was starting to fall in love with him.
Thirteen
Parker
For four days, I did nothing but think about picking Nova up. I did my best to respect her wishes and wait to talk to her until I saw her today, but I had to force myself to put the phone down more than once. At one point, I’d even asked Oren to take my phone. He, of course, proceeded to send her selfies, which she at least reacted to but never wrote back.
The guys didn’t bring up the situation but watched me like I was a bomb who could go off any minute. It wasn’t far from the truth. From dawn until night, the thought of Nova being on tour with us after years of not talking and months of her refusing to see me twisted me tighter and tighter until I was sure I would snap. I vacillated between excitement and frustration, never really settling on one, the two mixed and mingled in some diabolical cocktail.
So, when I went to pick her up, standing outside her door, squeezing sweaty palms into fists, the last thing I expected was for a petite brunette with glaring brown eyes to be on the other side of the door.
“Hey, fuck boy,” Rae greeted.
“Shit,” I muttered.
“Oh, my god, Rae. Lay off,” Nova called behind her.
Her flannel shirt fanned out behind her as she rounded the corner of the small entrance, baring her faded band T-shirt, stealing all the oxygen from my lungs.
You’ll get at least a month to take her in. Don’t stare like a drooling fool now.
She took the door from Rae’s hands and pulled it open. Before I could squeeze past, Rae blocked me by pulling Nova in a hug. “If you need anything at all, call me.”
“Thanks for helping me pack.”
Rae smacked a kiss to Nova’s cheek and faced me, walking right into my chest, forcing me back a few steps. Her glare held a fire so intense, I should have burned to ash right there.
“If you hurt her, I’ll use every resource I have to make your life a living hell. And don’t think I’ll go the easy route and have you killed,” she threatened with a laugh that kind of scared the shit out of me. “No, I’ll make you endure every second of whatever I can come up with. And I can come up with a lot.”
“Rae, I swear to all things holy,” Nova scolded.
With a forced smile, Rae gently guided Nova back into the apartment and slowly closed the door, holding up a finger for just a moment. When Nova tried to open it back up, Rae held it closed and turned back to me like the she-devil she was.
“She likes you, and I don’t know what the fuck you have going on with the succubus from New Year’s Eve, but you better clear it up before even looking at her for more than ten seconds, or else I’ll rip your eyeballs out with my bare hands and make you choke on them.”
She held me right where she wanted me with the intensity of her narrowed glare, and I just stood there frozen like a statue—my jaw unhinged. I struggled to match the words she just said to the petite brunette in front of me.
“Jesus-fuck, you’re violent.”
“It’s a gift.” And with that, she let go of the handle and walked away like nothing had happened.
Nova stepped back, giving me room to pass inside. “Sorry about that.”
“It’s good. I guess I’m glad you have a friend to look out for you—albeit slightly terrifying.”
She laughed and nodded, falling quiet. Her teeth worked her bottom lip, a sure sign of her nerves, and I didn’t hate that I affected her, at least in some way.
“I wasn’t expecting you to come.”
“We signed a contract,” I reminded her.
“I mean, I didn’t expect you to be the one to pick me up. I figured they’d just send a car.”
“Usually they do, but I offered to come with them to get you.”
“Oh.”
Another silence, and I shoved my hands in my pockets to keep from fidgeting. The lack of noise sat uncomfortably around us. Nova and I never did awkward or quiet. We had music playing or were singing or debating. I hated the way it squeezed in, making the small apartment even tighter.
“You ready to go?” I asked, needing to get out of the tiny hallway.
“Yeah. Let me just get my bags.”
She turned and walked to the open area, leaving me to follow behind. The whole vibe of the apartment changed once I cleared the entryway. The walls were tall and white and open. She disappeared around a corner I assumed was her bedroom, and I took the time to look around for hints of Nova.
A sitting area in the corner with colorful throw pillows next to bookshelves and a TV, a small but modern kitchen, and what was probably the dining room, and the rest of the living room was covered in her art. The tall windows pouring light in from outside.
I studied her pictures on her shelves, taking in what I missed over the years.
A few more steps, and I noticed a nook behind her art and froze. “Holy shit.”
“Yeah,” she said, appearing just in time to take in my awe. “I like puzzles.”
“I think that’s an understatement.” A low shelf covered the bottom of the wall, but the rest, all the way to the ceiling, was covered with finished puzzles. Like a gallery covering every inch of white space. It should have been hectic and chaotic, yet somehow, Nova made it work.
I kind of loved it.
“I mean, I like comic books, but I haven’t plastered them over every inch of wall.”
“Well, maybe you should.”
I turned to find her studying me, studying the wall, two suitcases, and a backpack ready to go. “Want me to take one of those?”
“Sure. And can you grab that blanket?” She gestured to the one draped over the back of a chair. As soon as my hands grazed the material, I jerked back, tossing the blanket aside.
“Blech,” I gagged, opening and closing my fists.
She watched me like I’d grown a second head until her pinched brows softened to a look of understanding and finally a laugh. “Still hate the feel of Sherpa?”
“Yes. That shit is the worst. It gets caught on my callouses, and just…” I shuddered, trying to put words to the texture. Almost like nails on a chalkboard. “It just feels wrong.”
She snorted, and I mock glared when I walked past and snagged both suitcases. I walked out the door and turned just in time to get hit in the face with the blanket. On instinct, I reacted and started flailing to get it off m
e, only flailing harder when my hands rubbed the fabric.
Once I finally had it balled up and shoved aside on a suitcase, I found a hysterical Nova watching me. Both hands covered her mouth, and her eyes gleamed with unshed tears. Her shoulders shook, and I pursed my lips.
“Oh, sure. Laugh it up.”
She wiped a stray tear and slapped her chest. “It was a blanket, not a box of spiders. If I would have known that would be your reaction—”
“You never would have done it?” I finished sarcastically.
“Oh, no. I would have done this so much sooner.”
She started laughing again, and I forgot about the blanket. You could have thrown a thousand of those blankets on me, and as long as I got to see Nova laughing, I’d have endured it without complaint. I soaked her in and memorized every new line and freckle she earned from the sun.
When she realized I was staring, she collected herself, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and looking to the floor. With a nod, she turned and locked the door behind her.
I led her to the car, and any playfulness we found in the hall vanished in the backseat. Instead, tension returned, increasing with each mile closer to the bus. Her silence worried me, and the way she kept chewing on the skin of her finger, her most anxious tell.
“You okay with this?” I asked.
She glanced at me before looking back out the window. “Yeah. It’s just work.”
It was so much more than work, and she knew that—we both knew it. I was just the only one willing to face it. Maybe without an escape, I could make her face it too. Just enough to clear the air and get us to stable ground.
“Listen, Nova.” She stiffened, but I pressed on. “About Sonia—”
“It’s not a big deal.”
“It is.”
“Nope,” she declared, popping her p. “Besides, we’re here.”
“Dammit, Nova,” I snapped, punching the locks before she could get out. I should have started this conversation before we even left the apartment.
Without looking up, she pressed the unlock just for me to hit it locked again. It was like two kids bickering in the backseat.