Too Bad... It's Complicated
Page 3
I pulled him so he would sit beside me on the couch. He didn’t fight and settled next to me. I placed a hand on his face, my thumb gently caressing his cheek. “I didn’t date him because I was in love with him. I dated him to distract myself from what I wanted most.”
Something flickered in Patrick's eyes, but I broke contact, grabbed his glass and pushed it to him. "Now, stay with me while I drink myself into oblivion to forget the betrayal."
Neither of us spoke as we drank. I wasn't sure what was on Patrick's mind, but he was pouring himself drink after drink too, but not at the same pace as I was. I was just glad that he wasn’t scolding me. He was on his fourth glass when he finally spoke again.
“You deserve the love that would give you the world, Britney. A man who would go through tribulations just to be with you. A man willing to fight for you and with you. You deserve the right kind of love, Britney.”
My hand reached to cup his face. His green eyes had grown darker, wearier, defeated even, like he had just lost an age-old battle. I wasn’t sure what I was doing. I wasn’t sure if this was alcohol or a betrayed heart fueling me with the courage that I now possessed. But whatever it was, I wished I’d had it when I was younger, before our parents tied the knot.
“What are you doing?” Patrick whispered.
“Something I’ve always wanted to do.”
And then I kissed him.
Chapter 3
Patrick
I should’ve stopped her or pushed her away. That would’ve been the rational thing to do when my intoxicated step-sister started to kiss me. But I didn’t. No, I did the opposite, actually. I responded to the kiss because who the fuck was, I kidding? I wanted this as much as she did. Our tongues battled for dominance as Britney pulled me close and I responded with the same kind of fervor.
I pushed her gently onto the couch, stripping myself of the clothing that was a barrier between the two of us. “Fuck, I don’t think this is a good idea, Brit.”
She shook her head. “Pat, I want this to happen. Please.”
I stared at her hazel eyes, at the golden orbs that had the speck of green in them that I’d always thought held the universe. She placed her hand on my cheek again and then leaned closer, her lips touching mine in the gentlest ways. It was enough to make me succumb to the desire and allow this to happen, even if it were just for one night.
I tore her clothes, ripping away the thin fabric as she also clawed my shirt open. The gentle kiss that she’d started turned into an urgent one as we clung onto each other, satisfying the thirst we felt for one another. It didn’t even take long until we were both stripped naked. My mouth latched onto her right breast, my hand kneading the left as she arched her back and ran her nails on my back in satisfaction.
“Oh god, yes, Patrick! Your mouth feels so good!” I could feel her running her hand through my hair. “I’ve always wondered what it would feel like.”
I moved lower down on her body and spread her legs open. I looked up at her, and my gaze was met by shining, lust-filled hazel eyes. I didn't hesitate in plunging two fingers inside of her warm core, and she gasped at the abrupt intrusion. "Fuck."
The cuss sounded like music to my ears as I quickened my pace and licked the folds of her vagina. Her hips hoisted up slightly as she savored the attention, I was giving her. It was only a matter of moments before she reached her climax. “Fuck, yes, Patrick!”
She was breathing heavily when I pulled myself up to her face again and crashed my lips against hers, letting her taste herself on my lips. “You like that? You taste amazing, right?”
She moaned and nodded her head. “Just fuck me, Pat, please.”
I didn’t need to be told twice. “Get on your back.”
I positioned her on the couch and then stood behind her. Her ass was up in the air, and I positioned my dick at her entrance. How many times had I dreamt about this happening? Of fucking my step-sister and right now I was. It was all kinds of wrong, and I could have stopped right then, at that moment, if I’d had enough willpower to do so.
But I didn’t want to.
I fucked her. I fucked her all night long and listened to her scream my name over and over again in ecstasy. She didn’t even mind me slapping her ass and the dominance that I exuded. She accepted each slap, each pull of the hair, each harder and deeper thrust.
Fuck, it was far better than I’d imagined.
I woke up hearing my phone ringing. I groaned and moved, only to realize that I wasn’t in my apartment but at Britney’s. I didn’t need to glance to my side to know that she was sleeping right next to me. I was aware of what had happened after we’d reached her penthouse. I was aware that we’d had sex. It would take a few more minutes - maybe hours - for the mistake to sink in, but at the moment, I was aware that we were fast asleep on the kitchen floor, naked and wrapped in each other’s arms.
I should've answered my ringing phone. It could've been work or something important. But I knew I had to put Britney to bed first. I lifted her up, aware that she was still naked and her body was on full display in clear, broad daylight. The memories of last night flashed in my mind, and I allowed my brain to remember it because I was pretty sure that this would be the last time something like this ever happened. Britney was intoxicated, so was I, neither of us had been thinking clearly.
My phone was buried deep in the couch, and I noticed that mom had sent me a bunch of text messages.
“Chris went to Stocks. I need to talk to you at home. Have breakfast with me.”
I told her I'd be there soon. I quickly stopped over at my place to get a quick bath and change of clothes. It was a good thing it was the weekend which meant I didn't have work. I arrived at mom's an hour later, and I could smell brunch as soon as I walked in.
My mother was already seated at the table on the balcony, and the meal was set before her. She looked at me up and down when I arrived. "I thought you would never come."
I kissed her cheek. “I woke up late.”
Mom pursed her lips but nodded her head, accepting my reason which was a relief. I wasn’t sure how she would accept the fact that I’d just slept with her step-daughter. “You wanted to talk to me?”
She lowered her cup gently onto her plate and clasped her hands together. “It’s about the announcement Chris made last night.”
Of course, it was about it. Since she’d married him, there had been numerous instances where she’d told me that she truly hoped that Chris would give me one company to run. I always had a feeling that she targeted Stocks to be given to me but I always thought it wouldn't happen by a long shot, but after the announcement last night, it was clear that it would, no matter the compromise.
“What about it?”
“I want you to run it,” mom said slowly, her green eyes looking straight at mine as she added, “alone.”
My eyebrows furrowed in confusion as I stared at her. I placed the croissant I was about to eat back down on my plate. “What do you mean alone? Chris said that Britney will be joining me right after she finishes her MBA. We’ll run Stocks together. It’s already an honor for me to run it when I’m not blood-related to him.”
Mom sighed and looked at me in a certain way that forced my mind back to the version of her that I’d spent five years with after my sister had died an untimely death, the mother that had raised me alone for five years after Dad had also left, and before she’d met Chris. I didn’t like this version of her. This one was cunning and cruel and power-hungry. I remembered how she’d dated man after man, letting them spoil her rotten with extravagant gifts and asking them for pricier ones and, when she’d got them, she’d leave them for some other social climber to sink her claws into.
With Chris, I thought it would have been different. Maybe I’d been wrong.
"I don't have anything for you to inherit, Patrick. My parents disowned me when I married your father, and he…he built an empire that crashed down before you were even old enough to lay your claim to it, pursuing creat
ivity and art instead, such pointless things." She reached for the flask that I hadn't noticed was on the table. Alcohol at this time of the day, something that version of her enjoyed too. “Christopher always wanted a son. He asked me so many things about you when we began seeing each other. It was then that I realized he was looking for a male heir to groom and I knew that it could be you. Patrick Cunningham, inheriting every crop Christopher Baldwin grew.”
I was unable to comprehend what my mother was trying to say because, if my assumption was right, then it seemed to me that she’d married Chris so that I could inherit the company. She leaned closer to where I was and reached for my hand. "You're my only son, Patrick. You're my only child after Paula passed. Your father ruined his business a year after our divorce, and it left him bankrupt. Had I not done what I did in the five years after Paula's death, I'm not sure where we would be."
She was trying to justify her manipulating ways. "Patrick, honey, all I want is what's best for you. I know you're capable of running that company on your own. Christopher groomed you well, and your own brilliance serves you well too."
My eyebrows furrowed in confusion as I pulled my hand away from hers. “Mom, Britney and I are running that company.”
She huffed and leaned back in her chair, shaking her head. “That blonde bimbo won’t be able to handle the responsibility of running Stocks. She’ll only bring you down.”
“But she’s his daughter.” Mom looked at me and smirked. I could see the glint in her eyes and my heart raced anxiously. “Mom, what are you scheming?”
She chuckled and then sipped her drink. "I'm not stupid like Christopher, Pat. I saw the way Britney looked at you when you were younger. I thought she would grow out of that phase, but it's pretty clear she hasn’t. She wouldn’t have dated that Steelman boy if she didn’t like you in that way anymore. She did it to spite you.”
This made me even more confused. “You sound so sure about this.”
I didn’t want to tell her that she was right because I’d just had sex with Britney earlier and I was pretty sure it wasn’t just the alcohol in her system that had caused it to happen. We weren’t that drunk, although ‘drunk’ would still be our excuse. But if Britney liked me, why wouldn’t she just come out and say it? I was well-versed in the kind of confidence that Britney had; her attitude that whenever she liked something or someone, she would have found a way to get it.
"Because I am, Patrick," mom said, smiling at me triumphantly. "So, we will use her feelings to our advantage. You make sure she truly falls in love with you, and I will convince Christopher to retire earlier so you won’t have to endure being with her longer. But what you need to do while you're with her is make her fall so hard that she'll be willing to offer the entire company to you."
I wasn’t sure if that was going to work. I knew how much Britney cared for her father’s companies. I knew how much she got herself involved with them. I’d had summer training with her when we were younger. And I knew first-hand how capable she was of running them. There wasn't any doubt in my mind that she could handle the responsibility. Mom had just never seen her in action, but Chris had, so I wasn't entirely sure if he would be happy with the idea that I would solely have the company, especially when I wasn't biologically related to him.
“Chris would never allow this to happen.”
Mom scoffed and tilted her head, assessing me. “Then you don’t know your step-father that well, Patrick. He’s questioned Britney’s decisions more than once, never entirely in favor of them. Especially her choice of partners and friends. If Britney would voluntarily give up her inheritance, I am certain that Chris would support her.”
I was afraid to ask what would happen if she wouldn’t, certain that my mother had a plan B and I wasn’t ready to hear what it was. I knew what my mother was capable of when it came to acquiring power. I knew what lengths she would go through to get her way. After all, weren’t her methods what had got her own daughter into such a tragic accident that cost her life?
“Don’t tell me you don’t want the company all to yourself, Patrick?”
I pursed my lips. Stocks was the company of my dreams. I never thought that Chris would deem me worthy enough to make me co-owner with Britney. I thought getting hired and placed in a certain position would be enough. But owning the company…
It was a dream come true, and I'd spent my entire life preparing for this.
I looked at my mother, hating my own power-hungry demon. “What do you want me to do?”
Mom smiled triumphantly. “All you have to do is make her fall in love with you.”
Chapter 4
Britney
I woke up in my room, naked and tangled in my sheets. My eyebrows furrowed in confusion and my head throbbed, letting me know that I might have had a tad bit too much alcohol last night. I sat up and held my head in my hands, trying to push through the pain to remember the events of last night. Slowly, images of what had happened unfolded in my head.
Fuck. I just fucked my step-brother.
Oh, holy hell, it made me nauseous.
My phone started to ring, and I picked it up, sighing in relief when I saw it was Lauren. “Hey, Brit! How are you feeling?”
I groaned and laid back down on the bed. “I did something bad last night, Lauren. I need you to come here because I don’t think I have the courage to say it over the phone. Bring donuts.”
After I’d hung up on her, I drank aspirin and took a shower. I closed my eyes as the water hit my head, and my mind then remembered the feel of Patrick’s lips on my shoulders, the tender way he’d kissed me, and the rough way he’d handled me throughout the night. How his lips had felt on mine, how he’d felt inside of me. His hands groping my ass, his hands holding my waist tightly as he’d pounded himself into me. The echo of his balls hitting my ass.
Fuck, even just the thought of it aroused me again.
If there was one man I wanted to have in the entire world, it was Patrick Cunningham, but obviously, he was the very person I could never have. When I came back from Harvard six months ago after graduating with a bachelor's degree, I’d dated and had flings with numerous sons of Upper East Siders just to try to distract myself, hoping that I could find one that I was interested in enough so that I could forget what I felt for Patrick.
Because even though we only stayed under one roof for two years, I managed to fall in love with him in that time. The fact that I already had a crush on him didn’t help either.
The doorbell rang, and I opened it to be met by Lauren on the other side, carrying donuts and Starbucks. "I had sex with Patrick."
She almost dropped the things she’d brought as she stared at me wide-eyed. I immediately took the coffees from her and walked to the kitchen with her following close behind. “What the fuck did you just say, Britney?”
I leaned my back against the counter and ran a hand through my wet hair. “I had sex with Patrick last night. Fuck, I don’t know what happened, Lauren!”
“You don’t remember anything? Were you drunk?”
We both pulled up a chair and sat. I rested my elbows on the counter and buried my head in my hands. “We had a few more drinks when we got here. I asked him to stay, Lauren. I shouldn’t have, knowing my feelings for him.”
Lauren sighed and shook her head at me. She was aware of what I felt for Patrick, of the age-old crush I had on him. She'd been my best friend since I was seven and she knew that from the time Patrick and I’d bumped into each other when I was eight and he was ten, that I'd been crushing on him hard ever since. "This is all kinds of wrong, Britney. But to be honest, you're only siblings on paper. You aren't blood-related, so it isn't entirely incest."
I looked up at her and groaned. “I know but do you know what this does to me? I’m only going to want him more now that I’ve had a taste of him. I can’t stop remembering what it felt like, Lauren. Never, in all the times I’ve had sex, have I relived the memory of it. And how the hell am I gonna face him now?”
My phone began to ring, and I grabbed it from the corner of the counter where I had placed it before I’d answered the door. My eyes widened when I saw who it was. Lauren glanced at it, and her eyes widened too. "Wow, speak of the devil, and he shall give you a call."
“I’m not gonna answer this!”
Lauren pushed the phone closer to me. “Answer the damn call, Britney.”
“Why should I?”
“Because you’re acting like this whole situation is really affecting you and trying to hide from the other party will get you nowhere. Act as if nothing happened!”
I stared at the phone and Lauren huffed, pressed answer and put it on speaker phone so both of us could hear. “Hello?”
Lauren kicked my foot, and I let out a small scream. "Damn it. Hi, Patrick.”
She smirked and mouthed ‘you’re welcome’ to me and opened the box of donuts she’d brought and began to eat breakfast. “Hey, uh, I just wanted to check if you’re alright.”
He sounded so unsure, and that was surprising. One of the things I adored about him was his confidence. “I’m fine. What’s with the call?”
"I just wanted to check on you," he replied, and after a beat, he added, "and I was wondering if we could meet for dinner tonight? We can order in and stay at your place, but if you want to eat outside, I don't mind."
I looked at Lauren and she stared at me with the same shock painted in her brown eyes. I mouthed to her, “Is this real?”
She dramatically shrugged at me and then motioned for me to answer Patrick. “Umm, I’m busy. I have a thing with Lauren tonight.”
“What?” Lauren said, the surprise so clear in her voice.
I placed a hand on the mouthpiece of my phone and said in a low voice, “I don’t know how to face him, Laur!”