Chapter 33
By the time I finished, there was a look in his eyes I’d never seen before. It was deeper than lust, wider than hunger. It was raw. His eyes were dark and stormy depths that held the weight of words left unsaid.
His gaze didn’t waver. It consumed me, pleading and promising everything I could ever want.
He reached out, and I dove into him instantly. I was shaking from all the emotions, thankful for the way he wrapped himself around me like he could hold me together, like carving each other up had changed everything.
I laid my head on his shoulder, breathing in his scent, feeling the ache in my ribs and liking it. Because even though the pain would eventually fade, his mark never would.
“I need to clean it,” I told him, trying to wrench myself from his hold.
“No,” he groaned, holding me so tight, my lungs screamed. “Not yet. I’m not ready to let you go.”
I let him hold me for a while longer, savoring the moment, knowing this was just the beginning of our tragic end, wondering what could possibly come next but hoping for a little more time to spend in our delusional dream life.
He eventually let me go, and I cleaned the blood away before applying gauze to his wound, just as he had for me. Once I put everything back on the table, I laid back down with him, allowing myself to fall into his warmth and lose myself in him.
Before long, my body was burning with heat and desire. His bare skin against mine was driving me crazy. I had my leg thrown over his, so I pushed that leg over, moving to straddle him, finding his cock already hard as I moved my hips to grind on him.
He cursed, his hands digging into my thighs. He pinned me with eyes that spoke of a depraved need. “Ride my cock, Avery. Stop teasing me and do what we both know you were made for. I want to feel your tight little cunt squeeze me and hear you say my name as you come all over me.”
His dirty words made my pussy clench around nothing, and I lifted my hips so he could position his cock at my entrance. He groaned as I sank down, closing his eyes, his body tightening as my ass landed on him.
I was so fucking full. Rowen felt even bigger like this, and my pussy was stretched to its limit. It felt so good. His hands gripped my hips, and he helped me find my pace as I started riding him.
It made me feel so powerful, being on top, seeing the bandage on his ribs, knowing what was under there. I looked at the tattoos he’d gotten for me, aroused that this man belonged to me and wanting everyone to know it.
The cuts he’d placed on me were still tingling as I rode him slowly, savoring the stretch, watching his jaw clench every time I dropped my hips, taking him deeper. Each roll of my hips was a dirty prayer, drenched in sin and want.
“Fuck,” he pushed out on a breath, his eyes locked on me. “You feel so fucking perfect. Your pussy was made for my cock, baby. It knows it belongs to me. Damn.” He moaned as I picked up speed. “You really are such a slut for your stepbrother’s cock, aren’t you? You can’t get enough of it.”
I started to open my mouth to speak, but it came out more like a garbled moan when his fingers strummed across my clit, making me jump.
He found the perfect pattern, and soon, I was clenching around him, coming on him, moaning his name, struggling to maintain the pace I’d set as my thighs spasmed in time with the waves of my orgasm.
As my body relaxed, Rowen sat up, holding me in his lap, his cock still buried inside me. He cupped my cheeks and pulled me in for a kiss.
“You’re my everything, Av.”
Everything inside me stilled at his confession, the ache in his voice twisting through my chest, knocking the breath from me.
“I love you,” he declared, awe and reverence in his eyes, a devoted disciple pledging his life.
I started to open my mouth to respond, put everything on the table, but I didn’t get the chance.
Click.
My heart stopped. Rowen’s eyes shot toward the sound.
“Oh my God!” My mother’s voice was furious, sharp.
I pulled the sheets up to my chest, covering us both, and turned to see her standing in the doorway, face contorted with rage and disbelief. Tom stood next to her, both of them trying to comprehend what they were looking at.
Me.
Naked.
On top of Rowen.
Who was also naked.
“What the hell is going on?” Tom asked, his voice stern, his expression too hard to read.
I didn’t move. I couldn’t. Rowen wrapped his arms around me, pulling me close, as if he could shield me.
“Get off him,” my mom said, her voice trembling.
I slid off slowly, Rowen helping me to keep the sheet wrapped around me while he grabbed a pillow to cover his cock, still slick with my juices.
“I thought you wouldn’t be home until tomorrow morning.” My legs were shaking from what we’d just been doing and what was coming next.
My mom’s eyes narrowed on me. “That’s the problem here? Not the fact that we caught you having sex with your stepbrother?”
“You two are siblings,” Tom followed, his eyes darting all over the room, like he couldn’t bear to look at us. “This is not okay. This is disgusting. Deranged. You two should be ashamed of yourselves.”
I started to open my mouth, but Rowen beat me to an answer.
“She isn’t my real sister. It’s not the same.”
Tom’s jaw clenched as he ran a hand over his face.
“This is exactly why I made you leave. I saw the way you looked at her back then.” He sighed.
“Fuck, Rowen. You just had to go and fuck it up. You were supposed to get away from her and find a nice, appropriate girl to be with. The distance was supposed to keep this from happening.”
“But it didn’t,” Rowen told him, his shoulders back, head high.
“You should’ve stayed gone, Rowen. I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you.”
My mom turned to look at Tom with wide eyes. “Wait… they’ve done this before?”
He shook his head. “No, dear.” He put his hands on her shoulders.
“I caught Rowen watching her one day—the day before he moved out. I didn’t want to worry you since I took care of it.
I made him leave to protect them both from making a huge mistake.
” He turned to look at us. “Clearly, I should’ve done more. ”
“Jesus Christ,” my mom muttered. “This can’t be happening.”
I shifted on my feet, wanting to say something, anything, but I wasn’t convinced I could find the words to help us, to make the situation any better.
“I can’t believe you,” my mom said to her husband, still stunned. “We will talk about this later, Tom.”
Tom sighed and looked at us. “Pack your bags, Rowen,” his father told him. “You’re leaving right now. Get out of our house and get some goddamn help, son. You’re not right in the head.”
Rowen turned to me, his eyes asking a clear question.
“You,” my mom said, demanding my attention, looking at me like I was a stranger. “You are not right in the head either, Avery. It’s one thing to hate your stepbrother, but to—” She winced, like the thought of us together was awful. “How could you do this to our family?”
“Mom, I—”
She put her hand up. “I don’t want to hear a single word. You will stay in here until I am ready to talk to you again. You will not see or speak to Rowen. This sick, twisted thing ends right now. Am I clear?”
I swallowed the lump in my throat, looking to the floor, then Rowen, then back at my mom. I shook my head as tears began falling down my cheeks.
“I can’t,” I sobbed. “I’m sorry, Mom. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone.”
“No,” she said softly, anticipating my next words.
“If Rowen leaves, I leave.”
I looked at Tom, hoping he’d just take her from the room, let us leave without making it a bigger deal than it had to be.
I couldn’t imagine the shock my mother was experiencing, but it wouldn’t change anything for me.
I was going to leave with Rowen. We would handle the aftermath later, when everyone was calm.
“She’s coming with me,” Rowen confirmed, his voice deep and commanding.
“You’re not taking her anywhere,” my mom snapped, staring him down.
He stood from the bed, pillow still covering himself, the ridiculousness of the situation almost making me laugh as his bare ass faced me. He stared back at her, filling the room with enough tension to choke us.
Then, my mom turned to me, looking past Rowen.
Surprisingly, her eyes softened, and I thought maybe she realized it was more important for me to be happy, but then I realized it was only because she thought I’d fold. She expected me to see her reasoning and choose them.
But I clearly didn’t belong there anymore.
I moved my hand over the sheet where my bandage covered the initials, still weeping blood under my skin. His mark.
Rowen and I were hopelessly ruined and broken, but together, we were whole. I moved to stand beside my stepbrother, taking his waiting hand in mine.
“Let’s go,” I said, smiling at him to keep myself from crying.
“You’ll regret this,” my mom said as her face collapsed.
I didn’t answer; I didn’t need to.
Rowen grabbed our clothes from the floor and led me past our parents, past their disappointed glares.
For a second, I thought Tom was going to say more, but he closed his mouth and shook his head before whispering something in my mom’s ear as Rowen pulled me through the front door.
She turned away, tucking herself into her husband’s chest as the door shut.
The cold hit my skin like knives.
“Let’s get you dressed,” Rowen said gently as he helped me get into my clothes.
I let out a choked laugh.
“What’s so funny?” he asked curiously, his eyes trained on me.
“This,” I put my hands out around us. “Our parents just caught us having sex, so here we are, getting dressed outside about to go… where?”
He pulled his shirt over his head then leaned over to press a kiss to my lips.
“I know a place,” he said confidently. “Let’s go.”
He led me to the driveway.
“I’m not riding that,” I said, catching on to his plan as I spotted his motorcycle.
“Don’t you trust me?”
I looked at his bike and then at him. “Not enough for that.”
He shook his head and laughed. “So you trust me enough to let me chase you naked through the woods, tie you up, and fuck the shit out of you, but not enough to ride behind me?”
I shrugged. “Seems so.” I attempted to step around him, but he grabbed me by the arm, stopping me.
“Get your ass on my bike, or we can take a quick run, and I’ll fuck you so hard, you’ll be nothing but cargo.”
I weighed my options. On the one hand, another round with Rowen didn’t sound so bad; my body was trained to want more of him. On the other hand, I doubted a run through the woods after what just happened was the best idea.
“I’ve never—”
“So many of your firsts belong to me, sis,” he teased.
“Stop calling me that,” I said, hating the way it sounded, the dirty feeling it gave me, the thrill it left behind despite the shame I should have felt.
He put the helmet over my head and pushed it down until my face was snug inside, the visor still up. My dumbass stepbrother was smirking at me.
“I kind of like it. Makes things hot.” He backed away from me, closer to his bike, and threw his hands out to the side. “I’m fucking my stepsister!”
“Rowen!” I yelled at him, in disbelief that he’d scream such a thing out loud—and proud.
“Our parents already know,” he said, as if it was funny now. “And no one else can hear us, Av. The closest neighbors are still a few miles away.” He walked back to me, coming so close that his forehead rested on my helmet. “Do it. Say it. Scream it out loud.”
I blinked. Then, I laughed. “You’re nuts.”
“Come on. You know you want to.”
He was fucking crazy, but I’d fallen for it, covered myself with him, and hid from the world.
My chest was tight as I looked at his face, wondering how he could look so carefree even though we’d just been disowned.
He couldn’t have been happier, because we were together and I’d chosen him. That was all he needed.
So, I did the only sane thing there was to do.
“I’m fucking my stepbrother!”
Rowen’s smile grew three sizes, and there was a proud glint behind his eyes. He picked me up, spinning me around before setting me back down on my feet.
“That’s my girl.”
And I fucking melted on the spot.
Rowen helped me onto the bike then pulled my arms around his torso and told me to hold tight. While I wasn’t thrilled about the motorcycle—terrified, really—I loved knowing I would get to be so close to him, to squeeze him until we got wherever he was taking us.
I looked back at the house one more time as we rode down the driveway, wondering what my mom was doing or thinking, hoping one day she’d understand. I had to choose myself.
But she didn’t get it, and neither did Tom.
Not now.
Maybe not ever.
But Rowen and I had each other.
And that was enough.