Chapter 11
Walk Of Shame
ZARA
When I open my eyes the next morning, Chance’s arms are still wrapped around me, and I take just a few minutes to bask in the warmth and safety of his perfect body.
I could stay here all day looking at the way his blond eyelashes caress his high cheekbones; or the way his soft lips are slightly parted while he sleeps, giving him an innocent, almost angelic look.
“Morning.” He rumbles, his voice still low and a little gravelly with sleep. “How long have you been watching me sleep?”
I shrug. “I’m not sure. You’re just so pretty to look at that time flies.”
His lips tip up in the beginning of a smile. “Men aren’t pretty, baby. We’re ruggedly handsome. And staring is a little creepy, but I’ll let it go for now, because your voice sounds much better than it did last night.”
He’s right. “It doesn’t hurt as much when I speak either.”
Chance’s barely there smile widens. “That’s great news. See? My hot drink did the trick. One night with Doctor Chance and you’re as good as new.”
I jump on top of him, straddling his hips. His hard-on feels delicious beneath me. “On second thought, I still feel awfully weak. I think I need another injection to make sure that I’m really on the mend.”
His strong, slightly calloused hands grab my hips. “Absolutely. I’m afraid you need long, steady therapy to avoid a relapse.” He grinds his hips to hint at what kind of therapy he’s planning to use on me, and my clit responds with an eager throb.
Growl.
“What was that?” The noise came from somewhere underneath me.
“Nothing. Ignore it.” He says, cupping my breasts and teasing my nipples with the pads of his thumbs.
Growl.
“That was your stomach.” I say as the rumble reverberates all over me.
“Yeah,” Chance sounds a little embarrassed. “I didn’t get much to eat at the Country Club, and we skipped dinner last night. I’m kinda starving.”
I feel responsible for that. “And you have practice today, right? We can’t have you skating on a totally empty stomach.”
My stepbrother sighs, a pained expression on his too handsome face. “It’s almost six a.m. and we have to be at the arena at seven. I have to choose between breakfast or continuing what we were about to start.”
The choice is easily made. If he doesn’t eat something soon, he’ll pass out on the ice.
“Come on. We can take a rain check on this. But Coach Harrison is a scary-looking man. You don’t want to be late to practice or pass out in front of him.” I slide off of him, and my feet land on the carpet of Ares’s bedroom.
Chance follows me with another grumble. “Do you want to grab breakfast with me then? You can come to practice if you want. Or Ares should be back soon from his night shift.”
“I think I should go home. I have a couple of missed calls and texts from my mom. She’s worried about me, and if we hurry, I’ll catch her before she goes to work.”
He nods. “No problem. We can get some breakfast for her too. Just let her know. If I put in an order now at Tilly’s Bakery, it should be ready to pick up in ten minutes, and it’s on our way home.
They have a new line of high protein smoothies.
I’ll get one of those and a couple of breakfast sandwiches for after practice.
What would you like, baby? And what do you think Kelly wants? ”
I give him my order and then head to the bathroom, but Chance turns me around and grabs me by the waist.
“Maybe we could sneak in a quickie before we go.” He says, nuzzling the space between my neck and shoulder.
That sounds good, but I know that if we start anything, we’ll get carried away and he’s going to be late for practice.
“I think we should get ready and be out of the door, Dr. Chance,” I tease, slapping his rock-hard ass as I slip out of his embrace and catch my reflection in the mirror above Ares’s dresser.
“I still have to find something to wear around my neck. If my mom sees these nasty bruises, she’s going to have a million questions I’d prefer not to answer. ”
Thankfully, I found a scarf in Ares’s closet. The weather is getting chillier in the morning, and I can justify the scarf by saying my throat still feels a little scratchy.
Before I know it, we have our breakfast, and Chance pulls up in our driveway.
It’s crazy that I had never seen this place until a couple of months ago and now it feels like home more than any other place I’ve lived in.
“Maybe I shouldn’t come in.” Chance hesitates when we get to the front door. “Lev told Kelly that you were gonna stay at his house last night. She knows that Lev and I are almost always together, but I think it’s gonna look weird if we show up without him and in Ares’s Jeep.”
I’m glad Chance thought about it. “Yeah, Mom is going to ask us a million questions, and I’d rather not have to lie to her more than I already do.”
“I’ve been thinking about it, baby.” He says softly, lacing his fingers through mine as he walks me to the door. “I want to speak to Dad. I want to tell him that I love you and I don’t care if he cuts me off, but he can’t stop me from being with you.”
I turn to look at him as we get to the front door. “Are you sure? I mean, I would love not to have to hide the way I feel about you. But what about Lev? I’m supposed to be his girlfriend. And there’s Ares, too.”
He sighs. “I know. If we want to have a future together, there’s only one possible way forward. We have to be honest with our family about our relationship.”
Chance is right. “I know. But do you really think Mom and Scott, and Lev’s parents are going to accept our relationship?”
“Maybe not at first.” He muses. “But once they see that it’s not a phase and that there’s way more to it than just hooking up, they’ll have to come around.”
I hope so. “Before you say anything to Scott,” I tell him, playing with the blond stubble that’s starting to grow on his jaw. “We need to be sure that Lev and Ares agree with this plan. If we face our parents, we should do it together.”
He nods. “Yeah. But I just wanted you to know that I’m done being afraid of what Dad will think. I’m sorry I almost walked away from you the night of our parents’ wedding.”
I think back to that night, when Chance didn’t dare come into my room as we had planned, after his father told him and Ares that he expected them to treat me like a sister.
“But you didn’t.” I whisper. “And I don’t blame you for not wanting to rock the boat back then. We didn’t know that our attraction would turn into the real thing.”
“I know.” Chance agrees. “But I feel bad that I didn’t stand up to Dad back then.”
I pull him closer. “You shouldn’t. I really don’t blame you.”
“I love you, Zara.”
“I love you too.” He whispers.
Maybe we shouldn’t kiss on our doorstep, but I know my mom is going to be sitting at the kitchen table at the opposite end of the house. Her morning routine is a cup of coffee and checking the local news on her tablet.
Chance’s lips are soft and warm.
His minty breath mingles with mine when he coaxes my lips open with his tongue.
“Hmm.” Her murmurs, sucking on my bottom lip. “I don’t want to go to practice right now. I want to take you to your room upstairs and have breakfast in bed. Possibly naked.”
I play with the short hair at the nape of his neck. “That sounds good, but you’re forgetting my mom. She’s waiting for me in the kitchen.”
“You’re right.” He groans. “And the only reason that would make Coach Harrison excuse someone from practice is death. So, I really need to go.”
“Go, then.” I chuckle. “I don’t want to make you late.”
“One last kiss for the road?”
Chance’s kisses are so addictive that I can’t refuse his request, and I melt against his muscular body.
Chance
“What the fuck?”
Heather’s shocked voice makes me almost crawl out of my skin, and Zara and I jump away from each other faster than if we had gotten electrocuted.
I close my eyes, inhaling a fortifying breath before turning around to face my childhood friend and next-door neighbor.
A part of me hopes that Heather isn’t really here but just a figment of my imagination.
Of course, I’m not that lucky, and I find myself staring at her angry glare.
“Heather, what are you doing here?”
That was the wrong thing to ask. “Me? I came over to tell my best friend about my night, and since I’ve heard that she was feeling under the weather, I came bringing some throat lozenges and painkillers, and my mom is putting some chicken soup in the crockpot for later.
” She says, lifting the bag with a local pharmacy logo in her hands.
“The real question is what are you doing with your tongue down your sister and best friend’s girlfriend’s throat?
And don’t bother trying to feed me some bullshit about a dare this time.
You were full on making out on your doorstep. ”
Fuck.
There’s no way out of this but telling Heather the truth, at least about me and Zara, and hoping that she doesn’t tell Diane Pullin.
I don’t know if Dad and Kelly will ever be able to accept that Ares and I love our stepsister and intend to be with her, with Lev in the picture, too.
This might be too much for them as it is.
The one thing I know for sure, however, is that if rather than hearing it from us, they hear it through the gossip mill, it’ll be a million times worse.
“Heather,” I begin, fighting to keep my tone calm and cautious. “I’m not going to tell you that this isn’t what it looks like, because it’s exactly what it looks like.”
“WHAT?” She turns her gaze to Zara. “You lied to me. Last time I saw you and Chance kiss, you promised me it was a dare. Zara, you know how I feel about cheaters. You’re my best friend, but I can’t condone cheating.
And Lev is such a good guy. He doesn’t deserve this.
And you, Chance! You and Lev are closer than real brothers.
You’re closer to him than you are to Ares. How could you?”
Jesus.
“Heather, please lower your voice.” I plead. “No one is cheating on anyone. Lev knows about me and Zara, and he’s ok with it.”
I don’t know what I thought would happen in going with the truth.
Or at least part of it. I have no intention of dragging Ares into this if I can help it.
Zara is right that we need to be on the same page before we go to our parents.
And I need to make sure that my brother is really all in before we risk Dad’s fury.
“I thought we said no more secrets and especially no more lies.” Heather accuses me. “Do you really expect me to believe that Lev is ok to let you make out with his girlfriend? I’ve seen the way he looks at Zara. He’s in love with her.”
Zara intervenes for the first time. “Heather, Chance isn’t lying.
I’m in love with Lev, and I would never betray him.
But from the very beginning, I’ve had feelings for Chance, too.
I have been honest with them from the beginning, and at first we decided that I should date them both and then choose.
But the more I got to know them, the more time I spent with them, the harder it was to choose. So I told them that I couldn’t choose.”
Heather looks at each of us with a bewildered expression on her face. “So what are you going to do?”
I love the way Zara answers her with her head held high. She isn’t ashamed of our relationship. “They agreed that I can be with both of them.”
“Long term?” Heather spits out.
“Hopefully forever.” Zara confirms.
There’s a second of silence. I can see the shock on Heather’s face as she tries to come to terms with what she just learned.
“But Chance is your brother. What you’re doing is wrong.”
What the fuck is wrong with people? Why does nobody seem to get that Zara isn’t related to me and Ares?
“Stepsister.” I correct her. “And you know as well as I do that we didn’t even grow up as siblings. You were there when we met Zara for the first time.”
I’m not surprised when Heather argues with the point I just made.
“Yes, but your parents are married. It’s icky.”
I’m about to snap and tell her to butt out and mind her own fucking business, but Zara precedes me.
“Heather, sweetie,” she says more kindly than I could have ever expressed that concept.
“Our parents’ relationship has nothing to do with us.
We even tried to stay away from each other after the wedding, but we’re in love.
The reason why we’ve been keeping it secret is that Scott has this idea of a big, happy family where Chance, Ares and I are siblings.
We’ve been trying to find a way to talk to him, but we wanted to be sure that things between us worked out first. We just need a little more time to find the right moment to talk to Scott and my mom.
I hate to ask you this, but Chance and I would be very grateful if you could keep this between us until we can speak to our parents?
It’s gonna be a hard sell as it is, but I think it would be much better if they heard about our relationship from us. ”
Heather pulls Zara into a hug. “Of course. You’re my best friend, and you can always count on me. You,” she glares at me. “Are lucky that I adore Zara. Because you don’t deserve my loyalty.”
I don’t know how Atlas could put up with Heather’s constant drama. But I didn’t sign up for it and I’m starting to understand why Ares is always so frustrated with her.
“Whatever, Heather.” I bite out. “Maybe people wouldn’t keep secrets from you if you didn’t always make such a big deal out of everything. You always manage to make everything about you.”
I realize that I shouldn’t have said that when Heather’s eyes narrow into two furious slits.
“That’s where you’re wrong, Chance.” She snaps. “I’m trying to be understanding about this. I get why Zara didn’t say anything, and I’m not upset with her. The one I’m upset with is you. You lied to my face.”
I open my mouth to argue with her, but she continued before I could get one word in edge-wise.
“Remember a couple of weeks ago? When I asked you if you had a thing for Zara, and you denied it?”
“We were still trying to figure things out back then. I didn’t know if Zara would have picked Lev over me. And besides, it wasn’t just my truth to tell. I couldn’t have said anything without Lev and Zara’s agreement.”
My argument isn’t as convincing as I was hoping.
“That’s not what I’m talking about. You told me that you wouldn’t hook up with me because you loved me like a sister.
That you didn’t feel attracted to me that way.
But it was all bullshit. It was because you wanted Zara instead of me.
I should have known. After all, if I were a sister to you, you wouldn’t have been able to get hard enough to fuck me, and I don’t recall you having any problems with that. ”
My head rears back as if Heather had slapped me.
The shock on Zara’s face reduces me to silence before I can work out what to say.