Chapter 38
How do I tell Ronan I’ve been sleeping with his little sister?
One that I watched grow up? No, not sleeping with—in love with.
I really need to choose my words. I know I need to tell him, and soon.
The longer I wait, the more pissed he’ll be.
He’s already going to be pissed enough that this has been going on for months—since the moment I walked through that door on crutches really.
We agreed last night that we would go get my stuff in two weeks. That’s fourteen days, which should be enough time to figure out what to say. He should know how I feel before I officially move in with her.
“What are you doing up so early?” Sloane says, coming up behind me to wrap her arms around my middle. “It’s barely . . .” She trails off with a yawn. “Past seven a.m.”
“I couldn’t sleep,” I tell her, spinning in her arms and dropping a kiss on her head before wrapping my arms around her.
“Really? Because I could sleep for days after what you did to me last night,” she says, her cheeks turning red, eyes closed, and head resting against my chest.
I smile down at her. Even half asleep, hair all rumpled, blanket line across her cheek, she’s the most gorgeous girl I’ve ever laid eyes on.
Having her in my arms, knowing she’s mine, quiets the loud.
It calms my heart and mind knowing that, no matter what, she’ll be by my side, calling me out on my shit.
Overcome with emotion, I tighten my arms around her, making her give me a lazy smile. “I love you,” I whisper against the top of her head before dropping a kiss and taking a deep inhale of my favorite smell.
“I love you, too,” she says, returning my squeeze.
We stay like that, just holding each other in the kitchen, waiting for the early morning light, like we can’t believe this is real. Like if we let go it’ll all just disappear into thin air.
Eventually, her stomach starts growling, making me laugh and pull away slightly. “Hungry?” I ask.
She just nods her head, pulling me back in, not wanting to let me go. My heart skips a beat at her action. I run a hand up and down her spine, hopefully letting her know that I’m not going anywhere.
“You’re in luck,” I tell her. “Not only did I order food yesterday, but I ordered groceries as well, meaning we have everything for breakfast.”
“God, are you for real?” she asks, fully pulling away from me and moving toward the coffee machine, setting up a pot of coffee.
“Oh, I’m sure I’ll fuck up eventually,” I tell her, giving her a pat on the butt as I move past her to the fridge to grab what I need.
“I know,” she sasses with a wink. The little minx.
She makes two cups of coffee, handing one to me before asking, “What are you making?”
“Blueberry pancakes, bacon, and fruit salad,” I tell her, taking the mug she offers.
“Sounds—” She’s cut off again by a yawn.
I almost feel bad that she’s up so early.
She’s been putting in long hours trying to avoid me all week.
My plan, when I ordered groceries last night, was to let her sleep in and wake her up with breakfast, not have her up with me before the sun was even peeking over the horizon.
But I can’t seem to make myself feel bad.
She’s in my space, and there’s nothing I want more than to just be with Sloane.
“Good,” she finally finishes. “But can we nap after? Or watch a movie on the couch, so I can nap and you can watch a movie if you don’t want to nap?”
I smile at her question, knowing she doesn’t want to be away from me either. “Sure. I bet Gigi will love the extra cuddles,” I say.
For the first time, Gigi’s not in the kitchen when I’m cooking. I fed her when I first got up this morning, but as soon as she was done she went and burrowed right back under the blankets in bed.
“Yeah, I’ve been neglecting her this week,” she says, coming back to drop her head on my chest. “I guess I never apologized for that.”
“Water under the bridge,” I tell her, pulling her in.
I like this Sloane, all sweet and cuddly with no eye roll in sight.
It’s a side of her I haven’t seen yet. It makes me wonder what else I don’t know about her, what else I’ll learn over the next weeks, months, years.
The thought of years with Sloane has my breath catching and quickening.
Which explains why I have her up on the counter, her thighs around my waist and my lips on hers.
Her hand knots in my hair, pulling me closer to her, the other toying with the waistband of the sweatpants I threw on this morning. I follow her lead and glide my hand up the outside of her thigh and under my T-shirt she put on this morning.
“No underwear?” I ask, surprised to find her naked hip.
“I fell asleep without them last night,” she whispers against my lips, moving her mouth over my cheek to my ear where she nibbles at my earlobe. “I didn’t think it would be necessary.”
Fuck. I can already feel myself leaking pre-cum. She’s going to be the death of me.
“Looks like I’ve created a little sex monster,” I tease as I pull my shirt over her head and pull her hips right up against me.
Her shirt hasn’t hit the kitchen floor yet when I know I’ve made a mistake. We both pull our lips away from one another when we hear the front door open . . .
“No,” she says, eyes wide—a deer in headlights.
At the same time, I say, “It can’t be . . .”
“Someone want to tell me what’s going on here?” I don’t have to turn around to know that my best friend just caught me, hard as steel, between his younger sister’s very naked thighs.
“Fuck,” both Sloane and I let out at the same time, causing me to smile. She rarely, if ever, swears.
“I’m waiting,” we hear Ronan say from behind me. I still haven’t turned around to see his face. I know I won’t like what’s written on it.
“At least let her put her shirt back on,” I hear Cassie say as the shirt I had just thrown over my shoulder lands on the counter beside us.
“Fuck me,” Ronan groans before I hear both sets of footsteps leave the kitchen as they bicker.
I swear I hear Cassie say, “This is what you get for . . .”
“Think we can sneak out the back door?” Sloane asks, her face so red it’s almost purple.
“I don’t think so, sweetheart,” I say, running my hands up and down her now-freezing arms, trying my best to comfort her. Her face is shattered.
“How about you go get dressed, and I’ll go see your brother in the living room. I don’t want you to be there if he starts yelling. If he does just—”
“No,” she cuts me off with an eye roll.
Good. See, all it took was me telling her what to do for her to get back to her usual self.
I try to hide my smile at the fact that she craves being told what to do in bed, begs for it even, but outside of our bedroom, it’s a no go.
She catches my smile and her eyes narrow at me.
My dick goes right back up at her look. Jesus, I feel like a fifteen year old who can’t control his own dick.
Her brother is in the other room, having just caught us in the act, and all I can think about is bending her over the counter.
“Liam,” she says. She caught my mind wondering and I can see how unimpressed she is. “Stop it!”
“What?” I feign innocence.
“Don’t what me!” she whisper-yells. “Get your mind out of the gutter. My brother is in the other room, and . . .”
“And if he wasn’t there, I’d have you bent over this counter,” I tease. “Don’t even try to tell me you don’t agree.” I wink.
“Yes, but . . . No, we need to handle my brother.”
I go to cut her off but she holds out her hand, telling me not to.
“No, you’re not handling it on your own. We’re both going to go put more clothes on, and we’re going to tell him to shove it, together.”
I can see I won’t change her mind, but he better not yell at her. “Fine,” I say, handing her shirt back, before we head into her room so she can get more clothes.
“God, I can’t believe he just walked in here like that!
Cassie didn’t even send me a warning text!
” she moans, sliding a pair of leggings up her smooth legs.
Then, she opens a few drawers, digging through them before finally throwing me a long-sleeved shirt half-mindedly, knowing I don’t like people seeing my scars.
And just like that, she has me falling a little bit deeper in love with her.
After throwing her hair in a messy bun, she grabs my hand and says, “All right, let’s go.”
She has a brave face on, but I can feel the slight tremble in her hand. “We’re both adults. We’ll tell him that this is serious—that I’m moving in and that he’ll just have to get used to it, okay?” I try to comfort, holding her hand tighter.
We both stop in our tracks when we see Ronan and Cassie casually sitting on the couch, drinking coffee and chatting as if they didn’t just catch me with Sloane’s hand down the back of my pants.
“Oh, there you two are,” Cassie says in her usual cheery voice, no sign of frustration or surprise. I mean, I guess she knew, but still, her acting like nothing happened has me on edge. “I poured you guys another coffee,” she continues, gesturing to the table in front of her.
I give Sloane a confused look, but she looks just as confused as me. What kind of twilight zone am I in? I can promise you I would not have been this chill if I would have caught a half-naked Ronan with a naked Summer.
Following Sloane’s lead, because I just don’t know what else to do, I grab my coffee and go sit beside her on the couch. Things get even weirder as both Cassie and Ronan just sit there, smiling at us, as if they just walked the set of Pleasantville.
My hands start to sweat to the point I might drop my mug, so I set it on my thigh. This might be worse than if he would have just yelled at me. Hell, a punch to the face would be better than this.
Suddenly, I feel Sloane sit up straight beside me. I look to her, and see she’s zoned in on her smirking brother. “I want my key back,” she says.
This is what she wants to start with? I want my key back?