2. Evan
2
EVAN
B lack shoes, long legs, and a tiny skirt drag my eyes upward to the tops of her thighs that are smooth and soft, and begging to be licked and touched. It takes me longer than it should for my eyes to continue the path up her body, but when my gaze hits her tits, I have to swallow back a moan.
Black silk hides full breasts and a hint of a nipple just peeking through the fabric, teasing me with a visible sign of her arousal. But it’s her face that makes my heart skip a beat and dick swell. I don’t know who this girl is, but fuck, she’s gorgeous.
Her rich, glossy black hair is pinned up in a high ponytail, showing off the long expanse of her neck and the pulse I swear I can see fluttering as she watches me take my fill of her. Her face is flawlessly covered in makeup, and her lips are painted a bright red. But instead of making her look like a doll, oddly, it just seems to accentuate the peppering of freckles across her nose and brighten her blue eyes.
I’m mesmerized, lost to her and this moment where everything in the world suddenly feels…right.
When Starling appears, the frozen second in time shatters, and my attention is drawn to my stepsister and how different she looks. Since we brought her to Kingsacre, this is the first time I’ve seen her choose to wear anything other than athletic clothes or denim shorts and tanks. Dressed in a tight white dress and heels, it’s easy to see how much she’s changed from the sixteen-year-old girl she was when we first dragged her kicking and screaming into our world.
Even though she’s always been beautiful, now she has a fragility that she didn’t have back then. She runs miles every day. Her body is lean, verging on skinny, and the guilt that only seems to increase any time she turns her hate-filled eyes on me suddenly seems to weigh a hundred pounds.
It feels wrong to blame all the things we did to help Sebastian claim Starling on the wealth and privilege we were raised to expect. But honestly, always having the ability to get what we want has affected our understanding of the world. We were taught to be ruthless because that’s what will be expected of us in business. But we were too ruthless with Starling. We took and took and took until part of her got broken beyond repair, and that’s our fault.
She’s only been living with us for a few weeks, but the regret I feel has grown exponentially. Now, when I look at her, festering guilt is all I feel. She’s my sister. I’m her big brother, and she should be coming to me with her problems, not seeing me as one of them.
I hate that my only chance of a true sibling relationship has been destroyed, and it’s my own fault.
Starling ignores me when I ask about the party they’re going to, then tells her beautiful friend that I’m her mom’s new husband’s son. I fight not to flinch as her barb scores a direct hit. I’m sure if she knew how much it hurt me every time she refuses our new familial tie, she’d do it all the more often. But instead of correcting her or fighting for a connection that she’ll likely never feel, I absorb the jab, adding the hurt to the guilt that is filling me, and accept that no matter how much she hates me, I’ll probably always deserve it.
Before I have a chance to ask about the girl that I can’t look away from, they’re both gone. Before Starling ripped us all new assholes and made me realize how much of a fucking monster I am, I’d probably have followed them. I’d have flirted with her friend and chased her until I had her beneath me. But I won’t touch her now. She’s Starling’s. The first friend my sister has dared to make in over three years. Whoever the girl is, regardless of what she could have been to me, she’s Starling’s, and I won’t do anything more to hurt my sister, not again.
An hour later, I’m not sure which one of us finally convinced Sebastian that we all needed to go to the party Starling and her friend are at. Who am I kidding? It was all me. I told him that two girls that look like them, dressed like they are, are walking targets for thirsty frat boys, and that if he wasn’t careful, someone else would claim his little bird .
When we finally arrive at the party in the woods, I scan the crowd, and my dick almost explodes in my jeans when I spot her. She’s dancing, her sexy body swaying to the music that’s pulsing around us.
Less than an hour after we arrive, Starling leaves with Sebastian following close behind, his heated, intense gaze letting everyone in their vicinity know that they’ll be fucking the moment they’re alone.
On silent agreement, Hunter, Clay, and I close the distance between us and Starling’s friend. As we approach, I hear the guy who’s grinding his dick against her ass loudly say, “Let’s go back to my room. I want to fuck you.”
I may not know this girl. I might not be able to act on the urge to claim and mark her, but I can sure as shit make sure she doesn’t end up having a one-night stand with a douchebag she met at a party.
It takes all of my fragile self-control not to rip the guy away from her. Instead, I move closer, waiting until he notices me. Once he does, I silently glare at him, not looking away until he stops moving, his hold on the girl loosening.
When Clay and Hunter appear on either side of him, he looks between the three of us before deciding she’s not worth whatever we’re silently threatening. When he drops his arm from around her waist and steps back, I move toward him and lean in. “Don’t ever look at her again.”
Like the pussy that he is, the guy turns and leaves without looking back.
Once I’m sure that he’s gone and not coming back, I refocus on Starling’s friend. Moving to stand in front of her, I wait for her to notice me. After a long moment, she blinks drunken eyes in my direction, her red stained lips slowly curling into a wide smile. “Hey,” she says on a giggle. “What happened to Rob?”
“He had to leave,” I tell her.
“Oh. What happened to Starling?”
“She and Sebastian left too. She asked us to make sure you get home safe.”
A loud peel of laughter bubbles from her full lips. “They’re going to have angry sex.”
“Probably,” I agree. “We were never properly introduced. I’m Evan,” I say, leaning in close enough that I can smell her sweet perfume.
“Hi, Evan. I’m Sammy.”