Chapter 24
NOAH
“Let me see that pretty face of yours,” Gabriel purrs, rolling onto his back so I can straddle his waist.
Heart racing. Sweat glistening across my skin. I spread my legs and lean forward, hyperaware of every single muscle pressing against my body. Goose bumps sprout in the wake of his lips traveling across my skin.
“Gorgeous.” He breathes against my neck.
His cock stands tall against his stomach, rigid, smooth, and tanned.
I rub my erection against his, slow and relaxed, just to feel him twitch beneath my touch.
The hiss I draw in between clenched teeth is loud and telling—desire coiled tight beneath my skin, straining against the leash of restraint I’m already letting slip.
Sharp Spanish whispers overlap my French sigh—two languages colliding, both of them saying yes. Tongues, heat, and tangled breaths paint the space between us as I rub myself against his dick, groaning, moaning, panting—
“Fuuuck, baby. Need to stop,” he suddenly warns, gripping my hips too tightly. The tips of his fingers dig into my skin. A tangle of unintelligible Spanish words slips past his lips.
I drop my head to his chest and breathe him in—the sharp spicy scent of sweat and skin. His heartbeat brushes against my lips as I suck a nipple. It’s so powerful, and I lower my head to rest fully over it, ear pressed to his chest. The steady thump echoes against my cheek—strong, grounding.
Reassuring.
I close my eyes and let it center me. In the way my sister’s heartbeat used to when we were kids. I trusted her. And now… I’m trusting him.
“God, Noah,” Gabriel hisses, cupping my face between his palms. He licks across my lips before I sit up and shimmy my ass over the tip of his leaking cock. He slips his palms underneath my ass. “We don’t have to—”
“I want—”
“Yes, baby. Okay,” Gabriel says, loosening his hold on me.
My hole flutters against his silky, blunt crown as I take position above him, knees squeezing his waist, and then realize—
“Condom?” I breathe out, surprised that I’m actually going through with this. That I’m really going to trust him. He better move fast before I change my mind. Because, at the moment, my thoughts are quiet, and I don’t need them reminding me—
“Don’t need one.” Gabriel lets out a stuttering breath. “I was tested… clear,” he says, voice tight, wired, breathless.
Okay. Good. That’s good. Me too.
Exhaling, I lower my hips as he pushes his fat tip against my entrance and—
“Stop!” I scream as he slips past that tight ring of muscle.
He immediately stills.
“It’s okay, baby,” he murmurs, voice low, close. “Está bien.”
But it’s not okay.
My vision blurs. Everything stops—the movements, his moaning, the panting—everything. It’s like someone hit pause on the entire world.
I clench instinctively, my body joining the chaos inside my head, and I feel him tense as the sudden pressure cuts him off.
“I can’t,” I whimper. “I can’t… I can’t… I can’t…”
The words fall out of me like a mantra, desperate and broken. I say them again and again, as if they might somehow undo what has already been done.
“I can’t, I can’t…”
I clutch my head with both hands, nails biting into my scalp like I’m trying to claw the conflict out by force.
A violent tug-of-war between two lives—two voices—pulling me in opposite directions, each one screaming to be chosen, neither willing to let go.
I can’t breathe. I can’t think. I just want it to stop.
But it won’t.
And here comes the rain.
Panic slams through my chest like a door blown open in a storm. Tears explode behind my eyes as soon as the rain hits—electric, familiar, and suddenly I’m not here anymore. I’m there. Behind the rain.
Gabriel pulls away, gripping my face, trying to anchor me—but I don’t see him. I don’t see anything.
Except rain.
I thrash my head from side to side, like a dog shaking rain from its fur.
“Noah! Noah!” he shouts, voice rising with fear.
There’s panic in it. Real panic.
I hear him. I don’t hear him.
Tears prick my eyes, but I know he can’t see them. Not while I’m in the rain.
He cups my face again, gentler this time, fingers sliding through my hair.
“Shh…” he whispers, voice soft but steady.
I feel the warm wash of his breath across my cheek.
“It’s okay, Noah. God, baby. You’re alright. You’re alright. Look at me, sweetheart. I’m not going to hurt you. Shh…”
Those quiet shushes sweep past my ear, like a soft breeze through leaves, and I start to breathe again. Not fully—but enough.
I collapse… into his arms, letting him hold me, fold around me like a blanket.
I exhale into the curve of his neck, the sob stalling in my throat.
He rubs slow, steady circles into my back.
“You’re safe, sweetheart,” he whispers. “God, Noah… what happened to you?”
“Ah… Gabriel.” A voice enters the room. “So, you’re fucking my brother…”
What the—
Gabriel jerks like he’s been shot, body going rigid beneath me. I’m almost certain his heart just bolted from his chest—and took my breath with it.
I pop my head up from his chest, pulse racing, skin still slick with sweat, and whip my head around toward the door.
“America!” I gasp. “What are you doing here?”
“Who the fuck is America?!” Gabriel snaps. He’s so rattled, he doesn’t even realize he’s completely naked and still has his boner pressed against the crease of my ass.
“She’s my sister—” “I’m his sister—” America and I speak over each other; voices tangled in awkward panic.
He rolls off to the side, leaving me fully exposed—my sister now with a front-row seat to my very aroused cock.
Thankfully, the lighting is dim. Just a sliver of moonlight cuts across the room.
That is, until…
Click.
Erica flicks the switch, and suddenly the entire goddamn room lights up like a football stadium.
“Get out of my room!” I snap, completely losing my cool.
But her green eyes are trained… not on me… but on him. “Hello, Gabriel,” she purrs, all warm and sugary sweet.
I shiver.
Then look at her face. That smile. Yeah, I know that smile. Very well. Shit’s about to hit the fan.
“Have to say, your dick still looks amazing,” she adds, practically cooing. “Some things never change.”
I gasp, almost choking on my breath. “What the hell are you talking about?”
I whip my head toward her—then back to Gabriel, who’s scrambling for the sheet, suddenly frantic to cover himself.
“What is she talking about?” I demand. “You slept with my sister?”
His eyes flick up to hers. “Mimi…” he starts, voice caught somewhere between regret and panic.
What the actual fuck?
“That’s not even her name!” I shout. “Her name is America!”
That jars both of them.
Gabriel drags a hand through his hair, clearly one breath away from a breakdown. Then his head drops forward, and he growls. “This fucking bitch is your sister?”
What? I mean… just… what?
Their conversation continues like I’m not even in the goddamn room.
“How’s my daughter, Gabriel?” my sister asks, cool and calm.
My head snaps toward her so fast I see stars.
“You have a daughter? “You. Have. A. Daughter?”
I repeat it, not for answers, but to hear something over the chaos in my head. Because it’s loud again. Pissed. Angry. Betrayed. Screaming.
“Stay away from her, Mimi,” Gabriel warns, voice shaking with rage. “I swear to God, if you come near my family—Alex, Emilee, Elijah, any of them—I will hurt you.”
Her eyes barely flicker. Still locked on Gabriel. Still. Ice-cold.
“Alex?!” I shout, turning on her. “Alex?!”
Just hearing his name again is like gasoline to an open flame.
My sister doesn’t flinch. She just keeps going—hit after hit—aimed right at Gabriel.
I feel dizzy, disoriented. My head swings back and forth between them like I’m watching a tennis match from hell. I’d always known she was going to find Alex, but…
Gabriel speaks. Low. Heavy. Like every word costs him something.
“Ana… is her daughter,” he says. “As is Emilee.”
The ground tilts under me. The air goes thick, sharp. Like I’ve been kicked through a memory I didn’t know I had. My ears ring. My mouth goes dry. Suddenly, I can taste blood. Or maybe it’s just the truth splitting me open.
No. No, that’s not—
My knees almost give way. Two daughters. Both hers. Both his.
Alex.
Gabriel finally turns to face me—his expression hollow.
“Alex was your sister’s boyfriend,” he says.
I stare at him.
Then at her.
Back to him.
I can’t speak. Can’t do much of anything. The words don’t come. Even the air in my lungs feels obsolete.
“Ah, yes. Aaaalex,” America drawls, stretching his name like she’s singing a goddamn song. “He’s actually who I was expecting to find here tonight.”
Her brilliant-green eyes burn with something darker than anger—pure hate. I’ve seen that look before, plenty of times—directed at our father.
But never like this.
There’s something twisted in it now, something sharpened.
I recognize the shape, the tilt of her head, the gleam behind her eyes—but it’s wearing a new face.
Older. Meaner. Maybe smarter. It’s her, and it’s not.
I want to look away, but I can’t. My body remembers this, even if my mind tries to make sense of it.
I’m not afraid. Not exactly. But something in me folds in on itself—instinct, warning—as if I’m standing on the edge of something I’ve fallen into before and barely crawled out of.
America. Spiraling. Splitting. Surviving.
My sister.
My savior.
The one who vowed to find my brother.
The one who promised to stay behind with me.
But now?
God, who is this?
Still naked, heart pounding, I rise to my knees, barely aware of anything but the firestorm in my chest.
“SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!” My voice booms through the room like thunder.
I swing my gaze back to my sister, eyes wild, breath ragged, panic clawing up my throat.
“How the fuck did I not know you had children? And with Alex?! Putain!” I clutch my head as if I could stop this truth from sinking in.