Chapter Six
Present Day
I wake up the following morning to an empty bed, but like so many times before, the smell of cinnamon wafts through my apartment.
I’m still naked from last night, and I don’t even bother covering up before I make my way toward my kitchen, where I know Wild is cooking French toast. He turns around before I say anything and drags his eyes all over me before a salacious smile finds his face.
“Do you want me to burn your breakfast?” He chuckles before turning back to my stove. “Go put some clothes on, Saint.”
I move to stand next to him and slide my hand under his sweatpants to squeeze one of his ass cheeks. “I’m not hungry for food.”
“Neither am I, but you should eat.” He presses a kiss to my forehead.
“I dreamed of the first time we kissed last night,” I tell him as I move to stand behind him.
I wrap my arms around his middle and kiss his back.
He’s still much taller than me, so I only come up to about the center of his back.
He’s wearing a T-shirt, so I don’t get to drag my lips over all of his delicious muscles or the tattoos stretched across his skin like I usually do.
“Did you?” He chuckles. “I remember how chapped our lips were the next day and trying to hide it from Mom.”
“Kissing for five hours straight will do that, I guess.”
“One of my favorite memories of us,” he says, and my heart flutters.
“One of my favorite memories, period.” I giggle just as he slides the last pieces of French toast onto a plate.
“But I think the memories of dry humping while we kissed come in higher on that list,” he says as he sits at the table, and I immediately take my usual seat on his lap.
“Yeah, I’ll bet.” I laugh.
For a year, all we had done was kiss, and we hadn’t gone further than that.
There were times when we were close, but we never crossed that line until I was fifteen and he was sixteen, when he was driving me home from tennis practice.
We had become pretty savvy about where we could go to make out because not only did we have to hide it from Sara but also from half the town, who knew us as siblings.
We were making out in his car when I wanted to be closer.
I was growing increasingly frustrated with kissing over his console when I took the reins and climbed onto his lap.
One thing led to another, and before I could think, I was having my first orgasm while I rubbed my body against my stepbrother’s dick.
It was only a matter of moments before he did the same, coming all over the inside of his shorts.
We kissed for another hour, our kisses almost frantic, before Sara called us, wondering where in God’s name we were, with an edge to her voice that let us know she knew exactly what we were doing and she was not happy about it.
He pulls his shirt off, exposing his bare chest, and before I can say anything, he’s pulled it over my head.
“I can’t fucking focus with you naked in my lap, and I’d like to pay attention to the words coming out of your mouth and not how badly I want to suck on your tits.
” He presses his lips to my shoulder just as I feel a vibration underneath my butt.
He moves me slightly, squeezing my naked ass in the process, and I giggle before my eyes drop to his phone, where I see Mom on the screen.
“Hey, Mom,” he says before I can ask if he’s planning to answer it. He puts it on speakerphone, but I don’t say anything in case he doesn’t want to tell her that he’s with me at eight in the morning.
“Hi, honey, how are you doing?”
“I’m good. I’m with Saint,” he says immediately.
She doesn’t say anything at first, and I wonder if she’s going to ask how long he’s been with me. “I thought you would be. How is she?”
“You can ask her yourself, you’re on speaker.”
“Hey, Sara.”
“Hi, Halle. Are you doing alright?” Even though her voice is light and airy, I’m still expecting her to ask why Wild and I are together so early in the morning with a layer of judgment hidden underneath it.
“I’m fine,” I answer politely, not wanting to give up more than that.
“Good. Are you going to come down this weekend?”
“I’m not sure,” I say just as Wild says, “She’s thinking about it.”
“Well, everyone would love to see you, and I know Sebastian loves any excuse to be around you.” I frown because that is certainly not the tune she was humming throughout my entire childhood. “Mike also can’t wait to meet you.”
“Right, I know I need to meet him.” I do feel some level of guilt that my stepmom has been dating someone for almost two years and is now getting married, and I’ve only met him through FaceTime a few times. “How are you?”
“I’m good. I stopped by the cemetery this morning, and now I’m going to have lunch with Elana.”
“Tell her I said hi,” I tell her.
“Brant is home, actually. He asked about you.” Sara chuckles, and Wild stiffens beneath me.
“Still? He hasn’t gotten the hint that she’s not interested?” Wild says, but I can hear the edge in his voice, like maybe somehow, he missed that I might actually be interested in the boy next door when I’ve spent my entire life being obsessed with the boy one bedroom over.
“That was years ago. He just asked how you were, Halle, and if you were liking New York.”
“Well, tell him I’m good.”
“Alright, well, I just wanted to check on you. You guys have a good day. Hopefully, you get out and do something fun.”
“Yep, we have a day full of plans.” Wild bites down on my shoulder, and I slap a hand over my mouth to stop myself from yelping. I glower at him, and he winks.
“Alright, bye, guys. I love you.”
“Love you too,” Wild says, and again, I don’t say anything. He looks at me for a moment before he gives me a sad smile. “Bye, Mom.”
We’d had the conversation before about my reluctance to tell Sara I love her, and I really don’t want to get into it now. He wraps his arms around me and squeezes.
“Does she know that we still spend today this way?”
“I think she assumes.”
“How do you feel about that?” I ask him.
“I guess I’ll see when I go to North Carolina.” He presses another kiss to my shoulder. I’ve missed this. Being in his lap and all of the affection he showers me with. It’s like he can’t keep his hands or lips off me.
Once, after we’d started fooling around, Sara walked into the living room just as he was nuzzling my neck while I was in his lap, and that led to an hour-long lecture from her about what was no longer appropriate.
This led to me sobbing for two hours and then Wild telling me I could always sit in his lap, so long as Sara wasn’t around.
“Come with me.”
“To North Carolina?”
He nods. “We could talk to Mom together.”
“About…”
“You and me.”
My eyes widen because I hadn’t expected that. “I thought…I just got the feeling last night that maybe you didn’t want…”
He shakes his head. “I want you, Saint. I’ve always wanted this and us.
I’ve been in love with you since we were kids.
” He swallows, and my heart bursts hearing my favorite words when uttered from Sebastian Wilder’s mouth.
“You’re right. A lifetime is a long time, and I don’t want to do it without you.
I can’t be without you anymore. This past year, when we weren’t talking…
” He clears his throat and pulls my hand to his lips.
“I was barely getting by.” Hurt fills me when I hear he was in the same amount of pain I was in.
“But there are some obstacles. More than just my mom and our family.”
“Your job?”
He nods. “I never expected to reach this level of success and now…” He trails off. “Everyone knows who you are to me. You ready for”—he lets out a breath—“a lot of unwanted opinions?”
I swallow, thinking about how I felt hearing Sara say some of the things she said growing up that were more told out of love and concern than malice or judgment.
Okay, there was definitely some judgment, but I like to think she hadn’t meant to be hurtful.
I can’t imagine how I’ll feel about people I don’t know giving their opinions. “Are you ready for them?”
He rubs his lip, and I can see the uncertainty in his eyes.
“I’m less ready for the alternative, which is a life when you and I aren’t together.
I told you a really long time ago that you deserve the world, and I want you to be happy, and I’m realizing that the only way to be sure you are is if I handle it myself. ”
“What if you moved the firm? Maybe somewhere you’re not as well-known?” I offer.
“Leaving Seattle would definitely avoid the opinions of some people, but a simple search of my name will lead to the same discourse anywhere I go.”
“We are just stepsiblings, and technically, we aren’t anymore. People love the movie Clueless for God’s sake.” I roll my eyes.
He laughs. “True, but weren’t they not raised together, and their parents were only married for a few years?”
“Our parents were only married for a few years,” I whisper sadly as I recall what little time my father had with Sara. How little time I had with him.
“My first argument still stands.” He turns me around to face him, forcing me to straddle his waist, opening up my bare sex.
“If we hadn’t been in each other's lives for over twenty years, I don’t think anyone would have a problem.
The problem is that we were raised like biological siblings. I mean, you’re like my adopted sister.”
“Sara didn’t adopt—"
“Semantics, Halle,” he says before his lips form a straight line. “We were raised in the same house by the same person.”
I tense at the use of my name and let out a sigh. “Well, this is the situation we are in, so my question remains. Are you ready for this?”
“Come with me to North Carolina tomorrow. We can talk to Mom.”
I bite my bottom lip while I contemplate this. “I have to be back by Monday for class on Tuesday.”
He picks up his phone, and with one hand still wrapped around me, he forwards his flight itinerary to me. I frown.
“I bought two tickets.”