Chapter 2 #2
Harper had opened the box of cards and was reading a small piece of white paper before she nodded decisively and fished out a tiny timer. “Okay, so we can either have someone read the questions, or we can scan this QR code and our phone will read them out for us.”
“Phone,” I said, at the same time that Dad reached for the cards and insisted, “Give it here.”
“Oh, so you can cheat? I don’t think so, honey. Just let the technology do it for us,” Mom called from the armchair next to Nick’s. Predictably, my dad’s mouth dropped open to bemoan technology and the digital age, but thankfully Harper cut him off before he could begin.
“Good idea, that way there’s no funny business,” she said and shot mock glares at me and Nick in turn. “We have thirty seconds to write down our answers after the question is asked and there are twenty questions. Ready?”
I nodded and saw Ember do the same from the corner of my eye.
“Go!” Harper tapped her phone screen and a voice rang out, sounding vaguely like Siri.
“Question one: What is the largest organ in the human body?”
I tried to focus on the paper in front of me, balanced carefully on my lap, but it was difficult when Ember was leaning in close to murmur guesses in my ear.
“I think this is one of those, like, trick questions,” she said, warm breath ghosting over my skin. “Like, your tongue.”
My head jerked and our eyes met. Her face was closer than I’d expected, blue eyes wide and innocent as she looked up at me and bit down on her lower lip while she thought about the answer. “My… tongue?”
“Yeah, they’re, like, deceptively big, right?”
“Right.” I reached for my cider again, my mind completely blank, as I jotted ‘tongue’ down on the paper.
“Question two: What is the hardest natural substance on Earth?”
Ember’s breath hitched and her hand landed on my thigh, squeezing excitedly. “Oh! I know that one.” She leaned in and I could feel her lips just barely on me as she murmured the answer in a low voice that made my pulse jump, imagining the husky tones in an entirely different context.
Yeah. I had a pretty good idea what the hardest substance was — it was currently taking up residence in my fucking pants and would only get worse if she didn’t take her hand off my leg.
I forced myself to breathe as I brought the pen to the paper, but my whole body tensed when Em scoffed and gently smacked my leg. The pen punctured the paper as I jolted, glaring down at the small hole that revealed my loss of composure.
“Ugh, I’m an idiot. It’s diamond.”
I dutifully wrote down the answer and prayed she wouldn’t put her hands on me again.
Not when it caused such a strong reaction.
Hugging her yesterday when she’d arrived had been hard enough, and I’d kept my hips angled away from her during the brief contact so that my body didn’t get any ideas.
But this… just being near her, smelling the sweet scent of her skin, feeling the vibration of her laugh in my chest like it was my own — it was hard to pretend those things didn’t affect me.
Em spotted the tear in the paper and giggled.
“Here, I’ll do it.” Her hands brushed mine as she took the paper and set it in her own lap, drawing my eyes down to her legs.
She placed the end of the pen in her mouth and I nearly groaned as her full lips closed around the tip.
Ember was hot without even trying and no matter how much I wished I didn’t, I noticed.
By the time the quiz questions were done, I was nearly crawling out of my skin.
I’d happily relinquished the pen and paper to Ember for the rest of the game and did my best to put as much distance between us as possible — which was difficult, because Em wanted to whisper all the answers to me so the other teams couldn’t hear.
We got half the answers wrong, but I couldn’t bring myself to care — not if admitting our defeat meant getting a second to get away and clear my head.
Predictably, Nick and my mom scored the most points, Dad tried to argue that the answers were wrong, and Ember’s cheeks had gone pink as she chewed Nick out for being a sore winner.
“Next time, you’ll just have to pick the winning team, sweetheart.” Nick grinned and I felt Ember bristle at my side.
She huffed out a breath. “I don’t remember being given a choice in the matter,” she muttered, low enough that Nick couldn’t hear her but that I could. Ember would have no trouble fitting in with the family — it turned out that she was just as competitive as the rest of them.
“So,” Dad said, clapping his hands together and looking around hopefully. “Monopoly?”
“You know, I’ve got a headache coming on. Rain check?” I stood without waiting for an answer and kissed my mom on the cheek before retreating to the hall and making my way up the stairs toward my room.
The stairs creaked the tiniest amount as I walked the familiar route on autopilot. Growing up, my room had been opposite Nick’s, and my mom had set us both up in the same rooms from our childhood — though they’d been renovated a dozen times since then.
Still, the familiarity of the walk grounded me until I was closing the door behind myself and resting my back against it while my shoulders sagged.
It was only a little over a week, that was all I had to survive.
Then I could go back to avoiding my brother and Ember until I could get her out of my head.
The distance was rough though. Nick and I had always been close, given that we were so similar in age, it was honestly a miracle that he hadn’t become suspicious of my absence yet. Small mercies.
Footsteps sounded in the hall, a low murmur of voices rising, and tension slipped back into my body as I realized it had to be Ember and Nick making their way to his room.
At least the hall separating us meant that I didn’t have to hear them fucking — that might have been the final nail in my coffin otherwise.
Suddenly there was a thud and a gasp, and I moved before I could think it through. The door handle turned under my palm just as Ember moaned.
I froze, the door already open a crack. Enough for me to see but not be seen.
What had I been expecting, honestly? That Nick had hurt her? I knew better than that. They were pressed against the wall, eyes locked on each other as Nick reached up and wrapped Ember’s long blonde waves around his fist in a tight grip that made her arch against him.
I needed to close the door. To go back to bed and pretend I’d seen nothing. I made to do exactly that, when the sound of my name made me halt in place.
“Such a little brat,” Nick growled. “Draped all over my brother all night… Did you know I was watching? Were you trying to make me jealous?” Nick’s laugh was low and Ember whimpered when he captured her mouth in a fierce kiss, the wet sound of their lips echoing in my head.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Em tried, her breath harsh and chest rising and falling rapidly. She groaned loudly when Nick palmed her breast through her sweater and I felt my cock jump against my zipper at the sound.
Nick hummed. “Oh, of course. It’s not like I told you about Oakley and I sharing girlfriends and you got curious, right? Or have you always had a thing for him?”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
What was Nick saying? My mind was running wild instantly, conjuring up ridiculous scenarios, possibilities, even as Ember stayed quiet beyond the occasional breathy moan.
My brother chuckled as he pulled back from her, leaving Em looking dazed and bereft with her mussed hair and lips swollen from their kisses. My breath slowly eased out of me. They were done with whatever this was, I should close the door. Take a cold shower. Go to sleep. So why couldn’t I move?
Then Nick prowled forward, taking her mouth like he owned it, a rough sound leaving him when Ember reached down to palm his dick through his jeans.
“Greedy little brat,” he tutted. “One brother not enough for you?” His hand pushed the hem of her sweater up, revealing the sheer baby blue lace of her bra and her breasts straining against the material, desperate for his touch.
Nick rolled one nipple through the fabric and Ember’s head hit the wall with a thunk as she widened her legs. So responsive.
One deft hand flicked open the button on her jeans and I shuddered when the sound of her wet pussy filled the hall, wishing I could see it, taste it, for myself.
“You’re so wet, baby. Is this all for me? Or is it for Oakley?” Nick’s hand moved under her jeans and Ember whimpered. “Are you pretending these are his fingers right now? Sinking inside you, filling you so good?”
I was scared to move, to breathe, my eyes were wide and aching from not blinking as I waited for her response.
Nick lifted her, leveraging her body against the wall as her legs wrapped around his waist, his hand still slicking through her wetness. “Answer me, baby.”
“Yes,” she panted and all the blood rushed from my head to my cock, leaving me dizzy as my hand found the bulge in my pants and squeezed.
“That’s what I thought,” Nick murmured, sounding smug, and when he withdrew his hands from her jeans, she let out a mewl of protest. “Thank you for being honest, baby.” He sank to his knees and Ember’s blue eyes burned with heat as she watched him.
My hand flicked open the button of my pants, the zipper lowering quickly and quietly as I watched them. If this was the only bit of her I’d ever have, then I would make it count, even if part of me was screaming that this was a bad idea.
Nick lowered her pants and smoothed his hands up her pale thighs, pressing until she widened her stance and I swallowed hard at the unobstructed view of her pussy through her matching mesh blue panties. She was wrapped up like a present, and fuck if I didn’t want a taste.
His hands hooked in the string sitting high on her hips and Ember moaned when he dragged her panties down. She was neatly trimmed, almost bare, and I could see the evidence of her arousal shining under the low hall lights.
Agonisingly slowly, my hand started to move over my cock, gripping my shaft tight enough that it bordered on painful. I didn’t want to miss a second of this. I shuddered when my hand stroked over my head, so sensitive it made my jaw clench with the effort to not make a sound.
Nick pushed two fingers across her pussy lips, stroking her clit and parting her with his fingers before he lowered his mouth to the space between her thighs.
Em’s reaction was instant, her back arching, fingers sliding into Nick’s hair to hold him in place as he feasted on her.
The sloshing sound of her pussy made my hand speed up, and when her hips started to rock against my brother’s tongue I bit my lip so hard I could taste the iron tang of blood.
His fingers worked her while he continued to eat her pussy and Ember was a vision, lost in the pleasure with her head flung back, eyes screwed shut, one hand on her breast and one holding onto Nick by his hair as her breaths came harder.
I could practically taste her impending orgasm in the air, my own rocketing along behind as my palm slid over my shaft faster.
A shuddering gasp took her and Nick groaned into Ember’s pussy as he lapped up what was probably a rush of wetness before he lifted his head to look up at her.
“Are you ready, baby?” His hand tilted as he curled his fingers inside her and I pushed my hips into my hand, wishing it was her I was fucking, her tight pussy pulsing around my cock rather than my brother’s fingers as he pumped her faster, faster, faster—
Ember cried out, her sound of pleasure muffled by the heavy wooden walls but I knew it would be ringing through my mind for a long, long time.
Nick praised her as she rode his fingers, chasing the last of her orgasm as mine crashed through me and I spilled into my hand in a dizzying rush that made me lean against the wall as I finished.
Nick was chuckling and Ember’s eyes fluttered open, her cheeks pink and legs trembling. “Don’t worry. The doors are thick. I’m sure Oakley didn’t hear you coming for us.”
I nudged the door closed quietly and released a shuddering breath, regret and shame rolling in thick and fast as I looked down at the mess I’d made watching what I couldn’t have.