Chapter 8 #2
I almost turned around and exposed my whole body to glare at him. “You weren’t my step-brother then!”
He flinched. It was a small movement, but I saw it for what it was. A loss of control. A flicker of frustration. He didn’t want this either.
“It’s just a label,” he said, sighed, and sat back on the bed. “It’s not like we grew up together or you even see your dad much.”
Was this man’s conscience even in the same universe as his dick?
“I work with him,” I snapped. “As I also work with you, my new step-brother.” I spat the word, disgusted, and turned for him to zip me up.
He held me in place, pressing firmly on my hips to still me. I might have been a bit antsy, rocking back and forth on the balls of my feet.
Far too slowly, he dragged the delicate zipper up, cinching my body into the small, glittery thing.
This was not what I would have worn to a wedding if I had even five minutes at home to prepare myself.
“This looks so good on you,” he said, and his forehead fell to the exposed small of my back.
I clenched and stood strong, resisting the urge to turn around and kiss him.
That was the one thing I was holding on to — we hadn’t kissed.
His mouth had swallowed mine while we were in bed, on that clifftop, but he’d never… it hadn’t been a kiss.
There was no romance behind it.
My eyes closed tight, cringing at the way I’d revealed too much. I’d asked for a real, public date. And knowing he was going to be legally related to me within the next hour, he had agreed and told me to pack for two days.
“How long have you known?” I asked, my voice defeated. Scared.
He lifted his head, but kept his hold on my waist.
“I…”
“How long, Zoltán?” I turned and stepped back. His hands froze mid-air as if still reaching for me, hoping he could keep me there.
“If you don’t answer my questions, I’m going to throw everything in this suitcase and leave right now.”
All that came out of his mouth was, “I’m sorry.”
“Answer the question or… or I won’t leave tonight. In fact, what I will do is parade myself in this short glitterball to every man here. Whether it’s your cousin, teammate, or childhood friend.”
His expression grew dark, his stare angry. “No.”
“Yes.”
His jaw tightened, and his nostrils flared, but whatever thoughts went through his thick skull finally made him sigh and sit back down.
“I knew before I met you.”
I scoffed, the air in my throat tight. I wished he had lied to me.
“So you planned this? To fuck me before I became your sister? Why would you do that to me?”
“No,” he said firmly. “That wasn’t the plan. You were just a name. For four years, I’ve heard Imre always saying ‘Zsófia this, Zsófia that’ and I never expected — well, I never expected you to walk in.”
“Don’t try to flatter me,” I laughed with menace.
“I am sorry,” he stressed. “I didn’t plan this. I just—when I met you, you were… you. Headstrong. Purposeful. Driven. I just… I knew it was about to get complicated and I wanted a chance… just one chance with you—”
“But you had that chance and then kept going with—”
“I want you, Zsófia,” he said softly. “I haven’t hidden that. I won’t.”
“You’re going to have to start!” I cried. “Our parents—”
“But does it really matter?” he asked, rising again and towering over me.
Even in my heels. “As I said, we’re not blood related.
I’m an adult man, I’m not about to call him dad.
The ink is barely dry on their marriage certificate, and we hooked up before the wedding.
You don’t know your dad, you don’t care what he thinks—”
“I care what people think!”
“Too much,” he agreed.
I wasn’t here for him to judge and psychoanalyse me. I grabbed my phone and, as I stormed out, he called, “I just wanted one more night before we had to—”
But the door slammed. Good.
If this was the war Everly and Luca had joked about, it was time for me to draw the battle lines.
In my short dress on the dancefloor.
But the second I closed the door behind me, I saw Everly had climbed the stairs, her stare lethal. “Is he in there?” she roared.
I stepped out of her way as she threw it open.
“You are a piece of shit!”
Oh god.
“No, you’re not leaving until I’ve had it through with you!”
Zoltán sighed and sat back down.
“You knew, didn’t you? Oh my god, you are going to hell. I’ll take you there. I will drag you down there right now. I’ll throw you over that balcony!”
She was tiny in comparison to him.
Though she wasn’t to be underestimated.
“Everly,” I warned. “I’ve already spoken to him.”
“You knew, and you tried to fuck her?”
Zoltán had looked bored, but his eyes flashed to me, his expression shifting to something sincere. Maybe pained.
“Don’t act like you don’t speak the language,” she snarled.
“You understand every word I’m saying. Or if you don’t—” she lifted an emotionally loaded middle finger, hooked her arm in mine, and walked us out.
“Today sucked for you. But you’re going to survive it.
Tonight, you’re going to make it your bitch. And tomorrow? We’re raising hell.”
I rolled my eyes, staring at the floor.
And then, on the dance floor, I put on the performance of my life. I plastered on my smile, I drank to excess, I laughed too loud, and befriended some of the dogs.
And Zoltán watched every second on the edge of the dance floor, under the twinkling lights. But he was unworthy of me. He was uninvited to my chaos.
One of the waiters was cute, but my conscience stopped me after a little flirty wave. Zolt would no doubt have him unemployed by the morning.
There was his teammate, but… that wasn’t the mess I was after. I didn’t want it to follow me on the track.
I didn’t want him to see how it would be only one night.
I wanted him to think we might text or I might send him photos. A boyfriend. To take me out publicly.
So I narrowed my sights on a distant cousin of his. They looked somewhat alike — same dark eyes, same high forehead, but not that broody charisma that made him a ten out of ten.
Even if he had done this to me.
I twirled around this man — Si — and when I backed up into him for a more lively song, Zoltán clenched his fist.
Fucking good.
But when my new victim went to get us another round, and I started dancing with Everly, Zoltán walked passed me, “You can flirt with these men, but they won’t fuck you like I do.”
And I hated that he was right.
He’d wanted one last night before it all turned to shit, and I hated that I wanted to give it to him.
Si didn’t return to me. Zolt had only left following after him, and I couldn’t imagine what he’d had to say to his cousin for him to leave.
He was right; no one would ever be as good as him. My libido, my heart, and my head were all on very different sides. The battle of the wedding hadn’t been Ciclati vs Veltar. It was me vs me.
And as I realised that, I sobered slightly.
I wanted Zoltán. More than I’d ever wanted any man.
I wanted his breath on my neck; his hand knotted in my hair; his dirty words in my ear.
And I couldn’t. He couldn’t. We couldn’t.
Could we?
My mood had flattened since Zolt had scared away Si, and when Luca and Ever went to bed, I decided to call it a night, too.
Making sure Zolt watched me walk away.
Tonight, he’d realise that as much as he could wreck me, I was the one in control. I was just as capable of ruining sex for him. Tonight, this man would drool over me, beg for forgiveness that he would never get.
Because this was the last night he’d ever have me.
I trudged up the stairs, closed the door, and stripped, getting into bed and staring at the door.
The door I left unlocked.