Graham
T he yellow phone flies over the edge of the invisible railing as a high-pitched scream echoes over the buzz of traffic twenty floors below. Her eyes fill with defeat when her head snaps to where the device just went over. Given her lack of food, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out why, and it pisses me the fuck off. “I’ll buy you a new phone, Casey.” The words come out more clipped than I intend. My irritation over the conversation I eavesdropped on along with everything else I’ve noticed this morning. affecting my tone.
I need my ass kicked, but I still don’t know if I could’ve done anything different.
“No,” she bites out through clenched teeth as her messy blond hair swishes down her back. “I told you I’m not your problem; even if it is your fault, I just tossed it over. Why are you here? I said don’t come back? How did you even get in?”
Shit. I didn’t think about that. I decide to ignore the question. “I told you I would be back.” I jerk my thumb over my shoulder. “You have no food. I brought breakfast since you obviously have decided eating is optional.” Her face turns red, and this time, it’s not just embarrassment. It’s anger burning her cheeks. She doesn’t want me interfering.
Too. Damn. Bad.
And Jagger, my wonderful brother who was supposed to be keeping an eye on her, failed to mention she doesn’t have damn food in her twenty-two thousand dollar a month apartment. However, she also doesn’t know it’s that much. The lease says much, much less, but I don’t think Casey or Lily ever saw it.
“Come inside and eat something. Now.”
Her head falls back. I almost expect her to throw a fit. Casey was never a tantrum kind of kid, but everyone has their moments, even her. I saw a few when she was younger, but they became less and less as she got older.
A small huff escapes her lips, then she walks past me. I follow until we reach the kitchen island, my eyes never leaving those long, bare legs the entire way. She stops at the marble top and wraps her fingers around the white paper sack. She shoves it into my chest, looking me right in the eyes. “Thank you, but you shouldn’t have wasted your time. I have food, so you can g—”
I grab her wrist, take the sack from her hands, and set it back on the counter. “A lifetime supply of Top Ramen is not food. Especially for you, and you damn well know it. You will fucking eat it.”
She tries a different approach when she sees I’m not budging. “, please just take it and leave.”
Her deep oceans practically plead, softening my anger and frustration. I don’t like this side of her. Not the part where she’s trying to stand up for herself. I wish she would do that more, rather the part where she’s doing it out of stubbornness.
I’m not letting her off the hook that easily. Leaving is the last thing on my mind. “Give me one good reason, and I will consider it.” My lips curl into a smirk.
Her head snaps back, shock passes over her face before she quickly schools her expression. Pretty and pink, her tongue pokes between her teeth, running over those soft lips. I’m thankful Casey doesn’t ogle people—never lets her gaze travel below their necks. If she dipped those blue eyes right now, she’d see the outline of my hard dick that my boxer briefs and basketball shorts do little to contain. I’m resigned about it myself. As much as I pride myself on control, where she’s concerned, I have none.
“I don’t want you here,” she almost whispers.
“That was implied by the request for me to leave. It’s not a reason.”
Incredulous disbelief rockets her brows to her forehead and jaw to the floor as it opens and closes like a guppy. “I-it should be the only one I need. Y-you said so.”
She’s not wrong. I told her that many times over the years, but it doesn’t apply to me. I don’t want or need her consent. Just want her words. “With anyone else. With me, you’ll have to do better.”
Her fists bounce against my chest. There’s no genuine effort or even anger behind the blows. “Why won’t you just leave? There is no reason for you to be here, and there was no reason to stay last night. You did your due diligence. You got me home safe and sound. Why didn’t you go?” Defeat laces her tone, and I don’t think I like it.
“You thought I would leave you like that?”
Her cheeks turn the color of a fire engine. That tempting mouth twists and her eyes glisten.
Don’t you dare cry, Casey.
The energy around us shifts, turning thick and uncomfortable as she takes a deep breath. The hair on my neck stands on end. A swirling in my gut tells me I will not like the lies she’s about to spill. I prepare myself for the blow, reminding myself it’s not true, but even if it is, it’s my fault because I’ve made myself scarce for four years. Because I played my part too well.
“I want to apologize for last night. My behavior was inappropriate, but what you overheard… I meant it. I am over my crush.” Her head tilts back slightly to meet my eyes. Hers are filled with resigned determination. I can see more lies dancing in those glittering sapphires. If she weren’t so blind and stubborn, she’d see a different determination in mine. She wants the deceit she’s about to spill to be true. But what she doesn’t understand is her body language speaks louder than her words because even as her lies tumble free, she drifts closer to me. “I drank too much, and it affected my behavior. Never would I act that way otherwise.”
“I’m well aware of that, Casey. You think I don’t know what’s normal for you?” I know her better than I know myself, but she doesn’t know that. She believes I cut her off for years. She doesn’t know the eyes and ears I had on her all the time.
She gives me a dubious look. “Yes, well…” She clears her throat, taking a step back, and even though we weren’t quite touching, I miss her nearness. Her steps take her toward the window overlooking the city. She spins to face it as she twists the pendant at her throat—the one I gave her for her eighteenth birthday. “Once again, I crossed boundaries I shouldn’t, and for that, I’m sorry. I continue to put you in awkward situations.”
“You didn’t put me in an awkward situation, Casey. I volunteered for it.”
A heavy sigh leaves her lips as her head shakes. “Which brings me to the next thing. I meant it when I said I’m not your problem. I never was… or, at least, I shouldn’t have been. I’m just the kid who was thrust into your life because our parents married. And my dad…” Her head falls forward, pressing against the glass. “He shouldn’t have asked you to watch out for me. He couldn’t help he wasn’t there, but he was wrong for making it your responsibility. I shouldn’t have been your burden.”
So she knows about that. I’m curious how she found out. More so, her choice of words bothers me.
Responsibility? Burden?
Even when she was a kid—when I saw her as nothing more than a sad little girl being used as a pawn in adult games, she was never a burden. She gave me purpose beyond the grief and anger I’d been drowning in since my mother died. Purpose I couldn’t find in Jagger because I wanted an escape from my pain, and his was mine. For a while, I fell into bad habits of parties, fighting, drinking, and sex. Then I threw myself into school and work, determined to make a name for myself in the business world that had nothing to do with my family. And once a month? I made sure a sad, lonely little girl was a little less so.
My every thought of her was innocent.
I still struggle to understand how a single kiss turned my perspective and perception upside down. It changed everything, and all those innocent thoughts became anything but.
“Casey, don’t call yourself—”
“But I’m not a child anymore,” she cuts me off before I can finish my sentence, spiking my irritation at… I’m not sure what I’m irritated at. Myself? Her? The situation? That she feels this way? All the above? “You don’t need to worry about me. If we’re honest, you haven’t for a long time, and that’s okay. I understand I crossed a line and put you in a very awkward position. You had to cut me out of your life to protect yourself. So just because you’re back for the foreseeable future, don’t feel you are obligated to me again.”
“Casey, I don’t feel—”
“Just continue with your life as you did before you came back, and I will continue with mine. There’s no need to make this weird. We’re just step-siblings, so we don’t—”
“Casey!” My voice, loud and gruff, bounces off the walls, making her spine stiffen. I close the distance between us, wrap my fingers around her elbow, and spin her to face me. Her lips part with a silent gasp, and I grip her jaw. “Shut up.”
I take that lush mouth with mine, growling low and deep as I force her back against the glass. I waste no time slipping my tongue between those parted lips when she gasps again, tangling my tongue, tasting every inch of her sweet mouth. The hand wrapped around her jaw slips to her neck and up the back of her head until my fingers twist in the silky strands cascading down her back.
After a few seconds of me devouring her mouth, her uncertainty and timidness fall away. Her hands come between us, gripping my Dri-fit shirt. I work across her jaw, licking my way toward the soft skin behind her ear. Soft murmurs spill, unintelligible at first, as her head falls back. I am gently nipping the skin of her neck when I finally understand what she’s saying.
I lean back to find her eyes closed as those words continue to whisper between us. “It’s just a dream, Casey. You know it’s not real. You know it’s not real.”
I tug at the tresses wrapped in my fingers hard enough to make her eyes snap open. Blown pupils stare at me, and I see the doubt in them, making me wonder how often she’s done this. How often has she imagined I was touching her, only to remind herself it was a dream? “You dream about me often, Sunflower?” My lips curl when her eyes widen, awareness that this is reality setting in. I dip my head, tracing my tongue over her puffy lips. “If you knew how many times I dreamed of you, you’d get a restraining order. This,” I grind myself against her, showing her how she affects me, “is why I stayed away, Casey. It is the only problem you’ve ever caused me.” I lean down to her ear, circling my tongue around the shell. “You are forbidden territory, Casey. Absolutely taboo.” I suck her lobe between my lips, biting until she gasps. “Everything about my desire for you is wrong. I should be locked away for the filthy things I want to do to you. Do you know how badly I want to sink my cock into your tight cunt?” Her breath hitches.
I take her mouth again, my hands drifting down her body, hooking beneath her legs, and lifting her until they wrap around my waist. I spin, walking us a few feet before shoving a chair out of the way with my foot and lowering her on the dining table.
Desire and hunger fuel me, and in seconds, I have her thin tank top over her head and my mouth latched onto her tit. She quakes beneath me, and my brain tells me to slow the fuck down before I scare the hell out of her, but I can’t. I’m not in control. Not of my thoughts. Not of my actions.
Goosebumps pebble her flesh as I kiss and bite over her ribs and down her stomach, my tongue swirling her cute little belly button before I trek lower. Her breath catches when I reach the waistband of her shorts, another violent shudder rocking her body. My thumbs hook in the band, and I tug them down her long legs.
I stand, spreading her knees wider as I drag a finger through her glistening slit. I bite my lip as I lift my eyes to hers. My heart beats in sync with her quick breaths as I pull her to the edge of the table, push her knees back, and lower my face to her begging pussy with a grin
“For the record, if anyone is going to teach you anything about sex, it will be me.” I drag my tongue through her needy slit with one long slow swipe. Nirvana. The instant her flavor hits my tongue, I’m forever addicted. The most intoxicating drug known to man lies between her legs. This is it. I’m done. If one taste can create this type of euphoria, then once I’m inside of her, it will be game over. There will be no turning back, and I’m not even mad about it.
I lap and lave at her hot pussy, spearing her with my tongue until she’s a writhing mess with her fingers digging into my scalp. Her back arches as tiny whimpering pleas fall from her lips. I’m not even sure she knows what she’s asking for.
But I know what she needs and what I want. I replace my tongue with a finger, sinking deep inside her tight hole, curling as I pump into her. My lips wrap around her clit, sucking the tight nub and flicking my tongue over and over.
Her pussy spasms, squeezing my fingers as her climax floods my fingers. Every muscle in her body goes taut as my name spills from her lips.
I continue working her body until the last shudder, then rise over her, staring into her hazy, blissed-out eyes. I lean down, slanting my mouth over hers. “You taste like the best kind of whisky, Sunflower.”
Her mouth parts, but before she can say a word, the mood is spoiled by a knock at the door. My brows furrow, wondering who’s here to see her as hers shoot to her forehead, panic replacing the ecstasy. “Expecting someone?” I growl.
“D-dad.”
Of course, it’s Liam. Fucking cockblock is no doubt here to make sure I’m not. I lean back and drag my hand through my hair, then grab Casey’s clothes from the floor. “Get dressed.”
When I turn, she bolts upright, covering herself with her discarded clothing, and grabs my arm. “What are you doing?”
“Answering the door.”
“No!” she whisper-shouts. She looks at the door and back at me. “You can’t answer it. I’ll answer it.”
She quickly pulls her clothes back on and starts for the door. I grip her wrist, stopping her. “You are not answering the door dressed like that.”
Her mouth opens, presumably to argue, but another knock sounds, followed by a voice I’m afraid just undid everything that happened in the last hour.