Chapter 27
“What the fuck is this?” Byron demanded, thrusting a stack of printed news articles towards me and Presley.
We sat at the two chairs in front of his desk like chastised employees.
Byron had been in a permanently filthy mood since Giselle had shown up at the country club event during the week and swindled him out of millions.
Maybe he didn’t have faith she’d keep her mouth shut.
Or maybe he didn’t like being the one without the power.
Whatever it was, Byron had been on the fucking warpath ever since.
I shot Pres a glance as he reached for the papers, taking them. I leaned over to see what had Byron so worked up he resembled a human firework with its fuse lit, ready to explode all over us.
As soon as I read the headline on the first news article, my stomach dropped and I understood why.
I took them from Presley, thumbing through them.
‘More than step-siblings?’ the first one screamed from the page. ‘Sure looks like it.’
‘Aston step-siblings caught in ‘cozy’ club outing,’ read another.
They were all accompanied by the same paparazzi shots of Presley and I in the VIP area at the club we’d gone to two nights ago.
Sinclair had been working late, Dacre had been lost in his studio for the night, Boston had returned to Seattle for the weekend to help his sister, and Arena had been on a tinder date.
Which meant it had been Presley and I at a loose end to get ourselves into trouble.
And evidently, we had.
The pictures showed me leaning into Presley as he whispered something in my ear. The picture would be totally passable if it weren’t for my hand on his knee and his fingers clearly wrapped around my hip as he leaned into my personal space. Both gestures were a touch too intimate for step-siblings.
Another image was of the two of us on the dancefloor, Presley with a loose arm around my waist, while I had a drink thrust up in the air, our lower halves pressed together a little too closely.
Fuck, fuck, fuckitty, fuck.
Time to play it cooler than I ever had in my entire life.
I tossed the stack of papers back on the front edge of Byron’s desk. “It’s clearly the media trying to create something out of nothing,” I said, working to inject nothing but confidence into my tone.
Byron scowled, leaning across the desk and scrunching the two top sheets in his fist and tossing them away behind him. I would have admired the precision and force of the move if it wasn’t accompanied by his simmering rage.
My eyes snagged on the image. Clearly I hadn’t flicked far enough through the pages, because this image was pretty damning.
We weren’t kissing, but it sure looked like Pres was about to cover my mouth with his.
Double fuck!!
“You call that NOTHING?!” Byron shouted, his jaw locking in anger.
“Don’t speak to her like that,” Presley cut in, his voice and demeanor a picture of calm authority.
Byron’s angry gaze snapped to him, registering an inkling of surprise.
He hadn’t expected Presley to come to my defense. In his mind, Presley was a conviction-less alcoholic who only cared about himself. He couldn’t have been more wrong about Pres, but concern clenched low in my gut. Presley defending me wasn’t going to help our case.
My thoughts were confirmed when Byron glanced between the two of us, his eyes narrowing.
“Are you fucking each other?” he demanded.
Presley scoffed. “Please… Byron, what the fuck are you on? Since when are you so easily manipulated by media speculation?”
Byron pulled back, surprise clear on his face for a second time, but he masked it quickly.
“No one manipulates me, least of all the trash this country passes off as media,” he snapped. “But these pictures tell a very convincing story.”
He had a point. And the story they told was true. But I valued my life enough not to admit that to Byron.
“We’d been drinking,” I offered. “We were laughing and joking all night. These three frames were chosen out of dozens of innocent ones to craft the narrative the photographer or media wanted to sell.” I sighed, crossing my arms to hide the tremble in my hands at how close we were to being truly outed.
“Because if they’d published the other pictures, it would have shown me flirting with a guy at the bar for most of the night, while Presley was in the VIP area with one of his football buddies. ”
Not a total lie. Presley had invited his teammate into the booth when he’d seen him arrive and they’d had a drink together. I had been hit on by a guy at the bar after I’d been to the bathroom.
But if anyone had captured the interaction on camera, they might have also captured the subtle way I’d had to use my body to come between the guy and Presley when Pres had seen it and been pretty intent on decking the guy for even daring to speak to me.
Thankfully they also didn’t capture Pres dragging me down the hall to the women’s bathroom and fucking me against the stall wall while covering my mouth with his hand.
Not exactly brotherly behavior.
The memory of it was bringing heat to my cheeks, and I dipped my head, focused on brushing imaginary lint from my skirt.
“Dempsey’s right,” Pres drawled from where he slouched in his chair. “This is nothing but a salacious media-constructed story with carefully selected images designed to sell. There’s nothing here.”
Byron was silent for a moment, assessing each of us. “So you’re not sleeping together?”
We both shook our heads, and I didn’t dare look at Pres.
After another long beat, Byron relented.
“Fine, get out. I need to get Kesia in here to figure out how I’m going to respond. I may even need to hold a press conference slamming these media outlets for this.”
Pres pushed to his feet. “Excellent. I’m sure you’ll enjoy the extra attention that brings you.”
I expected Byron to yell at him, but instead he acted like Pres hadn’t even spoken.
Not waiting to draw any more attention, I got to my feet and followed Presley out the door. When I stepped into the hall, Presley grabbed my wrist and tugged me into him.
“That was close, wasn’t it, Sass?” His fingers threaded through my hair. “Maybe we need to be more careful about where we get it on.”
His mouth landed on mine before I could respond, and the second his tongue swept into my mouth, I forgot to care that we were still right outside Byron’s office. He could step out at any moment and all our protests that there was nothing going on between us would go up in lying, hypocritical smoke.
“Pres,” I said, breaking the kiss. “Not here.”
The devilish glint I loved so much filled his eyes, and he took my hand, towing me down the hall behind him. He didn’t say a word, and I didn’t ask where we were going, because I’d willingly follow him anywhere.
He pushed open the doors to one of the manor’s many patios, marching across it to the hedge-lined path, and towing me down it.
It was several minutes before he stopped, glancing around us in either direction for any of the grounds staff.
Then he tugged me in front of him, wrapping his arms around me and shoving us both into the hedge.
“Ow, Pres, what the hell!” I protested, but his arms only tightened around me as he shoved us through until we came out the other side.
We were in the gap between the solid side of the massive house and the back of the hedge, in the shadow cast by the garden. The hedge ran along the entire side of the enormous house, half obscuring the windows scattered along it too, meaning the gap along here went forever.
“Wow, this is…” I paused, glancing around and then pulling a face at him. “So romantic, thank you so much for bringing me here.”
He chuckled, closing his fingers around both my hips and edging me backwards until my back pressed against the side of the house. “Are you wearing panties, Sass?”
I frowned at the abrupt change in his mood, but answered anyway. “Yes.”
“Can I have them?”
I eyed him carefully, but slid my panties down my legs nonetheless and handed them over. He shoved them in the pocket of his sweatpants.
“Will I be getting those back?”
He shrugged. “Maybe.”
I went to protest, but his lips landed on mine, his tongue invading my mouth and making me groan. Kissing him got me instantly hot, and I wanted to climb his athletic body like a ladder.
“Fuck me,” I demanded, a hand running over the bulge between his legs.
He was ready, I was ready. Screw the foreplay, I wanted him inside me.
“I was hoping you’d say that.”
Without warning, he spun me around, guiding my hands up to press against the solid side of the house. He pulled up my denim skirt to expose my ass, and I pressed it back towards him, ready to have him inside me.
“You’re as eager as I am to be buried deep in my favorite place,” he said, his voice a half-groan as he caressed my ass cheeks.
I looked at him over my shoulder. “I’m always eager for you.”
His expression darkened with lust. He tugged his sweatpants down and thrust into me in one fierce motion. I groaned loudly at the deliciously full feeling of having him there, and he clapped a hand over my mouth.
“If you don’t want your step-daddy to know you just lied to him, then you better be quieter than that,” he said, while shallow-thrusting into me.
My brows knitted together, and he smirked, gripping my hips and pulling me away from the wall.
He lifted his chin towards the window at my left. “Take a look.”
With Presley still buried inside me, I shifted to my left to peer through the window and startled, pulling back quickly.
“Presley, what the fuck!”
The window happened to be the one in Byron’s office. Pres had me ass-up right under Byron’s nose. If he walked to the window, there was no way he wouldn't see us.
Pres grinned back at me, his fingers tightening on my hips to keep me in place when I tried to slide off him. “Don’t tell me you don’t love how fucking illicit this is.”
Heat pooled inside me at his words, proving how much his desire for public sex had rubbed off on me. Because the idea that we could get caught brought a thrill to my body, not a rush of anxiety anymore.
“Then fuck me like you mean it,” I demanded, arching my back so my ass pressed to his pelvis.
“Fucking hell.” His previously shallow thrusts got harder and deeper.
I had a hard time keeping my moans locked down at the pleasure building in my core.
Pres swore from behind me. “I can’t hold out for long, Sass, I’m going to come so hard.”
“Then come,” I panted. “Fill me up right outside Byron’s window.”
The sound he made was guttural. His fingers tightened on my waist as he spasmed inside me, my insides clenching around him. His body tensed as he came, spilling inside me, and I bit my lip, trying to keep my scream of pleasure inside as my own orgasm exploded.
The second I was spent, Pres slipped out of me, spinning me around so my back was against the wall. His mouth descended on mine in a searing kiss, and his fingers disappeared under my skirt. I jolted at his fingers brushing over my sensitive clit and gasped as his fingers slid inside me.
“What are you doing?” I asked between kisses.
His fingers trailed up the inside of my thigh, disappearing inside me again.
“Making sure you keep what I just gave you inside you like a good girl. As much as I love the idea of my seed sliding down your legs, I know that’s not where you want it.”
His dirty words had my core clenching all over again, especially when his fingers slid in a third time and his mouth dropped to my neck, sucking on the soft flesh.
I bit the side of my cheek to stifle a moan.
“Pres…” I said breathlessly. But he already knew what I was going to say.
He smiled against my throat, his fingers disappearing inside me again. He brushed his thumb over my clit, and I whimpered. He did it again, over and over, until fireworks exploded inside me and I came a second time, clutching his shoulders.
“You spoil me,” I panted, flushed and breathless.
He pulled his hand free and raised it to his lips, tasting both of us on his fingers. “I’ll spend the rest of my life spoiling you if you let me, Sass.”
I gave a slow, satiated smile. “I like the sound of that.”
His expression softened. “I know this is a weird time to say it, given I just fucked you against a wall outside my father’s office…” He gave me a grin that was both sheepish and amused, and so totally Presley. “But I love you, Sass.”
I melted at the words, wrapping my arms around his neck and pressing up on my tiptoes.
“I don’t care when or where you say it, I love hearing it.” I grinned back at him. “Because I love you too, Pres.”