by Nella Tyler
“I can book an Uber if you won’t take me,” I said, pointedly ignoring her questions. “But I have to go.”
She blocked the doorway with her body. “You aren’t going a damned place until you explain what you’re doing.”
I shook my head. “You wouldn’t understand, Lacey.”
“I think I understand more than you think.” She hooked a thumb over her shoulder. “Carter’s downstairs looking like someone just ran over his dog. You’ve been moody this whole visit, until the morning after the wedding. Don’t think you’ve pulled one over on me. I know you and Carter are together. Or, you were.”
I stared at her, wide eyed at being found out so easily. I thought I’d been more careful about hiding my feelings. Hell, I’d hidden them so well that Carter never knew how I really felt about him. But I’d apparently been a fool to think that Lacey wasn’t aware of what I was feeling, especially during this visit. It felt like I’d been wearing every single one of my emotions on my sleeves over the last week and a half.
“Don’t even bother denying it,” she said, putting her hands on her curvy hips. “I’ve seen the way Carter looks at you and the way you look back. And since the day after the wedding, when I assume you guys finally got together and decided to stop denying yourselves what you wanted, you’ve been happier than I’ve seen you in years. It was all pretty clear that you’ve been wanting him since back when you were in high school. No wonder you’ve never really dated any other guys. You love Carter. Always have. Is that about right?” She lifted a dark eyebrow, a smug smile on her face at how well she had my damned number.
“You don’t understand any of this,” I said weakly. “Our lives are too different. And if I get the job overseas, it won’t be fair to either of us to hold each other back. I’ve spent too much time unhappy over my personal life. I don’t want to feel that way in my professional life, too.”
Lacey leaned against the doorframe as she folded her arms over her chest. “Listen, I’m not pretending I don’t think it’s weird that you are in a relationship with your stepbrother.” I made a face at that, but she continued, undaunted by my dark expression. “But you’ve also only been stepsiblings for a few days. Whatever. Who cares what other people think?”
I sank onto my bed, right next to the suitcases now packed and ready to do. “I just don’t know what to do. It all seems so hopeless sometimes.”
“Go downstairs and talk to Carter. I know you, and you haven’t been truly happy in a long time. Mom might not have noticed because she was so busy with planning the wedding, but you’ve looked absolutely miserable the entire time you’ve been home. I didn’t realize it was about Carter until I saw the way you two were staring each other down during the ceremony. And then you avoided each other all night…until you ran off together to have a little fun.” She lifted her eyebrows as I cut my eyes away from hers. “That’s what you were doing, right?”
My cheeks reddened at the idea that my little sister had known exactly what Carter and I had been up to that night. I had to reapply my makeup from all the crying I’d done and calm down considerably before rejoining the reception, but no one mentioned how long I’d been missing.
Lace pretended not to notice how embarrassed I was. “If he makes you happy, you should try to be together. If it doesn’t work out, then at least you tried and you won’t have that to regret later. But I think you’re just giving up on happiness because it might be a little bit of work. That’s a total cop out.”
I just stared at her, furious that she was so right and furious at myself for giving up so easily on someone I cared about this much. But I was still plagued with doubt. I didn’t want to compromise on anything — not personally and not professionally — but I knew that was selfish and unrealistic. I just didn’t know what the hell I wanted half the time.
“Come on,” she said, and waited until I reluctantly peeled myself off the bed. “I’m not going to let you push away what you want most. Carter really cares about you. He’s a great guy. I’ve always thought so.” She stepped into my room to take me by the hand. “Get downstairs and do what makes you happy instead of overthinking everything all the time.” When she started to drag me out into the hallway, I let her.
Carter
The Same Morning
I couldn’t sit or stand still while I waited to see if Lacey would come back downstairs alone or with Sophia. I paced the living room I’d spent so much time in as a child and teenager. I kept replaying everything about last night over in my head, but I didn’t understand what had happened. The job overseas was a surprise, but I didn’t think it was something we couldn’t overcome. It added yet another layer of difficulty, of course, but it wasn’t like we’d been planning on moving in with each other. We were already going to be thousands of miles apart. What was a few more thousand miles?
Lacey and Sophia walked downstairs together. Even though Lacey was the only one smiling, I still felt relieved. Sophia didn’t look happy and she refused to meet my eyes, but things could be worse. She could’ve refused to see me at all.
“I’m going out for a few hours,” Lacey announced, and Sophia looked over at her, eyes wide with panic. “I want you two to work out whatever went wrong between you. I always thought you were going to end up together when I was a kid, and I started to think that again after the wedding, but then this shit happened.” She stared hard at me and then looked at Sophia. “Don’t give up on each other this easily. You’ll regret it if you do. One thing I learned from losing Dad was that life is just too damned short to be unhappy if you don’t have to be.”
She walked to the closet near the front door, put on her jacket and hat, grabbed her purse, and left without another word, leaving Sophia and me alone. She was looking down instead of looking at me, and I took the opportunity of her momentary silence to get right to what I wanted to say. I hadn’t slept worth shit the night before and had spent the time staring up at the ceiling and thinking about what I would say to her when I came over here today. Now that I had the chance, I didn’t intend to blow it.
“Sophia, I don’t care how far apart we are. I love you so much, you could be offered a job on the moon and I would find a way to make it work. I’ve loved you since I was a little kid. Every year that love has gotten stronger and stronger. I can’t imagine not having you in my life after this last week. I tried to deny the strength of what I felt for you for years, but that only made me desperately unhappy. I know you felt the same. I have no intention of losing you without a fight.”
Sophia finally lifted her dark eyes to mine, the fear in them stabbing at the soft places inside of me. I hated to see her so unhappy.
“I don’t know what to do, Carter,” she whispered. “I don’t want to give up on us, either. We both suffered so much to get where we are. And, it makes me incredibly happy to be with you. But how will we make it work?”
I wanted to hold her, to tell her all of this would figure itself out, but she needed real answers right now.
“I even considered just ignoring the job and not filling out the application, but I knew if I did that I would end up resenting you. That’s exactly what happened with your mom and dad. I don’t want that for us. I don’t want the sweetness of our love to turn sour like that. Your mom hurt your dad so deeply. She hurt you. I don’t ever want to do that to you.” She swallowed back a sob as she wiped her eyes. “I want to take the job at the British Museum if it’s offered. And, I want to be with you. I just don’t see how I can make the two of those things go together.”
“I’m not my dad,” I said, purposely speaking in a gentle voice to quell her anxious feelings. “And, you aren’t my mom. I want to be with you, and I don’t intend to try to convince you to give up your dreams in the process. Those dreams are a huge reason that I love you. I don’t plan to give up on my dreams, either. I want you to take the job in England when they offer it to you.”
She blinked, her red mouth dropping open a little.
“That’s right. You
take the job and move overseas. We’ll just modify the plan we came up with. Visiting each other every month isn’t going to work. But maybe every quarter. I have more flexibility at my job because of the outstanding vacation time. You don’t know what your boss is going to be like yet.”
“I might not even have this job,” she said.
I shook my head, smiling. “You definitely have it. I don’t think your boss would’ve told you to apply for it if you didn’t. So, let’s come up with a way to make this work after you move to England in the spring. Maybe I can come with you at first and help get you settled in. We’ll figure it out from there.
“I love you, Sophia, and I don’t want to let you go. If we commit to working to keep our relationship fresh and satisfying, I’m confident we could survive you taking a job on Mars.”
She giggled at that, hiding her slight smile behind her hand.
“I’m not kidding. I’m sure there would be a way for us to continue speaking to each other through radio communications even if you were on another planet. And, I wouldn’t just be sitting around waiting for you. I’d be working and living my dreams, too. Having you as part of my life is all I’ve ever wanted, Sophia. Please don’t throw that away because you’re scared.”
She started sobbing, this time seemingly from happiness because she was smiling.
“I was so scared of losing you,” she wept. “I thought the only way to make sure we weren’t both hurt was to let you go.”
“That’s crazy talk,” I said, bringing her into my arms and holding her tightly. I kissed the top of her head.
“I love you, Carter,” she said, looking up at me.
I kissed her deeply before pulling away to stare into her glassy eyes. “I love you, too, Sophia. And, I plan to show you how much I love you right now.”
Confusion passed briefly over her features until I leaned to scoop her into my arms. She laughed out loud and looped her arms around my neck.
“I might show you a thing or two, as well, mister,” she said in a deeper, sultrier voice.
I pressed my lips into a smile and got her upstairs as fast as I could safely carry her.
Sophia
The Same Morning
Carter carried me all the way up the stairs and to my bedroom. He paused at the sight of the suitcases on my bed.
“Don’t worry,” I whispered. “I’ll be unpacking those after we finish. Take me down the hall to the guestroom.” Just like at his house, we had a fully furnished guestroom with a queen-sized bed in it. The one in my room was only a twin.
He carried me down to the hall and into the clean, fully decorated room. He set me onto the bed, but I sprang to my feet, wanting my lips on him. I tugged him closer by his neck and began to maul his sweet, eager mouth, turned on even more by the neediness in his kiss, the way his body fit neatly against mine, and the stirring I could already feel at his crotch. He wanted me just as badly as I wanted him. I realized, kissing him passionately, that I’d resigned myself to never feeling this brand of pleasure again.
But now here he was, under my fingertips. And he was mine forever. I wanted to celebrate this. And my body was screaming with need for him.
I pulled out of his embrace and began to strip off his clothes, the heat rising between us with every article of clothing I removed from his body, not stopping until he was standing in front of me completely naked and hard as a rock. My body ached for him. Now that I no longer had to choose between my heart and my professional prospects, I felt freer to enjoy every muscled inch of his body.
I pulled my clothes off next, wanting nothing between us. Not doubts, not worry, not clothes. I pressed my naked body against his and attacked his mouth again, kissing hard, pushing my tongue as far past his lips as I could get it. He walked me backwards and then dropped with me onto the bed, our lips never breaking apart.
His hands were all over me, caressing my breasts and sliding down between my legs to feel the wetness there. I moaned into his mouth as he stuck two thick fingers inside of me and moved my hips to take them in further. I wanted him more now than I ever had before.
I pulled out of his kiss and whispered breathlessly, “I want you inside of me. Now.”
His dreamy eyes widened, but he slid his fingers out of me and pressed his hard cock into the center of my aching, soaking wet sex. “Is this what you want?” he whispered.
“Yes. Give it to me.” I didn’t wait for him to listen. I pulled him down on top of me and reached to take hold of one of his ass cheeks in each of my hands, guiding him while I opened my legs as wide as they would go. I wanted him to fill me up, to make me feel the tingling warmth blooming along my insides as the head of his cock slid over my interior walls.
He thrust his hips at the same time I tugged him down closer by the hands I’d positioned on his ass. He entered me all at once, filling me up, impaling me in that luscious, agonizing way that caused me so much pleasure. My body shuddered as the tingling warmth shot through it, brought on by him piercing me with his cock and stoked by the deep, even rhythm of his strokes, our slick, naked bodies moving over one another.
“Faster,” I groaned. “Harder.”
He made a grunting noise as he picked up the pace, and I didn’t let up on my demands. I wanted him as deep as he would go. I wanted to have a rich, mind-numbing orgasm that only his cock burying into me up to the hilt could give.
I’d never experienced feelings like this. My entire body was screaming with pleasure at his touch, at his mouth sucking on my earlobe as his hot breath caressed the side of my face. I raked my fingernails over his back and then took hold of his hair, closing it in my fists and pulling lightly.
That delicious pressure was building, starting between my legs and moving into my abdomen and the rest of my body. I wanted the sweet release only Carter could give me.
“Faster,” I whispered, breathless. “Harder.”
He pressed into me even harder, that rhythm increasing in intensity so my eyes widened at how deep he was getting, and I gasped at the release of pressure, the warmth flooding me. The air was boiling. I could hardly breathe, but I wanted this so badly. I could come again and again if he would just keep this same forceful rhythm, the weight of his body pressing me into the mattress.
I opened my legs to him even more, and he plunged inside of me, spreading more of that tingling heat that was threatening to obliterate me. I wanted as much of him as he would give, and then I wanted more.
I tugged on his hair as he increased the strength of his thrusts again, his cock going even deeper. I gulped at the air, holding my breath as that building pressure took over the center of my body. My skin was on fire. The air was too heavy to breathe, but I keep whispering in spurts of rushing breath to go faster, encouraging him my bending my legs at the knee and dropping them to the side, opening myself completely to him.
That openness excited him, and he thrust hard, going so deep I cried out. He came at that moment, pressing his cock all the way into my hungry, soaking wet sex, his body shuddering against mine as the pleasure moved through him, the feelings of finally getting what we both wanted and needed: that deep connection that only came through the flesh. I would never tire of this closeness, the feeling of him plunging inside me, filling me up and satisfying every aching desire.
“That was incredible,” I said, my low voice squeezed tightly by breathlessness. I wanted him to know how much I’d loved it. I wrapped my arms around his naked back, the sweat on our skin drying quickly in the cool air, and our heartbeats thudding into each other’s chests. “I love you so much.”
His body had relaxed as he caught his breath, the tension in his skin deflating and allowing his solid muscles to loosen. He turned to kiss the side of my face, still breathing heavily.
I had the rest of my life to spend with this man now, and I couldn’t believe how fortunate I was.
Carter
Six Months Later
Sophia was just getting off work, so I had to hail a cab from the
airport to the British Museum. Not that I minded. This was a great way to get to know the city a little better. I’d never been out of the States besides that quick trip up to Canada with Dad. I planned to enjoy this trip, no matter how nervous I was by what I was about to do.
“Where to, mate?” the cabbie asked after I got into the backseat, my bags safely stowed in the trunk. It was going to take some time to get over these accents, too.
“I need to go to the British Museum,” I said.
He started off, pulling away from the curb. “Getting right started on the sightseeing, eh? Not even leaving your bags at the hotel?”
“My girlfriend works there. I’m meeting up with her and then going back to her place.”
“This your first time in London, mate?” the cabby asked.
“Yeah,” I replied, smiling before I said the next part. “I don’t really travel much. This is kind of a big deal.” I kept my eyes on the scenery passing by my window. From everything Sophia had said, all the pictures she’d sent, and everything I’d ever heard about London, this city was amazing.
“I lived here all my life. I can tell you all the things you need to see. Starting with my favorite pub.”
I was busy watching the buildings go by. Sophia had been here a few months, but it might impress her if I had a list of places I wanted to visit while I was here. She’d said often that she’d had to work so hard at first to get her bearings that she’d hardly gone out at all.
“The Fox Paw Pub is the best place for a pint in the city. You go in there, tell the bartender Tommy sent you, and he’ll set you right up,” the cabbie said, looking into the rearview the same time I looked his way, our eyes meeting in the mirror. I could see he was grinning, so I smiled, a little uncertainly.
