“This was wrong,” I whispered. “Horribly wrong.”
“Why? We both wanted it and are two consenting adults.”
I felt afraid because what Stefan was saying was true.
“What do you think would happen if your dad or my mom knew about this?”
Stefan took a while to respond. “Who cares what they think?” He stared at me with an intensity that made my skin prickle. “What matters to me is . . . what do you think?”
In that moment, I was more scared than I had ever been in my life. The way he was looking at me, he didn’t want this to be a one-time thing, and what scared me more than anything else was . . . I didn’t want it to be a one-time thing either.
“I have to go,” I mumbled, jumping up from the bed and slipping back into my skimpy costume, making sure to put my mask back on. “I’ve got to get out of here.”
Stefan jumped up from the bed, reaching out to me. It was hard not to stare at his magnificent body. “Bella, please don’t do this.”
I slapped his hand away and made my way to the door. “Sorry, Stefan, but this can never be.”
Stefan scrambled to pull on his loincloth. I must say, if I weren’t in such a frantic state, I would have enjoyed watching him slip it on.
“Bella, wait!” he cried. “Don’t go out there. The fellas, they’ve all seen your picture and they know . . .”
His words were lost in the blast of bass as I swung open the door. I ran down the hall, hoping I would be able to run out of the frat house without any of the party-goers noticing.
Halfway to the dorm living room, I ran into a hard wall and my mask tumbled from my face. I looked up into the eyes of some jock whom I didn’t recognize, but he seemed to recognize me.
“Holy shit,” he exclaimed loudly over the music. “You’re Stefan Livingston’s stepsister.”
I started in shock. Stefan was a new transfer at NSU. How did his buddies already know who I was?
The jock was shaking his head. “I can’t believe it. The fellas are not going to believe this.”
Horror washed over me as I realized what was to come. “Move out of my way, dickwad!”
I shoved him aside and ran from the dorm house, tears of shame flowing down my cheeks.
Stefan
I stumbled out into the hallway, my loincloth barely covering my bottom half, but that was the last thing on my mind.
“Bella!”
I froze when I saw Bella run into Craig at the end of the hallway and her mask slip from her face. Surprise registered on Craig’s features and I saw their lips moving as they exchanged words, and then Bella shoved Craig aside and sprinted from the hallway.
“Shit,” I hissed. I had exaggerated a little that all of the guys knew who she was, but she just had to run into one of the ones who did.
I couldn’t believe my bad luck. Somehow, against all odds, I had wound up at the same school as Bella, won a contest, and subsequently, her as a fuck buddy.
Craig was about to turn away to chase after Bella, but then he saw me and his eyes lit up. I groaned as he quickly began making his way toward me.
“Dude,” he said, his voice filled with mirth as he got closer. I could already hear the rumors now. “You got balls. Your own stepsister?”
“If you know what’s best for you, you’ll leave right now,” I growled at Craig, my fist balling by my side.
Craig laughed, unperturbed by my threat. “Was her pussy as good as I think it is?”
I didn’t even think about my next move. It just happened. I lashed out at Craig with my fist and it collided against his jaw with a loud crack. Craig’s head snapped back and his eyes glazed over as he fell against the wall, crumpling to the floor.
Without a second glance, I stomped my way through the house, ignoring the curious glances the partygoers threw my way, all the girls pointing at my half-naked body, and the giggles.
I didn’t care about any of it. I had only one thing on my mind—finding Bella and telling her that I was in love with her.
I had no idea what sort of shit storm we were about to walk into.
Bella
“I have been hearing some disturbing rumors, Miss James,” said the Dean of the school, Howard Sturm. A distinguished man in his sixties, Howard had a mop of pepper-colored hair, bushy eyebrows, and a large belly, and he looked every bit the distinguished educator. “Rumors involving someone who is perhaps related to you.”
He was dressed in an expensive, executive business suit and was eyeing me like a hawk as I sat across from him in his office. He’d called me in after my last class, his face cloudy from the moment I walked in. And the forecast hadn’t improved. “Please tell me they're not true.”
I clenched the armrest of my chair, my nails digging into the wood. “They're not, sir,” I said as confidently as I could manage. “They are all lies, made up by people who are out to get me.”
The fallout for my tryst with Stefan had been awful. When everyone had gotten wind that Stefan was my stepbrother and that we had slept together, I became the brunt of cruel jokes and threats. I don’t know who broke the news first, and I didn’t really care. I just knew that my life had gone to hell almost overnight.
Since then, I’d gone into hiding, only going to certain classes that I thought were safe. Most of all, I avoided Stefan like the plague. He seemed hell-bent on trying to talk to me. He’d been blowing up my email and cellphone constantly, but I don’t know why he was bothering. We were already in enough trouble as it was.
I’d also moved out of the sorority house and into a vacant dorm room of my own. I couldn't stand to be around those worthless, two-faced bitches who had helped spread the rumors about my sleeping with Stefan.
So much for Sisterhood, I thought sourly. And blood oaths.
Howard studied me closely. “Well, I hope what you're saying is true.”
“Or?” I asked, my pulse racing. I dreaded the answer. If there was no lid put on the matter soon, this had the potential to blow up into something that would result in my being banned from the university. North State was one of those that had a ‘morality clause’ in your paperwork, which most people treated like a total joke, but obviously, it could come to bite me in the ass here. Everyone had treated it like a joke all last semester, but now . . . now I was scared.
“Or there will be repercussions.”
I heard the note of doom in Howard’s voice and my limbs trembled.
“There will be an official investigation launched into this matter. If you are found guilty, you and your stepbrother will be expelled from this school.”
My hands began to shake violently. This could cost me everything.
“Do I make myself clear, Miss James?”
It was a long time before I could reply. “Yes,” I choked. “Totally.”
Howard nodded. “Good. You are dismissed.”
* * *
I ran into my dorm bathroom and retched into the toilet. After several dry heaves, I pulled back and wiped my lips with the back of my hands. For the past few days, I had been nauseated as hell.
I had mostly attributed it to the ongoing investigation and scandal surrounding my fraternity-sponsored liaison with Stefan.
“Whatever the hell has gotten into me,” I muttered, holding back another dry heave, “I hope it passes soon. I can’t keep these people off my back if I’m trying to hold in the contents of my stomach.”
I flushed the toilet and stood up. As I was walking back to my room, someone pounded on the front door. I froze, not knowing what I should do. My first thought was that it was someone from the school’s newspaper again, looking to interview me.
Finally, I decided I wouldn’t answer and continued on to my room. The pounding only got louder. Sighing, I turned and walked to the front door, angrily swinging it open and twisting my face into a scowl.
“Look, I already gave you your God damned interview, and I’m not giving you another one—”
“Bella.”
T
here was Stefan, standing there in his gym sweats, his t-shirt plastered to his powerful chest. He had never looked so damned good in my entire life.
“What are you doing here, Stefan?” I hissed, trying to put on a strong front. “After what happened, you should have known better than to come here!”
Stefan gazed at me, his eyes intense. “Bella, I had to see you.”
I glanced around, hoping no one was watching. Around this time, most classes had been done for the day, but it still wasn’t too late for someone to be lurking about—but I saw no one.
“What for?” I demanded. I felt a light flutter in my stomach staring at Stefan’s chiseled jawline. He looked so handsome with his hair plastered to the sides of his face that it almost hurt. “Haven’t you done enough damage? Now you want to make sure we get expelled from this school too?”
Stefan scowled. “Fuck this school,” he growled with an intensity that had me taking a step back. “I don’t give a shit about it.”
I shook my head. “Please stop, Stefan. We can’t do this here.”
“We can,” Stefan rejected. “And we will.”
“No,” I said weakly.
“Yes,” he insisted. He stepped up close to me, and the warmth of his powerful body immediately enveloped me. “Bella, I’ve been meaning to do this for a long time.”
“Stefan, please leave,” I pleaded. “I can’t deal with this.”
“I’ve just never had the courage.”
“Stefan, I’m going to close the door and go back to my room now. And you’re going to return to your room and forget about me.” I began to close the door, but Stefan nudged his foot in the jamb, stopping it cold.
“I love you, Bella.”
I froze, my pulse suddenly pounding between my ears. “What did you just say?”
He looked at me earnestly and my heart nearly jumped out of my chest. “I love you.”
In that moment, I understood that he meant that he loved me, not as a stepsister, but as a lover.
“You can’t mean that,” I finally whispered.
“I do. I’ve been in love with you for a long damn time.” Without a word, he pulled me into his arms, smashing his lips into mine. Immediately, my body felt like it would burst into flames as desire roared through the pit of my stomach.
I don’t know how long we stood there embraced in a kiss, but it felt like an eternity.
Finally, he pulled away and I let out a gasp, gulping down air. Looking down at me, Stefan gently caressed my face. “I’ll protect you from here on out, Bella,” he said softly. “You don’t have to worry about the school’s stupid investigation. We’re going to be okay.”
The feeling of nausea began to return, and I wondered if it was the stress of all of this or if it was the same nagging sickness that had been plaguing me for the past few days.
“We’re going to ditch this dumb ass school and transfer to a different campus where no one knows us, and then . . .” Stefan paused, his face twisted in concern as he studied me. “Bella, are you okay?”
I pressed my hands to my stomach as a feeling of horror washed over me. Suddenly, I knew why I had been sick the past few days.
It shouldn’t be possible, I thought to myself. No fucking way. We were safe!
“Stefan,” I said weakly, holding back the urge to throw up on his toes.
“Yeah?” The concern in Stefan’s eyes touched me. “What is it, Bella? You look really sick.”
I took a deep breath. “I think I’m pregnant.”
* * *
“Wait one damn second . . . how could this have had happened?” Stefan demanded as he paced the living room floor of my dorm. I was sitting on the small couch, cross-legged, watching him, my mind awash with thoughts of doom. “I took every precaution. I mean, I had a fucking condom on!”
Fresh from outside, my hot stepbrother was still soaking wet from the rain, his t-shirt plastered to his washboard abs. His hair was a wet mess and he had fresh stubble shading his powerful jawline. He had never looked hotter to me in that moment, but for once, I wasn’t being overrun by my raging hormones for him because of our present dilemma.
“I don’t know,” I replied, my voice shaking. “I really have no idea.”
“Fuck,” he hissed, turning on his heel and walking in the opposite direction, only to turn back around and walk back the other way.
Tears slid down my cheeks. This was all my fault. Had I not agreed to go along with the stupid Sacrifice just to prove myself to the sorority, this would have never happened. Never mind the fact that I had also gone along with it just to prove to myself that I could forget about Stefan. Guess I was wrong.
“We must have been so into it that the condom broke.”
“I guess.” The theory seemed to be the only plausible one.
Stefan nodded and replied, "Unless . . .”
“Unless what?”
“Unless you’ve been with someone else.”
The flash of jealousy and anger that appeared in Stefan’s eyes was frightening, and I found myself rearing back against the couch.
“No,” I said quickly, my pulse pounding in my ears. “I swear, I haven’t.”
The only guy I’ve ever wanted to be with is you, I thought to myself. It’s part of the sick reason I did the Sacrifice anyway . . . to forget about you.
I was thinking these words, but I couldn't find the nerve to actually say them to Stefan. Frankly, I was still embarrassed over the entire ordeal. It seemed so unbelievable. We should've recognized each other behind the costumes.
Stefan was probably right. Deep down, we had known but chose to ignore it. We were in a fantasy and went along with it. I was having a hard time swallowing this notion. Of course, I was always attracted to him, but I didn't think I'd ever act on it.
“How am I supposed to believe that?” Stefan demanded. “When you were willing to sleep with me before even knowing who I was?”
I wrapped my arms around my chest and looked down at my legs in shame. I had the response, but it was hard to speak through the lump inside my throat.
Stefan resumed his pacing. “Speaking of which, I can’t believe that you were willing to sleep with a total stranger. I really thought you were above such behavior, Bella.” There was bitter anger in Stefan’s voice, and the sound of it stung my skin like a wasp.
“I don’t see why you’re bringing this up now,” I said weakly. I wanted to be angry, but with the way my stomach felt and everything else, I just felt pounded, destroyed . . . helpless. “You didn’t seem to have a problem with it after you found out.”
“Well, I haven’t been able to speak to you since that night.” Stefan stopped pacing again to stare at me. “With everything happening so fast, there was little time to process. And at the time, I was just happy to be with you.”
“And I was happy to be with you too,” I whispered.
“If that’s true, why were you willing to sleep with a total stranger then?”
I sucked in a deep breath. “Because . . . it was the only way I could think of to take my mind off you. You’re not the only one who’s had feelings for the other.”
A blanket of silence descended over the dorm living room. Outside, I could hear the pitter-patter of rain and I felt a twinge of anxiety. Sara Delaney, the girl I had become friends with while at Kappa, would be back any moment from her study group.
Sara, who had been sympathetic to my plight and angry about the whole Sacrifice deal, had followed me, leaving Kappa in a pretty epic rant that ended on the front lawn of the house, the campus police waiting to step in if things got any more heated.
I told her she didn’t have to, but she shrugged it off.
“I don’t like those bitches anyway,” she said at the time. “They're all so slutty and stuck up. Bunch of hypocrites. Fuck it. I’d rather be with the real people.”
I felt a little uneasy with the words, considering I was the one who agreed to go through with the Sacrifice. But I knew she didn't mean anything by
it. So, we had moved in together, and surprisingly, we even became close friends.
Stefan was still staring at me, but I was surprised to see understanding in his eyes. “So, you weren’t on the pill?” he asked, changing the subject back to the matter at hand. His deep, sexy voice was more subdued now, much softer. “I just kinda figured . . .”
I thought back for a moment. “I was, but I recently stopped taking it because it made me so sick to my stomach and caused me to break out all over my face. And I wasn’t getting any action anyway.” I began shaking my head, feeling panic course through my body as the cold realization of my actions set in. “My God, Stefan, what are we going to do?”
Stefan quickly walked over to the couch and sat down beside me. He placed a calming hand on my trembling thigh and I immediately felt a jolt run through my skin. Almost immediately, I was taken back to the night he fucked me, and I could almost feel his hands roaming all over my body. “Calm down, Bella. I think we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves. Let’s think rationally about this for a minute. We have no evidence that you’re actually pregnant besides your feeling sick.” He rubbed his hand up and down my thigh, causing my internal heat to raise several notches and thoughts of him devouring my neck to flash through my mind. “How long have you felt sick, anyway?”
“I've felt nauseated for almost a week, worse in the mornings . . . and when I think about it, I missed my period.” I began to shake, my sinful thoughts momentarily forgotten as I began to wail. “Mother is going to kill me!”
Stefan wrapped his arms around me and gently rocked me, softly cooing, “It’s okay, baby, it’s okay. Stop panicking. Let’s at least get a test done before we jump headfirst into hysteria.”
Sniffing and trying to get ahold of myself, I parted my lips to reply, but the sound of a pop tune interrupted me. It was my cell, lying on the nightstand next to the couch. I picked it up and checked the caller ID.
“It’s Mom,” I breathed, my anxiety rising.
Baby Fever Page 44
