Anya shook her head. “I don’t think so, no.”
“Oh, I thought I did. Well, last time you sent me money—which by the way, I don’t know how I can ever thank you for—I enrolled in a few night classes at a community college here.”
“Cool. In what subject?”
“Just admin and business kinda stuff,” she replied. “There’s also this short public relations course which I’m hoping to get into next semester.”
“That’s great,” Anya said, reaching over and squeezing her hand. “I’m proud of you.”
“Well, like I said, I wouldn’t have been able to do it without you. Anyway, enough about me! How did you two meet?” Shania said, arching an eyebrow. “I’m very interested as to how a relative of mine scored Cam Meyers.”
Anya hesitated. “Um…I guess you haven’t read many gossip sites lately?”
Shania shook her head. “No. Why?” she asked, looking puzzled.
“Well, remember how last time we talked on Skype, I mentioned my annoying new stepbrother?”
I chuckled, and Shania nodded, still looking confused.
“Cam is…he’s my stepbrother,” Anya said. “And right now we’re actually sort of on the run from our parents and everyone else.”
She filled Shania in on the accidental sex tape and how it had spread around all the gossip sites like wildfire, and Shania didn’t look anywhere near as shocked or horrified as I’d thought she might.
“I totally called it,” she said, her lips quirking up into a grin.
“What?”
“When you were whining about this new stepbrother to me…I totally knew you had some sort of giant hidden crush on him. I had no idea it was Cam friggin’ Meyers, though!”
“I swear I told you his name,” Anya replied with a giggle.
Shania shrugged. “You probably only said his first name, and I forgot what it was. Anyway, you guys really do need to go back and face everyone. But not for the reasons you were saying earlier.”
“What do you mean?” Anya asked, her eyebrows drawing together in confusion.
“Well, I know you feel all embarrassed and ashamed, but there’s no reason for you to feel like that, aside from the fact that you accidentally leaked a sex tape. But that was just a mistake, and people will get over it. As for the whole supposed incest scandal—it’s a load of crap. It isn’t friggin’ incest; you aren’t biologically related. You guys already knew each other before your parents got together, and honestly, they went off and got married behind your backs without even telling you, let alone introducing you as future siblings. I know they were drunk in Vegas and all, but still…that’s kinda crappy.”
“I guess,” Anya said.
“Besides, you only have one life. You guys want to be together. Are you really going to let all these gossip queens dictate who you date? No, screw them! Like I just said, you two aren’t related, and you’re both consenting adults…so who cares? Just be together. Fuck everyone else.”
Shania’s words were abrasive, but she had a very good point. If our parents or anyone else were pissed at us simply for being in a relationship as stepsiblings, then they were being ridiculous. It would be one thing if Anya and I had actually grown up together as children and bonded as real siblings do, but we hadn’t. What had happened with us was another thing entirely. We were two people who had fallen for each other, and our parents just so happened to be recently married to each other.
“You’re right,” Anya said quietly. “You’re so right.”
“Of course I’m right. I’m your sister,” Shania said, flashing her a cheeky look. “And right now, your sister is telling you to go home, face everyone, and tell them to mind their own damn business!”
“But I wanted to spend some more time with you first!” Anya said.
Shania shook her head. “Don’t make excuses. You need to go back. But we’ll plan another meetup soon. We really should’ve done this before now.”
“Yeah, we should have. It’s been great.”
Anya and Shania chatted for a few more minutes, figuring out when they would both have some time off work and study so that we could plan for Shania to come and visit us in the city, and then they said a teary goodbye.
“I’ll see you soon,” Shania said, waving as we stepped out of the diner.
“I can’t wait!” Anya called back.
She was silent until we reached the car, and then she turned to me. “Thanks for being here and talking me into doing this, Cam. I was so nervous, but that was amazing. Shania’s even cooler in person.”
“I think she feels the same way about you,” I said with a grin. “I could barely get a word in back there, even though she’s apparently a fan of mine.”
“Maybe I’m just more appealing than you,” she said, grinning back up at me. “Really, though…thank you. This meant a lot to me.”
“Well, you mean a lot to me,” I replied, my smile fading into a more serious expression as I grabbed her hand. “Look, I know I haven’t said this before, and it’s probably way too soon, but it should be said. You’re an amazing person, Anya, even if you can’t see that sometimes, and…well…I love you. I think I have for a long time.”
“You’re pretty decent yourself,” she replied. “I guess I kinda like you back, even after you pretended to be a shark that one time.”
“Wow. I try to be romantic and sweet, and all I get is…”
She cut my faux-offended sentence off with a kiss and then cheekily grinned as she pulled away. “Shh. You know I love you too.”
I grinned back at her.
She was right. I did know that she loved me. I really did.
We might’ve only been together for a short time, but I’d been thinking about her and wanting to be with her for a hell of a lot longer. What I felt for her was real, and I knew she felt the exact same way about me.
As far as I was concerned, nothing could drive us apart now.
Chapter 20
Anya
It was nine o’clock by the time we got back into the city, and I frowned and looked out the window as we pulled into the parking garage under the glamorous apartment building Pierce and Mom lived in together on the Upper East Side.
“Are there usually four photographers outside the front of their building, or is that the paparazzi just hanging around out there on the street?” I asked, craning my head and looking back.
Cam shrugged. “Probably paparazzi. Wouldn’t surprise me.”
“But we’ve been gone for a week. Would they really still be hanging around our places, let alone our parents’ place?”
“Yep. Some people will do anything to get a story or a photo. After the whole coke scandal that got me suspended from racing, there were photographers camped out outside my apartment—and also Dad’s apartment—for three whole days, just so they could try and take pictures of me supposedly looking guilty.”
“Ugh. It’s so stupid. Shania’s right. Our lives aren’t anyone else’s business.”
Cam’s forehead crinkled with concern as he looked over at me. “Anya…this kind of stuff pretty much comes with the territory for me. I understand if you think you can’t handle it. Doesn’t mean I don’t still feel the same way about you, but if you don’t want to—“
I cut him off by pressing a finger to his lips. “Don’t be silly. I can handle anything if it means being with you. We’ve gotten this far, right? I’m just whining. I’ll get over all the attention and learn to cope with it.”
His shoulders sagged with relief. “Glad to hear it. Anyway, I guess it’s time to face the firing squad.”
My stomach roiled as I considered the fact that five minutes from now, we’d finally be facing our parents after what we’d done. Even if there was nothing technically wrong with our relationship, we’d still brought a lot of negative attention upon our family, and that was going to create problems.
As soon as we entered the apartment, Pierce spotted us from where he was sitting in the spacious lounge
room. He jumped to his feet, his face etched with fury.
“You two! Where the hell have you been?” he said before turning his head to the right. “Christina! Look who finally decided to grace us with their presence!”
Mom came racing out from down the hall, and as soon as she saw us, her eyes widened with concern, like she’d simply been worried about us and nothing else. Then her eyes narrowed, and she wrapped her dressing gown tighter around her waist and marched up to us.
“Anya, I’ve never been so embarrassed in my life. I didn’t raise you to behave like this, running away to god knows where with your stepbrother—not to mention what else you two have been up to together. A sex tape! My god…I would’ve never…”
Her sentence trailed off, and Pierce joined her where she stood. “So what do you two have to say for yourselves?” he said, eyes flashing with anger.
My tongue was seemingly tied for the moment, so Cam spoke first. “Look, I know we shouldn’t have left, but we just needed some time to deal with everything that happened. We’ve come to apologize. Can we at least sit down and talk this through?”
Mom grumbled under her breath and stalked over to the lounge, and we all followed her. Pierce’s eyes were practically burning a hole in Cam, and as we sat down, he leaned forward and spoke, each word careful and measured.
“Do you have any idea what kind of media frenzy you two have created here? I very much doubt it, considering how you both vanished off the face of the earth. Now, I want to know how long this has been going on for, and what you intend to do about it.”
Cam and I exchanged glances, and then he began to speak. “Anya and I met almost two years ago, like we told you at that first family dinner. We had no idea we’d be stepsiblings one day, and even after you two ran off and got married, we had no idea until we saw each other at dinner that night.”
He continued on, telling them everything that had happened between us, and how we’d only recently gotten together after fighting our urges—and each other—for so long.
“I don’t care what the media is saying,” he said. “We’re staying together. We aren’t real biological siblings, and if you guys can’t accept that, then you’re being really unfair.”
Pierce scoffed. “Is that what you think the problem is? That what you’re doing is somehow incestuous? Of course it isn’t. We aren’t that stupid. We know you aren’t related, and of course there’s nothing technically wrong with what you’re doing. However, you’ve brought so much unwanted, negative attention upon this family in the last week that I just don’t know….I don’t know what the hell you were thinking. What were you thinking?”
“That we love each other,” Cam said, his voice firm and bold.
Pierce rolled his eyes. “So you release a damned sex tape? Is that what love is these days?”
“That was an accident.”
“An accident. Right.”
“It was an accident. Do you think I’m that desperate for media attention that I’d do it on purpose?” Cam asked, his cheeks reddening with indignation.
Pierce let out a deep sigh. “I really don’t know with you anymore, Cam. And you know what the worst part about this is? The media actually loves you two together. They’re all making you out to be some amazing couple who tore down some sort of societal boundaries for love. What a load of garbage.”
“What?” I said. I’d had no idea the media was saying anything positive about us at all. I’d been too scared to look, but I’d assumed it would all be horrible, defamatory stuff painting me as some sort of dumb skank and Cam as some sort of twisted playboy who’d viewed his stepsister as the ultimate taboo prize.
“Oh, yes,” Pierce said. “You’re media darlings now; some sort of twisted Romeo and Juliet story, especially since you ran away together to god knows where. Why do you think all those people are out the front of our apartment? They’re hoping to snap some photos of the two of you together. So now every damned person in this city associates our once-proud hotel brand with that crazy young stepsibling couple who released an online tape of their sexual exploits. When I said your public image could help our hotels, this is not what I was expecting, Cam!”
Cam held his hand up. “Like I said, that was an accident, and we’re both very upset that it happened. We understand why you’re upset too, and if we could take it back, we would. But we can’t. All we can do is own it and say that we fucked up, and that it won’t happen again.”
“And that we’re still staying together,” I added quietly, grabbing Cam’s hand.
Mom’s lips pursed, and then she sighed. “Anya, I’m not actually angry at you, I’m just extremely disappointed,” she said. Oh, yay…that old parental chestnut. “You’re very young and naïve. You’ve never been in a serious relationship with anyone before, and you’re making a mistake by choosing Cam.”
“Wow, thanks, Christina,” Cam said sarcastically.
“Shut up, Cam,” Pierce said. “You might be my son, but I agree with Christina on this. She’s right. You’ve taken advantage of Anya’s naïveté, and now you’ve probably wrecked her future by dragging her down to your level with that damned sex tape out there. Her name will be tainted forever. Not just that; what happens when you two break up? Do you have any idea what kind of drama that could cause for our family?”
“Hold on!” I said. “Don’t try to blame this all on Cam! It’s entirely my fault that the tape got out there. As for our relationship, I’m only a year younger than him, and I’m not as dumb and sheltered as you’re making me out to be. I knew exactly what I was getting into, so this is just as much my fault as his.”
Pierce opened his mouth to say something, but I kept going. “Wait, you know what? Fault is the wrong word. You make it sound like our feelings are some sort of mistake, and they’re not. And by the way, you seem to think that it’s inevitable that we’ll break up, but it isn’t.”
“Forgive me, Anya, but I’ve known my son a lot longer than you have,” Pierce said. “Yes, you might have some responsibility in all of this, but I know what Cam is like. I’ve been too understanding and lenient, and as a result I’ve let him get away with all kinds of things over the years. He repays me with this type of utter bullshit almost every time, and I’m tired of it. You two won’t last. Mark my words.”
I didn’t think I’d ever heard Pierce swear up until this point, and he turned his face back to Cam.
“I didn’t raise you to be a womanizer, Cam, but unfortunately that’s how you turned out. You know you could have any woman in the world, yet you choose my wife’s daughter, just to create as much trouble as possible. I don’t know where I went wrong with you, but I’m tired of blaming myself and trying to relate to you. You’re nothing like me. You’re just like your mother.”
I froze. Had he really just said that? Cam stiffened next to me to as well, and then he stood up. “Fine. I see we aren’t going to have any sort of rational conversation anytime soon. I’m leaving, and Anya is coming with me. If you calm down at some stage, feel free to call me. Call us.”
With that, he reached for my hand, and I took it and rose to my feet. Mom glared at me, and for a second I was seriously afraid that actual laser beams would shoot out of her eyes if I left with Cam, but instead she slumped back into the sofa and turned her head away as we made our way out of the lounge area.
“That went well,” I muttered as we stood in the elevator a moment later.
Waves of anger seemed to radiate off Cam’s body. “Yeah, tell me about it. I guess my Dad finally got sick of dealing with my shit. Took him long enough.”
“He’ll calm down. They both will,” I said, squeezing his hand. Tears pricked at the backs of my eyes, but I tried not to let them spill out. My Mom had been upset with me, but at least she hadn’t said the awful things that Pierce had said to Cam.
Cam rubbed my back as we made our way back to the car. “I’m sorry that went so horribly,” he said. “I really thought they’d at least listen and try to understand.
”
“Same. I knew it’d be bad, but I didn’t think it’d be that bad.”
“Yeah. Hey, at least the media apparently likes us.”
I gave him a weak smile. “Silver lining?”
“I guess. So what do you want to do? Do you want to go back to your dorm, or do you want to spend the night at my apartment?”
“Take a guess.”
“Apartment it is, then,” he said. “Hey, why don’t you give one of your friends a call and see if they want to come and have breakfast with you before class on Tuesday? It might help you get used to being out in public again.”
Ugh. I’d almost forgotten I had to attend class three days from now. I could only miss so many lectures before automatically failing, and I didn’t want to have to repeat any classes next year.
“Good idea. I’ll call Kara. I could use another friendly face around me, especially seeing as I’ll have to see everyone in class.”
“It’ll be fine. You heard my Dad. Everyone loves us together, apparently.”
“I guess. I still feel so shitty, though. It’s such a weird feeling knowing that everyone’s seen me naked.”
“Lucky you’ve got a sexylicious bod,” he said with a wink. “Really, though…I get it. It’s fucked up sometimes. But there’ll be another scandalous event soon, and everyone will forget all about yours and start treating you like they normally would. Look how quickly they all forgot I was allegedly on coke! No one’s brought that up with me for a while now, and it was only six months ago.”
“Okay. I’ll give it six months, and if it hasn’t died down by then, I’m moving to Antarctica. You can come.”
“Deal. We’ll befriend some penguins. They won’t judge us.”
When we arrived at Cam’s apartment, we were too exhausted to do anything other than fall into bed and sleep. A week into a new relationship, most couples would still be screwing each other’s brains out every night, but we didn’t need that. We were perfectly comfortable with simply being next to each other and cuddling, knowing that there was always tomorrow to have more wild, passionate sex. It wasn’t that we were already losing our spark or anything…hell no. I still felt tingles every time Cam’s hand brushed over my body, and he still stared at me with those lust-filled eyes every time I walked into the same room as him.
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