18.
Mystery Guy
Kaya
OLIVER IS QUIET FOR a long moment. It’s crazy that I believe him but I do. Sure, this could be another game, trying to convince me that he didn’t write that note when he did. To be honest it would make sense that he’d use what he knows. Especially knowing that his ‘game’ wasn’t just to seduce me but it was also part of a bet with his stepsister. I know he might be lying and this might still be some kind of ploy to win his game but for some reason, I believe him. Oliver might be a selfish asshole but he’s unapologetic about who he is and what he wants. Maybe that’s part of the reason why I feel attracted to him. Aside from his perfect good looks, he is what I’ve never been. Sure of himself and brave enough to admit to what he wants.
I can’t help but think that if Chase and I had been a little more like that from the beginning, we wouldn’t be in this predicament now. Because if that note didn’t come from Oliver, someone else knows about us and wants to hurt us.
“Come on, angel. Let’s go back inside, there’s a party going on and you don’t want people to think that we’re doing some of the stuff I’d rather be doing with you out here, instead of trying to defend my name.”
Oliver’s green eyes bore into me and I ignore the rush of blood that starts roaring in my ears, making my pulse quicken. I seriously wish he wasn’t this handsome but he’s like a gorgeous demon, his beauty hides a darkness that attracts me and scares me at the same time.
When we re-enter the room where the party is still in full swing, I immediately meet Bryce’s concerned gaze and give him a nod to signal that everything is ok. I mean it’s not, but the kind of confrontation they were worried about me having with Oliver didn’t really take place. And I’m really relieved that I didn’t have to use the information Reid got against the Gamma president.
“Oh just the guys we were waiting for.” Rachelle beams grabbing my hand and guiding me into a lineup of pledges and sisters. “This is the final pledge challenge. After this, the sisters will decide on who’s made it and who isn’t Zeta material. It’s a game called musical kisses. It’s basically musical chairs but with kisses. The girls play musical chairs. When you’re out, you draw a name from a hat where all the guys’ names are placed. You have to kiss the guy you draw. He gives you a score from one to ten and writes it on the paper with his name. At the end, the girl with the lowest score will have to streak all over the house.”
Charming, I immediately think. I’ll have to kiss another drunk frat brother and I better put in some effort if I don’t want to have to be naked in front of everybody. But this is the last pledge challenge, so if I can get through it, there’ll be no stupid dares anymore. I’ll be a sister and I’ll be able to say no if I don’t like a game.
We begin playing and I’ll have you all know that I’ve always sucked at musical chairs. I don’t know what it is, I guess I lack the indispensable killer instinct to go for that chair like my life depended on it. I’ve always lost every time I’ve ever played at every single birthday party growing up.
This time is no exception. I survive the first two rounds just because two of the girls are wearing stupidly sky-high heels and literally trip all over the place. When the third round starts, I’m elbowed and shoved unceremoniously out of the way and when the music stops, I’m the one left standing.
“Time to draw your fate, Kaya.” Rachelle offers me the clear plastic bowl serving as a ‘hat’ and I dip my hand in it with a sigh, hoping to pick Bryce or Parker. I give Rachelle the folded piece of paper and when she opens it and reads the name on it, my heart freezes in shock.
“Reid Hudson,” she announces.
Here we go again. I try not to look at my stepbrother, who’s standing opposite where the chairs are lined up with Valeria by his side. But obviously my eyes immediately go there and I can’t help it but feel dizzy with the way his ice blue eyes always seem to look straight into my soul.
“No,” he says as expected. “Come on, we’ve been here before. She’s my sister.”
No one has a chance to say anything because Valeria protests too. “Definitely not. Reid is right, it’s weird.”
Really? My first thought is that that’s a double standard if I’ve ever seen one. She was the one who only last week was telling me about the ‘experimentation’ between her and Oliver during their teens. But I don’t say anything because her jealousy is apparent for everyone to see and Reid obviously feels that kissing me would be weird.
“And I thought we’d already established that you two are step-siblings and until three years ago, you hadn’t even met. So not that weird, sis.”
Valeria’s hazel eyes are burning with unbridled fury when she literally snarls in her stepbrother’s face. “Oh, come on Ollie! Is she such a terrible kisser? How come you aren’t jumping at the chance to step in for Reid and kiss Kaya like last time? Everyone knows you have a hopeless hard-on for her!”
Oliver smiles and I brace myself for his next words because that’s his provocative smile, the one that comes out every time he’s about to taunt someone or to say something impossibly elitist and claim that he can because he’s a lord. “Yeah, I definitely could. But tonight I don’t feel like it. Tonight is the last pledge challenge. So I think there should be no do-overs or alternative tasks.” He then addresses the whole room with his most imperious tone. “Zetas, Gammas, tonight there’s no waivers or cop-outs. You complete the assigned challenge or you fail the task and pay the consequences. So Reid, if you refuse, your stepsister has failed her pledging.”
I’m not too sad about failing out of the Zetas. I know Mom will be heartbroken but if we tell her why, at least she won’t feel like it’s my fault or that Bryce tried to hold me back. Of course failing tastes a little bitter because I’ve been through a lot to fulfill Mom’s legacy but also because it’s yet another rejection by Reid.
My stepbrother clears his voice but he has no chance to say anything because Valeria intervenes again. “Fuck you, Ollie! Either kiss her or make Chase do it last like time. One stepbrother for the other, right? I just don’t want her to kiss my boyfriend.”
I’m about to protest that whatever the decision, her jealousy shouldn’t be the deciding factor, because if so, what should Bryce – and Chase and Parker – say about the fact that they’ve had to watch me kissing a few other guys in the past weeks? But again, I have no chance to voice my annoyance because Reid shakes his brown hair.
“I’m sorry Val, but that’s bullshit. You’ve been forcing people to stick to tasks, you can’t really change stance when it becomes personal. You know that stuff like this means nothing. It’s a party dare. Plus, we’ve just been hanging out but I don’t recall asking you to be my girlfriend or agreeing to be your boyfriend. I think you’re a really cool girl but we’re still getting to know each other.”
Valeria’s eyes flash with anger. “Are you breaking up with me, Reid?”
“As I said, there’s nothing to break off.”
“If you kiss her, we’re done!” She threatens and now it’s Reid’s turn to look furious. I know that expression all too well, my stepbrother hates being given an ultimatum.
“Sure, Val.”
Reid takes a step toward me and of course my heart is hammering in my chest as loud as thunder. I look behind him and I meet Parker and Bryce’s eyes for a second, finding an unexpected intensity and tension in both of their gazes.
Reid takes my hand and pulls me closer, lowering his head until our lips touch. I’ve never kissed softer, more velvety lips. Or have I?
At first he moves his lips against mine with very little pressure, as if testing the waters but when I kiss him back, he increases the pressure, his tongue teasing at the seam of my lips.
This feels amazing and my heart is beating so hard and fast in my chest at the idea that I’m kissing Reid that I almost don’t realize why this feels so familiar. I almost miss it, lost in a storm of emotions.
But when I open my mouth and his tongue
slips in to stroke and massage mine, I taste him. I could never mistake his deliciously fruity and vaguely sweet flavor. He tastes like cherry coke, he tastes like my first kiss. Reid is my mystery guy.
For a second I think that it’s impossible. That the emotion of kissing Reid after dreaming about it all this time must be playing with my sanity. But as his tongue tangles with mine in a confident, soft and sensual massage, as his arms hold me closer and closer to his chest, I know that I’m right. He smells like my mystery guy too, clean like fresh cotton, with a hint of something more masculine, something unique to him.
I haven’t been this close to him in a long time, so it’s no surprise that I missed it. We kiss for a long time and I forget about everything else, trying to get a fill of the kiss I’ve craved and obsessed about for years. I forget where we’re at. The Zetas and the Gammas, the party, everything else fades in the background as if it was suddenly out of focus, like an old black and white photo where Reid and I are the only ones in full, vibrant colors.
He breaks the kiss when we hear someone clearing their voice and a few embarrassed giggles. I look into those ice blue eyes and I whisper, “It was you.”
Reid
“IT WAS YOU!” SHE’S still in my arms, with her lips so close to mine that it would take the smallest of movements to kiss her again like I want. I know that after this there’s no going back to the way we’ve been for the past three years. I don’t know what will happen but I can’t go back to ignoring her, I can’t go back to Valeria. I have to face the music and I need to acknowledge my part in making this situation so messy. Nothing has really changed, if anything things have gotten more complicated with Bryce and Parker in the mix. But I can’t stay away from Kaya, I know she won’t let me.
Thankfully the party goes on and it’s hard to wait until everyone leave or passes out from the binge drinking. Valeria drinks herself to a drunken stupor and for once I have to thank Oliver when he lifts her in his arms and loads her in his car to drive her back home.
Our parents are away for the whole weekend, so once everybody leaves the house is strangely empty and eerily quiet. As I close the front door behind the last Gamma brother, I notice how the only person left there is Kaya.
“Where are the others?” I ask and she offers a little shrug.
“I’ve no idea.” But her green eyes are fixed on me and for once I stare back. I don’t avert my gaze and pretend that she isn’t there.
For the whole time the party has been going on, Kaya was in a corner talking to Bryce and Parker and briefly Chase. So I can guess that they made themselves scarce to give us the chance to talk.
She’s the one to break the heavy silence that has been hanging between us like a thick curtain. I’ve been too lost in my own emotions, too busy trying to get my heart to settle down because I can still feel her lips against mine. “Reid, it was you. Three years ago, in the dark. It was you.”
It isn’t a question and there’s so many things in her tone that my head spins. She sounds sad, a little accusatory but also has a sweet edge that tells me that she isn’t completely mad that I kissed her all those years ago. I have nothing left to do but to admit it. “Yes, it was me.”
“But why?” she asks and I don’t know what exactly she wants to know. Why I did it? Why I never made myself known?
I go with the easiest answer. “Because I’ve wanted to kiss you since the first time I saw you eating ice cream on the boardwalk.”
She doesn’t hesitate but fires the next question. “Why didn’t you tell me? Why did you disappear after you kissed me?”
I have only one answer. “Because I knew I shouldn’t have done that. I knew nothing good could ever come of it but I needed something. If I had to try to stay away from you, I needed at least one kiss. At first I hesitated because of Chase. Because I thought you liked him. Then after Dad talked to us about his expectations when it came to you and Karen ... what else could I do? You were only fifteen anyway and for as much as not following my heart hurt like a bitch, I understood part of Dad’s reasons. That you could’ve changed. That when you grow up, your heart takes different roads. That you need to experience things and people and that the feelings I had for you were too much too soon even without us becoming step-siblings. So I was selfish. I kissed you in the dark and then I walked away like Dad wanted me to and like I thought was best for you.”
Her next words dig into my heart like a hot knife through butter. “It was my first kiss, Reid.”
“I had no idea. I’m sorry.”
“I thought about that kiss for all this time, Reid. Until I kissed Bryce, I kept kissing boys hoping to feel the same way and no one ever compared. Bryce and Parker were the only ones who—”
“Me too,” I admit.
She tilts her head to the side. “What? You liked kissing Parker and Bryce?” she asks goofily and I can’t help but chuckle. Up until this point, we’ve been facing each other without touching. I take her hand and before pulling her closer I say, “Ha, they wish. No silly, I meant girls. There have been lots of girls but no one was you. I was looking for you in every single one.”
She opens her mouth to say something but I silence her with a kiss. It’s just a light touch of my lips on hers because I have something else to say before I let myself kiss her again properly. “I’m sorry for everything. I got everything wrong and I made a mess of things. I made a mess of myself because that’s all I am without you. I’m a mess. But I love you, Kaya. I’m done denying it.”
She presses herself closer to me and then she says it back. For a second, the world is perfect and nothing else matters. If I died right now, I would die happy.
But I don’t die, instead I kiss her again properly this time. The way I’ve always wanted to. This time there’s no secrets, no party games, no audience. I take my time tasting her lips, crushing them with mine, feeling their softness. It’s slow and tender, almost playful. Until I part her mouth and she allows me entrance, deepening our kiss.
We spend the rest of the night kissing and talking, like I’ve dreamed of doing many times. The world is far from perfect outside our little bubble and the problems that have been keeping us apart aren’t magically gone but I’m done fighting with my own heart. I’m uncomfortable with the idea of having a secret relationship with Kaya but I accept that it’s the only way until we figure out a solution. A way to tell our parents in the hope that if they can’t fully accept it, at least they’ll agree not to cut all ties with us. At least not with Kaya. Thankfully the others aren’t a problem. Ideally I’d have Kaya all to myself but I’ve seen how happy my twin brother and my best friends make her, so we’ll find a way to make it work. Aside from the girl in my arms and my father, those three guys are the people I love the most in this entire world.
There’s still the problem of that blackmail note, Kaya believes the author wasn’t Oliver and that leaves us with a black cloud looming over our heads but I know that we won’t find a solution tonight. Tonight is just for keeping Kaya in my arms, kissing her until we fall asleep on the couch in each other’s arms, erasing the distance of the last three years. I’d like to do more, much more but there’s time for it, I think as my eyes close and I rest my chin on the top of her head, holding her soft body just little closer.
Valeria
I WAKE UP AS OLIVER lifts me in his strong arms and walks into the Zeta house and all the way up to my top floor presidential penthouse. I keep my eyes closed and try to avoid embarrassing myself by being sick all over him. I’ve definitely overdone it with the booze but I still can’t believe that Reid dumped me over that annoying little slut of his stepsister. I don’t know if he likes her the same way his twin does, I didn’t think he did because he never even talked to Kaya. Chase on the other hand was always hovering. But at this point nothing about her would surprise me since she’s fucking one of her stepbrothers and his two besties. If she knows what’s good for her, she’ll stay away from my Reid, because I’m sure that tonight it was just a meanin
gless fight. Probably I should have kept my mouth shut when he decided to do the dare and I’m sure his reaction was due to not wanting to look too pussy-whipped in front of his frat brothers.
And talking about brothers, I should be really mad at Oliver for forcing that kiss when he saw how much it bothered me. But I understand him in a way because I know how much he dislikes the Hudson brothers and their friends. Oliver won’t tolerate anyone who’s more popular than him at school and I don’t fucking blame him.
I open my eyes when I get deposited on my bed and when my stepbrother tries to loosen his grip on me, I resist it, tightening my arms around his neck. “Hey Ollie,” I say sleepily, looking at him through my half closed lashes. “Thank you for bringing me home.”
“You’re welcome, darling. You had too much to drink and I wanted to make sure that you got home safely. Now sleep.”
I offer more resistance when he tries to disentangle himself from me and I drag my lips down his neck. “Stay with me tonight? I’ve missed you, it’s been weeks since that night at the Hudson estate. No one makes me come like you do ...” I say partially to stroke his ego and partially because it’s true. Oliver can be rough and a little selfish when he wants something but he knows how to use his dick and he’s never left me unsatisfied.
He tries harder to pull away from me. “I’m sorry darling. I’m tired and you’ve had too much to drink. I don’t like taking advantage of intoxicated girls.”
“Since when?” I snap. “We’ve fucked so many times when we were literally wasted and high.”
“We were both intoxicated, darling. Unfortunately right now I’m stone cold sober and it wouldn’t be fair to—” I wrap my arms tighter around his neck, pulling him down toward me. What the fuck is going on? Oliver has never been able to resist me before. But I have an ace up my sleeve.
Illicit (Perfect for them Book 2) Page 20
