Page 83 of The Charade

But I couldn't be happy about it right now, because if I was his daughter and if Cambrielle and Nash were my new brother and sister, then it meant that Carter was also my brother. And while I knew he was a great brother to his siblings and would be a great brother to Elyse as well, I didn’t want him to bemybrother.

I didn't want to share even an ounce of his father's DNA. Because if I did, then everything I'd felt for him over the past few weeks would no longer be a beautiful and magical thing.

It would be twisted and disgusting and actually illegal.

Marrying your half-brother may have been acceptable a few centuries ago—back in the day when kings married their own sisters to maintain a higher quality of noble blood in the royal family. And sure, Zeus might have been able to marry his sister Hera because he was the most powerful of the Greek gods.

But that wasn’t how things worked in twenty-first century America.

Brothers and sisters did not have romantic relationships with each other. They didn't fall in love and date and kiss and eventually get married. They didn't have babies and build dream homes together and live happily ever after.

That kind of thing was just simply not done.

It made me feel icky inside just thinking about it.

I'd just been making out in my dorm room with mybrother!I'd just been unbuttoning his shirt and letting my hands explore his chest and arms, and get my fingers tangled in his hair. I'd let him run his hands along my arms and back and lay his strong body on top of mine, let our tongues dance together in a way that made my belly swirl with heat. I'd let him kiss me until my lips were swollen and his five o'clock shadow chaffed at my sensitive skin.

I'd fantasized about having a future where he was the first person I talked to in the morning, and the last person I saw before I closed my eyes to sleep at night.

I'd thought about building a life with Carter after high school, having him by my side through all the big and little events of our lives, the twists and turns, the good times and the bad.

I just hadn't imagined that I'd be doing those things as his sister.

But now that the path of my life was shifting in front of my eyes, I saw the years stretching ahead of me. Instead of being the bride at his wedding, I'd be the bridesmaid. Instead of having his babies, I'd be sitting in the waiting room with the rest of the family as we waited for Carter to come out with a huge smile on his face to tell us that his wife—his wife who wasn't me—had given birth to a beautiful baby girl or boy.

I'd get to hold his babies and watch them as they grew from children and into adults, but they wouldn't be mine. They'd be someone else's. They'd belong to some lucky girl who got to have everything I wanted because her mom hadn't kept a huge secret from her her whole life.

If my mom had just told me the truth from the very beginning, then I would have met Carter years ago and I would have known from the start that he was off-limits. I never would have thought of him as anything but an older brother from the first day he came here from Guatemala.

I would have thought his bright blue eyes looked beautiful against his tan skin. I would have been intrigued to get to know this human who’d had a very different upbringing than me.

But I never would have looked at him with the longing I've felt for him ever since the first day we met, because I would have known from the start that he was my brother.

While lots of other girls would get crushes on him, I never would have been tempted by his exotically handsome good looks because the rules for our relationship would have been set from the beginning.

I wouldn't be dealing with these confusing feelings swirling around inside of me every time I looked at him, like I did right now.

Yes, even now when Iknewthat we were related, I still wanted to find an excuse to ignore the facts and find myself in his arms again. To have just one final moment where I could soak everything up and know it had to mean goodbye.

But I couldn't have that.

Couldn't even let him know that I wanted one last moment with him.

Because it was twisted.

It was forbidden.

It waswrong.

The city passed in a rainy blur as we drove through the small town, and I barely registered where we were until Carter pulled his truck to a stop on the front drive of the academy.

"I'm going to head inside," Elyse said from the backseat, as if sensing I needed a moment alone with Carter before heading up to our room. "I'll see you in a little bit."

"I'll be up soon," I said.

Carter and I sat in silence as we watched Elyse walk up the steps leading to the school, her umbrella protecting her from the rain. And even after she disappeared inside, we still didn't speak right away.

A full two minutes passed with just the sound of our breathing and the rain hitting the windshield before Carter cleared his throat and said, "Interesting day, huh?"

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