Page 22 of Hold Your Breath

“Micah,” I warn. “Don’t you do it.”

Micah only laughs.

“Would I what?” Jace asks, confused.

“Want to see her naked,” Micah rushes out with a grin, and as mortifying as it is, it’s actually nice to see him smile. I have known him for so long, and him smiling isn’t something that happens often.

“I have already seen her naked,” he says, and I give Micah a pointed glare.

“It was in the top four hottest naked people I have seen, myself being number one, of course. I look fantastic with no clothes on. Actually, is that an option right now? Because these clothes are making me feel trapped.”

“Keep your damn boxers on,” Zac snaps. “We don’t need to be distracted during dinner.”

My mouth is hanging open; it’s official, I have died and gone to heaven. A naked Jace would be a heavenly experience.

He rips his shirt off and dumps it on the ground, then stands, flicks me a wink, and removes his pants. Leaving him in only socks and boxer briefs.

“That’s better. Care to join me, Willow?”

I shake my head. “I will save myself the embarrassment. I’m not even comfortable in my clothes.”

“It’s freeing when you don’t give a shit about what people think about you,” Jace adds. But his argument isn’t solid enough to make me want to remove my clothes in front of him and the others, especially when they all look like they walked off a firefighter calendar photoshoot. All those muscles could make a girl go weak in the knees.

Chapter Ten

Micah

Jace wasn’t supposed to have gone over to Willow’s side of the house, but he insisted on putting a note on her damn door and hadn’t expected her to storm out of her room. He was excited she did, though, as he has been dying to hang out with her. Jace is like a damn puppy when he gets excited about something.

“If I looked like you, I wouldn’t care what people thought either, but I don’t.”

Zac brings his hand down on the table with a bang, and I glare at him when Willow jumps. Sometimes he gets in his feelings and doesn’t know how to process them, so he isquick to anger.

“There is nothing wrong with the way you look,” he declares vehemently.

He isn’t wrong, though his execution could have been better.

“I didn’t mean to scare you,” he adds with a slight wince.

“It’s okay. But it’s just hard to believe what you say about my appearance when I was teased throughout middle school and high school for being fat, or flat chested. Then my own family is always telling me to dress for my size. And men never say I’m sexy or hot. It’s always ‘you have a cute face’ or ‘you’re pretty for a bigger girl.’”

Zac balls his fists—it seems he’s grown attached to my stepsister. “You are fucking hot, and your body is sexy as fuck. I have wanted to meet your family for so long, but I’m reconsidering that right now.”

Willow blushes. Oh, this is going to be fun.

We have one day and two nights before our parents arrive, and we have agreed to tell Willow everything before then. We will lay our cards on the table and see what she wants to do next. I feel so shitty about deceiving her, but Willow would never have believed we wanted her. Her self-confidence is shit, and I wish she could see herself through our eyes. She has curves some women would die for. I love the thought of being able todig my fingers into her flesh and grab a handful of her ass.

“Thank you for the confidence boost, Zac. I have been really trying to see myself in a different light the last few days.”

“You know what you need to do?” Jace adds. He is full of useful advice, though he rarely follows it. “Look in the mirror every day after your shower, and instead of looking at your flaws, find something you like about yourself. It might be how sexy your lips look, or how nice your skin is, but make sure it’s something different every day, and eventually you will have trained your brain to only see the things which are good. Everyone has things they don’t like about their bodies—you should see my toes,” he says, lifting his foot to the table and ripping off his sock. “Look at these monstrosities.”

Willow giggles. “They almost look like fingers.”

“I hate that my tooth is slightly crooked,” Zac says, pointing to his bottom tooth, which is angled in the wrong direction.

“Oh, and Micah has really weird nipples. Like why are they so flat?” Jace jokes, and I grin, lifting my shirt. “When he is being a dick, I call him pepperoni nips.”

We all laugh, and Willow seems to relax. “I really hate my stretch marks.”

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