Page 35 of Bliss: Part 1
My body tensed under the sheet. Every hair on my skin stood up.
I swallowed hard. My mouth was dry, but my heart was racing, pounding so loud I was sure he could hear it. I didn’t move. I couldn’t.
Tripp was still watching me. Calm and composed, and terrifyingly serious. His face wasn’t angry. It wasn’t smut. It was something in between, something unreadable and sharp with meaning.
“How long have you known?” I asked, my voice a whisper.
“Long enough.”
I turned my face away, unable to hold his gaze. Shame burned hot in my cheeks, but it wasn’t just shame. It was fear. Guilt. A strange, sinking excitement. I felt exposed under his stare, and I didn’t know why I felt that way with him, when I didn’t feel the same with the others.
Maybe it was the fact that he was my oldest brother. The one I looked up to the most. The one I had most respect for and never wanted to disappoint.
But here he was, asking when it would be his turn.
And for the first time, I didn’t want to step over the line. It felt wrong, when it hadn’t felt wrong with Dash, Ashby, or Rhys.
Only with Tripp, it just didn’t feel right.
Not now.
Eleven
Tripp
She looked up to me too damn much to see me as anything other than her big brother.
It was funny, honestly, knowing her attraction toward the other guys was so open and easy. She let it happen with them. Let herself feel things, try things. And with me? The wall came right back up.
I saw it in the way she reacted the second I asked. She went still. Her breath caught, her body tensed like I'd pulled a knife instead of words. I hadn’t meant to scare her. Hell, I hadn’t even meant to say it out loud tonight. But it had been sitting on my chest for weeks.
She stared at the ceiling instead of me.
Then finally, she whispered, “I don’t know why it’s different with you…but I think I need time.”
I understood, but her own words didn’t make sense to her.
“Okay.”
She turned her face toward me slowly, eyes cautious. “You’re not mad?”
“Why would I be mad?” I asked gently.
“I don’t know. Because I’ve already done things with the others. Because you found out. Because it’s…messed up.”
I let out a quiet breath and rubbed a hand across my chest. “Bliss, I’m not judging you. I’m not mad, and I’m not hurt that you’ve done things with them and not with me. I just wanted to understand.”
Her lips parted. She looked like she was ready to apologize. But I cut her off softly. “You don’t have to explain if you don’t want to. You owe me nothing.”
“But I do,” she said, voice tight. “You’ve always been the one I looked up to. It just all happened so fast, and I never thought you’d find out.”
I shrugged. “I would’ve found out eventually. The guys haven’t been very slick about it.”
“They haven’t?” She looked at me surprised.
“Not exactly,” I said. “Ashby kept watching you like he was starving. Rhys…he couldn’t stop licking his lips every time his eyes landed on you. And Dash? He’s always looked at you like you meant something more to him.” I paused, studying her face, careful with my next words. “Maybe you didn’t see it then. But the way you looked back at them? It was the same.”
She furrowed her brows and looked away again, her fingers tangling nervously on her stomach. “And…do you think there’s something wrong with us? With me?”
