Page 70 of Secrets in Love
“But nothing. You made Shelby happy her whole life. Those last few months were precious to us all, but you have to move on. Be young, have fun, have sex. Fall in love!”
The big doofus seemed speechless and took another mouthful of milk. It was poor timing as my beautiful, glowing, rosy-cheeked girl made her grand entrance, promptly punched him in the gut, and snatched the carton from Finn’s hand.
I couldn’t help but laugh. I had missed watching these clowns fight, but it was momentary as I was quickly distracted by Evie strutting in her sleep shorts and tank top. Her juicy ass swayed side to side, and her braless, free-range boobs jiggled with each step.
“I heard the words fun, sex, and love,” she quipped, looking directly at me, and biting her lip to control the smile I could see playing at the edges of her mouth. “Do I want to know what you’re talking about?”
Ready to fire back a filthy response, I remembered the 6’4” brother capable of beating me to a pulp standing right beside me. “We were talking about Finn and Scarlett and no one else.” I gave her a shake of my head and my bestshut-upeyes.
“What?”Evie mouthed.
If there was one thing Finn Austen was ever good at, apart from EVERYTHING, it was reading me—my mood, my face, body language, all of it—so I tried as hard as I could to play it cool and not let on that I, his loyal and lifelong best friend, had been engaging in a through-the-wall, joint masturbation session with his sister only hours before. The boiling kettle provided a distraction, and before anyone else could move, I whipped it from the stove and began shuffling around behind Finn. Evie padded to my side, sucking her lip between her teeth as she passed me the milk. Never had the transfer of a dairy product been so sexy. I could hear her breathing falter as our fingers connected, briefly flirting with entwining. Knowing where those fingers had been and what they’d been doing just hours earlier KILLED ME. She watched me make her tea just how she liked it, flooded with milk and sugar, then took the bread I passed to her without looking and popped four slices in the toaster, all with a luminous pink glow to her freckled cheeks.
Had Finn not been breathing down my neck, she would have been on that counter with my face between her thighs. But he was, so I wasn’t.
I dragged my eyes off Evie and caught Finn’s gaze in the window. Cogs were turning. His expression was hilarious, reminding me of a cassowary bird I saw on a trip to the Daintree Rainforest as a kid. Just like Dad instructed us to do with the freakishly ugly bird, as long as Evie and I stayed still, the danger would pass.
Danger did not pass. She dropped her spoon, and in unison, we bent down to pick it up and clunked our heads. Giggling nose to nose, eyes locked, I picked up the spoon. I tried not to check her out—I really did—but in her sexy pjs and with the memory of her moans haunting my every thought, it was hard to stay focused.
The shit storm started as a low-frequency rumble, like thunder rolling across a mountain range, and ended as an apocalyptic awakening. “Oh my God. You fucked my sister!!”
Evie squealed, leapt to the counter, and started buttering toast as though nothing had happened. I went into survival mode. I puffed out my chest, huffed out a sigh, and cautiously approached with my hands outstretched, calmly waving Finn down and urging his talons down. “Finn. Mate—”
“Don’t fucking mate me. Are you or are you not sleeping with my sister?”
There are two things I knew for sure at that moment. Evie was going to lose it, and I was a dead man. But before I could say- please, Finn. Notthe face-my brave girl did as I predicted.
“Yes, he is…”Uhhh, what now?“And there is not a damn thing you can do about it. Like Nate said, you deserve to be happy. We all do.”
Finn’s fists curled at his sides. He may have been tearing up a bit too—it was so Finn. “Eww, this is…is…disgusting. You are practically related. She’smy sister, for fuck’s sake.”
That pissed me right off. Evie and I were not related. I was related to Shelby, though, and Finn seemed to be forgetting the whole, impregnating-my-sister thing. Of course I had to remind him. “Yeah, and Shelby was my sister.”
“Pfft, that is completely different.”
“Oh really, and how is that different?”
“We were stupid kids who didn’t know any better, that’s how. You two are fucking adults—well, you’re supposed to be.”
We were chest to chest now, our bodies jostling for dominance until Evie slid between us. Her face was stained with tears as she pressed her hands into my chest and pleaded with her eyes.
“That’s enough. Please, Nate. Let me handle this.”
“Handle what, Evie?” Finn snapped. “There is nothing to handle. You two cannot be a thing, and I forbid it, and Nathaniel is going home…today. I want you gone by the time I get back from work…mate.”
Evie’s face distorted, and she spun on her heels to face her brother. “You forbid it?” she snarled, her whole body tight with rage. “Bloody hell, Finn. Who the hell do you think you are? You have absolutely no right to say that to me. I have dedicated my fucking life to you and Iris. I have been happy to do it, too, but I deserve to have something for myself. That something is Nate, so you bloody well better get used to it.”
What Evie did next was either a testament to how much she cared for me or an attempt to have me killed. She grabbed me by the scruff of my shirt and planted a massive wet kiss on my lips. I genuinely forgot my name. Before I could register what was happening, or kiss her back, she was dragging me from the room. “The people in your life are not your pens, Finn. You cannot organize, order, and control us to behave in a manner that suits you. This is my life and my house as much as it is yours. Nate stays. If you don’t like it, piss off!”
Evie
The whole house shook as Finn took my suggestion and pissed off, almost slamming the front door off its hinges on his way out.
That was when reality hit. I, Evie Austen, kissed Nathaniel Myers. Even though it was a thin-lipped, closed-mouthed spite kiss…it was fucking amazing. Day by day, I’d been slowly caving to desire. It was just a matter of time before it happened, but that little performance was not what I had envisioned.
Honestly, though, I couldn’t give a flying fuck.
Nate stood facing the door.
