Page 10 of Ruse
In the little time since I’ve become reacquainted with my new stepsister, this is the third time she’s kindly told me to fuck off, and just like the other two times, my dick can’t help but get achingly hard.
Now it’s my turn to return the favor.
Me: Nice one, sis. I’ll admit picturing you tell me to fuck off is just as enticing as hearing you whisper it in my ear as you moan my name.
I wait for two minutes and there is no reply, so instead I send out another.
Me: Thanks a lot, by the way. Because of you now, daddy is demanding we attend family dinner twice a week and breakfast every morning.
That quickly gets her attention.
Nyx: You're welcome, bro.
P.S. Fun Fact: Incest is illegal in all fifty states, dear brother of mine. Though I’m sure you're used to a life behind bars.
Me: It’s only illegal if it’s non-consensual sis, and something tells me you want it just as bad.
This little back-and-forth banter is becoming too entertaining. I need to get laid, and quick.
Without waiting for another response, I put my phone on silent and shove it back into my pocket, heading back to the dining room to finish the lovely dinner we were having. I find my mother rubbing Austin’s back as he leans forward, still sulking from his earlier failed show of dominance. Brooklyn is scowling beside him, playing with the food on his plate, not having touched any of it.
I find my seat and dig into the peppered steak, roasted potatoes, and steamed vegetables. It’ll do no one any good to have this delicious food go to waste, so within no time I devour it, cleaning my plate before the housekeeper comes to clear the table.
The rest of the evening goes on without a hitch, and finally, after dessert, Brooklyn and I excuse ourselves from the table. My new brother follows me out onto the back deck, overlooking the ocean below.
“Some view isn’t it,” I mutter, trying to break the heated tension and awkward silence while pulling a joint from my pocket. Brooklyn’s eyes immediately brighten up as he takes a seat beside me, reaching for the joint in my hand. Producing a lighter from his pocket, he lights it, taking a long hit before passing it back over to me.
“What was it like when you found out?” he asks, not bothering to look me in the eye, but I know exactly what he wants to know.
Getting right to it are we now.
“I was at a party on campus. Some douche pulled up a photo on his phone of your dad with his tongue down my mother’s throat and his hand up her skirt. I don’t know how he got it, but he did. I called my dad to ask what the fuck was going on, but not before I beat the poor asshole and sent him to the hospital with a concussion and three broken ribs.”
“Fuckkk,” Brooklyn mutters, already high as a fucking kite.
I keep talking, unsure why it is so easy to speak on a subject I hate speaking about. “The worst part, my father had no fucking clue. He was out of town on business and was planning on surprising my mom with a vacation to Paris for their anniversary a week later.”
“So, why’d you come back?” he asks. There’s no resentful tone in his voice, instead all I hear is a genuine curiosity.
“Was kicked out of my boujee prep school for the minor altercation, though I’m lucky my father convinced the asshole not to press charges. Since my dad has no other permanent residence and spends his time traveling for work, I’m stuck living with my mother until I graduate. I’m almost nineteen, but my father has stipulations for my trust fund. I must go to college or wait until I turn twenty-one to have access to it.”
Brooklyn scoffs, taking another long hit from the joint. He runs his fingers through his blond hair, the same naturally highlighted color as Phoenix, before he continues. “What’s the point of having all this money if all the assholes are going to do is make us wait around to spend it,” he spits out, taking a drink of the flask in his hand I hadn’t noticed he held. His eyes, eyes the exact shade of blue green as his twin sister, find mine as he offers it.
I shake my head slightly and refuse it, wanting to at least be sober enough to stay up and wait for Phoenixto come home. “It’s payback,” I mutter, my gaze now focused on the waves before us moving back and forth in sync with my breathing. It’s dark out, only the light of the back deck and the moonlight illuminating the sandy beach ahead. “Their fathers’ did it to them, so they feel it’s only fair if they pay it forward.”
My comment makes Brooklyn laugh, and he nods in agreement. “That’s why I’m going to get myself a football scholarship and get as far away from him and his happily ever after.” He takes a long swig of the flask, nearly emptying it in one gulp. “I won’t need anything of his.”
I don’t doubt what he says. I haven’t yet seen my stepbrother play, but if what they say about him is true, he’s a beast on the field. He and his best friend Grant Fitzpatrick made varsity as freshman and have been co-captains since. They're an inseparable and incomparable duo, neither one eager to share the title of captain since they’re both on the track for a full ride scholarship and a draft to the NFL. Though as I watch Brooklyn, eyes red and barely able to stay open, I fear the scandal that’s befallen his family may be a roadblock on his way to stardom.
Legend says the mighty fall the hardest, and Brooklyn Bancroft looks like he might just break.
* * *
It’s justafter eleven when the front door chime rings and a loud rustling comes from that direction as Phoenix tries, and fails, to shut off the alarm. If I don’t step in to help her, she’s going to wake up the whole damn neighborhood, bringing the cops in to search for an intruder. Although that would be amusing, I really don’t want to end my night with the cops at our front door.
Brooklyn went off to his room shortly after our little bonding smoke-out-sesh on the deck and is most likely passed out by now. Austin and my mother also retreated to their bedroom hours ago, while I was the only idiot who hung out downstairs waiting for her to return. I’d like to say it was merely to annoy the sassy little brat, but my dick couldn’t go to bed without knowing she was home, safely tucked into her bed.
Fuck.
