Total pages in book: 22
Estimated words: 21429 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 107(@200wpm)___ 86(@250wpm)___ 71(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 21429 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 107(@200wpm)___ 86(@250wpm)___ 71(@300wpm)
“Not a day has gone by where I don’t regret what I did, Sky,” I say, stepping closer. This time she doesn’t move back. “But what’s done is done. And now the world has brought us back together, and if you ask me, that’s fate, right?”
Again, I lean in, my eyes fixed on her beautiful lips. All I can think about is that night at the lake when we first kissed, when I held her soft, tender, naked body in my arms and made love to her. Since then, I haven’t been with anyone else. Even though I told myself I would move on and not think about her…well it just wasn’t that easy.
And now here she is again, standing right in front of me, looking just as beautiful as she did that magical evening when we first met.
God, I would do anything for her.
I lean in again, praying this time she’ll let me kiss her, but once again, Skylar denies me. Only this time, she doesn’t just turn her head away; she shoves me hard with two palms against the chest.
“Fate?” she scoffs, almost laughing as tears spill from her eyes. Great, now I’ve gone and made her cry. “No, I think you were right the first time, Walker. You’re my step-brother, and this isn’t okay.”
She brushes past me and tugs the door open. She turns back before leaving and adds, “Oh, and you’re also an asshole.”
And then she’s gone.
“Yeah,” I say to my empty room. “You may be right about that.”
4
Skylar
Sandy eyes. That’s what I call it that scratchy feeling you get in your eyes when you haven’t had a good night’s sleep, and today, that’s definitely me.
After what happened with Walker last night, I was so fired up I left the house and went for a jog—something I never do—and then came back for a long shower before I even thought about getting into bed.
Once there, I tossed and turned after turning out the light. After I realized sleep just wasn’t going to come any time soon, I picked up my phone and watched stupid TikTok videos until the battery was almost dead. Then I plugged it in and watched even more until finally I felt ready to fall asleep.
Once sleep finally came, it was in brief spurts, plagued by terrible dreams causing me to wake up every hour or two. This process repeated over and over until the morning when the sun came blazing through my window as if to taunt me. And of course all of my struggles were made ten times harder by the fact that out of all the empty rooms in the house, Walker had chosen the room right next to mine to make his.
“I really don’t see what the big deal is,” Mary’s voice says over the speaker phone. I glance down from the mirror and frown at the phone, then remember we’re just on a call and not a FaceTime.
“Seriously?”
“I mean—he’s not blood related.” I can practically hear her shrugging.
“Yeah, but still…” My voice trails off as I search for a solid, philosophical, moral justification for why sleeping with my step-brother is wrong. After not being able to come up with one, I settle on, “It’s still wrong.”
“Is it?” she counters. “Or is it just taboo because society says so?”
“Well…”
“And it’s not like you haven’t already done it before,” she adds.
Instantly, as if she’s pressed some hidden reflex button inside of me, I’m taken back to that night one year ago.
I see Walker’s smiling face as he holds my phone hostage…
I see his body, muscled and beautiful, shining in the sun…
I feel the chill of the water, followed by the heat of his hands and the deep life-changing stretch of my first time…
Oh my God.
“Yeah, but I didn’t know he was my step-brother then!” I counter, snapping out of my daydream.
“Right, but do you think it was wrong in retrospect?” she asks.
“I didn’t know, Mary!”
“I know that, Skylar.” I can hear the frustration in her voice. “But do you feel ashamed for doing it now?”
I think for a long moment then shake my head. “No.”
“Okay then,” she says. “So then what’s the big deal? I bet if you did it again, you wouldn’t feel bad about it either. I bet you’d only feel bad about it if you got caught!”
Try as I might, I can’t find the words to respond. She’s backed me into a corner, and she knows it; she’s just waiting now for my response. A twisting ball of anxiety is slowly beginning to spin in my stomach as I sit back on my bed and sigh.
“You know, you really should be a lawyer,” I tell her.
“Hey, if your dad’s hiring!”
Just then, there’s a loud bang from my walk-in, followed by the sound of footsteps. I barely have time to stand before my closet door opens, and a completely naked Walker steps into my room, dripping wet, looking like he’s just finished a photoshoot at the beach.