She's giving me an easy way out, and I know I should take it. Yet my hands fist at the mention of losing her, and a snarl rips itself from my lips. I don't respond, and she steps closer, hands grabbing my jacket and pulling me in. I'm painfully aware that my brother is on the other side of the door. My brother, who doesn't know about any of this, and who has already put his own plan into motion to get June.
"Please, Kade," June repeats. "Tell me to stop."
She leans in close. It takes every vestige of willpower I have not to pull her against me and crush my lips to hers.
"Just tell me it's over. I'll go. I won't bother you again. Is that what you want, Kade? For me to disappear?"
I shut my eyes, trying to block out her pleading voice. If I ignore her for long enough, maybe she'll just leave. And I'll be beating my cock until the fucking morning thinking about the way she smells and the way her body feels against mine.
"You know what?" Her voice is small. She's giving up. "Fine. I'll go. You don't have to tell me. I can tell when I'm not welcome."
She pulls back, but before she can take a single step away from me, I've wrapped my fingers around her wrist and pulled her back.
"You're not fucking going anywhere," I hiss at her, pressing her back up against our front door. June takes a sharp breath, her eyes hopeful as they meet mine. "You keep fucking teasing me, June."
"I'm not teasing." Her voice is barely above a whisper. "I'm just asking for what I want... What I need."
“What do you need, June?” I ask roughly, wanting her to say it.
She’s shaking in my hands, but her eyes stay on mine, begging me for more. “I want you to make it better,” she admits. “I want the pain to go away.”
I think of her then, all alone in that huge fucking house. She didn't just lose us; she lost her mother and our father, too. And now she's all alone.
“I’ll only make it worse. This is not right. You know how pissed off they’d be.”
A moment of silence follows as we both remember our past mistakes.
“I don’t know right or wrong,” she whispers. Her hands flutter to mine, and her touch is soft, forbidden, and dangerous. “This time, they can’t stop us…”
I exhale for what seems like the first time in months, in years. My resolve weakens, wanting her so fucking badly. I’ve let our parents hold us back before, but that ends here and now. I’m done fighting my instincts.
I want June Wildfox, and tonight, I’m claiming her for myself. My brother be damned.
8
Kade
Our bodies are touching, and I can feel her heart beating wildly against my chest. We haven’t done it yet—haven’t done anything we shouldn’t have. But we're getting so fucking close. Dangerously close. I can feel June's breath on my lips.
But then she stands up on tiptoes, and her lips find my cheek. It’s a brotherly kiss if I ever saw one, but when she moves away, I see all that she can never ask of me in her eyes. And I’m a goner. I grip her arms and pull her even closer, her breasts pressing against me.
“Are you sure?” I whisper, only inches away from her pretty face.
Her eyelashes flutter, and she nods eagerly. "Don't you want to kiss me, Kade? Nobody's here to see us... or stop us..."
I lean forward, and my lips brush her forehead. “You want me to kiss you here?” I ask.
She shakes her head, and I move to her closed eyes, my lips gentle on her lids as she trembles in my hands. “Here?” I ask again.
Another tentative shake of her head follows. I slide my lips down her face, feeling her skin with my mouth. Finally, I stop an inch from her lips, resting my lips on her cheek. “Here?” I whisper roughly, barely able to hold back.
And she shakes her head again and whimpers against me, wanting more. So I do what she wants, what I’ve wanted for years. My lips touch hers, and I feel the tension between us. Her lips are soft, rosy, plump.
Wrong.
I bite on her bottom lip gently, and she asks for more.
Forbidden.
She crushes her lips against mine and pushes her little tongue in my mouth, exploring, desperate for me, wanting more.
We shouldn’t.
But we do.
We kiss, and I wrap my arms around her as though I’ll never let go. I ignore all the alarms going off inside my head, and I take her, claiming her as mine. I do what I’ve always wanted to do. June Wildfox will never be with another man. She belongs to me. Her mouth is ice cold, and mine is burning with heat. She melts into my embrace as our kiss deepens.
“More,” she whimpers when I try to move back, her hands desperately gripping mine. “Please, I need more.”
I obey. I kiss her until her knees go weak, and it feels like I’m the only force holding her up against the door of our apartment. And after what seems like hours, but minutes at the same time, I step back, and she nearly topples over, finding my eyes with hers.
“I’m…” She starts apologizing, but her sorrys drift off into silence.
“Don’t,” I say. She smiles, her hand flying up to her face and touching her lips, swollen from my kiss. “Don’t say you’re sorry.”
So I don’t, and we just look at each other, contemplating what we’ve done. Then a phone starts buzzing, and I realize this isn't the first time. I heard their vibrations while we were kissing but chose to ignore them.
"Fuck," she finally breathes, pulling out her phone from her designer purse. She nearly drops it; her hands are shaking so bad. But finally, she manages to pick up. "Hello. Yes, yes, I know. I'll be right there."
She pockets the phone and shoots me an apologetic smile. "My driver. I have to go."
"Now?" I want to ask her to stay, especially after what happened. But not when she won't even look at me, refusing to meet my eyes. She's regretting the kiss. She must be. "You don't want to come back in?"
"I can't." She tucks her hair behind her ear and contemplates her next words before finally looking at me. "Walk me out?"
We take the elevator down, but instead of being charged with sex, the air is tense.
June's limo is waiting in front of our building. Some people watch the driver get out. This is not a common sight in our neighborhood. I greet her driver, whom I know from the house where we all used to live. He doesn't show any surprise about me being there with June. I guess he gets paid not to.
"June, when will I see you again?" I ask her, hating myself for showing my weakness. I only have one, and it's her. "I need to know when—"
"I don't know," she cuts me off. "I'm sorry, I just... I don't know."
She rushes to the car, not waiting for the driver to open the door for her. As the car door slams behind her and the car drives off, I stare there, looking at it rounding the corner, feeling more confused than ever.
She was the one who initiated all this. She was the one who wanted me, who pushed me, who begged me to do this. And now she's fucking pushing me away again. Classic June.
I walk back home and let myself into the apartment. Parker's fucking beaming, and I want to erase that smile off his face because I know my girl put it there in the first place.