Everyone at the table went silent. Ava dropped her fork and turned to stare at me. “Garrett, honey… You didn’t tell me that.”
I rolled my eyes and tried to sink back further into the bench. Ava wasn’t having it and grabbed the arm of my tank and pulled me back up. “Nuh uh, what the hell happened? All you told me was that you got handsy with him this morning. Nothing about what really led to that.”
My face burned. Maybe it was odd that my cousin knew this much about my sex life but how close I was with my stepbrother was pretty strange too. I needed to explain what had happened.
I had their undivided attention as I told the story about how I’d invited Toby over intending to hook up. I had thought we’d been quiet and discreet enough, but how wrong I was. Ava thought it was hysterical that Tyler had caught us in the act in the shower. Lucy looked less amused by her girlfriend’s enjoyment of my humiliation. Jacob and Anthony sat quietly and listened.
I finished explaining about what had happened the night before. It had confused me to no end when Tyler had asked me to kiss him. Jacob seemed more interested after that. He held up a hand to stop my story.
“So you denied him?”
I stared at him, dumbstruck by his question. “Of course I told him we couldn’t do anything. He’s my fucking stepbrother.” My heart raced and I could feel the tips of my ears heating. Was I the only person seeing the flaw in this logic?
“But… he’s not your actual brother?” Jacob asked again.
I threw my arms up in exasperation. I was apparently the only person who didn’t see the problem with this scenario. “We’ve been ‘brothers’ since we were ten. Don’t you think people will look at us crazy?”
Ava nudged me. “Gar, hon. They already do. No brothers are as close as the two of you. Who still sleeps in the same bed when they’re nineteen years old?”
She had a point. I looked around the table and they were all watching me expectantly. “So I basically fucked up by touching him this morning after giving him a definite no. Even if I wanted to say yes?”
Lucy placed a hand on my shoulder. She was often quiet, but when she spoke up, her words were often full of wisdom. “Garrett, it sounds like he trusts you. Even if this all came out of nowhere. Well, maybe not out of nowhere. What’s the harm in helping him explore this?”
I swallowed thickly. Lots of harm could come of this. I wouldn’t survive it.
Tyler
“Getreadyyoulazyass.” Garrett rested his shoulder in the doorway and I glanced at him. Damn, he looked good, wearing an oversized T-shirt and cargo shorts. His loose curls fell across his forehead, and I swallowed as his intense stare met mine.
When I stood from my bed and stretched, his eyes stayed with me. I liked having his attention, although it also drove me insane because he hadn’t touched me again. Not since that morning after the shower incident, but I didn’t push him either. Garrett had given me a taste of what I could experience and then pulled away entirely.
I pulled my old T-shirt over my head and finished walking to the dresser to fish out a new one. I thought nothing of changing in front of him. Just because I knew he liked guys and just because he’d had his hands on my dick, didn’t mean I needed to act differently around him.
Right as my hand closed around the fresh white shirt, Garrett snatched it away from me. I blinked at him in shock. My breathing picked up when I realized how close to me he was. It had been four days, but who was counting?
The shirt was tossed toward the bed and I couldn’t care less if it landed there or not. I refused to break eye contact with the intense brown gaze that held me in place. He trailed his knuckles down my cheek and my face burned hot.
“Hey, Ty?” His tone was questioning, and I nodded dumbly, unsure about what he wanted to ask me. He hadn’t even slept in my bed for the last four nights, which had been torture. Without him, I questioned everything. Did I mess up somehow? Was he angry? I hoped I didn’t screw everything up.
Garrett’s warm hand rested on my bare shoulder, and I swallowed once more. My mouth felt dry and my pulse pounded in my ears. His soft eyes full of concern searched mine before he closed them and exhaled a deep sigh.
“What is it?” I asked. He dropped his hand and turned away. I grabbed onto his shirt, needing to know what had been about to happen.
He suddenly pressed my back against my dresser, and hot insistent lips slammed against mine. Gasping into the sensation, his slick tongue slid into my mouth. I groaned and looped my arms around his shoulders, pulling him into me.
His kisses were demanding and hungry. They were everything I’d been dying for since he’d walked away from me four days ago. I’d been so confused and I didn’t have anyone to talk to about this. Who wanted to jump their stepbrother out of the blue like I did?
As suddenly as things started, Garrett pulled away. I whimpered at the loss. He rested his forehead against mine, his curls pressed between our skin. I loved the feel of his hair.
His breathing was ragged, and it puffed against my moist lips. I tried to stare up at him, but he was so close that I couldn’t focus on him. I clutched at the shoulders of his shirt so he couldn’t run away from me. That couldn’t happen again.
“Ty…”
“Don’t—don’t talk me out of this again,” I panted. There was no way he was going to come in here and throw me off like this again and then tell me this couldn’t happen.
“I’m not going to, but we really need to go.”
I had to laugh in disappointment. Going to a party at his dumb friend’s house was the last thing I wanted to do right now. Not when he’d kissed me like that. I wanted to do more than the kissing, and if the hard-on that was pressing into my hip was any indication, he felt the same.
