Flattening her palms on the mattress, she straightens her shoulders, leaning back into my hand on her neck. “At that time, my life had been falling apart, but I didn’t hesitate to pack what I could in my car and drive home. To take care of her. And now, she’s better, but cutting-edge heart surgery, even with insurance, isn’t cheap. Fending for her and myself ate up what little savings I had, and The Rabbit Hole doesn’t even begin to cover the co-pay on her medical expenses and the surgery. That’s why I went to see Dan today.”
At that time, my life had been falling apart. That part of her confession is still cycling in my brain when the puzzle pieces of why she’d shown up to Sunday dinner clicked into place. She’d needed his help.
“When we were younger, he set up education funds for my sisters and me,” she continues.
“Simon and I didn’t even know he had two other daughters,” I say, still stunned that they’d never been mentioned. I’ve known Dara for the five-or-so years she’s been working at the bar, and I’d had no clue she was family. Hell, I can’t lie. Realizing Dan hadn’t acknowledged his other kids to us has suddenly altered my view of him. Why was only Cypress good enough to bring around? Did Dara and their other sister not matter?
“Yes, he cheated on my mom. Neither Dara nor Jesse have close relationships with him, but they accepted the money he set aside for us. I didn’t and was damn proud of the fact that I didn’t need him or his help. But now…” She pauses, giving another of those barks of laughter, but softer this time. Tinged with more than a little bitterness. “Now, I need that ten thousand dollars to help pay down Mom’s bills, and I can’t afford pride.”
“He said yes, right?” What kind of man could turn down his own flesh and blood when she came to him for help? Dan might’ve kept his own secrets, but the stepfather whom I’d known for years couldn’t turn his daughter away.
“Oh, he said yes,” she affirms, but her tone is…off. More of that bitterness, resentment. “With conditions. I send him the bills to pay because, given my current life choices, I can’t be trusted with the money. And also”—her lips twist into a hard, arctic smile—“I can’t be trusted to keep my hands off my stepbrother. So as long as I stay away from you, he’ll keep covering the medical expenses.”
“The.Fuck,” I rasp. On reflex, my hands tighten, squeezing her neck and jaw. Deliberately, I ease my grip, but nothing can dam up the rage flowing through me like a flash flood, swollen and furious. “Are you kidding me?”
“No, Jude. He finds out we’re involved in any way, and he cuts me—cuts my mother—off. And I didn’t ask him for an exact definition of ‘any way,’ but I’m pretty sure living with you would fall under it.”
She pushes to her feet with a small groan that, in spite of the still hotly running anger and the topic under discussion, grips my gut with a hard, greedy cinch. Given my body’s involuntary reaction to anything she does, I should accept her answer and retreat. But unlike that night we spent together, my little head isn’t ruling my big head.
She’s still homeless—’cause this motel barely qualifies as a room, much less a home. And I have the space. Plus, there’s just no way in hell I’m leaving here without her behind me.
None of those factors have changed.
“So we make sure Dan doesn’t find out,” I announce. “Does he know where you’re at now?”
“No,” she says, hesitant.
“Will your sisters cover for you?”
She frowns, scanning my face before replying, “We have each other’s backs no matter what. But…”
“Then if he asks where you’re staying, you tell him you’re with one of them. If there’s no love lost between them, it’s not like he’ll drop by and check for himself. In the meantime, you stay with me until you find an apartment. I have a guest room that’s yours. And sweetheart—” I lean forward, lowering my head to hers until our mouths are bare inches apart. “I’m not asking. Now unless you want a roommate in this fine establishment, I suggest you pack your shit so we can get outta here while our cars still have tires and rims.”
Several emotions march across her face like an advancing army: shock, outrage, confusion, then—thankGod—capitulation.
“Fine,” she murmurs. “But only until I find a new place.”
“Whatever you want.” I’d agree with the pope deciding to convert to a Southern Baptist. Anything just as long as it gets her moving.
“And we keep things platonic between us. No fucking.” She waves a hand back and forth between us. “No repeats. You’re my stepbrother helping me out.”
My cock throbs with an outragedThe hell you say!but I nod. It’s smart not to muddy these already dirty, turbulent waters. Sex never simplified a damn thing, just made everyone lose their minds.
From this moment on, Cypress is my roommate.
Who happens to be my stepsister.
Who happens to be the woman I can’t purge from my mind and who makes my dick hard.
Yeah, this is going to work out just fine.
Chapter Eight
Cypress
The biting March wind chaps my face and creeps beneath the turned-up collar of my coat as I stride up N. Western Avenue. For most native Chicagoans, forty-one degrees isn’t that cold. But not living here for eight years, my blood has thinned. And now, more than ever, I’m worshipping California weather. This time last year, I was stepping outside in a shirt and shorts, basking in the moderate seventy-degree days. There, boots were a fashion statement, not a necessity. Now, striding through dirty slush that’s a result of last week’s snow and yesterday’s rain, I’m asking myself what the hell I was thinking to leave the City of Angels.
With a breath of relief, I close in on Hard Knox Ink. It’s nearing seven o’clock on a Friday night, and the bars and cafés across from the tattoo shop are already busy with customers strolling in and out. The door opens on the small, live-music venue across the street from the shop, and laughter and loud conversation pours out. It’s still too early for the live acts, but apparently there’s already a good crowd getting ready for one that’s coming up this evening.
