She always has been. Caring, loving, ambitious—did I mention gorgeous?
She’s everything I’veeverwanted.
At one point during the night, I woke and turned to watch Hollis as she slept. Her top had fallen to one side, exposing the gentle curve of her breasts, and I’d had to ball my hands into fists to stop me from reaching over and stroking the smooth skin there. If I had, I was sure she would have woken up and slapped me. Revisiting the image was enough to tip me over the edge, and I came with a strangled grunt. I slumped back against the cool, white tiles of the shower and let my head fall back, the jets splashing down on my body.
It had been a long time since I’d rubbed one out for a fantasy like that.
Squeezing a little shower gel into my already sticky palms, I lathered up and cleaned myself off. Instead of coming out of the shower all refreshed, I was more frustrated than when I’d gone in despite jerking off. I wrapped a towel around my waist and headed backto my bedroom, pausing outside Hollis’s door, listening to see if she was there. I raised a hand to knock. Even if she was there, what would I say? Could I tell her I had stronger feelings for her than just being my best friend’s sister? And what if she laughed in my face? We still had to live together, after all. Dropping my hand back to my side, I went to my room, pulled on a pair of boxers, and tried to sleep.
An hour of tossing and turning with racing thoughts wasn’t exactly conducive to falling asleep. After a while, I decided to get up. Maybe a glass of water would help. And late-night, mindless television to numb my mind. I didn’t bother to put on any other clothes and padded downstairs.
When I entered the kitchen, I saw Hollis standing at the sink, a glass in one hand, staring out at the garden.
“Couldn’t sleep either, huh?” I asked.
She started, water sloshing out of the top of the glass. “Shit, Jase. You scared me.” Turning to face me, she placed the glass on the side and dried her hand on a tea towel. “I thought you were Gil.”
“What would Gil be doing here?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Tracking my phone, that sort of thing.” Her tone was sarcastic, but I knew the truth behind it.
“He wouldn’t come here. Not with me and Finn around.” I stepped towards her, suddenly acutely aware all I wore was a snug pair of boxers that really didn’t leave anything to the imagination.
Hollis nodded absently, chewing on her bottom lip, although I could sense she didn’t really believe me. I wanted to pull her towards me and wrap my arms around her. The bloke had some really fucked-up ideas about what a relationship looked like. I was glad Hollis was far away from him.
“Can I do anything to help?” I asked at last.
“I shouldn’t really be laying all this on you, Jase. It’s bad enough I turned up here out of the blue, and now, I’m back in your life.” She hugged her arms around herself. Her own clothing wasn’t much better than mine: a cropped T-shirt that showed off her flat stomach, and a pair of sleep shorts with ruffles around the edges that stopped shy of exposing her arse. I swallowed, trying not to notice how hard her nipples were poking through the material of her top.
“You’ve never really been out of my life.”
She shrugged, the tiniest smile crossing her features. “I know. But I left to be a high-flyer.” She put air quotes around the last two words, and I dragged my gaze upwards to her face. “Finn took everything on here, and I didn’t give it a second thought until recently.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Finn knows you care about this place, and the businesses. You wouldn’t have agreed to be a part of it otherwise.”
Her shoulders sank. “I guess. Doesn’t make me feel any less guilty, though.”
“Is that what’s keeping you awake?”
Hollis turned back to the sink and refilled her glass. “Maybe I could try going back to bed.”
“I’m here for you, you know that, don’t you?” I offered. “If you need to talk about what happened with Gil.”
She sighed. “I’ve told you most of it anyway. Thanks, though, Jase. It’s good to know you’re there.”
The air of sadness and vulnerability surrounding Hollis made me want to take her in my arms and hold her tight. It couldn’t have been an easy time for her, with everything she’d been through with Gil, taking the decision to walk away from a life in the big city and returning to the smalltown she’d grown up in. Hell, even moving back to the family house must have been hard.
When she went to leave the room, her face was streaked with tears.
“Hollis…” In a moment, I’d closed the distance between us, taken the glass from her, and fulfilled the thought I’d had. She snuggled into my chest, her shoulders heaving as she let out all the emotion and stress of the day, maybe even weeks. I stroked her hair as she sobbed, wetness coating my bare chest. The closeness of her body, the feel of her skin against mine all conspired against me, and I felt the beginnings of an erection.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
This can’t happen.
Frantically, I tried to turn my mind to other banal things, trying to name the whole of the latest England World Cup squad, going through as many of the MotoGP circuits as I could remember—who all the members of the Sugababes had been.
Before things got too hard—literally—Hollis pulled away, swiping at her face. “Oh, God, Jase. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for that to happen.”
