“Wait, am I the first to know?” he asks as if he’s excited to be in on something no one else knows.
“I guess? His mom obviously knows that something’s been going on for years, but I guess technically, you are the first, yes. She made it perfectly clear when we were younger that what we were doing was wrong, so I guess that’s the reason behind our… hesitation to take this public.”
Memories of lectures that left me feeling like I was doing something wrong or that I was sick because of how I felt come flooding back, and an uneasy feeling forms in the pit of my stomach. And because Wild is so in tune with my emotions, he notices instantly.
“Dex, can we meet you back at the table?” he asks just as my gaze drops to the floor.
I vaguely hear his reply, but it doesn’t register as I’m thinking about a particularly ugly argument that ended with Sara telling me my father wouldn’t approve of this and, worse, that he’d be disappointed.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Wild’s hands are back on my face, and while they do provide comfort, I back out of his grasp.
I wrap my arms around myself to try to stop the chill shooting through my bones. “This isn’t the place for this conversation.”
“Then we’ll leave.”
“No. I want to stay. But are we crazy for this? I just had a vision of your mom freaking out on us like she did all those years ago.”
“Saint, we are not teenagers anymore. We are very grown adults,” he says, and I can see the concern etched all over his face like he thinks I’m running from the situation.
“Don’t you remember the things she said? Those things haven’t changed just because we’re older. She said we’re siblings and this is wrong.”
“Yes, I remember that, and if she doesn’t respect our relationship, then we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. ButI do think a lot of my mother’s frustrations and anger came out of us being teenagers and her trying to raise us both.”
“Okay, and what about your job?”
“Baby, the world is absolutely going to have their opinions about us being together. I can handle it. As long as I haveyou, I can handle it.” His voice is low, but the sincerity in his tone is so evident. “Do I have you?”
I nod. “Of course, you do. You’ve always had me,” I whisper.
He gives me a grin that makes me feel like everything is going to be alright, and nothing could ever go wrong so long as we have each other. “Let’s just try to have fun tonight, yeah?” He tucks some hair behind my ear and tilts my chin up slowly to meet his gaze. “I’ve waited so long to tell the world that you’re mine. Nothing is going to stop me now. Do you understand?” He slides his hands around me to rest on my behind.
I nod, feeling his possessive words thundering between my legs. “Yes.” He squeezes my butt in response before pressing a light kiss on my lips. We pull away, and I instantly sense movement in my periphery, and when I turn, I see the redhead from earlier.
My God, give it a rest, girl. He is not interested.
“You know… I recognized you, but I could not place you for the life of me,” Quinn says as she crosses her arms over her chest. “Until I remembered something… an article from one of your interviews.” She looks at Wild briefly before looking down at her phone and tapping her nail against the screen.
“My stepfather, Desmond, is what led me into this line of work. He was an architect, and he died when I was five in the most horrific of ways. Murdered in cold blood during a robbery in front of his daughter and me, my stepsister,Halle…” she reads from her phone, then looks up at us with an expression of pure judgment. “You go on about this beloved stepsister that youconsider more like anactualsister since your mother raised you both.” She blinks at me. “I assume you’re the Halle in question?”
“I don’t think I have to answer to you,” I respond instantlybecausefuck her and this pathetic act of jealousy.
“No, but Sebastian has to answer to a board of investors who may not want to continue doing business with a man who sounds like he’s in somewhat of an incestuous relationship.”
“Quinn, this is not your business. This has nothing to do with you.” He takes a step toward her and somewhat in front of me. “And I am only going to tell you once to kindly stay out of my business.”
“This is absolutely going to blow up in your face,” she says, pointing at us both. “No one is going to think this is okay.” She scrunches her nose. “Whether it’s illegal isn’t the question. It’s immoral, and people will be uncomfortable with it.” She snorts. “I’d hate to be on the PR team in charge of your firm when you go to them with this.” She raises an eyebrow before turning and walking away.
I realize my hands have been balled into fists this whole time until Wild has them in his hands, kissing both gently to try to loosen them. “What a bitch. You actually took her on a date?”
“It wasn’t a date, it was…”
“A date. Don’t bullshit me, Sebastian. You kissed her, and now, because she’s jealous, she’s about to be our intro into the world? What the fuck?”
“I’ll handle it. I’ll talk to my team when I get back to Seattle. She’s not going to say anything,” he says. While I believe he will handle it and that she won’t say anything out of fear of pissing him off, it wasn’t the point. People’s opinions were going to be loud and judgmental and seep into my soul the same way Sara’s had all those years ago.
“This is starting already. All I can hear is Sara’s voice telling us that what we’re doing is wrong.”
Halle: 16 years old
