“Is… is he okay? Are they all okay? Kali? T-Taylor? Corey?”
He gently leads me into the room and sets me beside a woman with tears streaming down her cheeks.
“There’s no news. They just set us all in here. You’re with family. We’ve got you.”
Heat builds behind my eyes as I sit, my leg shaking uncontrollably. This feels wrong just sitting here. My gaze drifts around the room: mostly women, but a few men. They all look as I feel—dreadful.
“How long have you been here?” I ask, terrified of the answer.
“About an hour.”
My chest tightens. If I lost him while lying in bed, scrolling on my fucking phone… I don’t know how I’d live with myself.
“I’m Delilah.” I turn to the woman with watery brown eyes. “Corey’s wife.”
“Ayden. Keoni’s…” The hesitation cuts deep. I don’t want to lie but I don’t want to introduce myself as his stepbrother either. I could say friend… but that’s not what is true in my heart. “I’m…”
She places a hand on my back. “It’s alright. I understand.” Odds are she thinks I’m shy about my sexuality, which… I guess I don’t mind leaving it at that.
I want to be his boyfriend. I want to be with him. I just… want him to be alright.
That night can’t be the only time I felt his lips on mine.
It can’t be the only time I’ve ever felt like I was exactly where I was meant to be.
Age 17
The door at my back feels cold, but when Keoni licks his lips, my body warms.
“Ayden, I?—”
I stride toward him so fast he barely catches a sharp breath before I slam my lips against his. The thump of his back hitting the wall is overshadowed by his groan into my mouth.
I grab onto his shirt just as he clasps the back of my head, tethering me to him.
It’s like I’ve been lifted out of the boring, ordinary world, away from this entire plane and placed into the sky.
He turns his head, and I mirror him, pulling him closer, wanting this—needing this beyond anything I could’ve imagined.
He pushes me back, and I don’t resist; tasting him makes me lose my damn mind. His tongue flicks into my mouth, and I thinkhe’s waiting for me to respond.
I don’t hesitate, and as our tongues tangle, I fear I’ll never want anything but this. My stepbrother. The one that was meant to be mine.
My back hits the bed, and without collapsing entirely on top of me, he follows.
One of his knees hugs my hip while the other presses between my thighs, and I can’t help but moan.
“Fuck,” he mutters, biting my bottom lip. “Ayden. I’ve waited so?—”
“Oooh,brothers of mine.”
Every bit of me snaps into anxiety mode. It isn’t just her voice either, the bedroom door is opening.
I catch the panic in Keo’s eyes as he immediately pushes himself off me. He scrambles so far away that his back slams into the dresser.
My gaze shoots to Alysa, who’s walking backward into the room. “Could they be in here?” She turns, grins at me, then looks between us. “Yes, they are!”
And no more than a few heartbeats later, our dad and stepmom appear in the doorway.
