I nodded. “You know you can.”
“I had the hots for you when we were growing up. Then you moved out and I didn’t know what the hell to do with myself. So I dated Allison.” His cheeks flushed red.
“She was your consolation prize?”
“Well, I sure couldn’t have you, Zo. You’re my sister.”
“Stepsister.”
“Same thing.” We went silent as I chugged my drink and he stared into his. “I shouldn’t have said anything,” he whispered as his finger swirled around the rim of his glass.
“If it makes you feel any better, I didn’t always consider you the annoying little brother I never asked for.”
The oven timer blared and broke the silence between us. As I checked the food and basted the bird with more butter, the heat from the oven toasted my cheeks. When I turned around, Theo was staring at me.
He cleared his throat before speaking. “What if we made it more weird? And then definitely forgot about it tomorrow?”
“What are you asking?” I thought Iknew what he was asking, but it was fucking insane, and I needed to make sure.
Theo stood and walked toward me, cornering me in the kitchen. The heat of the stove warmed my left side, and I felt the lip of the countertop stab into my lower back. I’d never seen his eyes such an intense blue.
“What if we fucked?” His hand wrapped around the back of my neck and the heat of his palm burned me more than the stove.
I swallowed hard. “Theo...” I shook my head. “We can’t do that.”
“Why not, Zo? We’re adults now.” I watched his full lips move as he spoke.
“Because you’re my little fucking brother.”
He smiled and bit his lower lip. “It’s a title, Zo, like when you call your supervisor your boss.”
“When I leave my job, my boss isn’t my boss anymore. When I left home, you were still my brother.”
“Then I’m your brother. But there’s no blood between us, only history. Legal? Perfectly. Ethical? Maybe not. But I’m okay with being unethical today.” He drew me closer to his mouth. When he spoke again, his breath brushed my lips. “I’m not asking you to marry me, Zo. That’d be fucking weird. I’m just asking for one time with you. Fulfill this little fantasy of mine, because I think it’s yours too.”
He was so close I could taste the warm hint of wine dancing across his tongue. He was right. I’d thought about what it’d be like more than once, especially over the last year. Pretty much as soon as he started dating Allison, I felt a sense of jealousy I hadn’t expected.
Theo leaned in and kissed me. His lips met mine and he tasted like candy. His hands lifted to my face and his kiss deepened. I let it happen, lost in the feelings circling through my body before a thought crossed my mind.
I pulled back. “Just don’t call me your sister while this is happening.”
“Will you call me your brother, though?” He forced his gaze into mine.
“Really?”
He rubbed the front of his slacks. “It may or may not be part of that little fantasy I told you about.”
Theo dragged me toward my bedroom. He knew where it was because we’d lain in that bed and talked for hours before, but when he pushed me onto the mattress, it took on a whole new meaning. It wasn’t a friendly conversation with the person who understood what it was like to deal with our parents. It was fiery and wrong. So fucking wrong.
I blamed the alcohol and the drugs for my hands unfastening the button of his pants and lowering the zipper. He batted my fingers away and crawled between my legs to kiss me. His hands hooked the waistband of my pants and tugged them down my thighs. A growl roared from his throat as he pulled them off and rubbed a hand over my panties. His strong, sure touch made my stomach tighten.
The moment he pulled out his cock, the guilt overtook me and suffocated me. “We can’t do this, Theo.” I shook my head.
When he wrapped his hand around his dick, it brought me back to the first time I saw it. I didn’t see him like that now. The handsome features on his face sometimes choked me from across the table at family dinners, and I’d spit my drink out like a teenager. Somewhere along the line, he’d developed the perfect appearance I chased and struggled to find. The cut of his jaw had deepened with maturity. The once thin and ropy muscles had blossomed into hills and valleys of visual pleasure. His eyes held a need for more than a picture of me. He wanted all of me.
Theo leaned over me until his lips found the curve of my neck. “Too late to turn back, Zo. I need to feel you.”
He kissed my chest and helped me out of my shirt and bra so he could get his mouth on me again. His tongue swirled around my nipple and sent goosebumps along my skin. Everything in me told me how wrong it was, that we should stop.
