Juliet stood on my porch completely soaked, her hair plastered to her face, and her thin T-shirt clinging to her body. Rain streamed down her skin as another crack of lightning lit upthe sky behind her. She looked small and determined and far too beautiful standing on my porch in the middle of the storm.
“My parents are fighting again,” she said, her voice shaky. “I couldn’t listen to it anymore. I just… I didn’t know where else to go.”
The sight of her hit me like a freight train. I should have reminded myself over and over again that this was my step-niece. But no. I saw her as a woman standing on my doorstep with water dripping from her lashes, clothes drenched and clinging to her beautiful body. Juliet looked like someone I wanted to make mine. Every instinct in me roared that I should send her away.
But, I stepped back and let her inside.
She walked in, dripping all over the floor, and wrapped her arms around herself. The power was still out, so the only light came from the lantern on the table and the occasional flash of lightning through the windows. Thunder rumbled so loudly it shook the walls.
“You shouldn’t be here, Juliet,” I said roughly, standing on the other side of the small room.
She looked up at me, eyes bright even in the low light. “Why have you been avoiding me? You’ve barely spoken to me in days. You disappear every time I walk into a room. What did I do?” Her voice cracked a little on the last question, and it wrecked me.
“You didn’t do anything,” I muttered, dragging a hand through my hair.
“Then tell me what’s going on.” She took a step closer, water still running down her arms. “Because I’m tired of pretending I don’t feel this thing between us. I know you feel it, too. I see the way you look at me.”
I tried to hold my ground, but she kept stepping forward until she was standing right in front of me, close enough that I could see the raindrops clinging to her lips.
“Juliet…” My voice strained. “This can’t happen. You’re my step-niece. I’m too old for you. I’ve known you since you were a kid. This is fucked up on every level.”
Her gaze didn’t waver. “I don’t care about any of that.”
“I do,” I snapped, the words finally breaking free. “I want you. God help me, I want you so fucking bad it’s driving me insane. But nothing can happen between us. Nothing. It would fucking destroy everything.”
For a second, she just stared at me, breathing hard, like she knew exactly what she was about to unleash. Then she closed the last few steps between us, rose up on her toes, and kissed me.
The second her mouth met mine, every wall I’d built came crashing down.
The kiss wasn’t soft or sweet. It was desperate and messy, and so much pent-up need exploding between us. I groaned against her lips and grabbed her waist with both hands, yanking her flush against my body. Her soaked clothes clung to every curve, and I could feel the heat of her skin beneath my hands.
She made this soft, needy whimper into my mouth that shot straight to my cock. I was instantly rock hard, throbbing painfully against the front of my jeans, my body reacting so fast it made my head spin.
My hands slid up her back, gripping the wet fabric of her shirt, feeling the way her body trembled against mine. I kissed her deeper, my tongue sliding against hers, tasting rain and heat and everything I’d been dying for.
Blood rushed south so intensely that my head spun and I barely stayed on my feet. I was aching and leaking pre-cum in my briefs, my cock straining desperately against her stomach as I held her tighter. The shame of how badly I wanted her, how fucking wrong it was, only made me kiss her harder, like I was trying to punish us both for how good it felt.
For a few dangerous seconds, I let myself drown in her. Then reality crashed back in. I tore my mouth away and stepped back, breathing like I’d just run ten miles.
“You need to leave,” I said, my voice raw and broken.
“Bastian—”
“Go, Juliet. Now. Before I do something we can’t take back.”
She stood there for a moment, lips swollen from our kiss, chest rising and falling fast, rain still dripping from her hair onto my floor. Her nipples were stiff peaks, so fucking hard and straining against her too-wet and thin shirt. The sight alone nearly made me come in my pants.
But instead of turning away, she stepped closer, her eyes locked on mine with a stubborn heat I’d never seen before. “No,” she whispered, her voice shaky but determined. “I’m not going anywhere.”
The words hit me like a spark on dry tinder. My cock was still painfully hard, throbbing against my jeans from that one desperate kiss, and having her stand here refusing to leave was testing every last bit of control I had left.
“Juliet, you don’t understand what you’re asking for,” I rasped, my hands clenching into fists at my sides so I wouldn’t reach for her again. “If I touch you right now… I won’t be able to stop. Not with how badly I want you.”
Her gaze dropped agonizingly slow down my body, lingering where I was obviously straining against my jeans. When her eyes came back up to mine, her expression was bolder than before.
“Then don’t stop,” she said softly, stepping even closer until her wet body was nearly pressed against mine again. “I want this. I want you. I’ve wanted you for longer than I should have.”
Fuck.
