Wrong: A Stepbrother Romance

This time, when he looked at me, he didn’t avert his eyes. “Why? You’re afraid Liam’s going to get pissed if you’re wearing my shirt? It’s okay. I’d rather he fuck me up than see you walk out of here looking like you got dragged through the trash.” When he caught the frozen look on my face, he gave something of a bitter laugh. “No need to deny whatever’s going on. It’s obvious – obvious enough that my sister’s literally pushing me on you to up her chances with him.”

I stared into the air. “God. I knew it,” I exhaled as I sat back against the wall. I was so tired and defeated I hardly wanted to move.

“Just take my shirt, Sasha,” Tuck insisted. “It’s long enough to cover you. Your dress has holes and stains at this point, just give it up.”

“Alright.” With dull eyes, I watched Tuck take off his shirt. His broad shoulders were tense as he undid each button, and I was thankful that he at least had a white tank underneath. “Thank you,” I muttered as I took the crisp button-down. I knew Tuck’s eyes were on me as I pulled it on. His stare was unblinking as the room filled with silence, but then he blurted out.

“Sasha, you’re amazing, and you deserve better.”

I cut my eyes to him. “Excuse me?” I stopped buttoning, quickly wanting nothing to do with his clothes.

“You know what I’m talking about,” Tuck said firmly. “I don’t know you well, but I’ve known you for awhile. I see you every year, and you get more beautiful every time I see you, but you never look any less broken. Or stressed. You never look as happy as I feel you deserve to.”

I tried to control my anger. “Maybe it just so happens that you see me at the end of the year, when everyone’s got a lot of shit going on.”

“Maybe that’s it. Or maybe you keep choosing guys who are wrong for you.”

I felt the fire in my eyes as I glared at Tuck. Right away, I started unbuttoning. “Forget it, I don’t want this. Give me my dress.”

He held it away. “For God’s sake, just wear my shirt so you can walk out of here decent. I’m not the bad guy here, I just want you to be okay.”

“Do you?” I challenged. “If that’s the case, stop prying into my personal life because you hope it’ll benefit you, and stop implying that you know how I should be living.” My hands shaking, I gave up on taking the shirt off. “I need to go now,” I decided, officially at my wits end. I thanked God that Tuck didn’t block the door as I rushed out, but I cursed the fact that he followed me down the hall.”

“Are you even happy like this?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know what I’m even asking?”

I didn’t look back as I answered. “You’re asking me if I’m happy in my relationship with Liam, and my answer to you is yes.”

“So you’re just going to keep your romantic life a secret forever, and let him boil in silence every time a man flirts with you – as if he’s supposed to assume that you’re taken by your stepbrother? Sasha, come on. Keep in mind it’s going to go both ways. You’re going to have to watch him get hit on, and something tells me his self-control isn’t quite on par with yours.”

I stopped in the middle of the hall. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“No?”

“No.”

Tuck gave a dubious look. “I’ve spent the past four or five winter holidays watching Liam fuck girls in bathrooms just like the one we were just in – after four, maybe five minutes of conversation,” he said. “I’m not saying he’ll cheat on you for sure, I’m just saying that if he’s got free reign to act single ‘cause you guys are a secret, the lines are gonna blur fast. Even I’ll admit it – he’s not the kind of guy who walks into a bar and goes unnoticed by girls, so really, Sasha, how long do you think he’s going to stay loyal for?”

“You know what, I haven’t thought about it, and neither should you,” I bit back.

“All I’m saying is you have more to worry about than he does, and it’s going to be a long fucking life if you spend every day lying about what you’re doing.”

“Lucky for you, it’s my life and not yours,” I said, turning to go back downstairs. My boots clacked furiously down the hall as I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand. I was so weighed down by every damned emotion pounding my brain that I wished I could just collapse to the floor and have Liam carry me home, but I knew it wouldn’t be so easy. I knew the second he saw me in this shirt, I’d have explaining to do. “Shit,” I hissed, looking down at Tuck’s half-unbuttoned shirt on my body. My trembling fingers tried to redo them as I went down the stairs.

But I got only two steps down before I saw Liam coming up.

“Sash?” He stared at me, processing first the sight of my tears and then Tuck’s plaid shirt falling off my body. I froze. My heart dropped when I saw the green of Liam’s eyes go from concerned to just blank. Dark and empty. Fuck. My legs shook but I tried to block his path because I’d heard so many times from Max about this look – the dark expression that cast over Liam’s face before he wreaked havoc. According to his words, it was a complete emotional shutdown because in seconds, it was about to get brutally physical.

“Liam, please – ”

I tried in vain to keep stop him, but he flew past me in a blur up the stairs, and before I knew it, he was face to face with Tuck, both of them muttering barely an inch from each other. Despite Tuck’s elbow in his chest, Liam powered into him.

“Tuck!” I screamed because he took the first punch and while it landed hard against Liam’s temple, I knew he was seconds from much worse. Everything was a blur as I ran to jump on Liam. I heard a grunt and a thud as I clung to his shirt and pulled him back. The words screaming from my lips were unintelligible. I couldn’t tell what was even happening. All I knew was that my feet were off the ground and suddenly, Aria’s voice was in my ear.

“Stay here. Stay here.”