But now a woman is living in our house, and not just any woman. She’s our father’s girlfriend’s daughter. Well, Adelaide was recently upgraded from girlfriend to fiancée, so I guess that makes the scowling girl who snarled at us in the hallway our stepsister-to-be. I snort as my mind drifts over her abrasive introduction. Just pretend that I don’t exist, she said.
I run my hands over my head to smooth out the residual water and step out of the shower to dry myself. Maybe I’m an arrogant ass for expecting Cora to be just a little thankful that we’re accepting her into our home. Not that we had a choice. Good old Randolph, aka dad of the year, didn’t exactly give us a choice, but Cora doesn’t know that.
Instead of being grateful, she thinks she can walk into our house and bark orders at us. She wants to make the rules within five minutes of stepping over the threshold. She looked down her nose at us like we were something brown she trod in on the sidewalk.
We went from pissed that Cora was moving in but resolving to be polite, to flat-out pissed off in the space of five seconds.
Well, if little miss Cora wants to treat us like assholes, we might as well act like assholes.
Pretending she’s not there will be fun, and yes, I sound like a juvenile douchebag for wanting to play games, but sometimes people need to be taught a lesson, and it seems Cora is one of those people.
Tobias came up with the idea of taking Cora’s orders literally. I got to be the first to show her exactly what it would be like to live like a ghost in a house full of men. Forget keeping our private business out of the communal areas. This house is ours, and Cora will see everything that goes on here, whether she likes it or not.
Maybe she’ll resort to sitting in her room alone. Maybe we’ll succeed in getting her to move out. Either of those would be great.
Like we told Dad, a house of men isn’t the right place for a girl who isn’t family.
I don’t bother to wrap that towel around my waist as I leave the bathroom, sauntering to my room as though I have all the time in the world. I’m hoping that Cora will still be in the hallway so that she can blush at the sight of my cock again and find interesting places on the wall or ceiling to fix her gaze.
Those pretty pink lips of hers parted just enough to let me know what she was thinking about. Girls pretend they’re all virginal of thought when their minds are just as dirty as any man. She was thinking about getting on her knees for me. She was thinking about opening her mouth and letting me push my cock down her tight little throat.
Fuck.
Getting hot for the enemy has to be off the table. I don’t want to be tempted by a woman who looks at me with disgust.
Cora isn’t in the hallway.
I’m quick to dress, initially pulling out a gray tee and black joggers, then deciding against the tee. The number of clothes worn in this household is about to decrease drastically.
Grabbing my phone from my desk, I head downstairs, wanting a snack before beginning phase two of the plan to annoy Cora.
The doorbell rings just before eight pm and doesn’t stop ringing for the next hour as most of the contacts from my phone begin to arrive for the party that we planned last-minute. I’ve invited some of my modeling contacts. It’s a cutthroat and superficial world, but I’ve managed to find a handful of decent people since I was signed by Astral Models Inc. Alden’s group are rougher round the edges, with their chipped and dirty fingernails synonymous with the artist crowd. Mark’s friends are an eclectic group. Some of the people who work at his accountancy firm are straightlaced, and some appear clutching bags of booze like they’re desperate to drink away the boredom of their number-crunching existence.
Tobias and River are still at college, and as they both play football, their friends are a mix of giant athletes and tiny but fierce cheerleaders.
Between us, we manage to fill the downstairs of the house at short notice. The sound system gets louder and louder. The people get drunker and drunker. Between my fourth and fifth bottle of beer, I forget why we arranged a midweek party in the first place.
“Danny!” The voice that calls out to me is high-pitched and excited. As I turn, I find a girl, who I’m sure Tobias has fucked, pushing through the crowd toward me. What’s her name? Ellie, Allie?
“Hi,” I say as my alcohol-softened brain tries to remember something I never cared to learn in the first place.