Stealing Her (Covet 1)

Impatience grew inside me. I didn’t know what any of that shit meant. “Look at him.” I pointed at my twin, my heart twisting. “He looks like he could wake up any minute. He’s moving his fingers, he even got mad at me and did it twice when I provoked him.”

“Mr. Tennyson.” He settled his hand on my shoulder, and I clenched my jaw. “He needs time to heal. We assume patients can hear us, but we also know that sometimes their movements can be a trick of the nerves trying to heal. Don’t lose hope, and we’ll keep doing our best, alright?”

“Yeah,” I croaked. “I won’t give up on him.”

“Good.” He smiled and held out his hand. I shook it and then turned to my brother and leaned down to kiss him on the forehead. “I’m sorry I didn’t protect you, Jules, and I’m sorry for what I have to do to make sure I never make that mistake again.”

I walked out of the hospital just as helpless as before. My brain was clouded with confusion as I drove a car I didn’t even own, a brand-new Maserati, back to the apartment and parked it in the garage.

I still had the USB in my pocket, but it seemed meaningless without Julian, because I couldn’t act without him. I couldn’t act by myself, and from what I’d already seen, I needed him in a huge way.

And unless a miracle occurred, I was truly stealing his life come this weekend—no, not just his life, possibly the love of his life.

And maybe the love of mine too.

Shit, how did it get to this?

When the elevator doors finally opened to the apartment, I was welcomed with the smell of spaghetti and bread.

My feet carried me to the kitchen, where Izzy sat with a glass of wine and a small grin on her face.

She was wearing nothing but black lace.

My brain refused to function past the fact that she was in lingerie and I was still dressed.

“Damn.” I was almost nervous to speak. “You look incredible. And here I thought I wasn’t going to get a preview.” Because I didn’t deserve one, because my brother had you first and I want to hate him for that, no matter how unfair it is.

“Thank you.” Izzy trailed her finger down the lacy strap of her bra and grinned. How the hell was I supposed to keep my hands off her? “Long day?”

“You have no idea.” I groaned and tried to think of more words to say, but my brain was misfiring, reminding me that she wasn’t mine to unwrap. “It smells amazing.” I sidestepped her and grabbed my own glass of wine and put the kitchen island between us, I needed some sort of barrier before I threw her on the counter and licked my way down her body.

“Julian?” I flinched at the name. Not today, not now. I would do anything to hear her say my name, anything. I hated that this was what it had come down to, me wishing she knew how much I cared and her thinking she already knew the truth because I was Julian. “You look tense.”

“I am tense.” Sexually repressed and tense, emotionally drained and in need of her legs wrapped around me. “It was just, I know signing my name on all those dotted lines saved a lot of jobs since IFC was going under. I get that it was good for the economy, for us, but it just felt . . . selfish and like we were never going to come back from this, like my dad just had one more thing . . .” I shook my head. “It’s just a lot to process.” I thought of Julian and me fighting over CDs, of him taking my shit and me getting annoyed and then having the thought that I would never treat him that way. It was like our roles had reversed at the worst possible time. Only this time, I was the one taking and he wasn’t the sort of guy to just let me have things.

“Julian?” During my mental breakdown, Izzy had somehow walked around the island and was now standing in front of me, nearly naked. I could touch her, I wanted to touch her. I couldn’t, I just . . .

I leaned in and kissed her on the cheek, my lips hovering near her mouth, tasting the wine in the air. “Sorry, I was just thinking. It’s been a really long day, like I said. Why don’t we sit and have something to eat?” I stepped around her and walked into the living room, grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around her shoulders. “Don’t want you to get cold.”

The blanket whispered down to the carpet. “I’m not cold.”

Fuck.

“No? Because you’re nipping out a bit there.” I palmed her breast, hoping it would be enough that she’d kiss me and I could escape without totally ruining her life.