He had cupped her face in his hands, and their heads had moved closer together. Only a sound from the other room had made them jump apart before their lips met. Confused and guilty at the way she had suddenly noticed her stepbrother was a man, not just her relative by marriage, she had pulled away from him and run up to her room.
Remembering that, she did a similar motion, rolling away from him and dropping to the floor on all fours. Zoe got to her feet and glared down at him where he sprawled on the bed, looking bewildered.
“I wonder about a lot of things, Hale. Maybe about the kiss that didn’t happen, but I’m more curious about why you just left? You were gone the next day, and you never called or wrote to me. You didn’t even say goodbye.” Her voice broke on the last word as the pain from his departure returned as fresh as it had been the morning after the almost-kiss, when she had woken to find him gone.
His eyes widened, and he suddenly sat up in bed. As he swung his legs over the side, she gave in to the urge to flee, turning to run toward the door. Even in her bare feet, she would rather get out of the apartment than face down her stepbrother.
A second later, he grabbed her shoulder and spun her around. Zoe hit the wall, though his hand was behind her head to protect her. Hale trapped her there with his body, his hands on either side of her head. “Let me go.”
“Not until you listen.” He breathed raggedly, clearly angry. “I left because I didn’t have a choice. My dad saw us almost kiss.”
She swayed slightly. “Oh.”
“Yeah, oh. He blamed me, of course, because he’d seen how I’d been watching you for months.” His expression softened when she gasped slightly. “I’d wanted you for a long time, Zoe, and he knew it. He told me to get the hell out and not come back until I was over the sick obsession I had for my sister.”
“I’m not your sister,” she whispered.
“No kidding, but Dad doesn’t see it that way.” He sighed, his head sloping forward until their foreheads touched. “He arranged for me to work with one of his colleagues in London. If I didn’t leave that night, he was going to disown me. I would have been homeless, broke, and without anything to offer you.”
She licked her lips. “You could have called or written.”
His mouth tightened. “The first time I asked to speak to you, he told me I couldn’t and made it clear that would be the end of our deal if I persisted. He didn’t forbid me to write to you, so I sent casual letters that hinted at nothing.”
She frowned. “I never got them.”
Hale shook his head. “He probably intercepted them. Maybe he didn’t even bother to read them to find out they were harmless and bland. I guess he was afraid any interaction would encourage my feelings to last or grow deeper.” His silvery eyes took on a bluer cast. “I always wondered why you didn’t write back. I thought I must have terrified you with that almost-kiss.”
“It scared me, and it freaked me out, but I would have answered your letters.” She licked her lips again. “I was so angry and hurt that you just left without a goodbye, so I tried to forget the whole thing. It never worked though.”
“Why not?”
She shrugged. “I couldn’t forget you long enough. Every guy I went out with never measured up to you. Other than a couple of drunken hookups in college, I couldn’t get give the guys a fair chance.” Slowly, she put her hand on his chest, mesmerized by the rapid beat of his heart under her palm. “It took one moment in your arms for me to realize how I felt, and I’m still trying to get over it three years later.”
He cupped her cheek in one hand, the other still beside her head. “Me too. I thought I was over this, or could at least control it. I came home hoping to reconcile with Dad and be part of a real family again.”
“You shouldn’t have suggested I use your apartment.”
He shook his head. “No, but I thought I’d be in Europe most of the summer. The deal concluded early, and my boss sent me back here to set up his US office.”
“Oh.” She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Does that mean you’ll be moving back in?” Zoe rolled her eyes at the question. Of course he was returning to his apartment.
He nodded.
She drew her lip between her teeth, and he smoothed it out of her mouth with his thumb. Shivers raced through her at the light touch. “I’ll find somewhere else.”
“Stay with me.” He lowered his head, bringing his lips closer.
She stared at him helplessly. “Your dad hasn’t changed his mind about us, has he?”
Hale snorted. “I seriously doubt it, baby.”
“You want your family back. You deserve that. I can’t cost you—”
He pressed his thumb to her lips gently, but with enough pressure to silence her. “I was delusional. I never recovered from you, Zoe, and I never will. If I have to choose between you and having my dad’s approval, I will take you every time.” Hale stroked her lower lip tenderly. “If you don’t want me, or you don’t want to risk alienating your mom and sister, then walk away. But don’t leave to save me from my dad’s wrath.”
“Oh, Hale, of course I want you.” She arched her neck to offer her mouth, managing to get in one last sentence before his lips touched hers. “I’ve been waiting three years for you.”
“Feels like forever to me.” His lips were firm, but soft, as they molded to hers.
She pressed against him, hands grasping his bare shoulders as he wrapped his arms around her. His tongue slipped between her parted lips, and she stroked it eagerly. Her head spun, and her breath was trapped in her lungs, but she didn’t care. It was an intoxicating sensation, and she kissed him with all the longing she’d suppressed for three years.
Hale deepened the kiss, devouring her mouth like a starving man at a buffet. He gripped a handful of her hair to hold her head taut, allowing her no chance to escape. It was as though he couldn’t quite grasp that she had no desire to get away.
To establish her willing enthusiasm, Zoe moved one hand from his shoulder down his body in a leisurely fashion. His breath hissed into her mouth when she raked his nipple, but she kept going. When her finger slipped into his briefs, he arched his hips forward and issued a sound that was probably a strangled attempt at her name.
She broke the kiss to trail her lips down his chin, to the column of his throat. His hand remained in her hair, but he wasn’t restricting her movements. Zoe flicked her tongue across his skin, reveling in his groan of pleasure. Her hand dipped lower into his boxers, and she grasped the velvet length in her hand, stroking gently.
“God, Zoe.” He pumped his hips while tossing back his head as her mouth moved lower. When she twirled her tongue around his nipple, he tightened his hold on her hair, dragging her closer.
With a small giggle, she resisted his attempts and kept with her southern destination. His abdominal muscles twitched under tongue, and she giggled again. Stripping down his briefs to mid-thigh, she supported herself with her hands on his hips and sank to her knees.
He stroked her hair, looking down at her tenderly. “You don’t have to.”
She nodded. “I know, but I want to.” Gripping him firmly at the root, she guided his shaft between her lips, stretching to accommodate his girth. Zoe closed her eyes, savoring his sweet, salty fluid and the husky moans coming from her stepbrother. No, her lover. She had to stop thinking about him in any familial capacity.
Having his cock in her mouth helped with that, and as she sucked and licked, Hale transformed in her mind from stepbrother to lover. In her heart, she’d been awaiting this transformation for years, so it was not a major shift.
She’d already made it in incremental degrees, and it took only one more nudge to change her perspective.
“Stop, please.” With a groan that sounded like he was being tortured, Hale knelt to grip her biceps, easing her to her feet and leading her back to the bed.
She lay down willingly, completely sure she was where she wanted to be. Hale was right. If it came to a choice between him and her family, she would take her lover every time.
He laid down beside her, his mouth even with her stomach. Her tummy fluttered when he kissed a line around her belly button, pausing for a moment to tongue the hoop piercing. “Sexy.”
She grinned. “Thanks.”
He blew against her lower stomach as he drifted downward. “Any other surprises down here, baby? Pierced clit or something?”
She laughed. “No way. I’m not that brave.”
His tongue slid over her slit, barely brushing her insides. He lifted his mouth slightly. “You’re perfectly sweet without any special surprises.”
She would have responded, but his enthusiastic tongue worshipping stole the ability. Zoe twitched and arched under him as he probed her folds. His tongue was a firm taskmaster, demanding her pleasure with each masterful stroke or flick. He parted her lips to slide a finger inside her as he sucked on her clitoris.
She arched against him, calling out Hale’s name as he slipped a second finger into her dripping heat while his mouth continued working its magic. He sucked on the firm bud as he stroked her g-spot, making her explode into an orgasm that rocked through her and singed her nerve endings.
Zoe thought she might be screaming, but wasn’t sure. The only thing she could be confident about was the ecstasy rippling through her, the generous gift from her new lover. Her other disappointing attempts with different men had never yielded even a minor orgasm, and her own hand couldn’t compare. As she came, her world fractured and kaleidoscoped, reforming into a new reality with Hale firmly at the center of it.