On the wide sidewalk of Cass Avenue, shoes off and slung over her shoulder, arm in arm with Abbey and stumbling together in sweeping, stuttering arcs, he sees her. As the car pulls up alongside, tires wailing to an abrupt halt, the two girls get an incredible fright.
“What the fuck?” Abbey says, cowering as though she’s about to be hit.
Dante is on the sidewalk in front of them before either of them know what’s going on.
“Get the fuck in the car now”, he says, grabbing his stepsister by the arm. Sash is too slow to pull it away in time.
“What the fuck?” Abbey says again. “Dante?”
Sash tries to fight him off, but he’s got a grip on her arm he’s not willing to let go of.
“What the fuck is your brother doing here?”
“Stepbrother”, Sash says, feeling inclined to correct her.
“Whatever”, Abbey says, watching Dante wrestle Sash towards the car, unsure what she should do about it.
“Let go of me”, Sash cries out.
“Get the fuck off her”, Abbey finally says.
“You stay out of this”, Dante warns her.
The commotion has got the attention of a passing car. It stops a little further on and reverses up towards them. Back level, the window comes down.
“Is there a problem here?”
“Yes there’s a fucking problem”, Abbey says dramatically, “he’s kidnapping her. Look!”
“My stepsister is drunk”, Dante says evenly. “Her father is worried. He asked me to come and get her.”
“That his sister?”, the guy from the car asks Abbey.
“Stepsister”, Sash shouts.
“You want to go with him?” the man from the car says to Sash.
“Of course she doesn’t want to go with him, look at her”, Abbey says. “I mean what the fuck?”
The guy from the car regards Sash a moment. She’s gone weak in Dante’s arms, almost timid. She feels like there is no point in struggling any more, because it’s not going to achieve anything. She’s got his attention now, isn’t that what she wanted to do?
“Leave”, Sash says to them after a while. “It’s fine.”
“Sash?” Abbey asks.
“It’s fine, Abbey”, Sash says firmly. “Go on. We can take care of ourselves.”
“Alright”, the guy says and pulls back out onto the road.
“Sash?” Abbey asks again, completely confused by what’s going on.
Dante has loosened his grip, and Sash stands to the side of him now, head down like a scolded child.
“Just leave it, Abbey”, she says. “I’m drunk, I want to go home.”
“What about The Palace, and dancing the night away? What about forgetting that fucking douche, that for whatever reason you’re still hung up on, and finding someone who deserves you? You’re twenty one for Christ-sake, you don’t need your brother turning up like you’re still in junior high, telling you what you are and you aren’t allowed to do. Jeez, talk about a buzz kill. I mean, Jesus Dante, why don’t you fucking come with us? The night’s still young after all. When did you turn into such a fucking square?”
“You finished?” Dante asks.
“Fucking hell”, Abbey says, looking to the sky and then spinning around. “Lets get into the car and go and party. Guys? Jesus, this is New York!”
Sash is still quiet. She’s stood there wobbling a little bit from side to side unsure what she can say now. Dante has had enough.
“Go home”, he tells Abbey and with Sash firmly in his grasp, he makes for the car.
As it pulls away, Sash and Dante inside it, Abbey stares in disbelief. She can’t believe what’s just happened.
Sash folds herself into the seat. She’s too drunk and too tired to care about how she should even begin to think about handling this situation.
“Did you fuck him?” Dante asks.
“What do you think?” Sash says.
Dante pulls her upright. “Did you fuck him?” he asks again.
“No”, Sash says. For the first time in a week she fixes her eyes on him. “No”, she says again, softer this time. He’s scared, and she can see it. She’s given him a fright.
She rubs his leg affectionately, noticing with a bit of a shock that he’s hard. She pulls away again, remembering herself.
“What do you want, Dante?” she says.
“You, Sash”, Dante says. “I want you.”
Sash regards him as though she’s misheard. “Yeah? You’ve got a funny fucking way of showing it.”
Dante pulls her towards him. Urgently, he kisses her. Hot lips swelling and bites on sensitive skin. Sash fights herself away, and eventually Dante lets her go. His cock is throbbing so much it’s almost broken through the fabric of his trousers. No one else makes him feel like this. No one else has ever done anything quite like it to her either.
“Take me home”, Sash says, looking away at the city blurring past out of the window. She knows that if she lets him in, she’ll fall again. She knows she hasn’t got a choice either.
There is a silence while Dante regards her. In it, he knows things have already changed between them again. He can feel the power shift. The photos weren’t a warning, they were a come-and-get-me rescue call.
“You owe me a thousand dollars”, Sash says, still unable to look at him.
“We can talk about that tomorrow”, Dante says, his hungry eyes all over his stepsister, and the shadow where her legs disappear under the hem of her dress.
Chapter 9
It takes Sash a moment to realize where they are and why they shouldn’t be. This is her bedroom, Dante’s old one. When he opened the door, lifted her into his strong arms and carried her up the stairs, she was eighteen and innocent again, and she thought nothing of it. Now, as the moment clarifies itself, reality comes thundering back with it. She pushes Dante off her and sits up to look around the room. She feels an immediate need to panic as though what is expected of her in this situation automatically overrides the residual sensation of what she has always wanted.
“Home”, Dante whispers, as though fulfilling a promise.
Sash looks around the room. She goes to the curtain to look out onto the street. She goes to the door to make sure it’s shut and the light outside in the corridor is off. Finally she goes back to the bed and looks at her stepbrother.
“What are you doing?” she asks.
“Showing you how much I want you”, he says. “Proving to you that I mean it.”
His shirt is already unbuttoned. Now he takes it off and drops it casually to the floor. Sash watches him closely. His upper body is so perfect, he could have been carved out of stone to display at the entrance to a gated city.
“They’ll hear”, Sash says, shaking her head. “Stop, Dante. Not here.”
“Not if you don’t let them”, Dante says.
He begins to undo his trousers. The buckle of the belt first, the buttons next. Already she can see his bulge fighting to get out. She’s transfixed by it for a moment, unable to look anywhere else.