Owning Beauty (Taking Beauty Trilogy 3)

“I can’t do this,” I told her. “I can’t pretend like last night never happened. I need you, Madison, and not in the way that a brother needs his sister.”

I pressed my thrumming cock against her through her skirt. She gasped. I began lifting up the hem, revealing the creamy white tops of her thighs inch by inch until finally, I caught a glimpse of her underwear.

I pulled my dick out and nestled it against her crotch. I felt my balls seize and I snarled in her ear. “I could blow my load right here, Maddy. I could soak these panties before dinner, and your mother and my father wouldn’t know a thing. You’d spend the whole night with my cum staining your panties. That’s what you do to me. You make me want to do the nastiest things to you.”

Maddy shivered and looked up at me with hooded eyes. “Preston… Jesus, we can’t. What we did last night was wrong. I wanted it… We wanted it… But you know it can’t happen again.”

I pulled her panties open, letting the tip of my dick violate the space between them and her sweet, soaking wet lips. I thrust, overwhelmed by the sensation of being so near to her, of feeling my bulging head slip around in her honeyed nectar. “It has to,” I whispered. “Every time I look at you, all I want to do is get inside you again.”

I was so close. But Madison gently, yet firmly took me by the wrist. I could see lust in her eyes, but there was something else too. Maybe it was self-restraint, but it sure as hell looked like regret.

“We can’t,” she repeated, and this time there was no “maybe” in her tone. I withdrew and she let her fingers brush mine. “I’m sorry, Preston, but think of what could happen if we got caught…”

I nodded. As frustrated as I was, she made sense. But dammit, I didn’t want her to. All I wanted was to throw caution to the wind and bury myself in my darling little stepsister.

She fixed her skirt as I stuffed my dick back inside my pants. “Let’s hope there’s wine tonight,” I said as she slid into her seat. “I think I’m going to need it.”

“You and me both,” Maddy agreed as I closed her door.

Chapter 11

It was so strange not having Preston’s driver take us to our parents’ house. For the most part, he took us everywhere, and I’d grown accustomed to sitting in the back with my stepbrother and sipping sparkling water or sometimes champagne as Mr. Fletcher whisked us to our destination. Somehow sitting in the front seat with Preston felt more intimate to me, almost like we were a couple.

I looked over at him as the sunset painted his handsome face with warm, Technicolor hues. I wondered if, had circumstances not been what they were, I could have been with him. We probably never would have even met, had it not been for my mom, but if we had…

My heart threatened to break as I realized that I really could see myself with this man. We were like Romeo and Juliet, if they’d been practically related instead of just from warring households.

Yet our progression toward our parents’ home felt like an oncoming war. It would be a battle, certainly. My mother would see to that. One way or another, she would find fault. I almost wished I could tell her Preston and I had slept together. The look on her face might have been well worth it.

“I’m sorry,” Preston said beside me. I looked over and saw his lips drawn into a grim line. “If I crossed a line back there.”

I shook my head, resisting the urge to place my hand on top of his. “We both did,” I told him. And if I was being honest with myself, I wished we could again.

As we pulled up to the gate in front of Preston’s father’s house, I stared up at the magnificent estate looming just beyond. Preston’s grandfather had custom built it right after World War II as a present to his wife. I couldn’t imagine gifting someone an entire mansion, but life was different for people like the Harveys, even in those days.

I’d been here before, yet I still felt distant, like this place wasn’t really meant for me. Being at Preston’s side made me feel a little better, but knowing that I’d have to contend with my mother soon kept the hairs on my nape raised, regardless.

“Are you ready?” he asked me as we stood just outside the massive front doors. They reminded me a lot of the ones outside his office-slash-second-home.

“As I’ll ever be,” I affirmed, taking a deep breath before Preston reached up and knocked heavily on the door.

I heard the sound of heels clattering across marble, and a moment later, my mother’s face appeared as she pulled one of the doors wide to greet us.

“Well, Maddy, you’ve managed to get here on time. You must be growing up.” I bristled as she turned her gaze on Preston. “It was so kind of you to bring her. You must be exerting a positive influence.”

He smiled tersely. “Good evening, Vivian,” he said. It was obvious from his tone that he was trying to remind her to show some goddamn manners.

But my mother didn’t take the hint. Her diamond earrings sparkled in the fading light as she turned back to me. “It was nice of Preston to take pity on you like this. I hope you’ve thanked him.”

“Oh, trust me,” I said, fixing a grin on my face, “I most certainly have.” Preston nearly giggled at that. I thought his eyes were going to bulge right out of their sockets.

“Well, come in,” she sighed, as though burdened by my mere presence. She’d been doing a lot of that lately since she and Preston’s father had announced they were getting hitched. “Dinner’s almost ready. I really have no idea what takes this damn cook so long just to prepare a meal. It’s not like we expect her to catch and kill the chickens herself, or anything…”

She walked toward the formal dining room while we let ourselves in. As he closed the door behind us, Preston raised an eyebrow at me and said, “I thought you were ashamed of what we’d done?”

I shrugged. “If anything will get me through this evening, Preston, it will be the knowledge that if my mother ever found out about us, she’d have a stroke right there in her French onion soup.”

This time, both of my stepbrother’s eyebrows raised. “Does that mean there is an ‘us?’?”

“Let’s just get dinner over and done with,” I suggested, trying desperately to weasel out of having to answer. “If we survive, then we can have that talk.”

“Your wish is my command,” Preston replied, escorting me to the dining room where our parents were waiting. I bet he said that to every single girl he wanted to fuck…

The table was set with the kind of care and exactness that almost seemed compulsive. Preston was nice enough to pull out a chair for me, but as I sat down, I couldn’t even figure out where to put my hands. I didn’t want to ruin the delicate flower that had been somehow magically crafted from an ordinary cloth napkin, and God help me if I moved one of the pieces of silverware. They were placed at an exact distance from the edge of the table, each one gleaming as if it had never been used…

And knowing where I was, it probably hadn’t.

Despite my discomfort, I did my best to settle in as I pondered the need for two different forks. Food appeared in front of me almost as if by magic, flown to my table by a man in the cleanest pair of white gloves I’d ever seen in my life. The plate was a work of art. It would be a shame to tear it apart, but I was willing to face the peril. My momentary bliss was only broken as my mother spoke up.

“So, Preston, how is Madison working out for you?”

/> I rolled my eyes as my mother glanced at Preston over the rim of her wine glass. I knew what she was trying to do. She was hoping for some hesitation on Preston’s part, some sign that I wasn’t very good at my job.

I had no clue what my mother had against me, but whatever it was, she loved to take me down a peg at every opportunity.

But Preston didn’t hesitate. “She’s wonderful, really,” he answered as he cut his meat. We were having some kind of chicken stuffed with dates and herbs. “Best PA I’ve ever had.”

“Better than that Jane girl?” his father asked. “I thought she was working out rather nicely. It seemed to me that the two of you were… close.”

I looked at Mr. Harvey across the table. He was damn near the spitting image of his son, though with a touch of steel at his temples that made him seem more distinguished and intimidating. He had hawkish, amber-colored eyes that never left his son’s for one moment as he grilled him about his ex-assistant, and probably ex-girlfriend.

Preston and I hadn’t discussed Jane much in the wake of my arrival. I had a pretty good idea of what had been going on between them, but ultimately, it was none of my business. We’d not seen hide nor hair of her since the day she got fired, and neither of us had thought to bring her up.

But now I understood why Preston had entertained her for so long. Whether or not he was willing to admit it, I got the distinct impression that gaining his father’s approval was something he cared about very much despite how much he hated him. Families were complicated like that, I supposed.

He answered, “It didn’t work out,” and tried to leave it at that, but Mr. Harvey wasn’t having it.

“I can’t see why. Jane was a good match for you. When she was still around you very clearly worked harder than you ever have. She certainly seemed competent enough to me.”