Emily: Sex and Sensibility (The Wilde Sisters 1)

Jacob: “The hell it isn’t!”

“It isn’t. It’s my business. Period.”

Travis: “It’s our business, kid, and don’t you forget it.”

“It is not your business,” she said coldly, “and I am not a kid!”

“You’re our baby sister.”

“I am your twenty-four-years-old sister. Not your baby sister. Got it?”

“Why in hell didn’t you come home?”

Emily swung toward Jake. “Oh, I don’t know,” she said coldly. “Why didn’t you come home after you were discharged from the hospital?”

“I did.”

“No. You did not. You dropped by, stayed for a while, then took off.”

Jake shot to his feet. “That was different.”

“How was it different?”

“I’m a guy. You’re a girl. You’re our sister.”

Emily threw down her napkin and stood up. “That’s such bull, Jacob!”

“It’s not bull.”

“It is,” she said, turning toward Caleb. “Dammit, that’s what I’ve been my entire life. One of the Wilde girls. The Wilde sisters. The youngest one, the one who needs to be protected from the real world.”

“That’s not true,” Travis said.

Emily looked at Khan. “And you. Couldn’t you keep quiet? Couldn’t you keep what you saw to yourself?”

He rose slowly from his chair, his eyes dark, his mouth thinned.

“I did. For all this time. I kept quiet because Laurel said if you wanted help from us or your family, you’d ask.”

Emily raised her chin. “Smart woman you married.”

“But I could not keep quiet any longer.” His eyes narrowed. “I liked Marco. I believed him to be a good man. I never imagined, never imagined, that he would take the sister of my friends as his mistress.”

Emily snorted.

“Lovely. Mistresses are OK so long as they aren’t the sisters of anybody you know.”

Khan’s face reddened. “You are twisting my words.” He paused; she could tell he was trying to compose himself. “I would not have spoken, Emily. I would have kept my counsel… but when you ran, your family had questions. And they told me they were worried about you. That you have not been yourself. That you have been very quiet. That you seem so sad—”

“I am not sad,” she said and burst into tears.

“Oh, crap,” one male voice muttered, and then there was a general stampede and Jake, Caleb and Travis all tried to reach her at the same time.

Caleb got there first. He pulled her into his arms. She stood stiff, rigid, and then a sob broke from her throat and she fell against him, her tears soaking his flannel shirt.

“I’d like to get my hands on that prick,” Travis said.

“Get in line,” Jake said.