Page 48

Because Daddy doesn’t fucking like tantrums. No he doesnot.

But it’s not so easy for me to dismiss the way she was acting. It’s more than a tantrum and I know it in my gut, in my bones.

If only I didn’t have this fucking urge to protect her, to hover over her, to keep all the darkness from stealing her light,life would be a fuckload easier. But it is what it is. Because she’s my light and my hope. The only thing I’ve ever fought for is her.

I hear the angry slam of a door upstairs. It surprises me, worries me. This hostility is something way stronger than her normal fire and spunk.

I sense it. But I also sense that now’s not the fucking time to follow her upstairs and set off a full-blown explosion.

Because she’s right. It’s a lot to take in. Just my coming home would’ve set things off-center; but add in the money, and the move, and last night?

I make myself a deal. I’ll give her an hour. And then she’s gonna talk to Daddy. One way or another.

I’m just on my way upstairs to see if she’s calmed the fuck down yet when there’s a knock at the front door.

That’s when I remember. Luke is coming for dinner with Edward and me. Normally, I’d be pumped to have a bite with my buddies. But not tonight because tonight, all I want is her.

Still, though, I’m notunhappyto see him. Even if he is fucking up my night with my sister. My lover. My obsession.

I open the front door and he opens his arms for a bro-hug. “Ho. Lee.Fuck.This place is somethingelse.Look at you, man, moving onup.”

I can’t help but smile. “Shut up, asshole.”

He pulls down his sunglasses and looks up at the ceiling of the great room. “You’re like the fucking Beverley Hillbillies. I’ll bet the HOA is petitioning to get your poor asses thrown out, am I right?”

I head toward the kitchen and he follows. “Don’t know, man. I spent three hours with a tax attorney today. Being poor is a fuckload less paperwork.”

I hand him a beer and he shakes his head at the view. “For a place like this, I’d sell my fucking soul to your tax…”

The sound of Kat’s footsteps interrupts him, and then she rounds the corner. She’s got her hair in two pigtail braids. In a white eyelet cotton dress. Tits like vanilla pudding. My dick throbs as soon as I lay eyes on her.

And Luke’s mouth falls open as he sees her.

“Jesus. I thought theview was pretty, but justlookatyou,” Luke says, with eyes locked right on her.

A surge of anger, of jealousy, of fucking white-hot rage seizes me, but before I can say a word, Kat sticks out her hand. “Hi. I’m Kat. Trent’s…step-sister.”

“You’re Kat? Get the fuck over here, lady,” Luke says, and embraces her in a tight bear hug. “He talked about you all the fucking time.”

He holds her so tight, her arms can barely move. And the tips of his fingers are right at the top of her honeysweet curves.

“Hands. Asshole.Hands,” I growl.

“Sorry. Fuck, sorry,” Luke says, letting her go and stepping back. “Just… it’s been a long time since I’ve been near a girl as pretty as you.”

Kat hits me with a glance. I can’t read what’s behind it—but she looks willful, almost bratty. And just that glance is enough to make me rock fucking hard.

I want to fuck the brattiness out of her over the damned kitchen islandright now.

“It’s okay,” Kat says, her voice flirtatious, sexy. “Trent was the same way yesterday whenhesaw a pretty girl. Weren’t you, big brother?”

I narrow my eyes at her.You’re not a pretty girl. You’re my fucking property.

I snap my tongue over my teeth on a sniff as she pops an eyebrow my way. “Thought you were going to take a nap. Heard your door slam.”

She swallows and takes a deep breath, making her pudding tits rise and fall. “You said you were having Luke for dinner and I didn’t want to miss it.”

Fuck. If only she knew what she and those pigtails were doing to me right now, she wouldn’t be sounding so careless and sweet.