Page 49

She slams the door and stalks away, leaving me sitting in the car in stark silence.

Fuck.

A few hours later, I lay on my bed, staring into the darkness, the cacophony of Hurricane Ana slamming against the windows keeping me company. My mind is a mess.

The shrill ringing of my phone interrupts my thoughts.

“Liam, how’s your grandmother?”

“She’s stable, thank God. Just a broken leg, but they’re going to monitor her a bit. Thanks for bringing Lexy by. How’s work? Did you get what you needed done at the library?” Cars honk in the background. He must be on the road.

“It’s fine.” It was an excuse anyway. There was no way I was going to tell him I was meeting a girl at the library. And thank God for that, because that girl turned out to be his sister.

“Just fine? I thought there was some shit going on at work?”

“Nah. Trey saved my ass again. I thought there was an inconsistency in my financials, but he double-checked and everything balanced.”And this is why I want to start from the bottom. I need the experience before I become a CFO.

“By the way, I’m spending the night at the mansion to keep Lexy company. Charles had to fly out for a business trip.”

“All right.” Her wounded eyes appear in my vision again and my chest seizes.

Is she okay? Is she sad? Angry still? Does she miss me?

“Hey, did she tell you anything in the car? Even after we got the good news about Grandma, she still looked really upset. She told me it was because of an upcoming test for her finance class, but I’m not so sure.”

I swallow, my mouth running dry. Keeping my voice light, I reply, “No. She didn’t say anything. She was pretty quiet.”

“Huh. That’s not her. Maybe it is the finance class then. She always hated numbers. Never did well in these types of classes at Broadbent either.”

“Finance and math are a different language, just like your coding and computer science. But once you figure it out, it’s easy.”

“Right.” Liam mulls over that for a few seconds. “Hey, can you do me a solid?”

I frown, my muscles tensing from the tilt of his voice. I won’t like what comes out of his mouth next.

“Tutor her for me. She’s asked Charles, but he’s slammed at work. I don’t know finance or else I’d do it myself. But heck, even if I do, she’ll never listen. We’ll just fight the entire time. You’re the up and coming financial genius. Help her—teach her that ‘language,’ will you?”

My heart throttles to life and I bolt up on my bed. See her with her brother’s blessing? Be close to her? Maybe touch her? My mouth forms the word, “yes,” when my conversation with her in the car floods in.

How the hell will I be able to stay away from her? Keep my distance? Keep my promise to Liam?

It’ll be impossible.

“I’m not sure—”

“Serious, Dels. I’ve never seen her this focused before. Ever since she started college, she’s got this drive—I can’t explain it. But she’s happy. She’s talking about doing marketing in the future. This class is important to her. Please help me out. There’s no one I trust more with my little sister than you. She’ll have a bonus brother. She’ll love it.”

A bonus brother.

Trust.

He used to say I couldn’t meet his sister because he didn’t trust me enough, but now he does. And it’s worse—it’s a betrayal.

He’ll kill me if he knows what my dreams late at night are. How I can’t fall asleep until I’ve fucked my hand to the thought of his precious little sister.

“Dels?”

I release my breath, my heartbeat now blaring an emergency alarm inside my rib cage.