Page 21 of Wanting What’s Wrong

Seventeen

Trent

A s soon as I hear her walk in the door, I can fucking tell something’s not right. “Kitty Kat. You good?”

I hear her drop her purse and kick off her sandals. “Yeah. Fine.”

“Where’d you go?”

“Just out. Needed some things. Girl things.”

Bull shit. I cross my arms and wait for her to walk into the kitchen. She walks in with her eyes down, looking pissy. But otherwise impossible for me to read.

I figure I’ve got two options here. Push her for details, or let her come to me. Fuck knows I pushed her enough in the last twenty-four hours; maybe she’s just fucking exhausted. After all, I did give her the ride of her fucking life last night.

“My buddy, Luke, he’s coming over for dinner.”

She shoots a glance at me, and whatever that is in her eyes, it’s not great. “Oh, I see. And what, you’re planning on having me cook?”

What the fuck is this sassy bullshit. I narrow my eyes at her but she’s already turned away. “Did I say that?”

She flings open the giant refrigerator and starts rummaging. “You didn’t have to. You said he’s coming to dinner. So, what are you going to feed him? MREs? Going to go outside and make a fire and eat brown slop together like you’re deployed again? You miss it that much?”

Hang on a fucking minute. “What’s the matter with you?”

I study the tension in her shoulders, the set of her teeth. I know her quirks like no other. When it comes to her, I’ve got a sixth sense. And this has fuck all to do with making dinner or the possibility of me deploying again in some hypothetical future.

I put my hand on the small of her back, grab the waist of her dress, and pull her away from the fridge. I turn her around in my arms, but her eyes are locked down. “Look at me, baby girl.” Her nostrils flare—annoyed, angry. “You can fight me all you want but you know you’re going to tell me.”

She purses her lips and I know she’s just getting more pissed. The way I can read her has annoyed her since we were little. I know that sometimes she just wants to be mad, to hold on to the fire. But I’ve always tried to put out the blaze before it got too big for her to handle.

I tip her chin up so she’s look at me finally. “Say it.”

Teeth set, lips pursed. “I don’t know. Just you. And me. And this house. And,” her eyes dart, looking around for Edward, “last night. I don’t want to get attached to you just to have you leave again in two months, Trent. I can’t have my heart broken like that.”

Now I’m fucking getting it. Edward talking about redeployment, her panicking. And just like that, I’m up to speed. “Look at me right fucking now, Kitty Kat. ”

She shakes her head. “I don’t always want to tell you everything, Trent.

It’s bad enough you try to fix everything for me.

Why don’t you go fix someone else for a change?

I can take care of myself. Just leave me alone, okay?

” She steps away, wriggling free of my grip.

“You live your life and I’ll live mine.”

Her words bite into me way fucking harder than I expected. Like I’ve been shot all over again. The last thing I want to do, the last thing I will ever do, is leave her alone. But, I see the little girl inside her.

“Where the fuck is all this coming from? If it’s about me deploying, we’ll talk about that. Together. But if it’s some other shit that you aren’t saying, I’m not in the mood to guess. So just fucking tell me.”

Her eyes finally meet mine, wide and shocked.

“No… Yes.” She presses her hands into little fists and claps her eyes shut. “No… I don’t know. Just leave me alone. Okay? Please?” she says, and stomps out of the kitchen. Like a fucking spoiled little shit.

What the hell was that?

I’m so pissed, so floored, that I’m about to take off after her. But then I hear the sound of her footsteps on the stairs and it snaps me back to reality. She’s mine, yeah. My soulmate, my everything.

She needs to breathe. I’ll let her for now.

I fucking guess.

I’ll let her have her little tantrum, I tell myself, as I open a beer. But then she’s gonna learn that with tantrums come consequences.

Because Daddy doesn’t fucking like tantrums. No he does not.

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 not unhappy to 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 something else. Look at you, man, moving on up. ”

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 the view was pretty, but just look at you, ” 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 island right now.

“It’s okay,” Kat says, her voice flirtatious, sexy. “Trent was the same way yesterday when he saw 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.

“So, Kat,” Luke starts, taking another step into her as I seethe, fists clenching, ready to light into my best friend for even putting his eyes on her let alone breathing the same air.

She turns to face him, smiling up at him. As she does, the strap of her dress falls from her creamy shoulder.

And then? Then everything goes into slow, slow motion.

Luke reaches forward with one finger, hooks it over the strap, and starts to lift it back up into place.

Don’t fucking do it, man. Just do not.

As soon as his fingertip touches her, it’s like a starting pistol in my head.

You motherfucker.

Rational thought evaporates. There’s no calm processing of what I am seeing. Instead, I explode forward. I grab Luke by the shoulders, sending his beer flying.

“Don’t you fucking touch her, do you fucking hear me ?” I grind the words out through clenched teeth.

“ Trent! ” Kat screams. “What the fuck?”

But I don’t back down because I can’t. Every cell in my body is raging to protect what is mine.

Luke leans back in my vice grip. “Easy, Trent. Easy. ”

“Easy would be busting your fucking jaw into three, asshole.”

Luke nods, looking me right in the eye. Like a bomb defuser waiting for the big bang.

One breath. Two. My heart thumps in my ears, and I’m as laser-focused on him as if I were about to fire the killshot.

But then I feel Kat’s hand on my shoulder .

Her touch makes me take a breath.

Slowly, the shocked look in Luke’s eyes somehow gets through to me. He’s seen me in a near-homicidal rage before. War does crazy fucking things to soldiers.

“ Eaaaaaasy brother.”

Kat’s grip tightens, and I feel myself start to disengage. I take another breath and let him go. “Sorry. Just don’t you touch her again, okay?”

Luke nods—nods the understanding of a brother who will forgive, no matter what. “Understood. My bad. No touching, no looking. I’ll even leave if that’s what you want.”

I shake that off. “No, stay.”

Luke reaches out for my hand. “You sure. You fucking sure? ”

I give his palm a squeeze. “Yeah. Hard adjusting back into civilian life, you know? Here, head out on the terrace. I’ll bring you another beer.”

As he makes his way out onto the terrace, I turn to face Kat. She looks both terrified and totally fucking turned on.

“You scare the shit out of me sometimes, you know that?” She sounds so soft and sweet, but fear is hot and thick in her voice.

Good. She should be scared: I’m 250 pounds of raging possessiveness. Pent up doesn’t come close to what’s buried in my gut. I glance over my shoulder to make sure Luke’s not watching. I push her up against the refrigerator, cupping her pussy in my hand, and then press my lips against her ear.

“Go upstairs. Stay there.”

“Sending me to my room like a bad girl?” she hisses, all saucy and naughty.

I growl some affirmative sort of man-grunt into her ear.

“Just protecting my buddies. If they so much as look at you, I’ll kill them. With my bare hands. So get something to eat, and then go upstairs and get in bed. Read a book, watch your TikTok and wait for Daddy. Understood? ”

She laughs a little, and her thigh presses against my cock. She smells like heaven and feels like home. “Yes, Daddy. Understood.”

That word on her lips—it’s the sweetest sound in the world. Only hearing it between her sobs when she’s coming will be sweeter. “Good girl. And keep the pigtails in.”