He wanted me and I turned him down. I should feel bad but saying no to Knox tonight gave me back a bit of my power. But God, how I wanted to say yes.
Just the thought of giving in to temptation causes my core to clench, and I have to drag my thighs closed to ease the throbbing at my clit. Then our time in that cramped closet comes flooding back again. His strong wandering hands, his heated mouth at my puckered nipples, his cock filling me to completion, almost stretching my walls beyond their limits. And that soreness between my legs that lasted for days after that night.
No wonder I bolted.
If I had stayed, we never would’ve gotten back to dinner with our family, and my parents would not let me live it down. They’re already rooting for us to get together. No matter what, we can’t have anyone find out what we did, or what I fear we might do again if we’re anywhere in the vicinity of each other again. For that reason, I need to stay the hell away from the Hamptons and the Steele family for the Independence Day long weekend.
I roll onto my side and glance at the bedroom window. My curtains are usually drawn at night, but I was so distracted when I got home tonight that they’re wide open, letting in the faint haze of a flickering streetlight. I catch sight of my alarm clock and notice the time. It’s two in the morning. I need to shut off my mind and get some sleep, but that won’t happen until I get a few things off my chest. There’s only one person in the world who can relate to what I’m going through.
Unplugging my phone from the bedside charger, I scroll through my contact list until I make it down to my ‘P’ contacts, and hit the call button for my sister, Bethany. It’s barely midnight out west. She’s sure to still be up.
I pace the apartment while I wait for her to answer, wishing desperately that she’ll pick up. I need some of her unfiltered down-to-earth energy to mellow me out. Nothing ever fazes Bethany. She’ll probably laugh when I lay it all out for her, and she’s sure to tell me to live a little.
“Isa?” she answers in her lazy drawl. “How are you up so late, little sis?”
“Beth, oh my God, remind me why you’re several states away again? I need you here so bad, sis.”
“What’s going on? Are Mom and Dad giving you hell?”
“Not exactly, but it’s a nightmare all the same. Gosh, where to I start? Okay…I bumped into someone a week ago, and I—”
“Stop right there,” she says firmly. “Do not tell me you saw him. Is this about that lowlife bastard, Knox?” I open my mouth to answer but I hear her swear through the phone. “Please say that you saw him and told him to fuck off and go to hell. Isa?”
“Well, I…I was angry at first, but we were at an engagement party. I think it was all that champagne, and all those cocktails, and the whiskey later on.”
“Oh no, no, no, no. You drank with him?”
“That, and a whole lot more,” I confess.
“What the hell? You forgave him, didn’t you? I can’t believe you let that sorry excuse for a friend off the hook.”
“We had sex.”
The other end of the phone goes dead silent for a long stretch of time.
“Beth?” I call. “Are you still there?”
“Girl, you’ve gotta be shitting me,” she practically screeches through the phone. “You let him fuck you after he ditched your ass for ten goddamned years?”
“Okay, take a breath,” I tell her. “It’s not what it sounds like.”
“Like hell it ain’t. You’re calling me in the middle of the night, wanting my advice on this arrogant, cocky, spoiled son of a bitch, because you spread your legs for him after what, one chance meeting?”
“Well Mom, Dad and I had dinner with him and his grandfather earlier tonight too.”
“Hold on. Wait a minute. Mom and Dad are in on this too?”
“No no, it wasn’t planned. Although, she did text me his number. We bumped into them at dinner, and you know how Dad is with his big campaign donors.”
“Oh my gawdddddd,” she says, dragging out the last word. “You see why I got the hell outta Dodge when the time came? There’s only two modes in New York City. Fast, and crazy. And you, little sis, are on the crazy train.”
“Are you going to continue to criticize me, or will you be my big sister for five seconds and just lend an ear?”
She takes a loud, long breath that makes me feel she’s a lot closer than two thousand miles away. “All right, all right. I’ll hear you out. But don’t expect me to like the guy. You keep insisting that the two of you were just best friends, but I could tell there was a heck of a lot more between you, even if you never acted on it until now. He might’ve seen you as a friend, but you? Girl, you fell so hard for that guy that there was nothing left for you to land on.”
My heart freezes in my chest and I have to swallow a few times just to open up the tightness in my throat.
“I was never in love with him,” I shoot back and hear the defensiveness in my voice. “We were just friends. We were always just friends…until now.”
“Oh yeah, sure. That’s why you cried yourself to sleep for ages after he left and forgot all about you… Look, sis. I’m sorry. I was never very good at being a nice, supportive sister. I’m gonna shut up now, and just listen to whatever you have to say.”
Of course, now I don’t
