“I’m not doing it, Halle. The answer is no.”

  The sound of his phone buzzing interrupts our conversation, and when it illuminates the closet, I get a better look at his face. He looks irritated and anxious, and I know this means he’s going to need to fuck me really hard later. “Hey, Mom,” he answers, and I can hear her clearly on the other side.

  “Where are you?”

  “I had to take a call for work.” I can tell he’s still annoyed but trying not to take it out on Sara.

  “Ah, okay, I noticed Halle is missing as well, so… I wasn’t sure…” She trails off, and again, I’m left feeling like I used to all those years ago whenever I came up.

  “You weren’t sure of what, exactly? That she was probably with me after Aunt Emily drunkenly accosted her?” I wince, because this is absolutely what I didn’t want. “And Mike’s little dig about us making more pragmatic choices? What was that about?”

  “Sebastian, honey, I think you’re overreacting. And whatever Emily said to her was probably just her being a little defensive of me.”

  “Defensive for what? What did Halle do to you that was terrible? What did she do to you today? She came here to be here for you. Not to mention, did you ever think that maybe this situation might be difficult for her as well?”

  I shake my head vehemently at that, and mouth no, I’m fine! Because I didn’t want Sara’s night to be made about me. I certainly didn’t want to give Sara, Emily, or anyone else anymore ammunition that “everything was about me.”

  “Well, I apologize if that’s been the case. Maybe if she ever talked to me, she could have communicated this to me herself.”

  “Because you always made it easy for her to talk to you, right?” he says with a little bit of bite to his voice, and I sigh in response. I think this is probably the angriest I’ve ever seen him with Sara over this.

  “Wild,” I whisper. “Can we not do this?”

  “Are you really making this about what went on when you two were kids?” she asks. I really hope she’s alone for this conversation and not arguing with her son about me in the middle of her engagement party.

  “It’s about all of it, Mom. You never made it easy for either of us to be honest with you—”

  “Because I was just trying to get you guys to see what you were doing was wrong?” She interrupts.

  “Well, I guess we are still wrong then because it’s been nine years, and we’re still in the same place we’ve always been.”

  My stomach drops because of all the ways Wild and I discussed telling Sara, out of anger, while we were hiding in a closet during her engagement party, was definitely not on that list. Silence on the other end makes me think she hung up, but after a few moments, she speaks up. “I’m not going back and forth with you about this right now. This is not the time or place.” Her voice is calm and even, and I wonder if she had an inkling about this all along.

  “Did you hear what I—”

  “I heard you, Sebastian. And as I said, we are not doing this now.”

  “Fine,” he answers plainly. “It was not the plan to tell you tonight.”

  “I see. Well, we are sitting down to dinner shortly, so you two should probably stop whatever you’re doing and come sit with everyone.”

  “I had a work call,” he repeats.

  “Right, of course,” she responds, but the sarcasm is loud, and then the beeps indicating that she actually ended the call come through the other line.

  Neither of us says anything, but I can hear his breathing, deep and labored and harsh. “Fuck this,” he growls, and then his lips are pressed to mine, and his hands are on my thighs, pulling my dress up around my waist because even in a pitch-black closet, Wild knows my entire body by heart.

  This is the worst fucking idea, my mind practically screams at me.

  He’s upset, and it’s making him feral and reckless, yet I can’t stop him. It’s just like it’s always been. We feed off each other’s energy, and his obsession with me makes me equally desperate for him.

  I move her so she’s pressed up against the door of the closet while my lips are still against hers like I want to devour her. Halle was the only thing that could keep me grounded while my life became a fucking shit show, and I desperately needed it.

  Needed her.

  “Tell me we’ll get through anything,” I whisper against her neck while I slowly play with her underwear. I gently slide them down her legs, and there’s a faint sound when they hit the floor. I push my groin against her, my cock growing impatient with each thrust against her, and my balls already tingling painfully with the need to empty myself inside her. I move my lips from hers and trail them down her neck, taking a second to flick my tongue over the tattoo behind her ear that I could find even in the dark.

  “We’ll get through anything. We always have.” She sighs as her hands find the back of my head, and she runs her fingers through the strands. I press a few more kisses to her neck before I stop, not wanting to get carried away. I don’t want to accidentally leave a mark there, so I lower myself to my knees in front of her, knowing exactly where I can leave my mark.

  “Wild… not here,” she tells me, but there’s no conviction in her voice, which means she could easily be convinced otherwise.

  “Yes, fucking here. Fucking everywhere, as a matter of fact. There’s nowhere in the world I won’t want to fucking touch you. So now, I’m going to bury my tongue between your legs because it will make us both fucking feel better.” This isn’t the first time I’ve fucked her in a dark closet, completely deprived of one of my senses and relying on the others while I fuck her. And based on the two conversations I've had tonight, I doubt it will be my last. But I refuse to give her up.

  I refuse to give us up.

  I don’t waste a second before my lips are on her, my tongue swiping through her smooth slit over and over and rolling it over her clit.

  “Shit,” she whispers while I help her lift her leg over my shoulder. “Your mouth is so fucking good.” She grabs the back of my head just as I grip her ass cheeks hard, giving her the leverage to grind herself harder against my mouth. “Make me come,” she whispers. “I want to come all over your gorgeous face.”

  “You'd better. I want to smell you on my beard for the rest of the night,” I growl, feeling her get wetter with every lick. “I want every person in there to know that only I get the fucking honor of making you come.” I momentarily stop fucking her with my mouth to press my nose against her and take a deep inhale. “Fuck, you smell so good. Your scent has got me so hard I’m dripping into my briefs,” I tell her before I suction my lips around her clit.

  “Fuck, Sebastian, I’m close already.”

  “I know, baby. I know. You’re doing so good, giving me what I want.” I continue to lap at her roughly, knowing she’s close and knowing just what to do to push her over the edge. I bring my hand up, pushing two fingers inside her while I continue to flick my tongue against her clit rapidly.

  “Fuck me,” she moans as she pulls at my hair harder.

  “I will, baby. Goddammit, my dick is so fucking hard for you right now.” I drag my other hand over my covered dick, doing my best to calm it so I don’t explode the second I get inside her, but I can’t help it. I’ve always gotten hard by just the scent of her, but putting my mouth on her wet pussy has always had the power to push me to the edge. There have even been a few times when I’ve come just by eating her out alone.

  Her body starts to shake, and then I hear a whimper and a soft cry, alerting me that she’s coming. “Oh my God, Wild, yes, yes, yes.” She pants as she spins her hips in a circle and rubs herself against me through the high of her climax.

  I don’t give her a second to come down before I’m standing, and the sound of my pants and belt hitting the ground echoes through the tiny closet. I lower my briefs, and a moment later, I have her picked up and hoisted against the door. Her legs immediately wrap around my hips, and her arms go around my neck while I grip my dick to position myself at her entrance. We’ve done this position a hundred times, so that even in the dark, we know this dance by heart. My cock brushes against her softness at first, causing her to shudder in my arms before I push into her slowly, letting her feel every ridge of my dick inch by inch until I’ve bottomed out inside her.

  Her face tucks into the side of my neck, holding me close while I begin slowly thrusting in and out of her. Her back is pressed against the door while I grip her ass, allowing me to drill in deeper. “What a perfect girl you are, taking my dick like this. Are you going to come all over my cock this time?”

  “Fuck yes.”

  I begin to fuck her harder in response, knowing that our time in here is dwindling. “I can’t wait to get you back to the hotel. This night is not fucking over. I need to fuck you while my eyes devour every inch of you. I hate that I can’t see your pretty face or your tits or cunt.”

  “I know.”

  The room is getting hotter, and sweat begins to bead at my temple. “But you have to come for me now.”

  “It’s fine,” she moans. “Just come.”

  “Not how it works,” I growl at her. “You come first.”

  “I already came.” I can hear her whine like she’s trying to come, but it’s just out of reach. I know she’s probably in her head about how long we’ve been in here and the likelihood that people will be staring at us when we enter the room together, so it’s probably delaying her orgasm.

  “I need you to do it again.” I move one of my hands up her body to wrap it around her throat and speak low in her ear. “Stop arguing with me. Do not worry about anything happening outside this closet. The only thing that matters is you and me, remember?”

  “But…”

  “You. And. Me,” I say, marking each word with a thrust. “Just like it’s always been. Your pretty pussy is squeezing my cock so hard. I know that means you’re close. Do you need some help?”

  I can feel her head nod slowly, and I smile, knowing that all it’ll take is a few swipes over her clit to get her there. I lean back, allowing my hand to get between us, and just as I thought, after rubbing her wet clit only a few times, she begins to shake in my arms. She presses her face into my shoulder, and I feel her teeth against the skin as she lets out a muffled moan. “Oh God.”

  “There it is,” I say through shallow breaths because her orgasm triggered my own, and I already feel myself going over the edge. “Oh shit, Halle. Fuck, fuck, fuuuuuck,” I groan, louder than I intended, but at this moment, I don’t give a shit.

  I come longer than usual, pumping rope after rope of cum into her, and for the first time, maybe ever, I wish that she was not on birth control so there was a chance she could get pregnant. Then there would be no talks of other women or anything for bullshit optics or show because nothing would ever stop me from telling the entire fucking world I was the father to her baby.

  “Go off the pill,” I grunt while I’m still going off inside her, and she gasps in response before letting out a whimper because I know she’s still sensitive. “Just let me get you pregnant already, and then we can stop with all this bullshit.” My thrusts are finally beginning to slow, and despite the amount of cum that I emptied into her, I’m still hard.

  “Sebastian,” she whispers as I slip out of her and set her on her feet. I keep my hands on her in case she’s still shaky when her hands cup my face. “I’m not going anywhere. You don’t have to knock me up to keep me,” she says with a chuckle.

  “I know. I-I’m not. I just… want all of this shit to go away.”

  “A baby won’t quiet everyone’s opinions,” she states. “They’ll still be there.”

  I know that the unhinged plea was just a direct response to being on the edge of my climax, but the thought of a pregnant Saint has now taken up residence in the back of my mind, and I know this won’t be the last time those thoughts push me to an orgasm. I run a hand through my hair, pushing the moisture from my forehead into it, and I know I need to go to the bathroom before I go back to the main room. So does she. I pull up my pants and briefs, tucking my shirt into them just as she slowly opens the door.

  My eyes squint as they adjust to the burst of light, and when I look at Saint, she’s looking at me through the same narrowed slits. “I’m going to go to the bathroom. Just say I’m not feeling well because I’m going to be a minute depending on how all of this looks,” she says, pointing at her face and hair while squeezing her eyes together and opening them rapidly to help them get acclimated after being in the dark closet.

  “You look gorgeous as always.”

  “Okay, well, I’d prefer not to look freshly fucked,” she says while smoothing her hair down.

  I’m grateful no one is up here because I didn’t even think about how it would look with us emerging from a closet. Halle finds a bathroom upstairs, so I descend the stairs and make my way into the men’s room in the downstairs lobby. I splash some water on my face, doing my best to scrub the overwhelming scent of Halle out of my beard even though I really did want to smell her on me for the rest of the night. For the rest of my life, if I’m being honest. I run a hand through my hair again, thankful that it’s reverting to how it looked before Halle had her hands in it.

  “And where’ve you been?” I hear from behind me, and then Dylan crosses the restroom to stand next to me. He stares at me in the mirror while he washes his hands with a knowing smirk on his lips.

  “I had to take a call.”

  “Yeah, I use that code too,” he sneers before gliding his hands down his jacket and pants. “She’s hot. Believe me, I get the attraction,” he adds with an arrogant chuckle.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I suggest you walk away,” I grit out.

  “I’m talking about our stepsister, obviously. Well, I guess she’s not really mine…? I don’t know how it all works. But I’m guessing not technically, as she’s not Sara’s daughter? Either way, that means she is way less off-limits to me than she is to you, I’d imagine.”

  My eyes close slowly, and I resist every urge coursing through me telling me to put this asshole through the closest wall. “I’m only going to say this once, and then we aren’t going to have this conversation ever again. Halle is very much off-limits.” I swallow hard, wanting to tell him that her orgasming all over my tongue and cock five minutes ago was fucking proof of that, but I refrain from that too.

  I deserve a medal for all this fucking restraint when I barely have much of it when it comes to Saint.

  “You can take that however the fuck you want. But if you so much as breathe in a way I don’t like toward her, you will fucking regret it.” I don’t wait for his response because I couldn’t care fucking less. I couldn’t care fucking less about all of this, to be honest. My mother was clearly upset now, and she was the only reason I was here. Part of me wants to take Saint and get the hell out of here, but I don’t want to make things worse.

  I grab my phone and shoot a text off to her telling her to come straight back to the venue when she’s done. Usually, I’d wait for her, but I didn’t want to make it completely obvious by walking in together, and the last thing I wanted was for her to get intercepted by Dylan.

  Fucking dick.

  When I make it back to the venue, people are starting to take their seats, and I groan in annoyance, thinking we’re going to be sitting close to my mom, Mike, and his fucking son. I make my way toward the bar and order us both an old-fashioned, knowing that we’ll need something stronger than wine to get through this dinner.

  “I haven’t talked to you all night.” The voice of Elana Sharpe cuts through my thoughts, and then I see my mother’s best friend holding what looks like an espresso martini. “You look the same somehow.” She smiles warmly, and I wish I knew what kind of conversation this was going to be so I’d know if I needed to be guarded.

  “Hey, Mrs. Sharpe.”

  “Oh please, you’re twenty-five now, am I right?” she asks as if she’s trying to do the math. “I think you can call me Elana.” She smacks my arm before turning around and darting her gaze briefly around the room. “Where’s your partner in crime?”

  “Bathroom. She’s not feeling the best.”

  Elana nods. “I can imagine today might be kind of hard for her. Not that she’s not happy for your mom, but… just a reminder of who’s not here.” Her honey-colored eyes watch me sadly, and not in a way that anyone else has tonight. “My dad died a few months ago, actually. I don’t know how Halle has done this since she was four. It really sucks,” she continues, and the look on her face is full of sorrow.

  “I’m so sorry for your loss, Elana.”

  “Probably different because Halle was so young when it happened, but… that means she’s gone her whole life without a dad. I feel lucky to have had him as long as I did and so sad for anyone who got cheated out of those experiences.” She puts a hand on my shoulder and squeezes. “I’m glad she had you. If you can’t have a dad looking out for you, I’d say an older brother is the second-best thing.”

  I grab mine and Halle’s drinks from the bar and take a healthy sip. “I know that’s what everyone sees me as, but I’m not her brother, Elana.”

  I can see her struggling with what to say next as her curious eyes study me. “Nothing’s changed, has it?”

  “What do you think?” I ask while not looking at her. My eyes are trained on the door, waiting for Saint. She doesn’t respond, and when I look over at her, I can tell she’s not planning to until I answer her. “No.” I shake my head. “Nothing’s changed. Nothing is ever going to change. I won’t ever not be in love with her.” I swallow nervously, hating the words preparing to leave my mouth. “Whether or not that means we’ll be together forever is another story.”

  “Are you… together now?”

  “Yes,” I answer honestly.

  “Does your mother know?”

  “Well, I sort of exploded that all over her about ten minutes ago, so yeah, but she didn’t before. Or maybe she did.” I turn to face her. “You tell me. You’re her best friend, so you’d know better than me.”