“I just mean, I don’t want to stress you out or if you need to be at work now…”

  “What did I say?” he snaps and my eyes widen. “Stop pressing it.” He takes a long sip of his coffee and sets his empty cup down, harder than usual and I wince at this aggression. His eyes, which are still staring at his phone, widen and his nostrils flare. His lips part and I watch as his tongue darts out to wet his lips.

  What is his deal?

  “Okay, well I’m ready when you are.”

  “Great, I’ll be ready in five minutes.” He walks by me without even a glance in my direction.

  The car ride is quiet, almost awkwardly so, and things are never awkward between me and James. The sky is gray, preparing for the snow they’re predicting for tomorrow, and I’m less than excited than I was before to spend the night at James’ apartment before we go home tomorrow. Especially now that he’s in some sort of mood. I hold onto hope that he’ll be in better spirits later. We move a little quicker through the salted streets and I catch a glance at James. His jaw is tight like he’s gritting his teeth and he lets out a deep breath through his nose like he’s a bull ready to charge.

  “You’re so tense.” I look at his hand resting on the gear shift and part of me wants to reach for it. I want to stroke the skin and bring it to my mouth. I want to tell him everything is going to be fine and that we can work out whatever is bothering him especially if it has to do with me.

  “It’s work.”

  Do I believe that? “I see. Well, do you want to talk about it?”

  “Nope.”

  I nod. “Okay then.”

  “You feel ready for your exam?” he asks and I hate the tiny glimmer of hope I feel that he asks me a question.

  “Yes. Well, I think.”

  “I’m sure you’ll do fine.”

  I nod, not used to this lackluster praise and encouragement from him while he’s usually my biggest cheerleader. “Thanks.”

  He pulls up to the front of my building and I don’t even know what to do. Usually James opens any and all doors for me, not wanting an interaction to end without him hugging me goodbye. He makes no effort to move.

  Wow. Okay then.

  “Alright, see you later, J.”

  “Let me know when you’re ready for me to come get you,” he says, his eyes still not on me.

  “Right, okay. Probably around one will be perfect. Love you,” I tell him, my heart suddenly desperate to hear those words again.

  “Love you too,” he says without even looking in my direction. Is he mad at me?

  What the fuck?

  The feeling of relief floods me when Gabrielle gets out of the car, but the relief is quickly replaced by guilt by the force of her slam of my car door. Her scent still permeates the air which does nothing for the tension that’s burrowed in my neck in response to hearing her climax last night. I know that she’s probably thrown off by my overall demeanor this morning given that I’ve never been this way with her but it’s easier this way.

  Just until I get this back under control.

  But shit. It killed me to be that cold with her. I hadn’t meant to but last night and then this morning, seeing her fresh from the shower made me feel almost manic. Her sweet, clean scent wafting into my nostrils even as I all but sprinted past her.

  “I’m sorry, Gabrielle.” I shake my head.

  The painful erection that I had for most of last night is starting to form again as I inhale her scent still lingering in the car and watch her enter the building. Her coat covers her glorious ass but I saw enough of it last night in those skin tight leggings that hugged her curves deliciously. I rest my head against the headrest giving myself a second to clear my thoughts before heading to work. I have to focus.

  Gabrielle is your baby sister.

  Too young for you.

  Fuck her age, she’s too…related to you.

  I pull off into the street, trying to forget the sound of her muffled moans as I pictured her pressing her face into my pillows. The sound of her moving on the bed. Sheets rustling. Her heavy breathing. Her sweet face with a look of sheer ecstasy as she comes around her fingers. Or maybe a vibrator. Fuck, could she have been using a vibrator? No, with the way I was holding my breath as I tried to pry myself away from the door as I listened, I would have heard the sound of a buzzing no matter how faint. My hands were firmly planted on either side of the door out of fear that one would slip and knock on the door or worse, turn the doorknob and enter the guest room so I could watch her in the throes of ecstasy. Our eyes would lock just as she went over the edge, my hand wrapped firmly around my cock as I climax with her.

  I rub my forehead as I pull up to a stoplight and try to swallow the lump I have lodged in my throat. I have got to get this shit under control. The sound of my phone ringing breaks my carnal thoughts of Gabrielle.

  “James Calloway.”

  “Hi, Mr. Calloway.” I hear the soft, flirty voice of the temporary assistant I have while my usual one is out on maternity leave. Brooke was twenty-two, completely disconnected from the world around her, and on track to becoming an HR nightmare with the way she flirted with every guy in the office.

  The only thing keeping her from the line at the unemployment office is the guy with the placard on his door with the letters CFO etched into the wood. The only guy she doesn’t flirt with, the guy she calls, Daddy. Biologically not sexually.

  I can already picture her crossing her legs, letting her skirt ride up just a smidge above what’s appropriate in the corporate setting as she twirls the chord around her finger. “Daddy is wondering when you’ll be in.”

  My eyes roll at the unprofessionalism. “I told him, I’d be there by nine, I had to drop my sister off at Columbia for her final this morning.” I internally scoff at giving away so much information when it’s not necessary. Not only did Mr. Corden know this information, but I’d be willing to bet he didn’t even ask where the fuck I was making me question if this is all a ruse. I’m his hardest working employee by a mile increasing revenue by almost 150 percent this year alone with the government contract I just closed. I look to my cupholder and spy the half drunk coffee in the cup holder.

  If my theory is correct, you picked the wrong day to pull this shit with me.

  “Miss Corden, I’d like a coffee on my desk by the time I get there.”

  “Oh, there’s already—”

  “I want one from the cart in the lobby.” I contemplate sending her outside of the building, but I suppose I’ll spare her from being sent into the bitter cold for a coffee I don’t even want. A black coffee and two shots of espresso, thanks.” I tell her flatly.

  “Um sure, okay.”

  “Problem?” I ask. It is her job and I was in the mood to clarify that being hired on the basis of nepotism does require some level of grunt work given that we passed over three people all with masters degrees and one with promises of secrets from our competitors to give the job to some girl that spends more time taking selfies than managing my schedule.

  “Of course not, Mr. Calloway. I’ll go fetch that for you right now. Is there…anything else I can do for you?”

  I resist the urge to snort at the obvious euphemism. “Nope, just the coffee. I’ll be there in five, so I’d get a move on it.” It’s actually more like ten, but she needs to move with some urgency for fucking once. I end the call and my thoughts turn back to Gabrielle. My beautiful, sweet, kind baby sister who I haven’t stopped thinking about as more than my sister for the past six months.

  Good luck on your exam, beautiful.

  Gabrielle’s 18th Birthday

  I frown slightly as I watch Gabrielle wobble slightly after the shot of tequila her friends make her take. We are celebrating her birthday on my friend Luke’s boat and we’d settled in the center of the lake for a moment for the girls to take some pictures. I was grateful, I’d worn my darkest wayfarers, allowing my eyes to shamelessly rake my gaze over Gabrielle’s perfect body. Her waves wild from speeding around the lake giving it a sexy tousled look like she’s fresh from sleep, or being freshly fucked. My eyes skate down her body drinking in the red bikini that covers her delicious little curves. While her friends opted for thongs and cheeky bikinis, Gabrielle’s is tasteful and covers everything while still being unbelievably sexy. Gabrielle has always been a bit on the conservative side when it comes to clothing, when all of her friends wear shit that exposes their tits and ass for attention, she always errs on the side of—well not trying to give me and our father a heart attack.

  Not that it matters, with curves like hers, even in sweatpants she’s sexy.

  She giggles before posing for a selfie with one of her closest friends and doing a shimmy for the camera that makes her tits bounce and I squeeze my eyes shut before pulling my beer to my lips and taking a long sip. Our eyes meet briefly and mine widen before I realize that she can’t tell that I’m staring right at her behind my dark lenses. She probably thinks I’m staring at one of her newly turned eighteen year old friends. All of whom have been trying to get my attention since we boarded the boat.

  I turn my head, to stare off into the lake for a moment, just enough time for Gabrielle to take her eyes away from my direction and I can go back to shamelessly ogling her. My God, when did she get so beautiful?

  I take another sip of my beer, an IPA with a ten percent alcohol by volume and a ninety percent chance of making a stupid decision as Luke comes up from below deck with a bottle of whiskey. “Want a shot?”

  “Oh, we do!” Gabrielle comes skipping over towards me with two friends in tow and before I can even make a move, Gabrielle links her arm with mine.

  “Maybe no whiskey for you since you’re drinking tequila?” I say having seen her just take a shot. “Mixing isn’t always the best idea for you, Gab.”

  “Don’t be such a wet blanket, it’s her birthday!” one of her friends chirps. Probably the same friend that introduced her to weed for the first time. I was pissed over that. Not that she did it, but that she did it for the first time when she snuck out to go to some random college party at UConn. She called me high as fuck at four in the morning practically hysterical because there weren’t any Doritos in the house.

  “Gabrielle.” I lower my sunglasses to look at her and instantly regret it because when our eyes lock for a moment it feels as if time stops. My chest tightens, my heart pounds against my ribcage and my dick hardens in my shorts as she gives me a smile that makes her dimples show and bats her eyelashes at me. Her lashes tapping her smooth cheeks in rapid succession.

  “James,” she says, “come on, J. Take a shot with me.” She juts out her bottom lip. I curl my hand around the bottle tighter as I try to ball my hand into a fist to prevent myself from rubbing my thumb along her pouty lip.

  Luke has a round of shots poured before I can respond and Gabrielle reaches for one of them. I shoot her a look and she gives me an innocent smile before putting her hands under her chin. “It’s her birthday, she’ll be okay,” Luke interjects, and in that split second when I drag my eyes away from Gabrielle to reply to Luke, I sense movement in my periphery. When I turn back to look at Gabrielle, I see her head tipped back as she drains the contents of the shot glass. She freezes when she makes eye contact with me and smiles again as she slowly swallows the liquid.

  “Don’t be mad,” she says as she wraps her arms around me. “I’ll be fine and if not, you’re here.”

  About an hour later, I’m coming out of the bathroom below deck when I spy Gabrielle waiting. She’s staring down at her phone and swaying her hips to the music playing. “Having fun?” I ask her.

  Her eyes dart up immediately and she squeals before she’s in my arms again which tested my resolve enough the first time. “The best! Thank you so much for doing this for me.” I can hear the excitement in her voice more than likely brought on by too much alcohol and I can’t help the smile that crosses my face. She’s so beautiful when she’s happy.

  “Of course.” I’m trying to disassociate as she presses up against me because if I let myself focus too much in the now, I won’t be able to control how my body reacts to her. “I’d do anything for you.” Her head is resting against my chest and I resist the urge to lean down and inhale her deeply. I press a kiss to her forehead and I’m granted with a whiff of her. FUCK. She smells so fucking sweet.

  She sighs in my arms. Like actually fucking sighs and the sound goes straight to my cock. “You’re the best, J.” She squeezes me before pulling out of my arms and skips into the bathroom and shuts the door.

  I’m brought back into the now by the sounds of a horn blaring and I spy the middle finger in my rearview mirror. This wasn’t the first time that Gabrielle had me lost in thought. I’ve spent countless days and more than a few nights trying to understand my feelings for her. I’ve tried to convince myself that we’re just close like we’ve always been. That I’m just protective of her. But my subconscious knows it’s more. It feels the spike in my heart when she’s near. The spark in my dick when she’s near. The way I feel as if I can’t breathe when she’s around. The way her voice, her scent, her everything disarms me. The way that my protectiveness has slowly morphed into something else.

  Something closer to possession.

  The way she’s floated into my head while I’ve touched my cock and those have been the times that I’ve come the hardest. The shame that washed over me as I groaned her name out as I rubbed my hand up and down my cock. The orgasm that pulled me under just as the thought of emptying my dick down her throat crossed my thoughts. Picturing her bounce her ass on my dick until she comes all over it. I pull into my spot in the parking garage and my head drops into my hands as I wonder for the millionth time how the fuck I got here, lusting aggressively over my younger sister.

  I contemplate sending her a text when I realize how late it is and she’s probably already in her exam. It’s better if I apologize for this morning in person anyway.

  I make my way up the ten floors to my office and I’m not at all shocked to see my buddy Isaac shamelessly flirting with Brooke. He wasn’t into her at all, but he thought keeping her in his back pocket kept him in good with her father. His numbers from the year are shit so I suppose it’s a bit of insurance.

  “Oh! Mr. Calloway!” Brooke’s blue eyes widen and she runs a hand through her blonde tresses before hopping up from her desk, while pulling down her much too short skirt before meeting me at the entrance to my office. “Here’s your coffee.”

  “Great, thanks,” I say without another word. I go into my office and close the door behind me which one would think meant I didn’t want to be bothered, but Isaac comes strolling in right after me without even a knock on the closed door.

  “Sup, Calloway. You catch the game last night?” He drops to the couch I have in the corner of my office and props his foot up on my coffee table like he owns it.

  My mind goes back to the night before and I remember how good it felt when Gabrielle was laying in my lap.

  Shit.

  I’m grateful I’m sitting behind my desk because I can already feel the blood rushing to my dick at the thoughts running through my mind.

  “I missed it, had a ton of work to do.” I turn to my computer trying my best to be as dismissive as possible. I didn’t have time for Isaac’s incessant chatter while I was still on edge about Gabrielle.

  “Not that it mattered, we choked in the fourth quarter,” he says. “Oh shit, so I forgot to tell you. You got plans for New Years? This girl I’m seeing is throwing this party at Central. Should be pretty good. Not too rowdy but should be a ton of chicks there,” he says with a smile and even though he’s seeing her, I’m sure he’ll still have his eyes open for other prospects. “Maybe you can meet someone.”

  The idea of anything past casual sex is nowhere on my radar. I spend most of my waking hours, and quite a few where I’m not awake, thinking about Gabrielle. Between lusting after her and feeling guilty for lusting after her, she takes up a lot of my thoughts. Where would that leave another woman? I told myself that once this was out of my system I could focus on dating more actively again, but until then I just didn’t see the point. It was a waste of everyone’s time and more than likely I would wind up fucking up some poor girl who couldn’t figure me out.

  I could barely figure me out.

  “I’m too busy for all that right now,” I tell him. “I’m perfectly happy keeping things very casual.”

  He shrugs and leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “I’m all for that, but I mean even that gets old sometimes, right?” He puts his hand over his eyes. “You know what? Forget I said that. I just got off the phone with my mother who’s ready to have a coronary over the fact that I’m not bringing someone home for Christmas again. I swear my mother fucking acts like my biological clock is ticking.” I laugh because my mother is the same way. I’d had the same very lengthy conversation with her last week over how a nice young man like me hasn’t met someone.

  “You know it’s all about grandkids.” I take a sip of the coffee in front of me and roll my eyes at the fact that there’s definitely no espresso in this like I asked. “Sucks that you’re an only child. At least I can share the weight of disappointment with Monica.”

  He snaps his fingers. “That’s right, you’ve got two sisters.”

  My stomach turns at the thought of Gabrielle having a baby because that means she fucked someone. Someone that isn’t me. My stomach turns again at the fact that I’m thinking about fucking her.

  “Gabrielle is nowhere near ready for that. She’s only eighteen,” I correct him.

  “Sounds like someone isn’t ready for their baby sister to grow up.” He laughs. “Anyway, when are you getting up out of here for the holiday? Today your last day?” he asks and I’m grateful for the change in subject.

  By the grace of God, I’m able to put the awkward encounter from this morning out of my thoughts long enough to take my statistics final, but as soon as I set my pen down after completing the final test of my first semester of college, the events of the morning began to resurface.