The shower water pounds down around me as I picture her tears.

“Trust your daddies,” I grunt. “It’ll feel good.”

It’s my fantasy, so she magically goes from fearing anal to begging for it, and I tighten my own fist on my cock, imagining the pressure of her virgin ass taking me for the first time. My come splashes all over the floor of my stepbrother’s shower.

Now that my lust is somewhat taken care of, shame creeps in.

It gets worse when I hear my phone ringing in the bedroom. I wrap a towel around my waist and rush toward it, fearing problems on the job site. But it’s worse, so much worse. Mark is calling.

“Hey,” I answer. I was not just jerking off to the fantasy of taking your daughter’s virgin ass, promise.

“Link! How are you?”

“Good, good.” Not a single lecherous thought about Evelyn, nope. “I’m hoping to have the SE project back on track very soon. We’re replacing almost the entire team.”

“Intense,” he says.

“Yeah. How’s Japan?”

“Oh, good, same as usual. The food here, wow. It’s incredible as always. But you probably know why I really called.”

I play dumb, and wait.

“Is everything okay with Evelyn?” he asks. “Are you two getting along?”

“Yeah,” I say. “We’re staying out of each other’s way for the most part.”

“Oh, okay.” He sounds disappointed.

“She seems like a great person,” I say, “it’s just our schedules aren’t lining up.”

“All right, just keep an eye on her? I’m worried.”

“You wanna tell me what happened to her?”

“Nah, it’s her story if she wants to tell it. She’s going to bounce back—I never met a more resilient girl than my Evelyn.”

He sounds so proud, and I feel like absolute shit.

“Look, I gotta run,” I say. “We’re scrambling over in SE and I should visit the site again today.”

“Sure thing. Thanks again for being there, Lincoln.”

“Anytime.” The call ends and I exhale, slumping down to sit on the edge of the bed. What a fucking mess.

I do want to check on Evelyn before I leave. She got in late, driven by Caleb, which bugged the hell out of me. But when I heard her drunkenly talking as they walked down the hall, I knew nothing would happen between them, and I was able to sleep.

I get dressed and go down the hall to knock on Evelyn’s bedroom door.

“Mmmf,” she says in answer.

“It’s Lincoln. Can I come in?”

“Mmmf,” she says.

I’ll take it as a yes. “Okay, I’m coming in.”

No sounds of protest, so I open the door. There’s a glass of water and a bottle of acetaminophen on the nightstand next to her bed. My guess is Caleb left it out for her. Points to him, I guess.