Page 45 of Drown in You

“Luke gave it to me during the reception.” I stuff it back into my bag, suddenly self-conscious. I have a camera built into my phone. There’s no reason for me to be carrying around a cheap camera and using it to take grainy, shitty photos.

“How was your weekend with your stepbrother, by the way?”

Thank god Juliet’s gaze drops back to her laptop screen so she doesn’t see me blush. “It was fine.”

When she goes back to typing notes, I pull out my phone. I start and stop five different messages to Ten. I don’t know what to say to him. That’s never happened before.

“Who are you texting?” Juliet asks.

“Ten.”

She lifts a pierced brow. “I thought you said he ghosted you.”

“He did.”

“And you’re still texting him?” She snatches the phone from my hand and scrolls up the wall of texts from me, all with no response. “I love you, but this is officially pathetic. Do I need to stage an intervention?”

I grab my phone back, shoving it into my bag. “I already know how pathetic it makes me look. And feel. But I can’t let him think I gave up on him. I can’t let him think I don’t care anymore.”

“Why not? He obviously doesn’t care about you.”

I flinch, but if there’s one thing I can count on Juliet to be, it’s honest. Even if her bluntness can sting.

“Why does it matter to you how he feels when he obviously doesn’t care how he’s making you feel? Do yourself a favor: stop texting him. You deserve better friends than that. That’s why you have me.”

Maybe she’s right. Ten could be ghosting me simply because he doesn’t want to talk to me anymore. He could be waiting for me to finally get the hint—the same thing I did to my dad when I ignored his texts for months.

If he wanted to talk to me, he would. Just like my father did when he wanted to mend our relationship.

I have other friends. I have my family. So why am I still so hung up on Ten when he clearly doesn’t want anything to do with me anymore?

Juliet smirks and folds her hands under her chin. “And as your best friend, you have to tell me: did you fuck your stepbrother last night?”

My mouth falls open, and I reach across the table to smack her shoulder. “Juliet!”

“What?” She rolls her eyes. “Tell me you haven’t thought about fucking him.”

If she only knew the truth. Thank god she doesn’t. “If you think he’s so fuckable, why don’t you do it?”

Juliet shrugs, turning her attention back to her laptop. “Put in a good word for me and I will.”

A surprising twinge of disappointment buries itself in my chest. What if I set them up and Luke actually takes her up on it? I should be glad his attention would shift to someone else, someone who isn’t related to him, but I’m not anywhere near as relieved by the idea as I should be. “Will do. I’m going to head back to the dorm.”

Juliet nods. “I’m going to stay and keep working on this. Call security if I’m not back in the dorm by two. Or send your stepbrother to come rescue me.”

I can’t get Luke out of my head.

The memory of his fiery eyes when he dragged me away from Knox and the bar. How his bare chest and shoulders glistened under the moonlight while he waited for me in the hot tub. How those gray sweatpants hung on his hips while he made me breakfast. How I couldn’t stop fantasizing about him sneaking into my room to have his way with me.

When I curl up in bed for the night, my thighs clench together, trying to relieve the persistent, dull ache between them.

He’s my stepbrother. Even if we didn’t grow up together, I shouldn’t want him. Our parents are married. We’ll attend the same family reunions and holiday parties. There’s no future in which Luke and I can be fuck buddies while our parents are married. Especially not when my stay at Diamond University hinges on my father and stepmother letting me live here.

But the horny part of my brain is fully ignoring the rational part tonight. Even if logic tells me I shouldn’t want Luke, that I should stay as far away from him as I can, my libido screams otherwise.

After thirty minutes of tossing and turning, alternating between chills and sweats as the memories of our night in the hotel room plague my mind, I give up and grab my phone. I find one of my favorite smutty audiobooks and navigate to the chapter in which they bang in the bathtub. Not sure I would let Luke shove my head underwater while he fucks me, but I’d definitely let him do everything else.

I grab my vibrator and push it down my pajama bottoms. As the sultry voice of the narrator fills my ears, I crank up the pressure on my vibrator, the drone nearly drowning out the audiobook.

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