Page 37 of My Favorite Sin

“I want to tell you something about my date. Can we… talk somewhere more private? Our parents could wake up and hear us. Can we sit in your car?”

My jaw clenches and I shake my head, trying to keep a level tone, but the frustration is clear. “No, Ally. I hate seeing you with him. I hate that you can be with me one minute then him the next. The worst part is I can’t even blame you for the way you act because I never should have kissed you in the first place.”

She glances at the front door, with her lips pressed into a concerned line. “Please stop saying that. You never know who could be listening.”

I sigh, tucking the deck of cards into my pocket and stepping down from my seat on the railing. “Fine. We’ll talk in my car.”

The two of us leave the veranda and walk in silence along the driveway, across to the far side of the house where my car is parked.

We slip into the front seats and the doors shut behind us with athud, blocking out all noise of the ocean and sheltering us in a world of tense silence and darkness, all but for the moonlight and a couple of garden lanterns. My awareness of Ally’s presence multiplies in here. Her sweet perfume fills the air. I can hear her breath, soft but fast. She’s nervous about something.

My gaze trails over her tiny body. My chest tightens by the sight of her slender legs and her cleavage in that purple dress. The way her breasts swell with each breath. Her pretty lips, parted slightly. Her eyes that are already on me. An instinct creeps over me, that being alone in this car with Ally is the last place I should be right now. Last time we were alone in here, I started talking about all kinds of inappropriate things.

Ally swivels side-on in her seat to face me with her body. “I want to talk about… us. About everything that’s happened between us. I’ve never wanted to have this conversation because there should be no us. But there is. You know how much you mean to me. I wish we weren’t family and I could be with you.”

I grip the steering wheel tight, frustration getting the best of me due to the mixed signals this girl gives. A year’s worth of unresolved anger pours out of me. “You want to talk about something real, Ally? I spent months being angry with you,hatingyou, for leaving the way you did. I got you accepted into an elite scholarship. I even told you I’d move to France with you if you needed support. Then you did me dirty by accepting the scholarship and leaving the country without saying goodbye. I felt like I’d been used anddisposed of. How could you not even give me the decency of a goodbye after everything we’d been through? How could you return to the country and act as if our past never happened?”

“I’m sorry,” she mutters, submitting to me and lowering her gaze to her lap. “Everything was so intense between us. I’d… fallen in love with you and… I had to snap myself out of those feelings. If I said goodbye in person, I wouldn’t have left and gotten the space from you I needed. I didn’t know what else to do.”

“You broke my fucking heart, Ally. I was in love with you too.”

Her eyes dart back to me. “You were?”

“How could you not realize that?”

She watches me for a long moment with sadness in those beautiful blue eyes. “I’m sorry I hurt you so much. What we had was too intense. It still is. I went to Paris to forget about you.” She pauses, letting out a long sigh. “It didn’t work.”

“So, what’s the point of this conversation? You’re still convinced our feelings for each other are wrong.”

“I’m trying to move on by meeting other people,” she says. “I like Liam and want to keep seeing him. I had a really good time with him tonight, but overall, you ruined my date by kissing me. During every second of the date, I was thinking about you. When he kissed me at the end, I was wishing I was back in my bedroom with you and that Mom had never interrupted us. See my problem? I can’t get you out of my head.”

I let out an annoyed laugh, running my hands through my hair. “You’re describing the dilemma I face with every girl I hook up with.”

“How often do you… sleep with girls?” She treads carefully, knowing she lost the right long ago to ask me such a personal question.

“I haven’t slept with anyone in months because you’re all I think about.”

Ally smiles to herself, matched with a look in her eyes like she’s contemplating something. A moment later, she leans into me a little closer, her voice soft and inviting. “I like the way you look at me when we’re alone, in ways a brother shouldn’t. I like how you used to let me sleep in your bed with you. How you don’t correct people when they think I’m your girlfriend.”

Ally’s hair hangs over one shoulder. She brushes it back, the movement drawing attention to her breasts. I get caught in the act of looking at her cleavage. From the way she’s talking, I hardly think she minds.

She leans even closer to my side of the car. “That first weekend when I got back from Paris, you let me sleep in your room. I did something bad in your bed that I shouldn’t have.”

My cock strains against my pants, hearing the words out of this girl’s mouth. Every inch of my skin is lit up with heat. I can’t tear my gaze away from her. This is what I live for—this side of Ally that has no shame. Yet I can’t figure out why she’s showing this sudden change in behavior.

“Tell me what you did in my bed.” My words are a low rasp.

“Exactly what you taught me to do with my fingers. I made myself feel good while imagining what you would look like when jerking off. What you’d sound like. You’re always on my mind, Dan. I came to a realization tonight. I’m thinking… The only way we can get over each other is if we have sex.”

My blood feels like it’s boiling. I’m hard and catch Ally looking at the tent in my pants.

Before I can form an answer, she continues with her reasoning. “I know it’s wrong. But we can keep it a secret. No one will know but us if we just do it once. We can get this attraction for each other out of our systems and move on with our lives, never speaking about this moment again.”

I swallow hard and stare out the windshield, barely believing what I’m hearing. For years, the two of us worked hard to not act on this attraction between us. Since returning from Paris, Ally has been adamant nothing will happen between us. Nowshe’sthe one, little miss perfect, suggesting we give in.She’sthe one begging, all in an attempt to block out the side of her that is a freak for her stepbrother. To make herself feel normal because she’s so goddamn ashamed of who she is and what she wants.

Fuck. Is this the only way I’m ever going to have her?

After we have sex, what happens next? She gets what she wants, to move on with Liam or whoever the next guy is, all while I’m still jerking off to the thought of her because I won’t ever get Ally out of my system.

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