Page 4 of Stolen Moments

I huff at his response. I never should have brought up going back east for the holiday. While he is right about his scholarship, he’s wrong about who really pays for his tuition. I do, and it’s a sacrifice I’d do a million times over to protect him and help him fulfill hisdream of becoming a movie director. But he doesn’t need to know that or how our parents are—yet again—a complete letdown.

They have been since Chris turned sixteen and brought his first boyfriend home for dinner. When he came out as pansexual, that was the end for my uptight parents. They couldn’t let Chris tarnish their precious image with his—their words—outlandish and flamboyant personality.

Jerks.

Chris is a unicorn. The whole freaking package. He’s incredibly smart, funny, kind, and creative, and I wouldn’t change a single thing about him because he’s that special.

Sinclair and Cybil Rhodes, however, disagreed and immediately shipped Chris off to a boarding school outside of Portland. “Out of sight, out of mind” should be their motto.

Since then, my relationship with them has been strained. They broke my heart the day they turned their backs on him. I’ll never understand how my parents could have so easily pushed him aside, like he was an inconvenience they’d rather not deal with. He’s their son, and it pisses me off when they act like Chris doesn’t exist.

I’m eight years older, but it has always felt like my job to take care of him. Protect and love him. Chris and I spent one semester apart before I graduated from University of New York (UNY) and moved across the country to be near him. My parents might be heartless assholes, but I’m not. I love my brother more than anything. He’s my best friend, and as his big sister, it’s my duty to do anything I can to ensure he lives his best life. Case in point, his tuition.

My brother is currently attending Los Angeles California University’s (LACU) film school, and I am beyond proud of him. He’s super dedicated to his educational and career path. If he knew the truth about where the money came from, he’d be so angry I’d never hear the end of it. I have more than enough to deal with where our mother and father are concerned, let alone having Chris up myass. He needs to concentrate on school. Worrying about what I’m doing to keep him there is the last thing he needs.

“You’re right. I’m done bugging you about it. You don’t have to come,” I admit.

“That’s not what I told the hot guy at the club when I was sucking his dick in the bathroom. My knees were killing me, and he was taking too long to blow. Whiskey dick is real, Em. It’s a travesty, I tell you,” Chris jokes.

Leave it to my brother to say something inappropriate while he’s on speaker.

I jump to lower the volume on my cell, annoyed that I forgot my earbuds at home. I almost sprung for a new pair in the vending machine, but I couldn’t do it. Spending money on new ones when I have a perfectly good pair at home is a waste.

Of course, my crazy-ass brother has to prove me wrong. I should have spent the money.

“Oh, gawd. Really, Chrisy?” I hide my face from view. Last I checked, I was alone, hiding in the back of the airport café waiting for my flight to Los Angeles.

I’m spending the week of Christmas with Chris before heading to our parents’ estate for their annual New Year party. I only called to remind Chris to pick me up from the airport because he can be flighty and forgetful when he’s working on a project, and as usual, it turned into a full-blown conversation about everything from his latest breakup, then hookup—to get over said breakup—to complaining about our parents.

“I told you not to call me that. And don’t hate on me just because you’re letting the cobwebs grow between your legs.”

I roll my eyes at the evil grin proudly displayed on his face. He thinks he’s so funny. I swear he lives to embarrass me, but the thing about big sisters is we know how to mess with little brothers right back.

“What’s going on between my legs is none of your concern. Besides, Bog takes care of me just fine.”

“Can you please stop calling it that?” He groans, making a retching sound.

Now, it’s my turn to grin evilly. See,I can just as easily embarrass him.

“Oh, you can tell me all about giving blowjobs in bathrooms, but I can’t mention that battery-operated Geralt knows exactly what spot to hit every night? Hypocrite much?”

A loud booming laugh nearby pulls me from the hot mess that is this conversation, scaring the shit out of me.

When the hell did someone sit down without me realizing?

Chris busts up while I melt into a puddle of humiliation. I try to muster up what little dignity I have left to scold the person so rudely eavesdropping on my personal conversation. When I turn to give them a piece of my mind, all coherent thought leaves my brain.

The nosy intruder is the sexiest man I have ever laid eyes on. His light brown hair falls back with his head as he throws it back in laughter at my expense. The only thing I can do is stare as his shoulders bounce jovially while his fingers lay on the keys of his open laptop sitting on the table beside me.

His gaze meets mine, and his laughter dies on his pink lips.

Fourth of July sparklers crackle and pop in my belly as he stares at me. My heart goes pitter-patter, and all I can think about is sitting on this poor man’s face until he makes my body shoot off like a bottle rocket.

Just … wow.

This man is sexy as sin. Hand to God, he puts Henry Cavill to shame with his scruffy cheeks, bulging pecs, and broad shoulders. His brilliant sea-green and hazel-brown eyes are captivating, and remind me of happier times, like summer vacations with my grandfather by the green waters of the Gulf Coast.

He speaks first. “It’s you.” His voice is gravelly and thick, and the seductive sound sends goosebumps prickling across my skin.

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