Page 22 of Wicked Sins

Sean’s a good-looking dude, and he’s one of the guys on the team with the most notches on his belt, but I guess even he doesn’t stand a chance against—

Candy puts a hand over her mouth and ducks forward, laughing. Sean leans a little closer, one hand dangling from his upraised knee, the other describing something like a farmer talking about his crops. Wide, expansive gestures. Candy now has both hands over her mouth, and she’s shaking her head.

No, he didn’t.

Oh, you should have seen him, hot stuff. So, listen…

Sean comes to sit next to her, leaning close enough that their shoulders brush. Candy doesn’t lean away. In fact, she ducks her head so her hair hides her face. Her hands hover, then she nods and takes out her cellphone.

Christ, she’s an alcoholicanda slut. I’m one lucky, lucky guy.

“Where the fuck is Sean?” Coach yells from a few yards away.

“He’ll be here in a sec,” Alex says and trots away.

Yeah, soon as he’s done banging my sister.

I grimace, turning away from bleachers and heading for the huddle of football players.

Stepsister.

* * *

I managea whole thirty seconds of silence on the car ride home.

“Why’d you give him your number?”

Candy squirms. She’s been sitting still as a porcelain doll next to me the entire time we’ve been driving, as if any sudden movements would set me off. “I didn’t.”

“I know what I saw.”

“You think you do, but you don’t.” She crosses her arms over her chest and shrugs her shoulders. “And so what if I did? What does it matter to you, anyway?”

I check my left and then make a smooth turn out of Fifth Street and onto the main road that takes us to the quiet suburbia of home.

“You ever stop to wonder why I’m not dating anyone?”

Candy snorts. “Because no one in existence could be that masochistic?”

My expression turns deadpan. “Dad—” I cut off with a grunt. “My father forbids it.” I catch her eye for a second as I check my right for traffic before switching lanes. “It’s a distraction.”

“Forbids it?” she repeats, a laugh in her voice. “He didn’t say anything to me.”

“He assumes his kids are psychic.” My jaw tightens when I realize I kind of included her in that statement, but I guess I can’t keep denying the fact much longer. “So you might as well ignore Sean, and everything else with a dick, until you’ve graduated.”

“What about college,” she asks airily, her nose rising an inch into the air. “Can I date then?”

I shrug. “Guess we’ll have to see when we get there.”

She makes an angry sound and turns to stare out the window. “I didn’t give him my number,” she says. “I don’t…I didn’t like the thought that he could just call me up whenever.”

Something floods through me, and I’m not sure if it’s relief. “Guess there’s something between those ears of yours after all.”

She lets out a low, sardonic laugh. “You’re a fucking dick.”

I shrug, letting her anger slide right off me. With a sniff, Candy rummages in her blazer. She crosses her legs, exposing an extra inch of her thigh and then tugging at the hem of her skirt like I’m a fucking lecher.

She puts her cellphone to her ear, studies her neat fingernails, and says, “Hey, Sean?”

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