Page 123 of Bad for Me

“You said that yesterday too.” He tilts his head with an earnest grin that makes my stomach flip. “How did you think this would go?”

My cheeks heat, and all of the plans I had when I applied to Graveston immediately feel silly. After everything tonight, with him still hard and pulsing inside me and helping me through my PTSD, peeling back another layer of vulnerability between us shouldn’t be embarrassing. Yet here I am, bashful and afraid he’ll make fun of me again.

“Hey, talk to me,” he murmurs as he tucks my hair behind my ear.

“It feels naïve. You might even call me a ‘sweet summer child,’ again.”

He frowns and shakes his head. “I was wrong. I’m sorry. Seeing you in my class caught me off guard and I was a dick.” A slow smile lifts his lips. “How about I call you my sunshine, instead?”

His apology lifts a weight off my shoulders and the nickname makes my heart flutter. As much as his bullying humiliated and hurt me, his honesty with me tonight means that much more because I know we trust each other now.

I grin back and take another small leap of trust. “I was excited to learn from you. I was held back because I moved so many times, and it was something I was embarrassed about at one point. But I was proud to show you how far I’ve come.”

He groans and swipes his face. “Fuck, I really was a dick.”

“Yup.” I giggle before what I say next sobers me. “More than that, though, I wanted to be a family. It’s what I’ve always wanted. I thought I could convince you to make up with your dad, but I guess now I know that it’s a lot more complicated than that.”

“Fuck, Everly, complicated or not, I think you could convince me to do just about anything,” he chuckles. The movement shifts his cock inside me, and we both moan as he pulls me against his chest again.

I’m wrapped around him, he’s wrapped around me, but he doesn’t thrust again. We’re comfortable in our silence—in our embrace—for so long that the sated peace I feel lures me to nearly fall asleep.

“I don’t want you to leave,” he whispers finally, the soft words fluttering over me and making me still feel light with hope even in this heavy situation.

“I don’t want to leave either,” I admit, right before shouts and laughter outside of the car make us both tense. An animal rustles the shrubbery in front of us, reminding me that anyone could be watching in the dark and we’d never know it. Once again, reality comes crashing back down.

“I have to leave, though, don’t I? We shouldn’t be seen together, right?”

Those last words are so quiet I barely hear them myself, but they slice through the air like a knife. I expect them to sever our connection, but Woods digs his fingers into my hip, signaling that he doesn’t want this to end either. At the same time, he cups my cheek with his other hand and lifts it to meet his gaze.

“This isn’t the end, Everly. We’re not a mistake. You’ve said it twice before, but does this—” He slowly thrusts up. “Does that feel like a mistake?”

I bite my lip, barely stifling my moan before shaking my head. “No. It feels right. But even if it feels right, that doesn’t help the fact that I’m still your student.”

He scowls. “We’ll figure that out. You’re only my student for one semester. After that, there won’t be anything stopping us.” My brow furrows and I tilt my head. He clears his throat and rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. “I might’ve, uh, read the school’s bylaws earlier tonight.”

“What?” I squeak out, and a giggle spills from my lips. “You were looking up whether we could be together even when you were determined to hate me?”

“Like I said,” he kisses me sweetly before whispering against my lips, “I never hated you, Everly Gable.”

His kiss warms me to my soul, and I shift on top of him. His cock pulses inside me and I whimper into his mouth, while he curses into mine. He doesn’t move another inch underneath me, though, and I love that. We’re content like this, touching intimately, being vulnerable. But the truth still looms between us.

“So we keep us quiet. Just for this semester? Even though… even though I’m your stepsister?”

He nods firmly, totally unfazed by my point, reaffirming my hopes.

“Just for this semester, sunshine. Then I’m shouting about us from the fucking rooftops, stepsiblings be damned.”

8

WOODS

I shouldn’t be excitedfor an eight a.m. seminar because I’m obsessed with a certain student attending it. Idefinitelyshouldn’t be excited when that student is my stepsister. But I can’t help it.

I don’t know what this is between me and Everly, but for the first time in years, I’m thinking of someone other than myself, and I like it. When my father told me that she was at Graveston U, I assumed the worst about her. I always have, it seems, but that stops now. I’m willing to see where this attraction goes, and from the way she talked Friday night, and every text since, I know she is too.

My heart skips in my chest and a grin crests my face at the memory. Thank God the campus is virtually empty at this time on Monday. My reputation for being a hardass will go up in smoke if someone sees me giddy to teach. Luckily for me, nothing but the fog greets me as I walk from my campus apartment to my classroom, because this smile isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon.

Friday, after finding Everly at that party, she confessed her wildest dreams to me. A family. A wish so innocent coming from someone I made myself believe was only using my father. It makes me second-guess every decision I made about refusing to get to know my father’s new family over the past five years. I can’t do anything about that now, but I can make up for lost time.

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