Page 106 of Off Limits

“Is that an okay situation? I know you don’t get along.”

I snort-laughed. “Yeah, not getting along isn’t the problem. We actually get along too well, and I have no idea what the fuck to do about it.”

“What do you mean?” Dev prompted when I didn’t say more.

“What are your views on sex work?” I asked. That was one conversation we’d never had, and even though I didn’t think he’d have a problem with us camming, I needed to be sure before I spilled that part to him.

He looked surprised for a few seconds, obviously taken aback by the seemingly random topic change. “I don’t have a problem with it as long as everyone involved is a consenting adult and doing it of their own free will.”

“This part is really weird. Like,reallyout there.” I chewed on the inside of my cheek. “Are you sure you want to hear it? I can skip it and?—”

“I want to hear whatever you want to tell me,” he said in his calm big brother voice. “Just take your time and don’t worry about anything other than getting whatever you need off your chest. I promise I won’t judge you, no matter what you tell me.”

“Okay.” I blew out a breath. I needed to talk to someone about this, and Dev was the only person Icouldtalk to about it. “About a week after I moved in, I accidentally walked in on Dex while he was camming.”

“Camming, like on one of those adult webcam sites?”

I nodded. “I had no idea he did that, and catching him with his dick out, literally, was a shock. But it wasn’t a big deal once he explained it to me.” I chewed on the inside of my lip for a few beats. “The issue is what happened after we started camming together.”

This time Dev wasn’t able to hide his shock, but he recovered quickly. “Did he approach you about this?”

I shook my head. “I asked him. I looked up his cam room after I walked in on him and watched part of his show the next time he went online. His viewers were talking about wanting to see us cam together, and he told them he would if he thought I’d say yes. I needed money, and he made good money doing solo stuff. I figured why not see if he meant it and asked.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but that doesn’t sound like you,” he said in a careful tone. “Not the camming part, but having sex with someone for the first time in front of an audience.”

I hadn’t told him too many details about my lack of a sex life, but he knew I didn’t date and didn’t have much interest in sex or hooking up.

“It wasn’t our first time. I never told you this, but we hooked up when we were teenagers. It only happened that one time, and we were both using each other to figure shit out, but it happened. I thought that would make it easier to keep things separate.”

“It didn’t?” he prompted when I fell silent again.

“No.” I shot him what I hoped was a wry smile. “I thought it would be a one-off, but he asked if I wanted to do it again, and my dumb ass said yes. I knew it was a mistake, but I still did it. I probably could have flipped back to how things used to be between us if it was just camming together that was different, but everything changed. We started talking, like actually talking about real stuff, and we get along really well when we’re not taking our anger at our parents out on each other. I like living with him, and it’s so weird, but he’s actually, like, my best friend now.”

Dev smiled, but I could see that he was still processing everything I’d told him. “I’m assuming that’s what’s better, but it’s also why things still aren’t great?”

“Yeah. We hooked up at our parents’ a few months ago, and that’s the only time we’ve ever done anything off cam since that first night. It’s amazing on cam, but it was so much better when it was just the two of us and we were doing it because we wanted to.

“But nothing else happened after that. I thought maybe he regretted it or didn’t want me like that anymore and he just wanted to be roommates who cammed together. But we talked about some stuff last night, and he told me he was keeping his distance because he didn’t know what I wanted. And he asked me to sleep in his bed. We didn’t do anything, just talked and slept, but it was even better than when we hooked up at our parents’ if that makes sense?”

Dev nodded. “That makes perfect sense.”

“Good, because I feel like I just said a whole lot of words, but none of them made sense.”

“You’re fine,” he assured me. “I understood everything.”

“Good.” I blew out another breath. “So yeah, that’s what’s been going on. I moved in with my stepbrother, we’ve been fucking on cam for money, and I’m pretty sure I’m in love with him.”

I snapped my mouth shut. What the fuck? Where had that come from?

Was I in love with Dex?

No, I couldn’t be. That was just emotional fallout from waking up together.

Right?

“You didn’t realize you love him?” Dev asked gently.

“No. I mean, I can’t.”