Page 35 of Off Limits

“Nervous?” I asked as I perched on the edge of the bed.

“Hell yeah.” He laughed and sat next to me. “Are you?”

“Definitely.”

“You don’t look nervous. But then again, you’re a master at hiding your emotions, so that’s not a surprise.”

“Usually you are too,” I pointed out.

“Usually. But not this time.” He scooted back on the bed a bit and crossed his legs.

I mirrored his pose.

“Ready?” he asked.

I nodded.

I waited as he logged into the site and got his room set up.

“We’re not live yet,” he said as he adjusted the camera angle again. “I usually use a detached webcam, but it fell victim to the spilled water debacle, and I haven’t had a chance to replace it yet. It’s so much easier than using the built-in one.”

Seeing us on the screen was weird, but what really stood out was how different we looked.

I wasn’t used to seeing the two of us together. The last time we were even in the same photo was years ago, at either Christmas or one of our siblings’ birthdays.

Dex looked huge and handsome with his classic good looks and perfect body. Add in his backward ball cap that affected me more than I’d ever admit, and he looked the part of the hot cam model.

Then there was me, the skinny goth nerd who not only looked tiny next to him when we were almost the same height, but the bright lights and the white wall behind us emphasized my blond hair and pale complexion.

Thank fuck I’d put eyeliner on so I just looked like I was allergic to the sun and not like a washed-out mess.

“Once I set the room to go live, I’ll send out the email notification to my followers. I have no idea how long it’ll take for people to log on since I usually don’t cam on Fridays, but hopefully we won’t be waiting forever.” He shot me a quick look. “Ready?”

I nodded, and he pressed a few buttons.

The counter at the top of the room went from zero to ten in about three seconds. A moment later, a bunch of text flew through the chat as the counter kept climbing.

“Hey, Biglife.” Dex said with a smile. “I’m glad you could make it. Hi, Stripes.”

He kept greeting people I assumed were his regulars and gave up trying to read the chat. He’d told me that not just comments showed up on his side of things and that the different colored texts helped him filter out the important information. Comments were black, tip requests were red, and tips were green. Everything else was just admin stuff and wasn’t important for me to try to decipher.

“Yup, this is him.” Dex bumped me with his shoulder after he’d finished greeting people. “My stepbrother.”

I waved like a moron, not sure what else to do.

“Alex is a year younger than me,” he said, obviously answering a question.

I’d told him to pick whatever pseudonym he wanted for me, and he’d gone with Alex because he said it was close enough to my real name he’d remember it and not have to worry about slipping. He cammed under the name Jake, and I’d spent thepast few days calling him that in my head so I wouldn’t fuck up and give away his real name by accident.

“We’ve been stepbrothers for eight years,” he continued. “We were fourteen and fifteen when our parents got married.”

The computer chimed as tips came flowing in.

“Biglife wants to know what you’re into,” Dex said. “Like hobbies,” he corrected quickly. “We’ll get to theotherstuff you’re into in a bit.”

I couldn’t stop my smirk at Dex’s flustered expression. “I’m not much of a sports guy.” I waved at myself. “As you can probably tell. But I like to read.”

“Tetrisking wants to know what your favorite genre is.”

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