Page 147 of Worthy

I make an indistinguishable, choked sound. I need to come more than anything.

It’s the sole thing on my mind.

“That’s it, sis. Let go. Come all over my face.”

With one last, firm flick of her tongue, I fall apart on the bed beneath the wooden beams that stretch underneath the roof. Spent and out of breath, I feel the bed shift as she crawls up beside me. This was my true death tonight, touched by my stepsister in a stranger’s log cabin.

“We really crossed some boundaries, didn’t we?” She laughs softly, snuggling up to me.

Normally, I would shy away from anyone holding me like this, but I’m too tired and sated to move. “We did.”

“It was fun.”

I grunt in response.

Her soft breaths on my neck and warm arm draped over my naked chest awaken something inside me. A yearning for the closeness I shut myself off to after my mom’s death.

Now it’s climbing out of its hiding hole, and I’m too weak to force it back down.

“I haven’t been myself like that ever.”

When I turn my head, our noses brush. “Sleep, Jessica.”

She’s silent, her doe eyes sweeping over my face.

“Whatever you’re searching for, I’m not the answer.”

“I know that,” she replies quietly, her fingers stroking soft circles on the swell of my left breast.

My eyes flutter shut as exhaustion finally drags me beneath the waves of blissful peace.

Chapter seven

One month later.

Jessica

I watch Melanie across the cafeteria, where she sits with her friend, Amanda. We spent a further two days in that log cabin before the blizzard settled enough for us to leave. The media storm that followed has finally settled down after weeks of frenzy.

What surprised me the most was how quickly and easily we fell into the normality of life. She doesn’t talk to me, and I’m back to pretending to be some perfect version of myself that fools everyone but us.

“What are you looking at, babe?” Jaxon whispers in my ear before shifting me onto his lap.

“Huh?”

Stroking my hair behind my ear, he smiles at me. “You’re staring at your sister.”

“Oh.” I bounce my eyes between his, unable to think of an excuse.

“Ever since you got back, you’ve been different.” His voice is quieter now.

“Different?”

“Yeah,” he breathes out, his thumb tracing the line of my jaw. “Distant.”

“I was kidnapped. Melanie killed that guy.” My throat jumps. “I hit the other man with a rock, and he froze to death as a result.”

His hand falls away and he moves in to press a kiss to the sensitive spot below my ear. “I know. I just miss you.”

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