Page 21 of Beautiful Desire
“Charley Rose Madison.” I throw my hands in the air, feeling like we’re speaking two different languages here. “The point is, he’s mystepbrother, and on top of that, I’ve known him since he was fourteen, Char. Four?—”
“Knock it off,” she blurts out with another chuckle, cutting me off. “My goodness, you get intense when you’re spiraling.” Expression turning serious, even as her lip twitches with humor,she points at me. “Don’t make me come over there and smack some sense into you, babe. You know I will.”
Shaking my head, I grab the wine and chug what’s left. Charley, already knowing what I want, gets up and walks out of the room, coming back a moment later with the bottle. As she refills mine and tops hers off, I can already tell we’ll be cracking open a third one before the night’s over.
After she sets the bottle on the coffee table and takes her seat, she looks over at me and says, “I seem to recall a time—not that long ago, I might add—when you told me and your sisters how you didn’t consider Fletcher familybecauseof how little time y’all were around each other when he was a teenager.” Charley smirks and cocks an inquisitive brow. “You remember that, Georg?”
Heaving a sigh, I nod.
“So, that right there makes what you said a moot point, but for the sake of easing the spiral, let’s unpack it,” she offers gently. “Okay, he’s your stepbrother, yes,butas you already pointed out, you guys have never really had much of a relationship at all—familialorfriendship—so, really, the only connection y’all share is that your dad is married to his mom. Which, yes, makes it a tricky situation when you look at it without any context, but given everything else we already know to be true, I don’t think it’s nearly as inappropriate as you think it is.”
I clench my jaw, breathing through my nose. “But it’s weird…”
“Is itactuallyweird?” Charley asks. “Or maybe, have we simply been conditioned and brainwashed by society and purity culture to believe it’s wrong? Kind of like how they, historically, have done with anything else they deemtoo taboo.” Using her fingers to count, she says, “Premarital sex, masturbation, birth control, abortion, polyamorous relationships, queerrelationships. I could go on and on, but the reality is, none of those things are inherentlywrong. Sure, fucking your stepbrother?—”
“Not fucking him,” I interject, holding up a hand.
“Hush, I’m making a point here.” Charley snorts. “As I was saying…fucking your stepbrother might be frowned upon by certain people, but those same people probably also believe we’re going to burn in hell for being bisexual. You see what I’m saying, babe? We shouldn’t ever concern ourselves with the opinions of small-minded idiots. Besides, I fully believe people fuck their stepsiblings a whole lot more than we think; it’s just not talked about. But all that to say, I don’t, for a second, think what happened is inappropriate or wrong. Fletcher’s hot. You already know I think you’re fuckingstunningand delicious and perfect. And the two of you,together?” Her eyes roll back as she moans.
A laugh bubbles past my lips as she flashes me an innocent, toothy grin, but before I have a chance to respond, the front door opens, causing both of us to turn our heads in that direction. My gaze lands on Fletcher as he drops his backpack on the bench in the entryway, and my stomach does a backflip.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, harsher than I intend to.
Fletcher strolls down the hallway, stopping at the entrance to the living room. “Um, I live here?” he replies with furrowed brows.
I glance at the clock on the wall, knowing there’s no way Charley and I lost track ofthatmuch time. “But why are you hereright now? I thought you were going to the library and the gym.”
“Yeah, and I did.” He shakes his head as he walks across the living room. Swiping the wine off the table in front of Charley, he takes a swig straight from the bottle, like a damn caveman, before he drops into the chair beside mine. “My shift ended atfour today,” he states. “If you weren’t hiding in your office like a wounded animal, you would’ve noticed me leaving the store.”
Charley chuckles, and when I turn and glower at her, it only makes her laugh harder. “I’m sorry,” she murmurs. “But him calling your ass out like that was funny, and you know it.”
“No, I don’t,” I grit out before turning my attention back to Fletcher. “And I wasn’thiding, smartass. I wasworking. I have no reason to hide in my own store.”
A mischievous glint in his eye, Fletcher’s mouth curls into a smirk as he holds my gaze with such intensity, it almost feels like he can hear my every thought. I have to fight to keep my expression blank and not squirm in my seat. “I don’t know what you were doing in your office, Peach, but it certainly wasn’t working.”
I clench my jaw, feeling my face heat while my pulse kicks up, the vein in my neck throbbing. Narrowing my eyes, I open my mouth, a response on the tip of my tongue, but before I have a chance to, Charley cuts in. “Hold on. What now?” Amusement brightens her features as she turns her attention to me. “You’re telling me he calls youPeach,and this is the first I’m hearing about it?”
“Yeah,” Fletcher answers for me, and I can feel my blood pressure rising. “She likes it too.”
“No, actually, I don’t,” I bite out. “In fact, I’m pretty sure I told you how unoriginal it was.”
He huffs a laugh, then drags his gaze over to Charley. “She says that now, but you should’ve heard how much she fuckinglovedit the other night.” And then, throwing his head back on the chair, he moans in a high-pitched, feminine tone, “Yes, oh fuck… Yes!”
“Absolutely not,” I mutter, barely keeping myself sitting with how badly I want to smack his mouth shut. “You fuckingwishI would, though, huh? Probably never had a girl moan like that because of you, have you, Mr. Minute Man?”
“Oh, shit, she’s got you there, bud.” Charley cringes. “We’ve heard all about your less-than-stellar two-pump-chump performance with Tara. And not even a little foreplay? That’swild.”
“You know what that tells me?” A grin slides up my face as I grab my glass and take another long sip. Then leaning over, I grab the bottle hanging between Fletcher’s fingers, snatching it from his grip, but not before I look him dead in the eye and say, “That not only do you have zero swag in the bedroom, but you’re also a selfish lover.” Head buzzing with the wine already coursing through my system, I giggle at the anger flashing in his gaze while I pour another glass.
“Fuck off,” he spits out. “Just because you heard about one person I hooked up with, don’t sit here and act like you know it all.”
“Hey, Char,” I drawl, glancing over at my friend. Smirking, she raises her brows questioningly. “How much you wanna bet the reason he skipped the foreplay is because he doesn’t know how? He’s probably one of those guys who thinks the proper way to fingerbang a girl is by thrusting into her cunt hard and fast, with dry, straight fingers, like the goal is to poke her in the cervix.”
Her lip twitches with humor as her gaze travels over to Fletcher before coming back to me. Biting down on her bottom lip, she nods. “Think you hit the nail on the head with that one, babe.”
“And if he eats a girl out—bigif,because you know how selfish men are—he probably licks everywhere but the clit.” I turn toward Fletcher, a chuckle bubbling out of me at how his lips are pinched into a thin, blanched line, his jaw ticking.“Drooling all over her pussy and mouthing at it like a fucking fish out of water.”
Charley busts up laughing, and I lose it too, unable to hold it in.
