Page 11 of Dirty Doctor
“I should call Mom,” I add quickly, fetching my phone out.
Walking away, I have to actively hide my shaking hands.
CHAPTEREIGHT
LUKE
Bringingher back here was a catastrophic mistake.
I watch as Langley paces in front of my fireplace talking to Mom, Pip weaving between her legs like he’s known her forever. With anyone else, Pip is usually on the defensive—arching his back, hissing, acting completely afoul toward anyone that comes near him. But Langley? In the three and a half years I’ve had him, he’s never acted like this around anyone but me.
I’m too scared to admit how that makes me feel.
I walk into the kitchen and grab us both glasses for water. Reaching into the fridge, I pull out the leftovers from a few nights ago—salmon, risotto, and vegetables I grilled outside. I make us each a plate—heating them up and working on autopilot—until I stop and look up. She’s watching me from the other side of the kitchen, a soft look on her face and a smile tugging on the edge of her lips.
“That smells delicious,” she says, walking over and taking the plate from me. “Did you make it?”
I nod, handing her a fork. “Eat.”
“Stop being bossy,” she responds, glaring up at me.
“I’m not being bossy. I’m just telling you to eat, Langley.”
Her sapphire eyes bore into mine defiantly.Fuck. Me.
“Mom says hi,” she adds, changing the subject. “She’s glad I’m staying with family.”
My eyes snap to hers. The way she saysfamily—like she resents it—sends a shock wave of heat through me. She’s looking up at me through her lashes, and dammit, she’s daring me to challenge that word—to defy the ties that bind us together.
But I can’t do that.
Because I really am her stepbrother—in name and on paper. Sure, there’s no law around it, but even if I wanted to, it would bemorallywrong. What would Mom say? Dad? I knew her when she was still in pigtails. I mean, fuck. I have a picture of the four of us at the Grand Canyon from sixteen years ago in the foyer. She was a gangly pre-teen then, with braces and frizzy hair. My lips tug to the side as I remember that—remember her. And as my eyes find hers again, she understands, too. Swallowing, she looks down at the food and takes a bite.
“This is really good,” she says, chewing.
I don’t say anything as we eat, and once we finish, I take her plate to the sink. When I feel eyes on me, I turn around to find her watching me with a darkened expression—a look I’ve never seen her give me.
Ever.
“Thank you for letting me stay here,” she says quietly.
I give her a tight smile. “Sure. Shall I show you to your room?”
I tamp down the feeling tugging at me—that maybe we’ve outgrown our relationship as step-siblings.
That maybe something far more dangerous is brewing beneath the surface.
CHAPTERNINE
LANGLEY
I never knewLuke liked the color red so much, but it’s everywhere. It’s not overwhelming, but here and there, red accents are sprinkled in randomly. In the kitchen. In the bedrooms. As hand towels. As picture frames. I try to recall his bedroom from my childhood, but I don’t remember anything being red.
I sit down on the bed and take out my phone, making sure to update Bella about my whereabouts. She responds immediately and asks for the address so that she can drop my stuff off after work. I twist my lips to the side as I try to recall the street or even the number of Luke’s house, deciding to send her a dropped pin instead. Almost immediately, she responds.
Bella: Where the fuck does your stepbrother live, and why does it look like he’s taken you to the middle of the woods to murder you?
I laugh at that and send her a picture of me sitting on the large bed. The quilt is white and adorned with red pillows.
