Page 4 of Relentless (The Titans of Founder's Ridge 2)

“I’m this way,” I point down the wooded path toward the girls’ cabins.

“Oh, right.” He looks at me, then the trail, and back at me. “See you around, Ivy.”

Levi looks as shaken as I feel when our eyes collide for the first time since that night a little over two years ago, when we gave ourselves to each other for the first time. He has grown some more, both in height and form, but his gorgeous face is exactly the same. His sandy blonde hair looks damp, like he recently showered. His skin is perfectly sun kissed and covered by a tight black t-shirt and blue basketball shorts. His midnight blue eyes spear me with a look that is equal parts lust, happiness, and hurt.

“Ivy?” he whispers.

I nod and pull invisible lint off my shirt, finding direct eye contact hard to hold.

He crosses to me in three long strides. He starts to lift his arms like he’s going to hug me, but I take a step back. When I look up at him, I see a flash of pain cross his eyes at my rejection.

“You quit writing to me.” The accusation falls from my lips before I even have time to think it through.

“No, I didn’t,” he says surprised. His gaze holds mine resolutely. “I have written you so many letters it is embarrassingly pathetic.”

“I,” my brow furrows, “I never got anything. After that night,” I trail off. I have been holding onto two years of resentment over this.

“Ives, look at me.”

I flinch at his use of the nickname he gave me all those years ago. It doesn’t make sense that he could have been sending letters and somehow none of them made it to me. I was at the same boarding school I had been at the entire time I’ve known him.

“This is a total mindfuck.” He wraps a hand gently around my neck and waits for me to look up at him again. “I can’t believe you are Jennifer’s daughter, that I never put it together. I swear to you though, I never stopped trying to get ahold of you. I even tried calling your boarding school, but they wouldn’t let me talk to you since I wasn’t family. Which is kind of ironic now, in a twisted way.”

I step away from him again and pull his hand off my neck, “You can’t touch me like that anymore. You are my brother now.”

Gross.

I had sex with the guy who is now my brother.

“Stepbrother. It’s not the same, and you know it. Don’t overthink this.” He reaches for me again, and this time I have nowhere to retreat to as the wall is against my back. “Will you just hug me back?”

I step into his embrace this time and wrap my arms around his waist. I feel him rest his cheek on my head and hear him take a deep breath. I can’t stop my mind from going back to the last time I was surrounded by him like this. His back muscles dance under my fingers, and I hate myself for noticing.

“Are you hungry? Dad and Jennifer went to the country club for dinner tonight. I saw them leaving on my way in.” He still hasn’t let go of me.

“Typical,” I scoff. “She didn’t even come see me before running off with her new man.”

“Yeah,” he finally lets go of me, “she’s a cunt. No offense.”

“None taken.” If he thinks she’s bad now, I can’t wait until he hears the way she talks to me. “I’m actually glad she won’t be around tonight. I’m not really hungry though, so you can go on without me.” I walk back into the closet to keep unpacking. I know we’ll have to have another conversation about the past two years, but I’m tired and just want to finish this before going to bed.

“You sure?” He follows me into the closet. “Holy shit, this is way nicer than mine.” He flips through some of the hanging clothes I’ve already put away. “I guess they haven’t gotten you your uniforms yet.”

“What are they like?” I ask while I start putting my shoes away.

“The uniforms?” He opens one of the island drawers and closes it after seeing my bras laid out inside. “Nice, I guess. One of the girls who graduated last year was the daughter of some designer in New York, and they redid all the designs.” He points at the modest collection of shoes I brought, “No pink Chucks?”

“No, not anymore.”

His phone pings with an incoming text message. He checks it and shoots off a reply quickly. “That’s my friend Connor. He and Griff are pulling up. You sure you don’t want to come with us? We’re partying.”

“Yeah, I’m not in the mood,” I answer.

“Do you at least know where the kitchen is?”

“No, that’s one place your dad forgot to show me on the tour.”

“Come on,” he gestures for me to follow. “I’ll show where it is and introduce you to Babs, our chef, if she’s around.”

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