Page 55 of Feast

He nodded. “Okay, well, if you need any help…”

“We’ve probably got it, but thanks.”

“Anything for my sisters,” he drawled, and she laughed.

She sat there for a moment, enjoying the way his eyes lingered on her bare shoulder, and let herself wonder, just for a moment. Then she took a deep breath and forced herself back to reality. “Well. I should go.”

She climbed to her feet and shrugged her sweater back into place. “Want me to put the pizza in the fridge?”

“I’ll get it,” he said, still watching her with something that might have been disappointment in his dark eyes.

“Okay.” She crossed to the table and picked up her laptop, tucking it into its pocket inside her messenger bag. “I’ll email you the tax file so you can send it in with the payment.”

She glanced over when he stood from the sofa, pizza box in hand. “You can call me if you have any questions.”

He nodded. “Want me to wrap some of this up for you?”

“I’m good,” she said and went to the bench by the door to put her boots back on as he walked into the kitchen.

She was tugging the first one on when he came out, hands tucked into his front pockets.

“I appreciate the help,” he said. “With the taxes.”

She gave him a genuine smile and reached for her other boot. “Happy to do it. I love taxes.”

He shook his head in amused bewilderment. “You’re an odd duck, Mads.”

“Takes one to know one…Daddy,” she said pointedly.

“Don’t kink shame,” he said with a glitter in his eyes that made her stomach clench.

“Oh, I’m not,” she said earnestly. “That was kinkteasing.”

“Right.”

He was still staring at her, the glitter in his eyes intensifying, and she swallowed. “Um. Spence?”

“Yes, Maddie?”

“You probably shouldn’t look at me like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like you did in Vegas.”

“Because you’re my stepsister,” he said. “And it’s complicated.”

“Right.” Her head had gone light. “Complicated.”

He started walking towards her, hands loose at his sides, eyes fierce. “The thing is, though…”

She looked up at him as he drew nearer, her boot slipping from her limp fingers. “What?”

“I don’t think I care.”

The rush of lust left her giddy. “Oh.”

He stopped in front of her, so close she could feel the heat pumping off him. “Do you?”

---