Page 83 of Feast

“Maybe?” Maddie shifted in her chair. “I get this…” she gestured vaguely toward her middle “…tingle in my belly when he looks at me.”

“You eat a lot of dairy,” Halley pointed out. “Maybe you’ve developed lactose intolerance.”

“And then my chest goes tight, and I feel like I can’t get a full breath.”

“Adult onset asthma?”

“And after we have sex, when we’re just cuddled up in bed and he’s sprawled out over the mattress but he holds me tight next to him, and he’s warm and I can smell him?” Maddie dropped her hands into her lap. “I feel…”

“You feel…?” Halley prompted.

“Safe,” Maddie decided and looked at her sister. “I feel safe.”

Halley sat back. “Well, damn. You’re in love with our stepbrother.”

“No, I’m not,” Maddie protested. “Not all the way, anyway.”

“Where do you think you are, percentage-wise?”

Maddie picked up her beer, sipping while she considered. “Like, sixty percent?”

Halley just shook her head. “If it was just the belly tingles and the tight chest, maybe. But Mads, he makes you feel safe.”

“Okay, so it’s more like seventy-five.”

Halley just looked at her.

Maddie blew out a breath. “Fine, eighty and climbing.”

“I was going to say ninety, but I’ll let you have your delusions. Have you told him?”

“No. I can’t figure out what to say.”

“The truth is usually simplest.”

Maddie rolled her eyes. “There’s nothing simple about this.”

“Oh, yeah, I keep forgetting about the stepsibling thing.”

“It’s not a problem for me,” Maddie said. “And I don’t think it bothers him personally.”

“Is he still worried about his mom finding out?”

“I think so. He hasn’t said so, not since the last time we talked about it.”

“When was that?”

“When I did his taxes.”

“Probably time for another talk.”

“I know.”

“And you should have it soon, before that last ten percent is on the books.”

“Last twenty percent,” Maddie reminded her and blew out a breath. “If he dumps me, I’m going to be pissed.”

“If he dumps you, I’ll kick his ass,” Halley declared.

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