What business is it of any of theirs? She’s my stepsister. We’re not breaking any laws here. We’re both adults, both consenting.

  Or are we?

  I shake my head. I cant afford to think like that. So she hit her head and had amnesia. Somewhere inside, she still wanted all this. It just gave her the opportunity to take it, that’s all. I saw her diary, I saw her drawings. We were always meant to be together and we both knew it.

  As the elevator dings to tell me it’s reached my floor, my phone buzzes again. A text this time. I open it and get a photograph of the two of us, locked in each other’s arms, my hand cupping her crotch as her eyes roll back.

  And Harson’s message: You’re finished. This is a total embarrassment for me. I’m going to make sure you go round 50 in the draft now, and your dad can forget all about me bailing him out. I can’t have my players fucking their own sisters. Jesus. Bad press, Jackson. Bad fucking press.

  I growl as I step onto the elevator. Whatever. The whole world can burn as far as I’m concerned. So long as I have her in my arms, that’s all that matters.

  “Hold up. Hold the elevator, please.”

  I glance up to see a slightly portly porter heading my way with a rack of clothes, and on instinct I thrust out an arm to stop the doors closing. Then tap out a reply on my phone.

  Me: Fuck your deal and fuck you, Harson.

  The porter grins as he enters. “Thanks, man. Hey, you’re Jackson—”

  “Yeah, go Trojans,” I say flatly, not wanting to get into some hero worship thing. “Going up?”

  “I spoke to your girlfriend. Ten minutes ago, maybe fifteen. She seems nice. Sweet, you know?”

  “Where is she?” I demand, putting my foot in the way to stop the doors from closing.

  “I…don’t know. Something up?”

  “Yeah, something’s up. I need to know where she is. Right fucking now.”

  “Well…I saw her in the lobby, I went to get the elevator, but then I remembered I needed the passkey, so I went back to the front desk and that’s when I saw her—”

  “Just get to the point!” I grab his collar. “Where. Is. She?”

  “Saw her heading for the bar and pool area,” he says with a shrug. “She was with someone.”

  With someone?

  This day just gets weirder and weirder. If she’s forgotten who she is again and gone off with some man she just met, I’m going to be arrested for murder. Mom and Dad will get back from their second honeymoon to find out their kids have fornicated and their son, well, he’s doing twenty to life.

  Welcome home.

  When my phone starts going crazy, for a moment I think maybe it’s another call or text. Then I realize it’s nothing of the sort. It’s the alarm I set for when her phone gets immersed in water.

  Fuck.

  Stepping out of the elevator, I race back to the lobby, then follow the signs for the hotel pool.

  “Mina?”

  I hear a scream, and as my heart jumps into my throat I pick up my pace.

  “Help her! Somebody help her!”

  It’s Rosaria, Mina’s friend from Chatsbury Prep. I recognize her from the surveillance photos my PI sent me when I was keeping tabs on my sister while she was there. At least if it’s Rosaria she went off with, I don’t need to kill anyone.

  In an instant, I’m following where she’s pointing, and I see the dark swirl of hair.

  Mina. Fuck. Jesus. She’s in the water.

  What’s with her and pools all the sudden? I’m going to fill every fucking pool with cement.

  Without thinking I’m diving in, memories of the last time swirling like the dark water. Please let her be okay. I’ll tell her the truth. The whole truth. Just please let her be okay.

  I get my arm around her and she doesn’t respond. What the hell?

  If she…

  I couldn’t go on. If anything happened to her, that would be it for me. What’s the point of life without her in it? I’d rather she hated me for what I’ve done. Rather she looked at me with nothing but disgust, but at least I’d know she was okay. At least I could protect her, even if she wouldn’t let me anywhere near her.

  I think of the pregnancy test I bought at the store early this morning. I was so fucking excited thinking I may have gotten my wish and rooted my seed inside her already…

  “Mina,” I say as I pull her up to the surface, brushing hair back from her face. “Talk to me, baby. Please, open your eyes.”

  Nothing. No response. I glare at the surrounding spectators as I pull her to the side of the pool.

  “Call a fucking ambulance, assholes!”

  I drag her out and onto the side, remembering the first aid training I had to do my first year in college. Clear her airways, get her breathing.

  When she splutters, it’s like someone just gave me a miracle.

  I hear Rosaria’s voice. “Mina!”

  “Baby,” I whisper. “I’m so sorry I did this to you. Please. I can explain everything. I just…”

  Her eyes meet mine. And I see such confusion in them, it shames me. Why didn’t I just tell her the truth from the start, about me, about us, about who we are to each other. I could have let her decide, instead I took that away from her.

  “Baby, please…” I whisper, taking her hand in mine.

  And feel her squeeze my fingers.

  “Daddy,” she says, her voice rough and hoarse from the water. “You saved me. I knew you would.”

  The pictures are already all over the bar TV sets by the time the paramedics have given her all clear. A bit of water inhalation. Nothing to worry about. If she starts coughing or gets a fever, bring her to the hospital for a check, but she should be fine.

  We’re alone. Rosaria retreated as soon as she knew Mina was going to be okay, saying she’d had plenty of excitement for one day and didn’t want to be here when the next bomb went off.

  “Long term effects like amnesia, huh?” Mina says, a little smirk on her face. She glances at the TV screen, where that photo is still being shown, and blushes.

  “I can explain,” I tell her. It’s about the hundredth time I’ve said that to her since I pulled her from the water, and honestly I don’t know what explanation could possibly make what I did all right.

  But somehow she doesn’t seem as much mad as she is milking the moment.

  Perhaps there’s still a little bit of the vixen I’ve had these past few days left inside, enough that she isn’t going to run a mile as far and as fast as her little feet can take her.

  Not that I’d let her get away.

  She shakes her head. “I’d love to hear your explanation for letting me think we’re boyfriend and girlfriend instead of…” She lowers her voice. “Brother and sister.”

  “Stepbrother. Stepsister.”

  “Still.”

  I shake my head. “It makes the world of difference, believe me. You can’t tell me you didn’t want what we had.”

  “I did,” she says without hesitation. “I still do. But society has rules, and this goes against them.”

  Taking her hand in mine, I kiss the backs of her fingers and watch her eyes close as she chokes back a moan. So. She still wants this. Then not everything has been in vain.

  “Come with me,” I tell her.

  “I don’t know if it’s a good idea. Maybe we should just book separate rooms and figure out what we’re going to tell Mom and Dad—”

  “Baby, what do you say when Daddy tells you to do something?”

  She blushes. “I don’t…”

  “What do you say?”

  For a moment, she hesitates. Then I see the change come over her. She goes from shy, easily embarrassed Mina to something else. My little girl.

  “Yes, Daddy,” she says, straightening her back.

  “Good girl. Now follow me, we’re going somewhere quieter.”

  When we reach the roof, I have to make sure she goes out first, otherwise she would never agree to it. She kept asking on the way up if it was really all right and we wouldn’t get into trouble.

  And honestly, it’s nice having my old Mina back again.

  “I don’t want to go near the edge,” she says, her eyes wide. “Promise you won’t make me.”

  “I’ll never make you do anything you don’t want to do, baby. You’re mine to protect, mine to love. I know I did a bad thing, letting you think we were already boyfriend and girlfriend, but it just felt so right. You are everything to me, Mina. Everything. You have been, since that first day.”

  “You’ve always been everything to me. Ever since that first dinner. I met you and I was nervous because I was meeting my new family and my mom wanted me to make a good impression and I spilled the gravy and you…you made it all okay. You always make it all okay.”

  I smile at the memory. I remember it so well. And now, I want to build some new memories.

  “Baby. I need you. I need you with me, always.”

  “But we—”

  “No buts. This is how things have to be. You know it and I know it. We were made for each other, Mina, and the thought of being apart from you is the only thing in this world that scares me. I don’t ever want to face another day without you by my side. You’re my babygirl, my precious little one.” I drop down onto one knee as the traffic down below hums and roars, and the night sky stretches for the whole world in every direction. “Marry me,” I tell her, dragging out the ring I bought earlier. The one I had brought to the hotel and left at the front desk while she was doing her show. The one that will bind us together forever.

  “What? I don’t—”

  I laugh as she stumbles over her words. “There’s my perfect girl. My Mina. There’s only one word you need right now, baby, and that’s yes.”

  “Y…yes…” she says, and a little grin pulls at the corner of her mouth. “Yes, Daddy.”

  CHAPTER 14

  Mina

  Three weeks later

  “Mom, say something.” I stare into her eyes. I was trying to give her time to process, but honestly five whole minutes of total silence is long enough.

  In some ways, I know we were lucky. Thanks to their safari, nobody was able to get hold of them, and by the time they were back in the real world, things had blown over enough that nobody tried. But news channels are still discussing the ethics and practicality of a stepbrother and stepsister being romantically involved, and getting the two of them through baggage and into a car without them seeing or hearing anything was a minor miracle.

  Still, we were able to do this ourselves, on our own terms, and for that I’m grateful.

  “Earth to Mom…”

  She reaches out a hand, a little smile playing on her lips, and places it against my cheek. “My beautiful baby girl.” I blush, thinking of the way Jackson says those exact same words. A lot less innocently. “How did I not know this was going on with the two of you?”

  “It wasn’t. Not really. It all happened fast. You’re not mad?”

  She shakes her head. “Shocked, sweetheart. Not mad. I just wish you’d talked about it with me first.”

  “Would you have tried to talk me out of it?”

  “Probably. It’s a big deal.”

  I can’t argue with that. “It is a big deal. But we love each other.”

  “Of course you do, that’s only natural. But there’s love and then there’s love. How do you know which one this is?”

  “Oh, believe me, I know,” I say with a hint of Tina, then blush a little thinking of what we were doing in the parking lot while we waited for their plane to land. That was love. Not love. “Do you know which one it is with Allen?”

  She narrows her eyes. “He’s not my brother, Mina.”

  “And Jackson isn’t mine. He’s my stepbrother. We’re no more related than the two of you.”

  It’s true, and there’s no backing down from this. Right now, Jackson is in another room, saying these same things to Allen, and maybe coming to blows over how much he told me about Allen’s financial issues, I don’t know. But what I do know is, this feels right. It might go against some of the less flexible rules society likes to put in place, but it’s not wrong, and one thing I’m learning lately?

  Sometimes it’s okay to break the rules.

  Tina had fun.

  And she hasn’t completely gone into hiding.

  “Mom, this is happening,” I tell her, looking her in the eye. “I want you to be happy for me, but my happiness doesn’t depend on it. Jackson makes me happy. More than happy.”

  She stares at me for a moment longer, then nods and wraps her arms around me, pulling me in for a hug. “Okay, sweetheart. I can see this means a lot to you. Just take it slowly and see how it goes, okay?”

  “Well, about that…”

  Allen’s voice interrupts as the door swings open. “I think you just need to call Harson. Tell him what you just told me and—”

  “Dad, drop it.” Jackson rolls his eyes as he meets mine, and I splutter a laugh, the heart-to-heart moment with my mom broken. “Harson needs to learn he doesn’t always get his way.”

  “But—”

  “I said no, Dad. We’ll figure something out with your deal.”

  “What deal?” Mom asks, turning on them. She stares at Jackson, then at Allen. “What deal, Allen?”

  “Nothing to worry about, Jen, just a little business I was doing. It’s not important.”

  “Jesus, Dad, you need to tell her the truth. Things always come out in the end.”

  “He should know,” I say with a grin, then shrink back when Allen turns his eyes on me like he’s just noticed I’m in the room.

  Jackson smiles my way though, that reassuring smile that says he’s here and he’ll protect me from anything. And besides, it seems like Allen is more worried about the business deal going south than he is about the two of us getting a little closer while they were away.

  That’s a win, right?

  “Everything okay in here?” Jackson says, looking from Mom to me, then back again. “Jennifer, are we still good?”

  She narrows her eyes. “Okay, two things, Jackson. First of all, I’m still your mom. I loved it when you started calling me that, and I hope that isn’t going to change. I love you and in my eyes you’ve been my son since I first met you. We’re not still good, that’s for acquaintances. We’re family. And second, you need to promise me you’re going to take things slowly with your… Well, with my…and your father’s…” She blushes. “What I’m trying to say is, I don’t want you rushing Mina into anything she isn’t comfortable with.”

  He looks at me. “You haven’t told her, have you?”

  “I was just getting to it,” I say, glancing at Mom. “I was trying to tell you when they came in. It’s probably easier…”

  I bring my hand out from behind my back, where I’ve managed to keep it hidden this whole time, and with a flourish, I flash the massive diamond that’s been on my finger ever since Jackson put it there on a rooftop in New York three weeks ago.

  When Mom doesn’t say anything, I grin sheepishly. “Surprise…”

  “That’s not all, is it?” Jackson sounds stern. “You want me to tell them?”

  I shake my head. This is best coming from me. I draw a deep breath, hold it for just a second, then rip the band aid off. “You want Granny and Grandad at the wedding, don’t you, little one?” I ask, rubbing a hand over my belly and glancing down.

  Jackson chuckles. Allen starts to say something, then stops. Then tries again but gets as far as “Well…” before he shuts down.

  “So much for taking things slowly,” Mom says with a sigh, but before I can come back with any sort of comment, she’s already pulled me in for a hug, holding me tight like she’s never going to let me go.

  “Well, that could have been worse,” I say to Jackson as we retreat. Mom and Allen need time to process, I get that. We’re going to get some burrrrrr-itos. Turns out, I actually do like them even when I’m Mina.

  He nods as he pulls the door closed behind us. “I’m proud of you, baby. That took courage.”

  “Channelling my inner Tina,” I say. “What’s going to happen about Dad’s business problems?”

  “Do you mean, how is he going to solve them, or how is he going to survive Mom’s wrath when he finishes telling her all about it?”

  I think for a moment. “The first one. I think Mom’s too shell shocked to make much of a fuss.”

  “That’s true. Well, Harson has said he’ll scupper my chances with any other team, and God knows he has the contacts to do it. But I don’t think it will do as much damage as he thinks. I’m a good player, I know that and they all know that. Someone will sign me, a little cheaper than I would have been but I’ll get there. I’ll do what I can to help Dad out with his business, but he might have to face facts…”

  He trails off, staring behind me, and when I turn I have to blink twice to check I really am seeing what I think I’m seeing.

  A silver Bentley convertible.

  Cindy’s silver Bentley convertible.

  On the wrong side of the lake. Coming down our drive.

  What the fudge?

  “What’s she doing here?” I ask, and he squeezes my arm.

  “Don’t worry, baby, I’ll handle her. If she’s come here to gloat…”

  Cindy skids to a halt beside Jackson’s Mustang, and sticks her hand up out of her roof, waving it our way. “Hey, you two!”

  She sounds…friendly?

  Like, genuinely friendly. Not sarcastic. Like we’re old pals or something.

  “What do you want?” Jackson says with a growl, stepping in front of me as Cindy climbs out of her car and turns our way, not a hair out of place on her perfect blonde head despite driving with the top down.

  “Ooo, protective. Jealous, Mina. So jealous.” She grins. “Well, you two have certainly put the cat among the peacocks, or whatever that saying is. It’s so hilarious watching all those conservative news reporters getting their panties in a twist over this. I love it.”

  “Cindy, if you’re here to make us feel bad, don’t bother,” I say, glaring. “I’m happy. You know that feeling? It’s a bit like being bought a Bentley convertible, except it actually means something.”

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11