Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 94720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
“What the fuck, Roc?” He stopped moving and shoved me hard. I staggered back a few steps. “My sister? My fucking SISTER?”
I said nothing. He shoved me again. Russo and my brother jogged over but didn’t separate us yet.
“My little sister?” Dom seethed. “How could you do this?” He brought his fist up and hit me on the side of my face. I tasted iron and spit blood out. “Fight me, motherfucker. Fight me. You want to fuck around with my sister? Then, you better fight me.”
“I’m not going to fight you, Dom.” My tongue ran over my bloody bottom gums. I moved my face and spit again. Goddamn. Fucker got me good.
“Fight me, asshole.” He shoved me again, but his words were weaker. The pain in his eyes hurt me more than any punch. He paced away from me and put his hands up. “FUCK!”
I remained still, focusing on my heart and my breathing, but I didn’t take my mind to a faraway place the way I would have in any other situation. I needed to be present. I wanted this pain. I deserved it. I waited for him to come at me again. Russo and Mikey were so still and quiet, I wondered if they’d stopped breathing. Dominic paced back toward me. I braced for impact. He stopped right in front of me but didn’t touch me.
“Why?” His words were calm. The anger in his eyes was replaced by pain. “Why her?”
I exhaled and glanced toward the house as I tried to think of how to answer that. Lenora and Rosie were both standing by the glass, looking horrified. When my eyes met Lenora’s, the love in her eyes made me shatter. Fuck. I looked at the ground, spit again, and looked at Dominic, who was waiting for a response.
“It wasn’t supposed to happen,” I said like an idiot because, no shit, it wasn’t supposed to happen.
“NO SHIT. This is my sister, asshole.” Dom growled, running his hands through his hair.
I couldn’t even stand here and tell him that it had been a mistake or that I regretted it. I didn’t. I never would. She wasn’t just some piece of ass to me. I would’ve never put myself in this predicament if I thought that was all she would be. He had to know that. He knew how I operated. I didn’t just go around fucking anyone with a pulse. I wasn’t a teenager. The last woman I fucked before Nora was Crystal, over six months ago. I didn’t have to sleep with Lenora, but I wanted her, and I knew without a doubt that this time next year, I still would. I shut my eyes for a moment, enjoying the sound of the birds nearby and the pebbles each time Dominic moved.
“I know I don’t deserve her,” I started. “I fucking know she’s too good for me.”
“If you know that, why did you do it?” he asked, stepping forward and pointing a finger at me. “Because I know, I know you’re sleeping with her, and you don’t do anything without thinking it through a hundred and one times, so please tell me why my best friend, the person I trust most in the entire fucking world, would hook up with my sister. She’s going to have her heart broken, and you, what do you gain from this?”
That was a loaded question. I had thought this through a hundred and one times before I decided to go through with it. I tried to talk myself out of it, but every time I looked at her, I was consumed with something I hadn’t felt before. It was addictive. And once I tasted her and had my cock inside her, I was a goner. I never played that bullshit game of “Where do you picture yourself in ten years?” because I knew I could drop dead at any moment, so that had never been a concern of mine. With Lenora, though, when I thought about next year, she was there — cooking dinner with me, mixing drinks at Scarab on occasion, and smiling, just fucking smiling. When I was with her, I felt a warmth I hadn’t felt since my mother died. This was unprecedented for me, but if that wasn’t love, I didn’t know what was. I didn’t say all of these things aloud because I wasn’t about to sound like a pussy in front of these three assholes. Besides, the only one who deserved to hear those words was Lenora herself. Dominic continued to stare at me like I was some alien species. Finally, I spit out the statement I should’ve probably led with, one I never pictured myself feeling, let alone saying aloud.
“I’d die for her,” I said instead simply.
Dom staggered back a step. “What?”
The two bozos on the sideline said a string of things under their breaths.