Something feels off before I ever open my eyes. Maybe “off” isn’t the right word. Different. The heavy weight of Brix’s arm wrapped around me, and the warmth of his body pressed against my back. My next thought is how heavenly this bed feels. It’s what dreams are made of.
It is then that the gravity of the situation hits me.
I am naked, in bed, wrapped up in Brix Ward.
If someone would’ve told me at the beginning of the summer, I’d be waking up next to him after just a few weeks, I would’ve never believed them. Hell, I still can’t believe I gave in to the temptation and desires I had felt since I moved into this house.
Peering over at the alarm clock on the nightstand, the time flashes four twenty-eight in the morning. My eyes focus on the light as my mind runs through the night before. The way he looked at me, how my body reacted to his touch, the feel of his hands and mouth on me. I don’t know how anything could ever compare to being with Brix, and the realization scares me.
Despite knowing all of this, I know this won’t end well, and it’s the unsettling feeling that urges me to slip out of Brix’s bed before the sun even starts to rise.
I need distance. I need to sort through my thoughts and feelings that are starting to consume me.
Thirteen
Brix
I wish I could say I was surprised when I woke up the next morning to find Ivy gone. At some point in the middle of the night, she must’ve slipped out of bed.
Truthfully, I expected it to happen. Everything about the two of us together scared us both, beyond just the obvious reason.
She’s my stepsister for fuck’s sake. Doesn’t change the fact my body craves hers in ways that would be viewed as unhealthy.
I wanted to ravage her, own her, make her mine.
The last part is what had me accepting she had left because if she felt even a fraction of what I did when we were together last night, it’s understandable she’d need time to think.
While I knew this could end up in a disaster, it didn’t stop me from hoping it’d happen again, either.
Swinging my legs over the side of the bed, I reach for my phone sitting on my bedside table as the vibration starts. I peer out one eye, I see my Uncle Travis’s name flash on the screen.
What the hell could he be calling me for at seven in the morning?
“Hello?”
“Brix!” he sighs. By the tone in his voice, I know whatever he’s about to say next can’t possibly be good.
“Yeah?”
“I need you to get your ass over here. It’s your mom,” he murmurs. “She overdid it again, and, yeah. Can you get here quick?”
I’m up out of bed, pulling my shorts back on from yesterday, not bothering to sort through something to wear.
“I’ll be right there.”
Disconnecting the call, I snatch my black baseball cap and a Metallica t-shirt from my closet, tucking my wallet in my back pocket and head toward the door.
The last time this happened, she had to be admitted for detox for three days. Not that it really helped, but at least she was under supervision.
She assured us this wouldn’t happen again. She promised she’d get help. Guilt consumes me, knowing since Ivy has started to come around, I’d been too distracted to be what she needs.
I haven’t been going by her house as often, checking in on her. I failed my own mom. She needs me now, and I am going to do the best I can to be there for her. Whatever that means.
As I pass by Ivy’s room, the door is shut, but something in me decides to check to see if she is here. To make sure she is okay.
Wrapping my hand around the handle, I slowly turn the knob and ease the door open. She is dressed in my black t-shirt I had left laying on my floor, the one I noticed was missing a few minutes ago, curled into a ball in the center of her bed. A small green blanket covers her legs, her bright red toes sticking out from the bottom.
She looks like an angel, sleeping peacefully. I debate taking a picture of her, wanting to remember her dressed in my shirt, but decide against it.