Dirty Dreams novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: Say It

Dylan looked at my face.

It took him a long moment, and he didn't look away once.

"I heard you say it in March," he said. "My name."

He kept his eyes on me.

"The wall was so quiet that week I could hear your sheets."

"I know. You told me."

"I didn't tell you the rest."

"Then tell me."

"I got hard before I knew why." His voice was low and scraped.

"Then you said it again, and I knew exactly why."

"And?"

"I lay there with my hand over my mouth, so I wouldn't say yours back."

I didn't breathe.

"You went back to school. You texted me. I read every one in the bathroom with the fan on."

He swallowed.

"I typed happy birthday fourteen times. Every version sounded like what I really wanted to write."

"So you wrote nothing."

"I'm your stepbrother. My dad married your mom when you were fourteen, and everyone's called you my sister since."

"That's no answer."

"I figured if I answered once, I'd say it all."

"Say what?"

"That I wanted you." His eyes were wet and furious.

"That I didn't care what anyone called us."

"That I think about you in the shower, and in class, and when I'm supposed to be asleep."

Nobody had ever said anything to me with that much trouble in it.

"We're not related," I said.

"I know."

"We never were."

"I know that. It doesn't feel like it makes a difference."

"It does to me."

I put my hand flat against his chest.

His heart was slamming under my palm.

"Yes," I said. "Out loud, so there's no question. Touch me, Dylan."

He made a sound I had only ever heard through plaster.

Then his hands were in my hair and his mouth was on mine, and it wasn't gentle.

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