“That could work,” he muses, looking up at the ceiling for a moment. “But you have to correct the lie: we both know I have a huge dick.” I give him a look and he laughs. “Well, I do. Just the other night you were feeling me up; don’t tell me you didn’t notice.”
He’s referring to that moment in the bathroom. While I wouldn’t exactly call that ‘feeling him up’, I did get a bit of a handful …
“If I find some way to correct the micropenis rumor, you’ll lay off a little?” I ask, heart thundering, wondering what’s going to change between us after this moment. I mean, we’re having a thing right now, aren’t we? The way Parrish is staring down at me, I can tell that this is a pivotal moment for us.
“Say it, and I’ll leave you alone,” he says, lifting up a hand and offering me his pinkie finger. “Pinkie promise.”
I give him a skeptical look in response. As if your heart isn’t thundering like crazy right now, Kota. Hah. If I can’t even lie to myself, how am I supposed to stand here in front of Parrish and act like I’m unaffected by his presence?
“Say what?” I reply with a sigh, reaching up to curl my pinkie around his. We hook fingers and my pulse goes crazy, blood roaring in my head, dizziness sweeping over me and leaving me wavering.
“Tell me I have a huge dick,” he replies, and I cock a brow. “That’s it, all you have to say, and I’ll leave you alone.” I narrow my eyes at him. Like I said, I enjoy a good idiom. If it seems too good to be true, then it probably is.
My gaze shifts over to his desk, to where his phone is lying, propped up and resting in just such a way … I tear my hand from his and scramble over to it, snatching it before he can stop me. Just as I thought: the fucker’s recording this.
“You royal piece of shit,” I grind out, ducking into the hallway just in time to slam into Tess.
Oh.
What fantastic timing.
“Royal piece of shit?” she queries, looking up and over my head at her stepson. “What’s going on over here?”
Quick as lightning, Parrish snatches the phone from my grip and does … something with it. When Tess holds out her hand, he passes it over with a scowl, giving me a look that quite clearly says keep your mouth shut. Not like I was about to cop to making out with my stepbrother. What would Tess do if she were to find out? I have a really good feeling that I don’t want to find out.
After a moment of scrolling through Parrish’s phone, Tess hands it back and does her best to smile at me. Still, there’s something in her gaze that bothers me. It must bother Parrish, too, because his mood takes an even deeper nosedive into the abyss.
“Tell your daughter to stay the hell out of my room,” he hisses, as if he wasn’t just trying to film me saying he had a big dick. Likely he’d make a nice little cut of the footage and post it online. I hate him. I should’ve kissed Chasm at the lake.
I scowl but say nothing. Tess is saying enough for me, giving Parrish a stern look that’s leagues better than the one she had on just a few minutes ago. She senses something developing between us, doesn’t she? I feel suddenly itchy and disturbed by the idea, like I’ve been caught doing something wrong.
“Your sister,” Tess inserts forcefully, and I swear, both Parrish and I cringe a little, “should not be in your room without your permission.” And here it’s my turn to get a stern look. “But don’t refer to her like that, you know better.”
“Refer to her as what? The stranger that she is?” Parrish questions, and then he slams the door closed and Tess gives a deep frown. She might be overbearing and controlling, but she also spoils her kids. It’s a toxic combination.
I can see it as she turns to me, looking me over with that same, sad desperation. Despite that, Tess has yet to give me more than fifteen minutes of her time this entire week.
We stand there in the hallway, just staring at each other for a moment. I wish we weren’t though, because the longer I stare at her, the more I see of myself in her face. That bothers me, immensely.
“I know he comes across a certain way …” Tess begins, her familiar raven-black eyes shifting to one side, toward the window at the end of the hall that shows off a sliver of lake. “But he’s really a sweet boy.” She looks back at me, and I do my best to stifle a snort.
