Page 23 of Freeze Frame

“You bet there will.” I kissed him, gently at first, letting myself savor the softness of his lips. His mouth opened to me and he turned in my arms, bacon forgotten. I pulled him away from the stove and sank my hand into his hair, devouring him. I’d never met someone who lit me up the way Josh did. He was strong, but soft. And kind and caring. I wanted to know everything about him.

In the distance somewhere, a door closed and a dog barked. And as I pulled away, realizing that my son was here and I didn’t have time to warn Josh, Jax stepped into the kitchen. He saw me first, his eyes lighting up, obviously amused to catch me during a morning after.

Josh turned his head, and Jax’s smile faltered.

“Jax?” Josh said, his voice cracking.

“River?” Jax gaped at him, blinking hard, like he couldn’t believe his eyes.

“You know each other?” came my question.

Josh pulled himself out of my arms and turned to face me. “I—know Jax from work. I’m… I do adult films. I edit them. And sometimes I do a bit more than edit them.” All the color drained from Josh’s face.

My gaze skittered from Jax, who looked pale but mildly amused—because Jax always was easygoing—to Josh… orRiver… who looked horrified and worried and maybe kind of sad—to the plume of smoke billowing up behind him.

“Christ. The bacon is burning,” I said as the smoke alarm started to blare. The dogs went insane and suddenly my near perfect morning descended into chaos.

TWELVE

JOSH

The smoke alarmwas silenced by Jax, who dragged a chair across the room and stepped up on it to disable the screeching thing. David opened the back door to let the dogs and the smoke out. I turned and pulled the bacon off the burner and shut the stove off.

And then suddenly everything was quiet.

And awkward.

I looked at Jax and kicked myself for not realizing he and David were related. I’d thought David looked familiar but just chalked it up to him having one of those faces. I didn’t look at David because I couldn’t yet. I hadn’t meant to leave out that part of my job description. Even though I’d been open about everything else. I hadn’t filmed a scene in over half a year, though. So maybe I didn’t feel like it was currently important.

My stomach clenched, feeling heavy and slick, like it was filled with tar. “I’m—shirt. I’m going to put on a shirt.”

I made a hasty exit down the hallway, dipping into the safety of David’s room. I didn’t breathe again until the door clickedshut behind me. Leaning against it, I gulped in a few deep breaths to try and steady myself.

Jax was David’s son.

I’d had sex with Jax.

Not recently. Not in years. But we’d…

And now I’d had sex with David. His father. Holy shit. Was there a level in hell for people who accidentally fucked people who were related to each other? Was it incest by proxy? I raked my hands through my hair and sucked in another breath, waiting until my lungs couldn’t expand anymore before stopping and holding it.

The scream I wanted to let loose was lodged in my throat, hot like coal. I kicked David’s pants off and fought to get back into my own clothes. My fingers were clumsy, and I fumbled for far longer than I’d wanted to, trying to do up my pants. After I’d struggled into my shirt, I decided that I couldn’t hide in here forever. David and Jax should have had enough time to… to what? How did one address the fact that father and son had fucked the same person?

Before my brain could start to draw comparisons, I shut that idea down. Locked it down in a steel box and threw it in the Marianas trench. And then I went back out to the kitchen to face the music.

David was frying new bacon like nothing happened. Jax was leaning against the counter sipping a cup of coffee. Neither man looked particularly upset by the revelation.

“I—uh—” I stammered, unable to string together a coherent thought.

“You need to sit down and have a coffee, River.” Jax carried a cup over to the table.

“I should go.” The words tumbled out on their own. It seemed like the logical thing to offer, but the frown David shot me proved that maybe I was wrong.

“You should stay.”

“If anyone gets to leave, it’s me.” Jax dropped down into a chair at the kitchen table and with his foot pushed out another one. Clearly he intended for me to sit.

“I don’t even know what to say.” My voice croaked as I tried not to let my misery loose. It figured that I’d found someone I genuinely wanted to spend time with, and I couldn’t have him. I’d fucked shit up for sure. I should have told him what I did. Used to do. Still did sometimes. David had been every bit as amazing as Jax always said he was.