Page 12 of All for Love

6

MERCEDES

Ifelt sick to my stomach as I collapsed against the door after kicking Kody out. A groan rumbled out of me and my face scrunched up. Scrubbing my hands over it, I wondered if those nifty little memory-wiping devices from that alien movie existed somewhere in the real world.

I desperately needed one. I’d gone into it last night with my eyes wide open, but now, I couldn’t believe I’d been so weak that I’d hooked up with him. My worst enemy.

The guy was vile, but the sex had been anything but. Now I was going to have to live with the knowledge that the most intense orgasms I’d ever had had been with my unbearably arrogant stepbrother.

If he’d been a nicer person, him being my stepbrother might not have made it so much worse, but under the circumstances, it really did. He was an asshole I was going to be forced to spend time with forever.

I knew there was no sibling dynamic between us. We were both grownups, for heaven’s sake. It wasn’t like we were going to be living together and sharing every darn meal.

But I’d been dreading the amount of time we’d be spending together before any of this had happened. He hadn’t been someone I’d gotten along with. He was going to be completely insufferable now.

Every time we had to see each other for some family thing, he was going to remind me about last night. I already knew it, and since we were family—in a way—there would be no avoiding him or the events where we’d have to be together.

I blew out a heavy breath, pressing my hand to my chest and shaking my head at myself. I’d known this was coming, the wave of regret. Now that it was here, I had to put on my goggles and swim through it.

I’d washed my face earlier, but I pushed away from the door and didn’t stop until I reached my shower. Turning the water scalding hot, I undressed and climbed into the cubicle as steam started billowing out of it.

The heat was searing, but it felt good for a few moments. For just those few moments, I allowed myself to imagine the hot water burning away his touch. When it got too hot though, I turned and adjusted the temperature, tipping my head back to wet my hair once it was more bearable.

The sun was only just starting to rise by the time I got out, but I didn’t even consider going back to sleep. I was wide awake, mentally kicking my own ass while simultaneously reminding myself that I’d made a conscious decision.

I couldn’t go back in time and change it, and I didn’t know if I would even if I could. He was awful, but the sex had been amazing.

Either way, the only thing I could do now was to wallow in my own misery for a couple of hours and then get on with my life. After bitching about my choices to my best friend, that was.

At about eight a.m., I was feeling a little better and I texted Ellora, my best friend, knowing she wouldn’t be awake yet but wanting her to call me when she was. I was ready to get the bitching portion of the events out of the way—without letting her know who the bitching was about—and get started with my day.

Ellora was not a morning person, though. The reply I got was pretty typical for her at this hour.

Ellora: Pound sand. Call you when I get up. Two hours.

I smiled at my phone, but I wasn’t expecting her to change her mind. If she said she’d get up in two hours, I’d hear from her in two hours. Curiosity over why I wanted to talk wouldn’t keep her awake if she wasn’t ready to be, and since she ran a boutique with her mom, work wouldn’t wake her up early either.

My guest bedroom doubled as my home office, and I made a fresh cup of tea before heading there to power up my computer. I worked as a consultant in corporate administration and organization, and I hadn’t met a company yet I couldn’t streamline the organizational components of.

There was a surprising amount of work in my line, and I made my way through my emails first, looking over messages from my clients and responding to those who required a response. After that, I opened a file containing the policies I was rewriting for a corporate firm whose paperwork had been a mess before I’d come in.

The first couple of hours flew by, and before I knew it, my phone started ringing with a call from Ellora. I smiled as I took it. “Hey, sleepyhead. Thanks for calling.”

“Of course,” she grumbled, still sounding half asleep. “You wanted to talk? I’m going to go for my morning walk in about twenty. Want to grab some coffee and come for a walk with me?”

“Yes.”

Getting out sounded like a great idea. At least that way, I wouldn’t be so close to the scene of the crime, and if I was really lucky, some distance might even help me think about something other than how good it’d felt to have my stepbrother’s cock buried deep inside me.

“I’ll meet you at my place?” she said.

I nodded even though she couldn’t see me. “Yeah, I’ll be there.”

“Cool. See you soon.” She ended the call, presumably to have a quick shower so she could wake up properly.

I saved the document I’d been working on, going back to my bedroom to grab some sneakers and forcing myself not to look longingly at my bed while I was in there. This is going to be a problem.I have to sleep there again tonight.

I’d changed the sheets, washed the others, and had rid the room of any trace that Kody had been here, but I couldn’t scrub the memories away—or the telltale soreness between my legs.