AllFreeNovel
Share Us
With a sigh, I forced myself to pick it up. As soon as my hand closed around the neck, a lump appeared in my throat out of nowhere. Maybe this accident had fucked with my head more than I’d thought. Cole hadn’t let me see the scene, but there had been pictures taken by the police, pictures my insurance company needed also, and yeah…I hadn’t realised until the moment I’d seen them just how fucking lucky I was. How had I managed to walk away from that accident unscathed, apart from some shallow cuts and bruising that was painful as fuck but would soon be nothing but a memory?
The thoughts were too much to process. I sank to the floor, cradling my guitar on my lap, and lost myself in the soothing process of tuning it. When it was ready to play, I ran my thumb over my guitar pick, gently strumming the strings as I tried to decide what to play. My fingers made the decision for me, playing the opening bars of “Somewhere Only We Know” by Keane.
As I strummed the guitar, I began to sing softly.
I was in the zone, and it took me a while to realise that there was another presence in the room. Raising my head, I saw Cole, frozen in the doorway, his gaze fixated on my guitar.
My fingers slipped on the strings, causing a screeching sound, and I growled in frustration. “What the fuck do you want? Get out.” Why had I left the door open?
He blinked, his eyes flying to mine, before he staggered backwards. “Sorry,” he whispered, and then he disappeared.
I tried to get back into the zone after that, but of course fucking Cole had ruined it. Giving it up as a lost cause, I made my way down to the kitchen for a snack, and my least favourite person was there, perched on a stool at the kitchen island, rubbing the spot between his brows as he stared at his laptop screen.
“Why do you have to do that here? There’s a desk in your room. Use it,” I said irritably, heading over to the fridge.
“I’m used to working in the kitchen. There wasn’t enough room for a desk in my old house, so I did all my homework at the kitchen table. I guess it’s habit that’s stuck with me, even now with this charity work.”
His voice was musing, and I wasn’t prepared to have a civil conversation with him at the moment. “Maybe you should make a new habit,” I suggested as I reached into the fridge for a punnet of ripe, red strawberries. Fucking delicious.
There was no reply, so I took that to mean our conversation was over. Good. I portioned out some of the strawberries to eat and grabbed a bowl from the cupboard. As I was running the tap to rinse them, I felt Cole’s eyes on me.
“What are you doing?”
I rolled my eyes. “Washing strawberries. What does it look like I’m doing?”
“Those are my strawberries,” he said, as if he actually had ownership of any of the products in my dad’s fridge.
“I don’t see your name on them.” Picking up the biggest, ripest strawberry, I turned to face him and bit down into the soft, juicy flesh. “Mmmm.”
He stared at me…at my mouth, and when my tongue came out to swipe across my lips, making sure I caught all of that delicious strawberry juice, I could’ve sworn his eyes darkened.
“They’re mine. I bought them this morning.” His voice suddenly had a rasp to it, and why the hell did my dick decide that it would be a perfect moment to perk up?
“Too bad.” I lifted the remaining half of the strawberry to my lips, and then everything seemed to happen in slow motion. There was the scrape of a chair, and then Cole appeared in front of me, biting down on the strawberry that I was about to place in my mouth.
I forgot what words were, because his fucking tongue was touching my fingers.
He swallowed hard, lifting his head, and our eyes met for a long, charged moment.
“Mine,” he growled.
Then he swiped the bowl of strawberries from the sink and stalked out of the room, leaving me there fucking speechless and with a raging boner.
* * *
I had a text later on, after I’d had the most frustrating wank of my life because my dick did not seem to get the message that Cole was not only a fucking asshole, but he was also my stepbrother and therefore completely off limits even if hell had frozen over and he had been someone I was remotely into.
Cole:
FYI my mum texted to say she’s going to call at 8pm our time. Do you want me to tell them about the accident?
Me:
No. NO. Do not say anything. The insurance is paying for repairs and it’s in my name. If my dad finds out, I will fucking make you pay
Cole:
Chill. Smoke some weed. Seems like you need it
