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She’s combative, but never defiant. Yet there it is, burning bright. It makes my lips twitch and my heart race in excitement.
“Just keep being the good little girl I know you are, and everything will be fine,” I murmur, my eyes absorbing every hair and freckle as though they might disappear.
Eve’s eyes widen at my words but she quickly shakes it off, jerking her head from my touch. My teeth grind.
“How can you act like nothing happened?” She hisses. “You came inside of me, Isaac. You didn’t even have the decency to wear a condom.”
I can’t help it, I chuckle, waving the concern away. The idea of me procreating ever again is laughable. “I had a vasectomy while Cami was pregnant with Roman.”
Eve blinks rapidly, clearly not expecting that. And why would she? Sex isn’t a topic I ever thought we’d discuss, especially not my ability to reproduce. “You did?”
“Yes.” The word should be comforting to her. The fact that birth control isn’t something she’ll need to worry about with me, but instead of relaxing, she seems to bristle more. Fuck, I can’t win here. “What now, Eve?”
“You should have told me so I didn’t spend all night freaking out,” she mutters, shaking her head in frustration. “Regardless, how can you pretend like last night changed nothing?”
“Because it didn’t,” I say sharply. Her head rears back and her lips part. “Forget about last night. Now go—”
“You can’t fuck me then go back to treating me like a child,” she interrupts with a shout, her hands darting out as if to shove me. She drops them at the last second and I’m thankful for it. That’s not her, not us.
But I can’t have her behaving like this. Already the façade, the perfectly sculpted world I’ve created for us to exist in, is crumbling, making my head spin.
“Language,” I snarl.
She huffs a sardonic breath that makes my hand tingle, ready to punish her defiance. This isn’t how I raised her. “I think we’re past that.”
“You’ll respect me, Eve,” I say, stepping to the edge of the stair, towering over her. “You’ll watch your language. You understand me?” Her eyes shudder at the firmness of my tone, and a sick sense of triumph fills me.
“Yes, sir,” she rasps with a deep breath. “I just meant—”
“I know what you meant. But this conversation is over.” I turn to head the last few steps to my room, but her voice stops me again.
Dammit, so close.
“I just don’t understand.”
My grip on the banister tightens and, as if it could block out her words, I squeeze my eyes shut.
“I thought I meant more to you,” she rasps.
Those are the words that finally break me.
Whirling around, my eyes are wide as I stare down at her, my chest heaving with each labored breath. My body is trembling, my gaze blurring around the edges. I tried. I tried so fucking hard to protect her from this, from me.
“How could I ever give you more than I did last night?” I say, my voice raising with each word. “Everything you are threatens the very foundation of our lives, Eve. We can’t be anything more. I can’t give you anything other than what I already have.”
“But—”
“But nothing,” I interrupt, yelling now, hating every acrid word spilling from my damned lips. “What do you think people would say if they knew I slept with my stepdaughter? They’d run me out of town. They’d burn me at the damn stake.” Her breath comes in a short gasp, and I soften my face and tone. “It’s not your fault, sweetheart. We both made our choices, but with the mayoral race coming up and the church, we have to keep what happened between us.”
“I don’t want to,” she whispers. “I—I don’t regret it. It meant something to me, Isaac. It’s the first time in years that I’ve felt something other than alone.” Her nose gets red the way it does right before she cries, and my resolve to stay away withers and dies, just like the future I’ve carved out.
Gripping the back of her neck, I pull her mouth to mine, kissing her hard. She gasps against me, her breath warm and sweet as I inhale her. Devour her. So good. She tastes so fucking perfect. Feels so right against me.
“You think you don’t mean anything to me?” I growl. “You think you had no effect on me? That I’ve been able to think about anything other than the way it felt to be inside you?”
I can’t take it anymore. Just the soft touch of her lips against mine is enough to break any restraint I had on myself.
“If you want me so bad, show me,” I demand.
