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“Trev, it’s … we need to … I don’t think I can—” I stopped and covered my face with my hands.
This was too hard. Was this what true devastation felt like?
“Lollipop, I’m real close to putting you over my knee and spanking your ass.” He smirked. “You’d fucking love that.”
Yes, I would, and the fact that it wasn’t going to happen made me literally ache.
“I’m in love with you,” I blurted out.
His face paled, and he stepped back. He looked horrified. Watching him stare at me as if he might be sick was painful. Part of me wished I could take it back.
“You can’t. I mean, we didn’t agree on that.”
I laughed. It sounded harsh. Bitter. “As if I can control that. I’m sorry that my heart had other ideas.”
He ran a hand over his face. “We haven’t known each other that long. You can’t love me. That’s not normal. Fuck, Gypsi,” he muttered. Not Lollipop. It was like he’d taken a knife and shoved it into my chest. “This messes it up. Doesn’t it?” His eyes searched my face for something I couldn’t give him. A way to work around this.
“Yeah, Trev, it does. I can’t keep doing this with you and knowing I’m not special to you.”
He shook his head. “That’s not true—”
“I heard you. Just please don’t. Don’t lie to me. I can’t take that.”
I watched him try and figure out what I’d heard, but it didn’t take him long.
Realization dawned on him, and he winced. “Goddammit.”
“Let’s just get some distance. Some time. Then, maybe we can do the friends-stepsiblings thing. I just need to work through this.”
Trev stood there, staring at me like he wanted to get the hell away from me. Me and my honesty. If only I were better at lying. Baring my soul wasn’t always easy.
When he turned and walked out of the room, not looking back even once, I knew that this was completely one-sided. Part of me had hoped he’d admit to lying to Saxon and saying he felt something for me too. But he hadn’t. I shouldn’t have expected more.
I lay down on the bed, curled myself into a ball, and let the tears come.
One Day Since Trev Walked Out of My Room
“Why are you showing me the third floor?” I asked Mom when the elevator I hadn’t even known was in this house stopped at three instead of four.
The entire fourth floor was the master suite. I’d thought we were going up there so Mom could show me after she gushed about it over breakfast.
Mom gave me her beaming grin and waved her hands out as she spun in a circle. “Because I am supposed to redecorate this entire floor and I want your help.”
I glanced around. It was as elegant as the rest of the house. “What needs redecorating?”
“I know it looks fabulous already, but Garrett wants things changed. No one uses these rooms anymore. He wants Cree to have a room up here and to add a master suite if Blaise and Madeline ever want to stay here. He had a former stepdaughter who stayed here, even after he divorced her mom—Gina, I believe her name was. Anyway, she is no longer in the family.” Mom lowered her voice as if someone could hear her. “She handed Madeline over to men who abducted her on purpose. To get rid of her.”
“Oh my God.” I was whispering now, I realized.
Mom nodded. “Right? But come to find out, it was actually Madeline’s real father. And the people who took her weren’t bad people. But Blaise couldn’t forgive Gina and sent her away.”
“It’s weird that she stayed here after her mom divorced Garrett,” I pointed out. That seemed creepy.
“Well, there’s a reason. The other person who had a room up here was a girl named Angel. She was very close to Blaise, growing up, and then she was in a car accident. It killed her parents and left her with permanent brain damage. Her parents were very close friends of Garrett’s, so he took her in. Gina helped take care of Angel.”
That was less creepy. I relaxed somewhat. “What happened to Angel?”
Mom cut her eyes at me as I followed her into the first room. “Well, Angel loved Blaise before the head injury. She remained attached to him, and he seemed to be the only person who could calm her. In her head, he was hers. Then, Madeline came along, and they had issues, but with Angel being here, it gave them some space.
“When Cree was an infant, he was in the nursery Garrett has for him on the second floor. Angel took him from the crib and brought him up here. Thanks to the security cameras, Ms. Jimmie was alerted right away, and she came to get Cree. Blaise was in the house at the time, and he heard the alarm in the nursery, but he arrived after Ms. Jimmie. Ms. Jimmie had Cree back safely in her arms and was scolding Angel.
