Oops My Stepbrother and His Rival Want Me

CHAPTER FOUR: TRESPASSING

I don't send anything back. Three replies typed, three deleted, and Theo pulls up to the curb before I commit to any of them.

"You're doing the face," Theo says.

"What face."

"The one where you're pretending you're not thinking about something. Lock your door when you get inside. Both of them."

"I heard you the first time."

"Hearing and doing are different things with you, historically." He puts the car in park anyway, clearly not leaving until he's sure I'm actually inside. "Text me when you're in."

"You're not my mom, Theo."

"No, but somebody's got to be, apparently." He says it light, but his eyes don't match the tone, and we both let it sit there instead of picking it apart tonight. He waits until I'm on the porch before he pulls off.

The porch light's out again. I let myself in through the front, locking it behind me out of habit more than fear, and the house swallows the sound the second the door clicks shut. It's been empty like this since the funeral two years ago, just me and four bedrooms and Viper's room down the hall that he barely sleeps in anymore, both of us rattling around a house built for a family that doesn't exist in it anymore.

I text Theo *home* before I even take my jacket off, because apparently that's a real fear now and not just a joke between us.

My phone buzzes again on the stairs. One word from a number that's stopped being unknown faster than it should have.

*Home?*

I don't answer it. I push my bedroom door open with my shoulder, jacket half off already, and that's when I register the shape sitting in the chair by my window.

I drop my keys.

"You should fix that porch light," Rezo says. "Made the window embarrassingly easy."

"What the actual fuck."

"Lower your voice." He doesn't get up, just watches me with the same unhurried attention from earlier, like climbing through someone's window is a reasonable Tuesday. "Wasn't planning on staying long."

"You broke into my house."

"Climbed through a window. Technicality." His eyes move over me, slower this time, no audience watching. "Wanted to see where you actually live."

"I didn't invite you to know that."

"Didn't ask to be invited." He stands, unfolding out of the chair, and the room shrinks the second he's upright. I back up half a step, and his mouth curves like he clocked exactly why.

"Relax. I'm not here to do anything you haven't already wondered about."

"That's a wildly specific assumption."

"Is it wrong?"

"That's not the point."

"It's exactly the point." His mouth twitches, almost a smile. "You haven't called your brother yet either. Or screamed. Or thrown anything heavier than that look you're giving me."

"That's not relaxing."

"You're still talking instead of throwing something at my head. That tells me plenty." His gaze sweeps the room, the unmade bed, the half-packed bag by the closet, the photo taped to my mirror. "That him? Younger."

"Don't."

"Wasn't going to say anything else." He looks away from it first. "Your brother's going to lose it when he finds out I was here."

"Then leave."

"Probably should." He doesn't move toward the window. "Doesn't change the fact that I'm not going to yet."

"What do you actually want."

"Tonight? Just this." He's close enough that I have to tip my chin to keep looking at him, close enough that the room stops being about anything but the two feet of space between us. "I don't trust myself not to do something stupid the next time I see you with an audience watching. Figured I'd rather be reckless somewhere private."

"That's not better."

"Probably not." He doesn't sound sorry. His eyes drop to the textbooks stacked on my desk. "You're actually still in school."

"Shocking, I know. Some of us have finals instead of turf wars."

"Don't see why you can't have both." Something almost like amusement crosses his face. "What are you studying."

"Why does that matter to you right now."

"Because I want to know it." He says it simply, like it's obvious. "I want to know all of it eventually. Tonight I'll settle for whatever you'll actually give me."

"That's a lot for somebody I met three hours ago."

"Time's not really the thing that matters here." He tilts his head, studying me like he's deciding something. "You felt it too. Back at the bar. Don't tell me you didn't."

"I felt annoyed. There's a difference."

"Sure there is." He doesn't sound like he believes that for a second, and honestly, neither do I.

"I don't do things slow once I've decided." His hand comes up, and stops an inch from my jaw. "Tell me to leave and I will."

I don't say it.

His thumb finally touches my jaw, and the silence that follows is so loud I can hear my own pulse fighting it. He tips my chin up another inch, watching my face like he's memorizing the exact second I stop pretending I want him to stop. I don't say anything. I don't move away either, and that's answer enough for both of us.

"Last chance," he says.

"Shut up and do it."

That's all it takes. His mouth is on mine, slow at first, like he's testing whether I'll pull away, and I don't, my hand fisting in his jacket instead of pushing him off. He kisses like he does everything else, easy and certain he already has what he came for, no rush in it at all, like the whole night belongs to him and he's only spending the part he wants on me.

When he finally breaks it, it's only to drag his mouth along my jaw, down to the curve of my neck, teeth scraping just enough to make my breath catch out loud.

"Rezo—"

"Tell me to stop." His voice is rough against my skin, lips still moving against the spot where my pulse is going stupid and fast. "I will. Say it and I will."

I don't say that either. My fingers tighten in his jacket instead, and he makes a low sound against my throat like that answer satisfies him more than words would have.

Headlights sweep across my window from outside. Neither of us notices in time.

The door bursts open behind us.

Viper's standing in the doorway, keys still in his hand, and the look on his face when he finds Rezo's mouth on my throat is something I've never seen on him before in my life.