Risk: A Military Stepbrother Bad Boy Romance by Helen Lucas Page B

pressed my lips gently into her earlobe as she leaned her chin on my shoulder, her make up rubbing off on my neck and collar.
     
    “Fine. One day at a time.”
     
    “We’ll think about things tomorrow. Until then…”
     
    “Goodnight, bro,” Sarah whispered finally, letting me go—though, as she let me go, she stood on her toes to kiss me her lips hot and needy.
     
    She drifted down the hall, to her room. As I turned, I saw Dakota’s face, wide-eyed, staring.
     
    “What the hell are you looking at?” I growled without a second thought.
     
    “That was one hell of a goodnight kiss,” Dakota murmured. I ducked into her room, shut the door, and flicked on the lights. She was still drunk, I could tell—though sobering up. She winced as the light hit her eyes and I grabbed a chair, taking a seat across from her bed, where I could stare her down.
     
    “Turn off the light, Jesus Christ…” Dakota murmured. “Don’t you know what time it is?”
     
    “Time for you to listen up, hun,” I whispered. Dakota’s watery, reddened, puffy eyes stared back into mine.
     
    “What the hell were you doing making out with Sarah?” she said finally. “That’s not right.”
     
    “And what you do is right?”
     
    Dakota looked away from me.
     
    “I didn’t say that.”
     
    I grabbed her face by the chin and forced her to look at me.
     
    “Listen to me, kiddo. What you’re up to—that ain’t right. What those boys are doing to you—I don’t know who the hell they are, how old they are—that ain’t right.”
     
    “Oh, shut you. You’re the one getting all up in—what’s it called? Incest?”
     
    I scowled. I wanted to slap this kid, but I knew sure as hell that wouldn’t help things.
     
    “There’s gonna’ be hell to pay if you come home drunk like this again.”
     
    “And what about you fucking Sarah?” Dakota growled.
     
    “What makes you…”
     
    “Oh, please,” she said, rolling her eyes. If she hadn’t been totally sober and awake before, she certainly was now. “I can tell when a girl’s just gotten reamed. From experience, if you want to know.”
     
    “Fine. What are you going to do about it?” I said in exasperation. “Go to your father? My mom?”
     
    Dakota’s face softened.
     
    “No, Jesus, of course not. Sarah seemed… Happy… With you. I wouldn’t do that to her. Just… You know it’s weird.”
     
    “I won’t argue with you on that.”
     
    “So, I don’t know. Just lay off me.”
     
    “Not going to do that either, kiddo,” I whispered, patting her cheek instead of slapping her. “The big difference between me and Sarah and you is that we’re adults.”
     
    Dakota groaned and dove under the covers.
     
    “God, that’s what grown-ups always say. You’re the worst.”
     
    I just laughed and drifted towards the door.
     
    “You get some sleep, and try to sober up before your dad sees you.”
     
    “Oh, he doesn’t fucking care,” Dakota muttered.
     
    “Fine. But I care.”
     
    “Fuck you.”
     
    “Good night, hun.”
     
    “Go to hell.”
     
    I could tell it was going to take a while longer to reach her. I just hoped we could get her on the right path before she turned out like… Jenna.
     
    I went back to my room, sloughed off my tuxedo jacket, and unbuttoned my shirt a few buttons down. But before I could go any further, I found my hand reaching into my pocket, almost as if it had a mind of its own, and taking hold of my wallet.
     
    I reached into it, and found her picture: the two of us, smiling, only… What was it now? It would have been two summers ago.
     
    Two summers. Almost two years since she’d… Since…
     
    How could I ever tell Sarah about Jenna?
     
    It had happened when I was in basic training, back in the States—before I deployed, before I knew what war was, how terrible it was, and what was worse—coming back afterwards.
     
    Even now, thinking about it, I felt the ache in my ribs from where they had been