Novels by Pen goddess

POV: EthanI woke up with Lucas's arm draped over my waist. His breath brushed the back of my neck, warm and steady. The sheet tangled around our legs. Sunlight snuck through the blinds and painted stripes across the bed. For a second everything felt normal, like any other morning. Then the memories rushed in. His mouth on mine. The way he had moved inside me. The sounds I made that I could not take back.My body ached in places I had never felt before. Not bad. Just a reminder that last night had really happened. I stayed still, afraid to wake him. Afraid to face what came next.Lucas shifted behind me. His hand tightened on my hip. "You awake?" he asked, voice rough from sleep."Yeah."He pressed a kiss to my shoulder. Slow. Like he had all the time in the world. "Good."We lay there without moving for a while. His fingers traced lazy circles on my skin. Up my side, down my arm, back again. Each pass sent little sparks through me. I turned onto my back so I could see his face. His h

POV: EthanI stood at the front window and watched the car pull away. Mom waved one last time from the passenger seat. Mark honked twice like it was some big celebration. They were gone for the whole weekend. Anniversary trip. Just the two of us in the house.The door shut behind me and the silence hit different. No parents downstairs. No pretending at dinner. Lucas came up behind me and locked the door. His hand brushed my shoulder on the way past."Finally," he said.We ordered pizza and ate it on the couch in the living room. We did not talk much while we ate. Every few minutes our eyes would meet and we would both look away fast. The TV played some old movie neither of us cared about. When the pizza box was empty Lucas carried it to the kitchen and I followed him upstairs.In our room the air felt thicker than usual. I sat on my bed and pulled my hoodie off. Lucas stayed by the door for a second, then came over and sat on the edge of my mattress instead of his own. His knee presse

POV: LucasI could not get that night out of my head. The wrestling over the controller, the way Ethan had looked up at me on the floor, the way my body had reacted like it knew something my brain refused to admit. I told myself it was nothing. Just the newness of having someone else in my space all the time. But every time I walked into our room and saw him at the desk, pencil moving slow across the paper, hair falling in his eyes, I felt it again. That pull.School had started and the days blurred. We rode the same bus now, sat at different tables at lunch, acted like we barely knew each other in the halls. At home we kept the routine. Breakfast with the parents pushing the brother act. Dinner with more of the same. Then upstairs where the air always felt thicker once the door closed.Tonight I needed to blow off steam. The game had gone bad. We lost by six points in the last minute and Coach rode me hard about missing easy shots. I came through the front door still in my jersey, ba

Chapter 3 ControllerPOV: EthanI kept my eyes on the sketchbook even after Lucas asked the question. My pencil stopped moving. The words hung there between us. Does it bother you? Of course it bothered me. He stood there without his shirt, skin still damp from practice, and I could not pretend I had not noticed.I closed the sketchbook and set it on the desk. "I just think we should keep some space. Since we have to share everything now."Lucas pulled on a clean shirt, but the smirk stayed on his face. "Space. Right. In a room this size."He dropped onto his bed and picked up the game controller. "Come on. Parents are out again tonight. Let's play something before they come back with all their happy family talk."I hesitated. Part of me wanted to stay at the desk and hide behind my drawings. But another part, the one that kept replaying his question, wanted to see what would happen if I did not hide. I grabbed the second controller and sat on the edge of my bed.We started with a r

MorningPOV: LucasI woke up to the sound of pencil scratching across paper. My eyes opened slowly, and the first thing I saw was Ethan sitting at the desk on his side of the room. He had his back to me, earbuds in, head bent over a sketchbook. Sunlight came through the window and hit his hair, but I did not let myself think about that. Instead I grabbed the basketball from beside my bed and tossed it across the room. It bounced once on his mattress and rolled to the floor.He jumped and pulled one earbud out. "What the hell?""Morning," I said, sitting up and stretching my arms over my head. My shirt rode up a bit. I did not bother fixing it. "You always up this early drawing?"Ethan looked at the clock on the wall. It was barely past eight. "Could not sleep much."I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stood. My body still felt heavy from the late night. Yesterday had been weird enough with the move and the forced family dinner. Now we had to do breakfast together like we were

POV: EthanI stood in the driveway with a cardboard box pressed against my chest, staring at the big house that was supposed to be my new home. The sun beat down on my neck, and sweat already stuck my shirt to my back. Mom laughed at something her new husband said, her voice bright like I had not heard in years. She looked happy. Really happy. That should have made me glad, but it only twisted something tight in my gut.This whole thing had happened fast. One minute it was just the two of us in our old apartment, the next she was flashing a ring and talking about blended families. I had met Mark a few times before the wedding, but today was the first time I would actually live with him. And with his son.The front door swung open and Lucas stepped out. I knew who he was right away. Everyone at my old school knew Lucas from the rival basketball team across town. Tall, broad shoulders, easy confidence in the way he moved. He wore a plain gray t-shirt and shorts, hair still messy like he