2

DEV

Nico Hargrove, my stepbrother of two years and occasional morning tormentor, is standing near the foot of my bed when I finally pull the blanket off my face.

“What are you doing there, Varma?”

My brain is still trying to separate Julian’s mouth from my bedroom when I remember my underwear is wet and my cock has not completely gone down. I grab the blanket higher over my lap. Nico notices immediately.

“Wow.” His eyes stay there. “You are hard.”

“Why are you in my room?”

“Wait.” He steps closer, and I can almost see the thought forming. His gaze moves from my face to the blanket again. “Did you actually come in your sleep?”

Heat crawls into my ears. “Shut up.”

Nico lets out one startled laugh. “You did.”

“I said shut up.”

“You are one horny motherfucker.”

He sounds genuinely impressed, which somehow makes it worse. Nico occasionally wanders into my room in the mornings for no reason beyond wanting a reaction. Sometimes he steals my charger or opens the curtains while I am sleeping. Once he spent five straight minutes flicking coins at my forehead because I refused to get up. Mom calls it his way of trying to bond with me. I call it what happens when an asshole gets bored.

“Who were you dreaming about?”

I reach for the pillow beside me. “Leave.”

Nico catches the movement. “Throw that and I’m taking the blanket.”

My hand stops.

His eyes drop again.

“Don’t.”

That is enough to make him reach for it.

I grab the blanket with both hands before he can pull it away. “Nico.”

“What?”

“Let go.”

He gives it another tug and I pull back, my stomach tightening when the fabric slips low over my thighs. He sees my panic and keeps going, leaning closer over the bed.

“Why are you acting like I’ve never seen a dick before?”

“Mine shouldn’t be one of them.”

His attention flicks to my face. For once he does not have an answer ready.

Then I notice how close he is.

Nico came in shirtless. There is sweat dried along his chest from whatever morning workout he finished before deciding to ruin my life, and his gray shorts sit low enough that I can see the hard line disappearing beneath the waistband.

My eyes stay there a second too long.

Nico notices.

Of course he does.

His mouth changes.

I release one hand from the blanket and shove his shoulder. “Get off.”

This time he lets go. “Touchy.”

“Get out.”

He straightens, still looking at me in a way I do not like. “Clean yourself up.”

The door shuts behind him.

I wait until I hear him farther down the hall before throwing the blanket aside and stripping off my underwear. Mom has spent two years calling Nico my brother like repetition might eventually make us behave like family. She married Victor when I was seventeen, moved us into his house, and started saying things like our boys before Nico and I had managed a conversation that did not end with one of us pissed off.

Victor is easier to live with. He keeps his distance. I appreciate that more every morning Nico forgets doors have hinges for a reason.

I pull on clean boxers, grab my clothes, and cross the hall.

The bathroom door is unlocked, so I push it open.

Steam hits me first. Then I hear the shower.

Victor turns at the sound.

I stop.

Seeing my stepfather naked should probably trigger some immediate survival instinct that makes me close the door. Mine apparently takes the morning off.

I have only ever seen Victor dressed for work or sitting at dinner in shirts that fit him too well without giving much away. Naked, he is broader than I expected through the chest, with a flat stomach and dark hair running lower.

My eyes follow it.

Too far.

I jerk my gaze back up.

“Dev?”

“Why are you in here?”

Victor reaches for the towel hanging beside the shower. “Your mother is using ours. I have an early meeting.”

He steps out and wraps it around his waist without any sign that this situation is doing to him what it is currently doing to me.

“I should have locked the door,” he says.

“Yeah. Probably.”

I leave before my eyes embarrass me again.

Back in my room, I sit on the bed without meaning to. The underwear I changed out of is still on the floor. Julian is still embarrassingly easy to remember. Now my brain has added an image of Victor’s dick that I never requested and absolutely do not need.

The bathroom door opens a few minutes later.

Victor crosses the hall wearing only the towel.

I look because apparently learning is not one of my strengths.

The towel does very little to hide what is underneath it. I catch the shape through the white fabric and stare at my phone before my body can turn this morning into an even bigger problem.

“Sorry again,” Victor says.

“It’s fine.”

He pauses. “Do you need a ride to campus?”

“Maya’s picking me up.”

“All right.”

That is all he says. He goes into the bedroom he shares with Mom and shuts the door.

I stay where I am until I trust myself enough to shower.

When I finally get downstairs, Mom is standing at the kitchen counter in her work blouse, spreading too much jam over toast while reading something on her phone. She slides the second piece toward me without asking whether I want it.

“Eat.”

“I’m capable of feeding myself.”

“You say that every time I feed you.”

I take the toast anyway.

She looks at me over the rim of her coffee. “You look terrible.”

“Victor already stole the bathroom. Nico tried to steal my blanket. I’ve had a morning.”

Her mouth tightens at Nico’s name. “I’ll speak to him.”

“Please don’t. Then he’ll know it bothered me.”

“It did bother you.”

“That is information he does not need.”

She almost smiles, then checks the time on her phone. “Maya is picking you up?”

“In twenty minutes.”

“For class?”

“And later for the Christmas party.”

Mom stops spreading jam.

I take a bite before I notice.

“What?”

“You can’t go to the Christmas party.”

I lower the toast. “What?”

Her expression has changed completely.

“Didn’t you hear?” she says. “It’s a blood moon tonight.”