Seven

Genesis

October 1

Once I got the text from Bowie that he was fifteen minutes away, I sighed in relief that Kye wasn’t back. He’d been called away early this morning by the Lords of the Underworld to maim, kill, destroy, or whatever it was they did. Typically, I hated knowing that he was doing dangerous business, but right now, I worried that Bowie’s life might be in more danger if Kye were here.

Last night, Kye had been even more charming than normal. It had messed with my head.

When I had woken up in bed, after falling asleep on the sofa while watching a movie with Kye, I’d found a note on my pillow.

Baby Doll,

Blaise called. I have some things to handle with the family. I’ll be back as soon as we are done. Let me know when you go to see your dad at the hospital. If you’re there once I’m free, I’ll head over.

Kye

I’d admit, I’d lain in bed for a long time, wondering if he’d brought me in here last night or if we’d slept on the sofa together most of the night. Not that it mattered. We’d slept together many nights. To Kye, it was like sleeping with his sister. To me, well, let’s just say, I’d watched him sleep more times than I could count. It was the only time I could appreciate how beautiful he was without him catching me. Pathetic, I know.

Bowie had always been the one to defuse my attraction to Kye—or at least distract me from it. His being back in my life this summer had kept me from missing Kye. Wishing I’d stayed back here to be with him whenever he made time for me. Which was just sad and why I had left to begin with.

The doorbell rang, and I took a deep breath before going to open it. Seeing Bowie standing there with a dozen pink roses calmed me immediately. This would be okay. It had to be. I needed Bowie in my life. Especially now that I was with Kye all the time.

“Hey,” I said, smiling at him.

It was good to see him returning my smile instead of the angry scowl he’d given me before storming out of my apartment.

“God, I missed you,” he said as he stood there, staring at me.

I stepped back and waved a hand for him to come inside. “I’m glad you called and came here,” I told him.

He walked inside and then turned back to look at me as I closed the door behind him. “I just needed time to cool down, face old demons, understand where you were coming from.”

I nodded. He had every right to feel that way. I knew I’d handled it wrong. I’d had time to think, and he was right. I had been unfair to him. My life couldn’t always revolve around Kye.

“I’m sorry.”

He took a step closer to me. “I’m sorry too.”

He handed me the roses, then leaned down to press a kiss to my lips. It was sweet, comfortable—exactly like our relationship had always been.

When he straightened, he glanced around the room. “Hasn’t changed that much in here.”

I liked that about it. Being here made me feel at home. Chloe, Kye’s mom, had told me I could redecorate if I wanted to, but I never did.

“Yeah,” I agreed.

His gaze came back to me. “Where is Kye?”

I sighed. “Possibly torturing someone. I don’t know what it is they do.”

Bowie smirked. “Ah, family stuff.”

“Yep,” I replied. “He said he’d come as soon as he was done. Not sure how long that will be. We can talk about things while it’s just us.”

Bowie reached for my hand and threaded his fingers through mine. “That sounds good. There’s a lot I want to say. I just had to figure out exactly what it was and how to say it. I’m sorry I shut you out, but it was the only way I could work through what I wanted.” He paused and gave me a sad smile. “I’m not that kid who was jealous and heartbroken anymore. I no longer stand in Kye’s shadow.”

I shook my head. “You never did.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, Gen, I did. And until you, I hadn’t cared. Then, things changed. Kye still saw you as one of the guys. I remember when I realized he hadn’t noticed how you had changed, grown up, become breathtaking. I felt like the luckiest guy in the world. For once, I didn’t have to stand back and watch Kye get what I wanted. There was no competition.”

He shook his head. “Wait. I’m making this all about us. Me. First, how is your dad?”

I had called Mom when I finally got out of bed this morning. She sounded happy. Dad had said several words today, and she had been helping to feed him.

“He is good, considering. He has a long road of recovery, but with Mom and me helping him, he will be fine.”

Bowie nodded, looking concerned. “You’re staying here for a while then?”

“I can’t leave them.”

“And school?”

I didn’t want to get angry because he was bringing up school when my dad had just had a stroke, but it was my first reaction.

I forced my voice to remain calm before answering him. “School can wait.”

He knew me well enough to know he’d asked the wrong thing. I wasn’t that good at masking my emotions anyway. And like Kye, I’d grown up with Bowie. He might not know I didn’t care for roses and that I loved macarons, but he did know how to read my face.

“Of course it can. I’m sorry I asked that. It was insensitive.”

“It’s okay,” I replied. “Come on. Let’s sit down.”

I led him to the sofa. It was strange to be in the living room of this house with Bowie. We had always hung out in the basement over here.

He didn’t let go of my hand as he looked directly into my eyes. “I’ve loved you most of my life. Even when we weren’t together, I measured every girl I dated against you, and they always failed. I hated that I did it. I won’t lie. Drove me crazy.” He let out a small laugh, then shook his head. “Then, you were there in front of me, like my subconscious had summoned you. It felt like someone had knocked the air from my lungs. I wouldn’t even let myself look at you. I even worried everyone around me could hear my heart slamming against my chest. No one else makes me feel like that, Gen. You’re it for me. And if I have to face Kye, accept your friendship with him to have you, I will. I do. It took me some calming down to realize that if there was something between the two of you, then it would have happened by now.”

I thought he’d already come to that conclusion. The words he’d hurled at me when he left my apartment said as much.

His eyes softened, and he looked guilty. “I said some hurtful things because I was scared. I was terrified of losing you to him. When I said them, it was what I had been hoping. I realized later, although I’d said them in a nasty way, it was the truth. The two of you are just friends, and I don’t think you want more with him. That was my jealousy talking.”

He had every right to be jealous. I’d not handled any of this the right way. I opened my mouth to respond when the door opened and Kye walked into the house. All words left me as I stared at him over Bowie’s shoulder. Kye’s gaze swung from me to Bowie, and he paused only briefly, then quickly covered the moment of shock on his face before he closed the door behind him.

Bowie let my hand go and stood up to face Kye. I hurried to do the same. This was not how I’d wanted to tell Kye about Bowie. I had hoped to explain this first. I had wanted to do it last night and then chickened out.

Kye rubbed his jaw as he stared at Bowie before looking back at me. “Damn, Baby Doll, you could have prepared me.”

Guilt, worry, fear, frustration swirled inside of me. All the things I had practiced in my head to say to Kye went poof. I couldn’t remember any of them. I felt like I had betrayed him, which was ridiculous. But I had lied to him in a way. By not telling him.

“She was putting it off. Worried about how you’d feel about us. That’s what our disagreement was about. Why I shut her out,” Bowie said when it was clear I wasn’t going to respond.

Kye tore his gaze off me to give Bowie a hard glare. “Is that what it was? You ignoring her. Refusing to answer her calls and texts. Making her cry. That was a disagreement?”

I had to speak before Bowie said the wrong thing. Forcing my feet to move, I stepped around Bowie. “Kye, he was right. He wanted me to tell you. He begged me to. I was … I don’t know. I was just unsure how you’d take it. With all our history, I was nervous, and I kept putting it off. I should have told you. I was going to so many times, and then I couldn’t say it. I got scared.”

Kye tilted his head, and the cold expression he’d given Bowie was gone. He looked wounded, which made my chest hurt. “When have I ever done anything to make you scared of me? I want you happy, Baby Doll. That’s it. I’m not sure he’s the one to do it though.”

Before Bowie could respond, I took another step toward Kye. “I wasn’t scared of you. I was scared of upsetting you. For this reason. I know you still hold it against Bowie about how he handled things years ago. But we were the ones who had messed up. Bowie was a kid. We all were. That’s the past, and we are all different now. Time changed things. You see that, don’t you? Just like you and I have changed, Bowie did too. We grew up.”

Kye glanced back at Bowie before meeting my gaze. “I don’t want you hurt. I don’t like it when you cry. He made you cry already.”

“I’ve apologized for that, and I intend to make it up to her. I had to work through some old shit in my head. Shit that you’d caused,” Bowie said.

Kye’s body tensed, and I reached out and grabbed his arm.

“He’s right. We never got closure on what happened. He needed time to accept that we are and will always be just friends. That the kiss he had seen was a drunken mistake. Not something you meant to do.”

“If you wanted her as more than a friend, that would have happened by now,” Bowie added. “It just took me stepping back and calming down to get that clear in my head.”

Kye didn’t look back at him. His eyes stayed fixed on me. There was something there that I didn’t understand. He seemed lost. “Does he make you happy?”

I nodded. “Yes, he does.”

There was a flash of pain in his eyes, and I battled with the urge to throw my arms around him and assure him he’d always be my best friend. That was a position no one else could have. But for Bowie’s sake, I remained where I was. I had to draw the line, not blur it.

Kye lifted his eyes to look back at Bowie. “Don’t hurt her again. That’s your only warning.”

Bowie was silent for a moment, and I was mentally pleading with him not to say something to set Kye off. When he came back from doing Mafia things, he was always on edge.

“I don’t plan on it,” he finally said tightly.

Kye raised his eyebrows, and I saw his jaw clench. “I need more than your fucking plan. I need your word.”

“Kye,” I said, squeezing his arm in an attempt to get his attention.

“It’s okay, Gen. He’s been the one taking care of you for the past few years. I get it. I respect it,” Bowie said behind me.

I didn’t take my eyes off Kye.

“I didn’t do it for you,” Kye said through his teeth.

“I didn’t say you did. We both love her. For her sake, let’s call a truce. I’m not here to come between your friendship. In fact, I might be the only man who gets it. Most guys would hate that her best friend is a guy. Especially someone like you. You’re intimidating to those who didn’t grow up with you.”

Bowie was right. I watched as Kye let his words sink in and hopefully calm him. When he looked back down at me, he searched my face, his eyes scanning me for any sign that could give him a reason to argue this.

Finally, he nodded. “Okay. If he’s what you want.”

Relief flooded me. “He is.”

Kye stepped back from me, and I let my hand fall away from my hold on him.

“I have some things to do. I’ll leave the two of you to it.”

Then, he turned and walked back to the door without another word. When it closed behind him, I let out a sigh. Although it had gone better than I’d expected, the ache in my chest wasn’t completely gone.

Kye—Seventeen Years Old

Closing my eyes tightly, I laid my head back on the sofa and wished the six-pack of beers I’d drunk could take the image of Genesis, naked, with Bowie fucking her, out of my head. Truth was, I had been fantasizing about how she’d look while being fucked for years. It was one of my favorites to get myself off. But in my fantasies, it was me filling her with my cock. It was me making her moan. My name she cried out.

Bowie had now taken that away from me too. He’d tainted it. Made it his.

My free hand balled into a fist, and I threw the empty bottle of beer in my other hand against the wall.

“FUCK!” I roared.

Why did it have to be like this? There were a million other girls out there for me to want. Why did it have to be Genesis? And why the fucking hell had Bowie gone and made her his? It wasn’t fair. It was me she looked at with those big, worshipful eyes. Me, who she let call her Baby Doll. Me, who she hung out of her window and talked to at night. Not Bowie. If one of us got to have her, it should have been me.

The door opened at the top of the stairs, and I threw my arm over my face, covering it. I wasn’t in the mood to explain the broken bottle of beer to my mom. She was already pissed about my newest tattoo. Lately, she’d been angry with me about all kinds of shit. Dad had been pushing for me to move in with him. He’d said she’d never truly understand me.

“Kye?” The sweet voice that ranked above all other voices said my name, and I dropped my arm from my face and sat up.

Genesis stood at the bottom of the stairs, frowning at me, and then her gaze swung to the broken bottle near her feet.

I jumped up. “Don’t move. You could get cut,” I told her.

She watched me as I walked over to her, then let out a squeal as I put my hands on her waist and picked her up, moving her over the broken glass to a safer area. My hands didn’t let go of her waist right away though. The warmth of her skin under my palms felt too good, and I wanted it to seep in some more. I suddenly felt an urgent need to take the little I could have of her before Bowie somehow stole that too.

Genesis lifted her eyes to look up at me. Those eyes of hers had always made me weak. I had blue eyes, but they weren’t like her kind of blue. Mom had said Genesis had aquamarine eyes. I didn’t know anyone else with their perfect shade of ocean and sky.

“I was looking for …” She paused and glanced around, and the frown between her brows appeared again. “What happened?” she asked.

“Bottle broke,” I told her, making myself drop my hands instead of leaning down and smelling her like a maniac.

She was Bowie’s girl. No smelling her. No burying my face in her neck. No licking that place at the base of her throat where her pulse gave away her reaction to things when her expression didn’t.

“How?” she asked, then shook her head. “Never mind. Is Bowie here?”

Fucking Bowie. My fist balled up again.

“You lose him?” I asked.

She shook her head and grinned, as if I were making a joke. My eyes dropped to her neck, then down to her cleavage. When were her tits gonna stop growing? Fuck, it had been easier when she was flat-chested. The urge to tug her neckline down and clamp my mouth around one of her nipples was strong.

I moved back to stand in front of her. Smell her vanilla-cinnamon scent. Feel the warmth from her body. Imagine how she looked as she was orgasming. My eyes moved to that spot on her throat. The pulse was there, making it clear I affected her. I placed two fingers over the small, pumping vein gently and caressed it.

“Kye,” she whispered in a shaky breath.

“Yeah, Baby Doll?” I replied, lifting my eyes to meet hers.

The way her eyes shone back at me with uncertainty but clear interest took the next move out of my hands. I couldn’t have stopped myself if I wanted to. Bowie could have walked in the damn room, and I’d still need this. She was a fucking siren, and I was weak.

I brushed my lips over hers twice, and the soft gasp that came from hers sent me over the edge. My mouth locked down over hers, and I teased her lips with my tongue until she opened for me, leaning in and pressing her body against mine. I cupped her face with one hand and ran the other one up her arm, then circled her neck with my fingers. The moment her tongue moved over mine, I was lost. She tasted better than anything my dreams could have conjured up.

“What the fuck?!” Bowie’s shout was like a bucket of ice water being dumped over our heads.

I knew then that nothing would ever go back to the way it had been.