Loving Siblings: Aidan & Dionne (21 page)

And she had . . . Helmut.

“
Great.” Dionne felt even more
miserable. And she felt so drained, so tired. She really hated it
they were still fighting, but some demon must’ve come in the dead
of night and possessed her sweet little brother, turning him into
this oversexed monster she really didn’t recognize, one, she was
even a little afraid of . . . because he made her feel things that
were stronger than her own will.

“
This has got to stop . . .” she
mumbled sleepily, letting fatigue take over, and soon, she felt
herself slowly drifting away into a necessary, rejuvenating nap . .
.

**~~**

“
Goin’ out tonight?” she heard Aidan
say more than ask.

She turned around to see his flaming blue
eyes looking at her. She struggled with powerful emotions, knowing
then and there how severe her mistake was, and that things were
quickly getting out of hand.

She instantly decided, not even an hour
after they’d returned from the pool, that her personal desires for
her younger brother weren’t right, and what she had done was the
worst thing she could ever do in this situation.

As the older sibling, she had to be
the responsible one. She had to do what was right, not only for
Aidan or their family, but for herself, too. It had to stop
now
or it would quickly get beyond
the point of no return—if it hadn’t already.

She watched as he arched a cool black
brow with unmistakable arrogance, yet he was waiting for an answer.
For all his outward cool, she knew he was, inwardly, about to go
off. With Helmut having arrived, she knew she had to defuse the
situation—or, better said, defuse
Aidan
.

She was frowning now, too; upset he
was deliberately being an ass. And yes, perhaps hating it that it
was expected of her to do the right thing when her heart and body
wanted nothing more than the opposite, telling her
that
was the right thing.

She was so confused . . .

“
Yes, Aidan. As I always do on
Saturdays.” She smiled as warmly as she could. “Like you always go
out on Saturdays, too, right?”

But he wasn’t about to give up that
easily.

“
I thought maybe we could stay in
tonight. You know?” He shrugged. “Listen to some CDs up in your
room.” Then he stared tightly into her eyes sending her a message
in NEON. “Or down in mine.”

She damn well knew if she’d stay home with
him, the CDs wouldn’t be played for their entertainment. They’d be
used to drown out certain sounds their parents, or anybody else for
that matter, should never be privy to. But his whole attitude,
alpha male or not, only strengthened her resolve to nip this in the
bud.

Although she now resolved herself to
maintain a cool and aloof demeanor; to slowly pull back from the
abyss staring at both of them since things were getting a little
too crazy now, she felt her confidence crumbling piece by
piece.

And although she also realized she loved
Aidan more than she could ever love another man, he just wasn’t for
her. Fate had dealt them a bad hand when they were adopted into the
same family. He was too young to understand this could have dire
consequences for him once the “new and exciting” wore off and
reality set in.

She was also very aware that she was FIVE
YEARS OLDER than he was. Nothing good could come out of this, so
before either of them invested more in a dead-end relationship that
could have unforeseen, detrimental consequences for them both, she
understood they had to pull back quickly.

But it was clear to her, too, that Aidan
wasn’t exactly on the same page, and this might not be as easy to
defuse as she’d hoped. He made it perfectly clear he wanted to
continue. He was hell-bent even!

She only realized just how tenacious
he was when she saw the way he looked up at her earlier when she
climbed the stairs hoping her legs wouldn’t collapse beneath her.
He was looking up at her with sparkling eyes of love and possession
even if they were born out of this new and exciting adventure he
hoped to embark on. She knew she had to stop this insanity. Not for
her sake, but for
his
.

So, in lieu of clear-headed reasoning on his
part, it was up to her to do the right thing; to nip this in the
bud and to go their separate ways as unscathed as they possibly
could. And while she was thinking about all of this, he was
studying her face, probing her emotions and thoughts.

His potent blue eyes were zeroed in on her
to the point that she couldn’t look up into them anymore. She
blushed and felt self-conscious, and she finally averted her face
while sneaking a few uncomfortable glances down the hall where
Helmut stood profiled to them. Then she saw him raise his blond
head to watch them with a slight but contemplative frown.

“
Can you give us a minute,
Helmut?”

“
Sure,” he said with an uneasy smile.
“I hear your parents in the kitchen. I’ve got to say hello, anyway.
Call me when you’re ready, okay?”

She smiled. “Okay.” And then she watched her
boyfriend nod to Aidan before he left the hallway and disappeared
into the living room.

Geeze. Helmut might not be the most
exciting guy she’s ever met, but he was kind, generous, and
predictable. He was easier to handle, too. Not to mention, he
was
older
than she was AND .
. . he wasn’t her brother.

“
Well?” Aidan pressed.

She returned her gaze to him, and she felt
her cheeks burn. “Well . . . what?”

He sighed loudly and rolled his eyes. His
jaw was showing an impatient tic, but she knew it had more to do
with Helmut being there than anything else. He always had that tic
when her boyfriend was around.

“
Look,” he began as his gaze latched
on her uncomfortable face, “I don’t understand why you want to go
out tonight when you can be here with me, Dionne. I just think you
owe me an explanation because I’m getting really confused here.
We’ve got a lot of unresolved . . . issues we need to talk about.
If you leave now, I think it’ll be real cowardly of you,
and—”

“—
Cowardly?
”

“
Lower your voice unless you want
everyone to hear what’s going on between us—”

“—
Nothing’s
going on—”

“—
I wasn’t
finished
,” he stressed.

“
Yeah, you are.
We
are,” she said, and she saw him go stiff as
his blue eyes sparked. “Look, it should have never
happened—”

“—
But it did. And it was what we both
wanted—”

“—
What’s
wrong
with you?” she finally blurted, albeit
beneath her breath. “Why are you being like this?”

“
Like what?”

“
Like, difficult,” she whispered,
upset.

“
You know damn well. Stop acting like
you don’t,” he gave right back.

His intense—and fiery—look made her drop her
eyes. Then she sighed, but it wasn’t a sigh of exasperation. It was
a sigh of despair.

“
Aidan,” she lifted her gaze, “I’m
sure you don’t doubt how much I love you, but what happened this
afternoon,” she paused, “it never should have. Please know I’m well
aware it’s not your fault. I was the one who gave the wrong
impression, and as the older sister, I should’ve —”

“—
Give me a break, Dionne,” Aidan
sighed with a dark frown. He tossed up arms. “Do I look like an
idiot to you?”

“
No! Of course not—”

“—
Do I look like I was born yesterday,
then?” He arched an angry brow.

“
I really don’t know where you’re
going with this.”

“
I know
fake
,” he said. “I’ve
done
fake. What happened this afternoon,” he
shook his head, “that wasn’t fake. That was
real
even if you don’t want to admit it. What
you’re doing
now
is fake. You
want me as much as I want you, so why in the
hell
are you fighting it? I don’t
understand.”

“
It’s hard to explain,” she said
desperately.

“
How about you begin by explaining to
me what happened in the time between the pool and you rushing up to
your room? Why don’t you start there instead of calling up your
little HelBUTT boyfriend so you can be a coward and not have to
face what we both know is gonna happen?”

She felt her temper rise, and she was
certain he saw it, but as she fought from unleashing that
temper—while struggling to maintain a calm tone of
reasonability—her body was stiff all over and her fists were balled
at her sides. He was goading her, not even trying to hide the
cocky, cynical gleam in his eyes! And to add insult to injury, he
arched an impatient and arrogant brow.

“
Well?”

“
Aidan, you need to be
reasonable—”

“—
I don’t want you going out with him,
Dionne,” he said. Unreasonably.

She blinked big eyes in surprise. Her
brother has always been pretty possessive in just about everything.
And to her surprise, and secretly, her feminine flattery—which she
dutifully squelched, of course—he was being so now.

Then she saw that brief flash of pain in his
eyes just before he lowered his thick, long, lashes. It was then
when she understood why he was so cranky and bossy. It was because
he was hurt, and he was afraid she was going to do what she was
planning to do: break up with him.

What he didn’t understand was that it was
for his sake, not hers.

“
Aidan—” she tried softly.

“—
I mean it, Dionne,” he bluntly
interrupted. “You’re
not
going out with him tonight, or any other night,”

She stiffened. Damn it! It wasn’t easy
for her, either, but his machismo was beginning to grate on her
already frayed nerves. He was
really
obnoxious, and her charitable mood was
quickly dissipating.

“
Excuse
me?”
she huffed, glaring up at him. But her stern look, one that used to
fluster and put him back in his place in the past, clearly lost its
effectiveness now because it failed to impress him.

“
You heard.” He looked
terse.

She had to work
really
hard NOT to smack him. Her palms
positively itched with an itch she’s never known before this mess
happened. She studied his face a moment, assuring that the pain she
saw in his angry blue eyes was still there, and she held on to that
in order to calm her own raging emotions. She told herself he was
acting this way because he was hurt.

“
You’re being really unreasonable,
Aidan—”

“—
Kind of hard NOT to when all I can
see is his cock in your mouth—”

“—
Now you listen to me Aidan Boyd van
Nuys,” she hissed with red cheeks and narrowed eyes. “You STOP
this—” but that was as far as she could get.

Aidan whipped an arm around her and
snatched her to him. In the next instant, he crushed his lips over
her shocked mouth, stunning her into silence. Sly bastard that he
was, he shut her up and simultaneously wiped, whatever she was
thinking, from her mind with a powerful, ravenous, and
somewhat
painful
kiss that
instantly set her on fire.

As she felt her body go up in flames, she
felt a much too familiar, much too dangerous heat moistened her
chaste pussy, and her hands grew a mind of their own. They swept up
and curled fingers tightly in the loose folds of his soft cotton
shirt.

She was dizzy and on fire, and she leaned
heavily against his body because she knew if she didn’t, she’d
fall. Although reason screamed for her to make him stop, she
couldn’t bring herself to do it. Instead, she kissed him back with
the same fervor he was kissing her with.

Her brother’s arms slipped around her,
pulling her against his wonderful, hard body while gently
encouraging her to come even closer, and she wanted nothing more.
Somewhere, far away, she heard a soft, sensuous purr and moan, and
she realized she was the one making it . . .

After what seemed an eternity, he broke the
kiss leaving them both out of breath. Warm, soft gusts of harried
breaths fanned their lips, and with their faces just millimeters
from one another, he made the first move as he looked down into her
glowing eyes.

Even though she could see it bloated his
pride to have her speechless and on fire for him—and she’d normally
explode into indignant rage seeing that kind of conceit were it
another place and time—she remained silent, letting him have this
moment while she scrambled her scattered thoughts together.

It wasn’t only because it felt so good to be
in his arms, against his body, or because it felt so incredible and
exciting to her. It was partly because of her feminine pride that
she didn’t leave him unaffected, either. She could feel the bold
outline of his beautiful, hard cock burning through their clothes
against her.

She felt as if a wave of fire swept her
away, and she let herself go with it. It was as if they were in a
vacuum and alone in the world. Everything inside her rose to meet
him as she lifted a hand and touched his smooth, taut cheek. She
gazed quietly up into her beautiful brother’s equally stunning
eyes, wanting nothing more than to give him everything he wanted
even though she knew how dangerous it could be to herself . . .