My Future Stepbrother

Chapter 27

Jayce softly lowers me back to the floor and I get flustered trying to get my long hair from my face.

"We were just messing around mum." Jayce says in a shaky voice I'm sure he meant to have under better control before he spoke.

"Jayce, living room. Now." Tara states firmly.

I walk back to the counter and grab my plate, turning on the water to wash it. I wash it quickly then tip toe to the hallway to listen to them. Tara is talking in hushed tones but I can still hear her.

"Jayce I know what your doing and it has to stop." I feel my heart start pounding in my chest. She knows about us.

Jayce plays dumb. "What are you talking about?"

I can hear Tara pacing back and forth as her heels clicked and clacked along the hard wood floors. Her expensive perfume fills the air.

"Look I know what you're like with girls, you have a way with them and can make them bend to you. I've seen it a hundred times with you Jayce. You don't know how to talk to a girl if your not flirting with them but you can't do that now. She's going to be your sister Jayce. Aleah has to be off limits to you."

Shit. Fuck. Don't tell her about us Jayce, please don't tell her.

There's an awkward amount of silence before Tara speaks again.

"Jayce, I'm sure what just happened was completely innocent but these things have a way of developing and getting out of control. If something happened between you then I know Cole would take her away from here. He'd leave me to protect her and I wouldn't blame him."

I knew she was right. Dad wouldn't know how to deal with this so he'd just stop it from happening.

"To be completely honest with you sweetheart, we talked for months before they moved in here because you had so badly bullied the poor girl her dad didn't want her living under the same roof as you. I was the one who promised him I'd never let anything happen to her, I certainly hoped you'd become friends but not like this."

I hear her walk towards the hallway so I dive back into the kitchen and flatten myself against the cold tiles of the wall where she can't see me. I watch in the reflection of the microwave as Tara removes her stilettos and walks back to the living room.

"I can't lose him Jayce. After I left your dad I was broken. I had you going off the rails and Milo was still a baby and completely dependent on me. I had no support, no family to help me. I felt completely alone. Then Cole came into my life. He saved me, he made me smile again and feel safe for the first time in my life. He put the shattered pieces of me back together and I wouldn't survive him letting them go again. You have to promise me Jayce that you'll stop, not just for me but for the poor innocent girl that has no idea what she could be getting herself into. Promise me?"

There is a moment of hesitation and I hear Jayce let out a large breath.

"I promise."

My heart falls to my stomach and tears fall from my eyes.

It's over.

I feel a black cloak of darkness wrap itself around me and the room draws cold. I should never have kissed him, should never have let him touch me. It was wrong. It was always going to end up like this.

I feel the tears run from my face to my chest and look down seeing the light red marks that are all that remain from my nails digging in while I had the panic attack. I think to how Jayce held me, how he was the only one who could calm me. I slide down the wall to the floor and the tears pour from me as I realise I shall never feel that sense of relief being in Jayce's arms brings me ever again.