“Lauren,” a light voice is saying downstairs.
Like a splash of cold water on my face, I’m alert now. And I know what woke me—an all-too-familiar voice calling my name. My heart is a hammer, battering against my ribcage. Shit, shit, shit.
I sit up and clutch the blanket to my bare chest. I can sense Cole wake up beside me too, but he doesn’t move a muscle. I’m too nervous to look over at him, my blood roaring through my veins. My fingers are like ice, clutching the blanket.
“Are you up, lazy bones?” my sister says in a teasing tone. “I have coffee and I’m coming up, so throw on some clothes.”
Heavy steps start up the staircase to my room.
And I know that it’s too late to stop my sister from seeing Cole in my bed.
END OF BOOK 2
Part III
Fire With Fire (Crash and Burn, Book Three) by Eva Grayson
Lauren
Christina nears the top of the stairs, chuckling as she says, “Yeah, yeah, I know I’m early, but I thought we could—” She stops talking when her right foot hits the landing. In her hands are two cups of coffee. Her face pinches in total confusion as she stares at me and Cole, naked together under my bed sheet, and then that confusion melts away as her eyes flash a deep, bone-piercing hurt aimed right at me.
My stomach kicks hard, and my skin itches from the look she gives me when realization of the situation sinks in. I suddenly feel ashamed, uncomfortably hot all over, and I want to burrow myself under this sheet so I don’t have to face the pain in her eyes. I totally loathe myself all over again, an old feeling welling back up from years ago, now made painfully fresh with this new injury to my sister.
“Christina…” I start to say, my tongue suddenly too slow to speak all the things I know I need to right now.
“Don’t. Don’t say one word to me right now.” Her tone strips away everything from the room, the warmth, the oxygen. She leaves both of the coffees on the wooden strip on top of the stairs and then turns and stomps her way back down.
I hop out of bed and scramble to find yesterday’s pants and shirt. I throw them on, all the while aware that Cole has now sat up and is silently staring at me. I can feel his gaze unwavering on my back.
“I need to talk to her for a minute,” I murmur over my shoulder. I don’t know why, but I’m scared to look him in the eye. Maybe because I don’t want to know what I’m going to see there. Triage, I tell myself. Deal with Christina first. She’s the pressing situation here. Then I’ll come back up and talk to him.
I barrel downstairs to find her hand on the front door. “Wait, stop. Christina, please. Let me explain.”
Christina whirls around, the fury and pain in her eyes setting me back a step. I haven’t seen her this upset since… My heart tightens. “Explain?” she sputters. “What’s there to explain? Looks pretty clear to me. You had sex with Cole. And I found out about it because I came over too early for you to hide the evidence.”
I fight to draw in a breath past tightening lungs. “Let’s sit down in my living room. I wanted to talk to you today about all of this, anyway.”
Christina reaches for a strand of her red hair, so like mine, and worries it between her fingers. “Let me ask you one thing,” she says in a deadly quiet tone. “How long have you guys been seeing each other? Because I seriously doubt, given the body language I saw between the two of you, that this was a drunken one-night stand or something.”
I take a moment to weigh my words, aware they’re going to impact the direction this conversation goes in. The entire discussion is filled with landmines. “We’re…not really seeing each other. Not like that, anyway.”
God, could I be more awkward right now? But what else can I say to my sister in explanation? Cole and I haven’t had any kind of official talk to clarify what the hell we actually are.
“How. Long.”
I bite my lip, preparing myself. “Last Wednesday, a couple of days before you and I met up with him to hang out, he and I got trapped in his brother’s bar’s basement. Things…kinda started then.” I rush to add, “None of this was planned, Christina. You have to believe that.”
“So when I told you I had a crush on him, you’d already had sex with him.” Her eyes are just as flat as her voice, and her arms now hang at her sides.