me hope... that I wasn't irreparably damaged. That those horrific, nauseating memories could be erased and replaced with good ones. And he was making it his mission to help me do that.
"I love you, Lucas," I whispered, the unshed tears thick in my voice.
His lips parted mine, and he kissed me with all the intensity and passion of a storm, making my emotions build to the point of painful inside my chest. Then he soothed it all away with gentle strokes of his tongue that reminded me of his promise so fucking early in our relationship.
He was the lighthouse in the storm. He was my safe place. My saving grace.
15
I had no idea what time it was when Zed woke us up by slamming the door open and barking that he had the test results. But the second his words registered, I sat bolt upright, all residue of sleep fleeing my brain in an instant.
"What happened?" I demanded, alarmed enough that I forgot I was naked. Until Zed's eyes rounded and his gaze seemed to become laser-targeted to my nipples, that was. I drew a sharp breath, grabbing for the sheet as Zed gave a pained grimace.
"Test results?" Lucas prompted with a heavy yawn. He had barely even moved, his cheek still pressed into the pillow with his face toward me. His bare back showed a multitude of red marks from my fingernails, and I caught the way Zed's eyes narrowed as he took that all in.
Then Zed's attention jerked back to me, and his expression shuttered. "Yeah, genetic results all came back, and they found a positive familial link."
That... was not what I'd been expecting. My heart thumped hard against my chest wall, and even Lucas sat up slightly to squint at Zed.
"Who?" The one-word question left Lucas's lips with dread.
Zed held my gaze steadily, then shifted his eyes to Lucas and back to me again. Then he gave a small, apologetic shrug.
My guts twisted, and a cold sweat broke out all over my body. "No fucking way," I said in a choked whisper. "No."
Lucas, confused, frowned at me with his lips parted in question. Then my panicked expression must have clicked the thoughts together for him, and he gasped in horror and damn near leapt out of the bed.
"Zayden De Rosa," I barked, giving my best friend a hard glare. There was something off about his posture... or maybe that was just wishful thinking because I badly, desperately didn't want to find out I'd been fucking my biological brother. Oh fuck. I was going to throw up.
"What?" Zed replied, tilting his head to the side.
Lucas was already in his pants and stalking across to Zed. He snatched the paperwork out of Zed's hand—I hadn't even seen that there—and ran his eyes over the page.
His shoulders sagged as he let out a long sigh of relief, then his fist snapped out and clocked Zed in the face.
"Not fucking funny!" Lucas snarled as Zed recoiled.
I sprang out of bed, abandoning my sheet and modesty in favor of saving Lucas if Zed chose to strike back, but the shithead was just laughing as he cupped his eye.
"Oh, come on," Zed groaned, a devilish grin plastered over his lips. "That was hilarious."
Lucas wasn't laughing. He was enraged, and I was pretty sure he wanted to hit Zed again, so I got in front of him and gave him a solid push toward the door. "Take a minute, Lucas," I told him in a calm, firm voice. "I'll deal with this."
Fury held his jaw tight and his eyes narrow, but he jerked his head in understanding and left the room as instructed. Which left me alone with a grinning idiot.
"You're a bastard, Zayden De Rosa," I whispered on a long exhale. The adrenaline that had hit me so suddenly when I thought Lucas and I were truly siblings had drained away, leaving me trembling and cold.
He didn't even try and wipe the smile off his face as he stepped closer to me. "Aw, come on, you'd have done the same thing if you saw the opportunity."
My jaw dropped at the accusation. "Fuck no, I wouldn't have! Zed, you made us think we'd been..." I shook my head, a deep shudder running through me. "You're a bastard," I reiterated.
He reached out a hand, grasping my waist and pulled me a step closer to him. Fuck. I was still totally naked, and his gaze was suddenly so hot it was like looking into the sun.