could have stopped her, but he just lets her. She picks up her clothes, humiliated, and throws him a disgusted look.
“You could have at least called me by another name, you sick fuck,” she spits out at him, and then she storms out of the garage, while I stare with my mouth open. What just happened? Before I have time to think, Kade raises his gaze and his eyes meet mine.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
I turn around and try to run off, but he reaches me in two seconds, grabbing my hair and pulling me back. It hurts, and I yelp with pain.
“Let go of me,” I say angrily.
He doesn’t. Instead, he uses his free hand to turn me around so I’m facing him, his other hand still tangled in my dark mass of hair.
“How long have you been standing there?” he demands, and I blush deeply.
“Long enough,” I reply, not sure why I’m being such a brat. He just stares at me, hard. I don’t know why, but I can’t seem to look away.
“Junebug…” he starts softly, and I’ve never heard him use this voice on me. He’s always rough, never paying me any mind, like I’m some painting on the wall he’s not particularly fond of.
“Leave me alone,” I whimper, and then I do something I regret in a split second. “You’re sick to the bone. Let go of me.”
Just like that, his hands, his beautiful, strong hands, are off me. And we keep staring at each other, contemplating what just happened. I just accused him of being a pervert when all I want is those hands back on me. But it’s so wrong. Forbidden. It can never happen. My mom told us as much.
And as he turns around and leaves abruptly, I know I’ve ended this between us before it even started. Even though it breaks me in half to know that, I know it needed to be done.
Because Kade and June?
They can never be.
In a daze, I finally find Parker in the driveway, the car already running.
“Took you long enough,” he moans as I make my way to the car, but I refuse to look at him. He looks too much like Kade, and it fucking hurts.
“Let’s go, little sis,” he says as I sit in the front, and he revs up the engine.
And all I can think about is Kade fucking that girl on the hood of his car and me wishing it were my body he was abusing...
17
Parker
I come back home that day, knowing she'll mistake me for my brother. I did this on purpose, and truth be told, I can't fucking wait to see June's reaction when she sees me.
I'm locking up the front door when June comes down the stairs, coming to a standstill on the bottom step as she tentatively whispers, "Kade?"
"Nope," I reply jovially, turning around to face her with a grin. It hurts that she still hopes it's him. But it also feels damn good to disappoint her. And to see interest flash in her eyes just fucking once when she looks at me... Even though she thinks I'm my twin. "Just me, Parker."
"You..." She swallows thickly. "You cut your hair?"
"Yeah." I run my hands through my hair. Shaved on the sides, longer on top—a mirror image of my brother's. "Do you like it?"
"It's..." June digs her teeth into her bottom lip, looking nervous. "It's just like Kade's."
"It's just a haircut." I approach her, pulling her into a hug. "But it fooled you, didn't it?" She's rigid in my arms, almost pushing me away slightly as I kiss the top of her dark hair. "What?" I pout. "You don't like it?"
"It looks... good on you," she finally manages. When she pulls away, her expression is hard to read. I know I've confused her, and it suits me just right. Now she's even more torn between the two of us, and I'm going to work it in my favor. "Come with me. I wanted to show you something in the attic."
I follow her up the rickety stairs leading to the top layer of the house. There, she's laid out a fuckload of new art supplies. There's a canvas, acrylic paints, and oils, and too many paintbrushes to count. I pick one of them up, eyes shining brightly as I turn to face June.
"You did all this for me?" She nods. "That's fucking amazing, little sis. You didn't need to do this."
"I wanted to." Her smile is warm, the awkwardness from a few